A selection of NACLA’s recent coverage of the deep inequality, human rights abuses, and government failures to adequately deliver on the promise of peace undergirding recent protests in Colombia.
So long as Colombia’s peace accords fail to contend with the liberal economic order or challenge extractivism and militarism in the country, they will fall short of achieving true gender justice.
Right-wing Uribe protégé Iván Duque is the next president of Colombia. But not all is lost: The Colombian Left had its most impressive turn-out in history.
As protests in Colombia rage on, President Trump’s meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos could point towards a deepening of militarized drug war policies over investing in Colombia's peace process.
Peace in Colombia is in a precarious position—says the literature on post-conflict countries. A 2003 report states that on average, 44% of countries emerging from civil war return to conflict within the first five years.
The legend of El Dorado stems from a Spaniard, Juan Rodriguez Freyle, watching a High Priest of the Muisca getting covered in gold dust and jumping in Lake Guatavita, near Bogotá, in a religious ceremony that makes the Pope's big hat and incense burning look fairly underwhelming. Naturally, the Spanish decided that they themselves were far better placed to use all the gold responsibly, and set about destroying the complex societies that had flourished in Colombia prior.
FARC negotiators Iván Marquez and Pablo Catatumbo have both been unsatisfied with the adamant refusal of the Santos government to tackle tough points in the peace negotiations. This is especially the case with disagreements having to do with the agrarian question.