Monday, December 1, 2008

Plan Colombia Devastates Afro-Colombian Communities

Hello folks,


As we kick off the last month of 2008, I thought I'd share this article from my friend Garry Leech, who edits the excellent website Colombia Journal.


Spread it around if you have the chance!

MAMA

Plan Colombia Devastates Afro-Colombian Communities

by Garry Leech

Several hours up the Tapaje River from the Pacific Ocean, the monotony of the lush green rainforest is broken when we round a bend and the remote village of San José comes into view. Most of the buildings on the riverbank are fragile wooden structures precariously perched on stilts. Afro-Colombian women busily wash clothes in the river while their children splash around in the fast-flowing brown water. The motorboat slows, glides past the women and pulls up to the crumbling cement steps that constitute the dock. There is little to distinguish San José from hundreds of other remote jungle villages in Colombia that have suffered from goverment neglect in the social and economic spheres. And, like many other rural communities, San José has also been devastated by the U.S.-backed counternarcotics initiative called Plan Colombia.

Read the full article at:

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia299.htm

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