Many in the United States do not know of the erosion of democracy in Colombia. Many do not know that the same families have been running Colombia since its independence. Tell me if that is a true democracy? Are those really free and fair elections? Let me not even get into inequality in Colombia.
Yeah, sure, the FARC get all the news coverage. But, guess what? They have been there for 40 years. Colombia cannot even control its own territory if they’re venturing into Ecuador. Honestly, who’s to say they’re not in and out of Brazil, too? They might be coordinating the rural guerilla movements in Brazil.
If you can recall the Sicilian mafia and the Sicilian state, we have two states competing for legitimacy in Colombia. FARC is not only a criminal organization, they are a vanguard for the rural farmers who do not have any protection against the right wing paramilitary organizations who destroy their livelihood. The coca leaf is one of the few crops that provides enough income for farmers to support their families. All other crops are undercut because of neoliberal free trade policies which allow imports to flood the market. Besides, if the war on drugs is such a problem, deal with it here in the states. Do not over reach and spread domestic law across borders imposing heavy penalties on other nations. This is akin to the Helms – Burton Act against Cuba (signed by Bill C in 1996) which imposes serious penalites on anyone trading US assets with Cuba. Absurd. This is the reason people like Ortega, Morales, Chávez, and Correa have such great appeal in the Americas. Cuba has long stood as a symbol of US defiance. US overreach reads like imperialism obscured in the Washington Consensus as neoliberalism which this threatens their sovereignty as self-determining nations.
