Colombia’s twentieth century history is above all stained in the blood of the peasant poor. Evan Vallianatos, US government office of technology assessment
In the 1960s the United States, during the Kennedy administration, took great pains to transform our regular armies into counterinsurgency brigades, accepting the new strategy of death squads. Vasquez Carrizosa
The Colombian producers sought out new marketing and distribution strategies. Not only did their research establish that the European markets were still underdeveloped, but they realised that with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new middle class, young and dynamic, was springing up in Eastern Europe and Russia. Misha Glenny, McMafia
The police and the military have frequently acted as unaccountably as the traffickers, the paramilitaries or the guerrillas. ibid.
Then there are the local paramilitaries (known as the AUC), who often fight alongside the regular army against the FARC. Claiming to be upholders of the right to private property (especially to that property which they have seized by intimidation and murder), many members of the AUC had disarmed in a deal brokers by the Government earlier in the year, only to emerge as new organised criminal gangs in the lawless barios that grew tumour-like from the nether regions of all major Colombian cities. ibid.
The United States had recently handed over the last wedge of the $4 billion it had donated to Bogota under the auspices of Plan Colombia ... those self-same recipients of military aid were working on behalf of narco-traffickers and murdering policemen! ibid.
Colombia is one of the most richly endowed Latin American countries, with fertile plains that produce the finest coffee in the world; gorgeous Atlantic and Pacific coastlines; jungles stuffed with exotic wildlife; mineral resources from emeralds to coal and oil; the majesty of the Andes … ibid.
The idea of a paradise stained by a satanic, venal minority is a common theme in Colombia. ibid.
One of its many high-points, sparked by the assassination of presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, in April 1948, is known simply as La Violencia, a decade-long festival of blood-letting, which was eventually brought to an end by a reconciliation between the Liberals and the Conservatives. ibid.
As America’s baby-boomers turned from protesting to making money, they sought a champagne-style narcotic that represented this shift in their lives from philosophical introspection to brash acquisitiveness. ibid.
The Cali Cartel was one of the top three cocaine clans to emerge in Colombia during the 1970s and 1980s. In an agreement with the other two clans, who were based in Medellin, the Cali Cartel had carved up the US export market with precision – New York belonged to the Cali. ibid.
The Medellin and Cali cartels succeeded in anticipating the mechanisms of globalisation and for many years they were also able to merge their illicit operations with licit ones. ibid.
Although he enjoyed a reputation as the most notorious narco-trafficker, Pablo Escobar was not in fact as successful as the Rodriquez-Orejuela brothers. ibid.
The Cali mafia’s annual profits were estimated at between $4 and $8 billion a year, and the organisation operated like a well-run multinational business. ibid.
Having created its own in 1974, El Banco de los Trabajadores, the Cartel bought into banks elsewhere in Central and South America that had close ties to banks in Miami and New York. ibid.
Most dramatic were the meetings between the Orejuela brothers’ representatives and members of Moscow’s Solntsevo Brotherhood on the thoroughly sinful Caribbean island of Aruba in the early 1990s. ibid.
And yet cocaine from Colombia is cheaper and easier to acquire in the United States than ever before. Billions upon billions of dollars have been spent in an attempt to root out an industry that has merely grown in size, in profits and in human sacrifices – tens of thousands of people have lost their lives; millions more have been shattered. ibid.
The havoc that the cocaine trade wreaks on Colombian society is wildly disproportionate to coca’s economic value. ibid.
The Government in Bogota had run out of funds to deal with the most dramatic expression of that crisis, the three million refugees driven out of their homes since the mid-1990s – the largest refugee population in the hemisphere and the third-largest anywhere in the world. ibid.
The only other building is a spanking-new library courtesy of Plan Colombia ... all the library needs now is to open (padlocked like the UNDP), a few books (three were none) and, most importantly, some people who can read (a rare species in Ciudid Bolivar). ibid.
So people have grown up here, knowing that they are Colombian, but without ever having come across the state in the form of police or justice. ibid.
Colombia is the least safe country in the world to indulge in trade-union work. ibid.
The depths of the difficulties facing President Uribe became apparent in the autumn of 2005 when secret tapes revealed that the boss of Colombia's secret police, the DAS, had been trading and selling information to some of the most notorious paramilitary groups. ibid.
‘Colombia received a death threat at the team’s hotel in Fullerton, California.’ The Two Escobars, 2010, US news
‘We were terrified; it was like a bad dream.’ ibid. player
‘Escobar accidentally scored a goal against his own team.’ ibid. US sports news
‘We rose so fast people got suspicious.’ ibid. coach
‘The introduction of drug money in soccer allowed us to bring in great foreign players.’ ibid.
‘Pablo told us to find the referee and kill him.’ ibid. gangsta
‘This wasn’t the first time the players hung out with Pablo.’ ibid.
Argentina 0 Colombia 5: ‘The Argentinian fans gave us a standing ovation.’ ibid. player
‘Andres Escobar always believed soccer could curb violence.’ ibid. politician
‘Colombia here are dead and buried.’ ibid. UK commentary v Romania US world cup
‘The team had received death threats.’ ibid. player
‘Maria, It’s terrible. Andres. They killed Andres.’ ibid.
‘We’re about to start my initiation ritual into the Luciferian religion. Inside Colombia’s Temple of Lucifer, reporter, Vice 2017
‘I saw him an angel, he was enormous with seven wings.’ ibid. worshipper
‘My goal here on Earth is to gather souls for him.’ ibid. top knob Victor
‘No doubt this guy knows how to put on a show.’ ibid. reporter
This is one of the most spectacular and beautiful countries in the world. I’m on a journey around Colombia. For more than fifty years it’s been gripped by brutal conflict. A war often fuelled by the global drugs trade. But now there’s a chance for peace in Colombia. Colombia with Simon Reeve, BBC 2017
In Colombia the deal was hugely controversial … The public narrowly voted No. ibid.
Colombia has more internally displaced people than anywhere else in the world. ibid.
Over decades FARC mutated from freedom fighters to an often criminal army funded by cocaine, extortion and hundreds of kidnappings. ibid.
The Colombia army which also committed appalling atrocities. ibid.
Land and the ownership of it is central to the conflict in Colombia. ibid.
Other armed groups are also to blame for the state of Colombia. ibid.
The right-wing paramilitary groups killed many more people than FARC. ibid.
Illegal gold-mining is actually one of the main drivers of deforestation in Colombia. ibid.
Opponents of the peace agreement in Colombia celebrated big victories in the March 11 Congressional election: some say this is due to widespread fraud … Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Abby Fact Checks Congressman Sabotaging Colombia Peace Deal
‘Extensive drug-smuggling by right-wing paramilitary groups in collaboration with the armed forces, key financial figures and senior bureaucrats’. ibid. Council on Hemispheric Affairs drug trafficking study
Colombians were told that they would lose their pensions to pay for FARC militants. ibid.
The US operates out of about seven military bases in Colombia and they’ve been open about the fact that they want those bases for power projection throughout Latin America. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Human Rights Hypocrisy: Colombia vs Venezuela, Dan Kovalik
Death squads have been used throughout Latin America by the US. ibid.
40 paramilitary groups. ibid.
Residents of Buenaventura say they hear people plea for mercy as they are cut up with chainsaws. ibid.
In Colombia there have been 92,000 people disappeared. ibid.
Over 4,000 trade unionists have been killed. ibid.