Spanish Conquistador Research Paper

Colombia was one of the three original countries along with Ecuador and Venezuela that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830. Over the last 40 years, there has been a campaign to overthrow the government partially because of the drug trades throughout Colombia. The movement does however lack support from military and support from the necessary influences. In recent years, there have been challenges for control of the territories throughout Colombia and also for the drug trade.

Every artist's dream is to create something that leaves a lasting impression. The Last Conquistador follows the story of a sculptor who does exactly that. John Houser spent nearly a decade painstakingly crafted a 34-foot tall equestrian statue featuring the infamous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate y Salazar. Following in the footsteps of his father who assisted in the carving of Mount Rushmore, Houser's fantasy of leaving his mark in one of the largest bronze equestrian statues in the world finally became a reality (Valadez). However, what an artist attempts to express and what message is truly received may not be one and the same. While the Hispanic elite of El Paso praised (and funded) the magnificent piece, the Acoma were horrified by the towering symbol of oppression and genocide looming overhead. This film not only provides a window into the conflict and controversy surrounding Houser's work, but also showcases several aspects of Texas political culture and highlights the dismissive attitude toward Native American culture that is still prevalent today.

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.

The Spanish-American War began in 1898 when the U.S. Navy’s battleship Maine was destroyed accidentally. This act led to a four-month long war, in which the territories of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines were annexed by the United States. After said war, President Theodore Roosevelt gave support to a Panamanian rebellion. This rebellion was successful giving the citizens of Panama freedom from Columbia and the right to a democracy. In return American’s gained total control of the Panama Canal, which allowed its navy to traverse it. This is one of the many examples of the United States expressing itself as a world power, in this case over Columbia. These historical events have been expressed by the political cartoon, “Columbia’s

The main purpose of the FARC's existence is rooted in political persecution. The members of FARC, similar to their origins, consist of poor rural peasants. FARC is classified as a guerrilla group or a violent, non-state actor, however the United States has listed them as a foreign terrorist organization (Bureau of Counterterrorism, 2017). Colombian authorities have also alluded the FARC as a terrorist organization, or a band of criminals. FARC makes up to 600 million dollars per years in profits from drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and other criminal acts. FARC is considered to be the third wealthiest terrorist group in the world. FARC dominated a large territory throughout Colombia, especially in the rural areas and the

Although there is a lack of organizations involved in this fight, the United States was involved to stop this group because they don’t want Las FARC to overthrow the government and spread communist ideas. The involvement of the United States in the war on las FARC has been tremendous. The United States has sent troops and money to the Colombian government because they don’t the rebels to win; plus the United States and Colombia have really peaceful relations. Also the country of Colombia itself has attempted to to support rural redevelopment in Colombia, and that could potentially cost at least 45 million dollars over ten years (CFR). A lot of Colombia’s budget has been used to stop and have peace with Las FARC; many damages and also military debt had to be paid because of the fighting with them. Also the victims have also been given reparations from the suffering that they had in FARC prisons, people would starve to death or just get shot. One of the biggest issues of this topic though is that not many Americans know about this issue that has been going on in Colombia for the past fifty years. The richest rebel group in the world is not known by many Americans. One thing Americans should is mention this problem in literature because people need to know about this issue. If Communism ever gets spread again it

In the article, “Medellin Cartel: Why We Can’t Win the Drug War,” the author, Robert Filippone, suggests that the corruption in Colombia is due to many people profiting from the Medellin Cartel. The cartel’s operations extended beyond the production and transportation of cocaine and included people not directly involved in drug smuggling, such as chemists, engineers, architects, and aviation pilots. The enormous profits from narcotics trafficking provided financial benefits to many segments of Colombian society. Although I acknowledge the fact that there was, and still is, corruption in Colombia, there are many positive aspects of Colombia that Narcos fails to

Historically, the relations between U.S and Colombia have been marked the foreign policy and the international trade. Nevertheless, the civil war in Colombia have shifted this relation. In Colombia, the establishment of The Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) during the 1960s created the beginning of an era of terrorist and drug trafficking. The FARC began forming in 1966 inspired by the Cuban Revolution with a left-wing nationalism and Marxism-Leninism. FARC’s actions trough the history has been involved with terrorist against of the population in Colombia. As well, thousands of peasant farmers that have been obligated to produce illicit drugs in their own properties controlled by the guerrillas. Nowadays, the FARC has been the largest and oldest insurgent group in the Americas. The FARC has been roundly criticized for initiating

The Cali Cartel was an established in 1972 and prospered until 1992. After the downfall of the Medellin Cartel the Cali Cartel quickly filled their shoes becoming the most powerful cartel. La Times quoted the Cali Cartel “Once the richest and most powerful crime syndicate in the world.” (Rempel). This cartel was very sophisticated. Instead of using violence to get what they want they used business. They quietly funded presidential elections to the leaders they wanted. They had lawyers Study the DEA and U.S prosecutors to be 1 step ahead of everyone. The Cali Cartel fell as a direct result of U.S law enforcement operations and diplomatic pressure (Rempel). It

Effect. Obtaining seats in the legislature and being recognized as an official political party within Colombia provides the FARC with an opportunity to reach their goals without armed conflict. However, they established external relationships with entities that could potentially provide assistance should the FARC feel that the Colombian government failed to abide by any measure within the peace treaty. Unhappiness with progress, lack of results, and feelings that they compromised too much in the final treaty could lead the FARC away from peaceful conversations towards insurgency again.

In the mid 20th century, Colombian politics were dominated by the Liberal and Conservative parties with fierce supporters that carried out the ideological and social differences into violence. Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a popular leader of the liberal party in Colombia launched social, economic, and political modernising reforms in the 1930’s. Gaitan was in the process of converting Colombia into a left-wing country when he was assassinated right before an upcoming presidential election. Gaitan was the favorite to represent the Liberal Party and was going to implement a more Liberal system in Colombia. The reaction to this assassination produced an uncontrollable clash between

During the early 1990’s Colombia being one of the biggest exporters of narcotics in history, led by Pablo Escobar, who had a wide range of organized crime affiliations throughout Latin America. Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and he smuggled narcotics all the way to South Florida as when authorities tried to capture him. One of Pablo Escobar’s most important alliances was that of the Mexican-based traffickers. Escobar knew that this was an important trade route because of its geography and how it would be easier to smuggle the narcotics into the United States. This allowed a smuggling partnership between both countries and Mexico was to eventually lead their own drug based trafficking system with the help of Pablo Escobar. From the distributed drugs, cartels would take a certain amount of profit, and would use that money to bribe Mexican officials. By bribing Mexican officials it was insured that if smugglers were to be arrested they would either be let go, the case would be dropped or taking action against a rival smuggling group by giving away information about the rival’s plan to carry

The drug dealers have captured a great deal of power in Colombia, and have adopted the position of the government in many instances. The drug trade has ruined the image of Colombia, and has caused the world to forget about the other goods produced in Colombia, like coffee, flowers, oil and gas for instance. As the website put out by the Colombian Government Trade Bureau entitled “Colombia Trade News” states,

The FARC was created in the 1960s after a period of political violence known as la Violencia (1948–58). Omitted from a power-sharing agreement that ended the fighting the communist guerrillas took up arms against the state. FARC was made up of militant communists, peasant self-defense groups, and left-wing intellectuals who wanted to duplicate Fidel Castro’s communist revolution. The U.S. State Department has named this group a foreign terrorist organization. FARC was opposed to the sale of natural resources and claimed to represent the rural poor against Colombia’s wealthy. Though there have been instances that they colluded with the state and clashed in others. FARC though not as notorious as some other militia groups for using drugs to control

Drug trafficking is a major issue in Colombia, causing many other issues across the country. Many people involved in the drug trade including civilians are being killed, kidnapped, and injured over this problem. Over the years, the government has started cracking down on the growers, producers, and sellers but so far, they have only caught minor criminals. The government is making agreements with neighboring countries and finding alternative uses for the crops to slow down the production of drugs. Despite all of the efforts being made to stop drug trafficking, violence, and production the cartels are still thriving throughout Colombia.