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I´ve lived in Ecuador and i´ve spent a few months in Colombia, they are the two most amazing countries i´ve ever been to.
Here´s a little background on teh region: Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuala were once one country ¨Gran Colombia¨ which was formed under Simon Bolivar who lead the fight against the spanish, Simon Bolivar dreamed of uniting latin america against European Imperialism, Chavez sees himself as a modern day Bolivar who wants to unite Latin America against US imperialism. Colombia is the only country in South America that is right wing conservative and a close alley of the USA
To give you an idea about Presidnet Alvaro Uribe´s, his parents were assasinated by the FARC guerillas when he was 11, so you can imagine the vendetta he harbours against them. To give Alvaro Uribe credit, Colombia has become much much safer in the major poppulation centres, he has taken back control of the highways between Bogota, Manizales, Medellin, Cartegena, Santa Marta where in the past FARC guerillas controlled during the night. The protest against the FARC recently in colombia were the biggest in history, the FARC have lost the hearts and minds of the people because their struggle is no longer an idealogical struggle (justice for the marginilised poor) but for control of the Coca fields.
Now in the countryside it is completely different, the peasants have been marginilised, Colombia has the second biggest internal refugee crisis in the entire world after Iraq, FARC Guerillas will go into a village put their guns to heads of the village leaders and say ¨feed us or die¨ so the village naturally gives the Guerillas support, the Government and US backed Paramilitaries might come to the village a week later and execute every single man, woman, and child for supporting the Guerillas.
The peasants are being pushed further and further into the jungle, their lives are horrible, which is why most of them decide to live in the slums of Bogota (i´ll get to its problems soon) for the peasants who decide to stay on the fringe of society because they cannot either afford to migrate to the cities or they are trapped, the only method in which they can support themselves is to grow Coca Leaves, they have pleaded to the US government for AId to support the growing of different types of crops, but this doesnt interest the US because selling weapons to stop the Cocaine trade is much more lucrative than aiding poor peasants to grow alternative crops. The Coca plant is one of the few things that can grow in the jungle, I believe the US are still using Round Up to spray parts of the jungle
Now Bogota and Medellin are hte two most amazing cities on earth! I could live in both places, they are fucking beautiful! but they have their problems, Bogota has 10million people, with huge shanty towns which are are lawless places, places controlled by the Government / US backed paramilitaries, they have been known to go around ethnically cleansing people in provinces of Bogota just for being poor. These cities are very modern though, and as long as you dont go into the poorer areas they are very safe (among the safest in latin america) Colombia has one of the biggest divides between rich and poor in teh world, there is a very wealthy middle and upper class. There hasn´t been a president in Colombias history thats been as poppular amongst the middle and upper class as Uribe.
I think one of the problems with the Ejercito (Colombias military) is that they are young kinds drafted into the military, most of them are bored shitless and are smoking pot doing crack while they are on duty, (ive talked to commanders before) the Paramilitary are even worse because they are above the law, the leaders are psychopaths and probably crack cocaine addicts. In colombia there is something called ¨La Economia Fantasma¨ The Ghost Economy, 8 billion dollars of its GDP comes from Cocain and is channeled into legitimate enterprise, but to play devils advocate, there is less poverty in Colombia than in other latin ameirican countries, so maybe its a good thing? The US backed Government and Paramilaries are both corrupt with Cocaine money, as much if not more than the FARC Guerillas
To my understanding Uribe has just organised an amnesty for one of the most ruthless paramilitaries on the condition they give up their arms, while there is little justice in this i think for the long term for Colombia its a good thing.
Chavez and Uribe hate eath other, Chavez supports the ideaology of the Guerillas (even though it has long become bankrupt) most of the Cocaine is smuggled out of the eastern border with venezuala which is very porous. Chavez believes that Uribe is a puppet of the US and any act of agression on this border will be instigated by the US
Ecuadors president Rafael Correa is AMAZING, a truly great guy who isn´t an instrument of Ecuadors Rich and genuinely wants the best for his country. He and Chavez are friends but Correa is not a ¨Chavista¨ he is his own man, while he is a left leaning socialist he got a PhD in Economics in Philidelphia University so his not a complete idiot. Ecuador has always stated its neutrality with regards to Colombias internal problems so they don´t spill over into Ecuador, i think it was stupid bombing their northern border.
Personally i doubt war will break out, i will have to talk to some of my Colombian / Ecuadorian / Venezualan friends to find out what the tensions are like in their countries. I think i might also edit this long rant and see if i can get it published in a newspaper 
Last edited by tathi on Mar-05-2008 at 04:15
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