Peoples Dispatch On August 26, thousands of Colombians took to the streets in main cities of the country in rejection of a new tax reform bill promoted by the far-right national government. Photo: Gustavo Torrijos Zuluaga/El Espectador This Thursday, as a part of a new national strike, thousands of Colombians took to the streets across…
Category: COLOMBIA
US & Colombia: Assassination, Cover-Up and “Humanitarian” Marines in Haiti
Aram Aharonian Moïse’s assassination highlighted the complex situation within the Colombian Army, which has become the largest exporter of mercenaries for private military security companies associated with current political actors. It resembles a bad detective novel, where a commando of mercenaries carries out an assassination and where the governments that send and finance the assassins…
Former Paramilitary Reveal Colombian Army Provided Hit List of College Students
Mision Verdad The number of testimonies confirming the involvement of the Colombian State in paramilitary crimes is increasing (Photo: Mauricio Dueñas / EFE). During a conference titled “The Armed Conflict at the University of Nariño,” organized by the Truth Commission in Colombia, ex-commanders Guillermo León Marín and Aníbal Gómez of the defunct Antonio Nariño Peasant…
Francia Márquez, Presidential Pre-Candidate: “We Need a Government Willing to Stop the War in Colombia”
Marco Teruggi The social and environmental leader will be running in the primaries in March against Gustavo Petro, who heads the center-left conglomerate Pacto Histórico. Her movement Soy porque Somos (I am because we are) vindicates the struggles of the Afro-descendant people. “We need to overcome fear and fill this country with hope,” says Francia…
Colombia’s Powerful Organization, Guardia Indigena, Speaks Out
Marco Teruggi Indigenous protesters attend an anti-government march in Cali, Colombia, Wednesday, May 12, 2021 – Sputnik Mundo The Guardia Indigena, one of the most important organizations in Colombia, has been a part of the mobilizations during the outbreak between April and July of this year. It is composed of about 70,000 members. Its coordinator,…
ELN: In-Depth Interview with Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista
Sasha Yumbila Paz “The categorical disassociation with drug trafficking is an integral part of our essence.” – Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista “The Nixon White House…had two enemies: the anti-war left and African-American people (…) We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be against the war or to be black, but to get the public to…
Cali: City of Explosion and Resistance
Marco Teruggi State repression was the response of the government of Iván Duque against the demonstrations. Neighborhoods and their poor youth, who confronted the police and military deployment, played a leading role. And the indigenous movement: the most organized actor. “Stop the genocide” reads a huge mural in downtown Cali, the city called “branch of…
Juvenicide: A Crime of the Multidimensional War in Colombia
María Fernanda Barreto The systematic murder of Colombian youth by the Colombian State is gaining momentum (Photo: Colombia Informa). At the beginning of the 1990s as the victor of the “cold war”, which in reality had very hot expressions, the United States, having established itself since the second post-war period as the head of the…
Colombia’s Brutal Repression of Protestors Raises Alarm from Amnesty International
Andrew Brilavojo On April 28th, 2021, a mass mobilization known as El Paro Nacional — The National Strike — broke out in Colombia. Demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the country to protest an unpopular tax reform bill that would raise taxes on the working and middle classes. Though the bill was retracted, the protests…
From the Invasion of Panama (1989) to Recolonization (2009): Other Forms of Imperial Terrorism
Stella Calloni On December 20, 1989, over 27,000 soldiers, including Special Forces and former combatants from Vietnam, part of the Fleet and dozens of helicopters, in addition to testing new planes and weapons on the small, practically defenseless country, delivered a brutal message to Central America and the entire region. The recently created Panamanian Defense…
Salvatore Mancuso’s Confession Reveals How Paramilitarism Emerged in Colombia
Mison VerdadSalvatore Mancuso was one of the “political commissars” of the AUC (Photo: Archive). The war that has been raging in Colombia for the last seven decades has gone through various stages of violence, with different actors that often intertwine in terms of their interests and procedures, with the State playing a leading role –…
Colombian State and Paramilitarism: Salvatore Mancuso’s Declaration Before the Truth Commission
José Manuel Blanco Díaz Salvatore Mancuso, demobilized and imprisoned Colombian paramilitary leader, has provided detailed testimony on how the Colombian government is closely linked to the creation and preservation of paramilitary groups like the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Mancuso, a.k.a. Mono Mancuso, Santander Lozada or Triple Cero, was extradited to the United States…
