Social leaders are being massacred in US-allied Colombia. Washington’s silence says it all.

The US government and mainstream media have been endlessly obsessing over Venezuela recently. Yet they’ve been largely silent about the devastating human rights crisis in neighboring Colombia – a key US ally.
We must change that, and take heed of Colombia’s human rights abuses. Because the comparison reveals the flagrant double standards and self-interest that lie behind US policy toward Latin America.
Eighth killing this year, and a worsening situation
On 12 January, unidentified gunmen shot dead a member of Colombia’s Awa indigenous group. It was the eighth killing of an indigenous leader so far this year. And it followed on from the assassination of 34 Awa leaders in 2018 – a year characterized by widespread human rights abuses.
This trend seems to have been accelerating since the finalization of a peace agreement which the government and leftist guerrilla group FARC signed in 2016. The trend is in large part because the FARC was a counter-balance to right-wing paramilitaries, which are still active in the country. These paramilitaries were the perpetrators of many, if not most, of these assassinations. And this should come as no surprise. Because along with the Colombian military, they were responsible for the vast majority of the civilian casualties during the decades-long conflict.
US complicity and double standards
For almost six decades, paramilitaries waged a protracted ‘dirty war‘ against anyone deemed a threat to multinational corporations, societal elites, and the Colombian state. And the US actually funded the Colombian state (and indirectly its allied right-wing death squads) throughout the conflict. According to Exeter University’s Prof Doug Stokes, it did so “to create stability for continued inward investment and resource extraction.” In short, the US is not only willing to overlook but actively aid brutality, so long as it serves its interests. Given such a record, its current hostility toward Venezuela (and Nicaragua) seems at best hypocritical.
Indeed, supposed concern over human rights in Latin America is simply a ruse. Successive Colombian administrations have bent over backward to accommodate US interests. But US targets in the region are those that have refused to do so. Instead, they have been fighting for national sovereignty and regional integration, and against neoliberalism and imperialism. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, for example, wrested control of the country’s oil reserves out of the hands of a US-backed social elite and channelled some of the revenues toward social programs. His nationalization of some assets from US-owned corporations, such as agro-industrial giant Cargill Inc, particularly enraged Washington.
Time to reflect
Considering its past, it’s hardly surprising that the US is happy to overlook an assassination campaign against social leaders in Colombia. But it’s time the world woke up both to the human rights crisis itself and the implications it has for US credibility in the region.
Read on...
Support us and go ad-freeFeatured image via Silvia Andrea Moreno/Flickr
Support us and go ad-freeWe know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.