Colombia Is No Match For The Darkness

Imagine living in a country where you know you could die at any moment but don’t know how much longer till it happens. That was how much of the population of El Salvador used to feel when the government could not control the big coffee corporations. These out of control corporations, highly feared that the people would want to revolt against them so they hired murderers to kill innocent people to spread fear in the minds of the people of El Salvador. Fear, hate, and sorrow were the common feelings felt by the poor and innocent major population of El Salvador caused by the evil wrongdoings of the government during October 1979 – 16 January 1992. This is how the main character, Jose Luis, of the novel “Mother Tongue” by Demetria Martinez, felt before escaping his beautiful yet over constantly dangerous country, which depended on its cash crop, coffee beans to sell on a foreign market as the country’s main income. However, following the stock-market crash of 1929, a drop in coffee prices became apparent and affected everyone in El Salvador, but the poor especially. Making things worse, the glorious United States was funding the men whom were doing all the innocent killings with more weapons and money to increase their military power. So for Jose Luis the safe haven that he had escaped to was also blatantly funding the war that was killing so many innocent people he knew and had forced him to escape for his own safety. With nowhere else to go in order to find safety the United

The FARC is Colombia’s largest terror group. The FARC was established in 1964. The FARC began with farmers and agricultural workers who abandoned their positions to fight inequalities in Colombia. The FARC revolves around a Marxist-Leninist ideology. The FARCs early establishment suffered losses within its organization due to consistent military raids conducted by the Columbian Forces in order to disrupt or destroy the group. As the fight continued, those losses changed the leadership constantly through the years. The FARC has adapted and overcame many obstacles as the Colombian Government continues its fight against the terror group. As the fight continued through the years, the FARCs ability to change their tactics and weapons advanced. With more powerful weapons through the years and their ability to become more organized, the FARCs ability to fight back became more powerful.

In fact, the night Bolivar became the dictator of Gran Colombia, he barely escaped assassination. In fact, just a year later, “the opposition to Bolivar had assumed such proportions that an[other] conspiracy to eliminate him was set in motion” (“Simón Bolívar.” Encyclopedia of World Biography). However, Bolivar’s fame “continued to grow to mythical proportions in Latin America” because he was fearless and continued to undermine Spanish authority (“Simón Bolívar.” Encyclopedia of World Biography).

Plan Colombia is a long-prevailing foreign aid package bestowed to the country of Colombia from the United States. This foreign aid package grants substantial financial assistance to Colombia, intending to fight the “War on Drugs” and to reduce the trafficking of narcoleptics, but there is a multitude of other factors and implications, both unintentional or indirect and intentional due to ulterior motives. To accomplish the goals of Plan Colombia, most of the aid has been provided in the form of armed forces. This situation is complicated because of the ongoing civil war between the government of Colombia and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC). Additionally making matters difficult has

2. At the same time, however, the consequences of “cooperation” with the rebels is execution by paramilitary groups or even by the Columbian government.” “Some more coca farmers, fearful of the government, willingly form alliances with rebels who offer to protect their farms for a fee (Javdani, par. 6). The

Currently, the president of Colombia is Juan Manuel Santos and the vice president is German Vargas LLeras. Throughout the 20th century, Colombia has had conflicts between paramilitary groups such as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (F.A.R.C). According to Frank Safford, Colombia has suffered since the emerged of the paramilitary groups. These groups transport illegal drugs within the country and kidnap and extort to stay financially stable. Therefore, these actions encourage intensive violence in society and led the unrest of the country. The politics in Colombia have not been very pleased for the citizens, but every year quieter. Juan Manuel Santos is making programs to reach peace; however the results have not been submitted

The fact that hundreds of police officers, judges, investigators, presidential candidates, and of course thousands of Colombian citizens are murdered with the attitude of “so it goes” (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five) shows that their Nation has been very badly damaged, psychologically as well as physically.

Historically, Colombia has opposed the ELN and their attempts at gaining power within the country. However, there has been corruption by government and military officials. The corruption comes in the way of support for the ELN (Stanford, 2012). Regardless of the corruption, the Colombian government is currently making strides to begin peace talks with the ELN in 2014; however, no specific dates have been established. (Insight crime, n.d.).

Additionally, they provided low level social services to villages, including medical services and schooling. The group funded their efforts by kidnapping members of wealthy families and demanding ransom. By 1970, FARC militants were heavily involved in drug trafficking that enabled them to accumulate large amounts of wealth and weapons. In the early 1980s, the FARC and the Colombian government began peace talks with the goal of reaching a mutual agreement of disarmament of and a change in land reform policy in the

Drug Trafficking, civil unrest, and kidnapping are commonly associated with Colombia. However, a closer look at the South American Country, which is slightly less than two times the size of Texas, reveals not only a very rich culture that centers on fine arts and language preservation, but also a country that strives for economic progress and effective government. All of which is typically overshadowed by the notorious guerilla warfare and drug cartels.

Colombia is a Latin American country located in South America that has been ravaged by violence, starvation, and large-scale inequality between higher and lower classes. The chaos in Colombia has been between rebel forces and the government and has lasted for over fifty years. These rebel forces have fought to achieve their Liberalist lead goals of overthrowing the current democratic government of Colombia and replacing it with a communist government. La Violencia was the main contributor to the conflict between the resistance fighters of Colombia and the Colombian government that has brought on violence and terror from the violent actions between the Liberal and Conservative parties in the 1950’s. , which has directly brought on the violence and terror from the guerrilla groups.

Throughout Colombia’s history there has been two very violent groups of people who do not like each other. This caused the War of Thousand Days and The Violence,

Violence seems to be a nationwide phenomenon. Almost all aspects of the Colombian population experience some degree of violence. Almost everybody is a potential victim; violence does not prefer a particular socioeconomic class, profession, race, or

On April 30, 1984 in Bogota, Colombia, the violent ambush and assassination of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla sent a chilling political message – violence would be employed against anyone who supported reforms against the illicit narcotics trade. Before his death, Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla was one of the first politicians who voiced opposition to the exploding drug trade involving cocaine. The cycle of targeted violence returned only a couple of years later, on November 17, 1986, when a former chief of the anti-narcotics police force, Colonel Jaime Ramirez Gomez, was brutally murdered while traveling in a vehicle with his family. This public figure had not only shut down one of the biggest cocaine producing plants (at the time) but was set to testify in a tribunal to implicate Pablo Escobar in the murder of Justice Minister Bonilla. Then in 1989, Luis Carlos Galan, a Colombian presidential candidate who denounced the criminal ventures of the cartels, was gunned down at his political rally. During his campaign, he fatefully challenged the likes of Pablo Escobar, by promising to institute extradition laws of drug traffickers to the United States. The pattern of calculated violence towards these prominent political figures, who supported justice reforms against drug traffickers, exemplified the extreme measures that the Medellin Cartel used to exact revenge on public dissenters. The drug cartels publicly executed political figure heads, typically in

The author’s understanding of violence is extended beyond the text and into the political history of Latin America, full of neo-colonial repression, racial discrimination and struggles.