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Something like a narco state doesn't emerge unless there is already a foundation for it. The history of large scale brutality and violence in Colombia goes back much further than the drug wars.
In the middle of the twentieth century there was widespread bloodshed due to political conflict between the conservatives and liberals. Organized groups of one party would arm themselves with pistols and machetes and go into pueblos and massacre the men and women who were associated with the other party.
This was no mere handful of skirmishes - it was a constant, ongoing thing that lasted for years with blood being spilled almost on a daily basis.
There is a book that discusses this history, it is called Colombia Amarga by German Castro Caycedo.
The Spanish Inquisition itself placed a lot of brutality in Spain's colonies in the Americans (the Portuguese Inquisition did the same in Brazil). This brutality delayed proper development of the society.
The Spanish Inquisition itself placed a lot of brutality in Spain's colonies in the Americans (the Portuguese Inquisition did the same in Brazil). This brutality delayed proper development of the society.
Your first sentence is true, but I disagree with the second. The societies living in the Americas already had several thousands of years of proper development before Europeans arrived.
Your first sentence is true, but I disagree with the second. The societies living in the Americas already had several thousands of years of proper development before Europeans arrived.
Development and cruel brutality also in pre-columbian times. Since its inception the Americas have just struggled, the large benefit the US had was that the elites didn't hold onto absolute power and in fact encouraged settlement, entrepeneurship and growth throughout all the social classes. The elites in Latin America were a lot less visionary in that regard, Argentina nearly made it but the bureaucracy and corruption inherited from Spain won out in the end over American entrepreneurship (in relative terms obviously) because Argentina is still well above the global median in development and wealth, the same can be said to a lesser extent about Colombia.
Development and cruel brutality also in pre-columbian times. Since its inception the Americas have just struggled, the large benefit the US had was that the elites didn't hold onto absolute power and in fact encouraged settlement, entrepeneurship and growth throughout all the social classes. The elites in Latin America were a lot less visionary in that regard, Argentina nearly made it but the bureaucracy and corruption inherited from Spain won out in the end over American entrepreneurship (in relative terms obviously) because Argentina is still well above the global median in development and wealth, the same can be said to a lesser extent about Colombia.
In the case of Argentine Peron himself screwed that one up. Peron, followed by equally bad people in the 70s and 80s. Argentina could be a very wealthy nation if not for Peron and the military stupidity post WW2.
The Spanish Inquisition lasted till 1821 or so, and it delayed the Spanish (and Portuguese ) speaking world'd development. Big parts of Italy were under the Spanish crown as well.
Of course the cold war didn't have a positive influence as the US and the USSR armed competing groups.
With that said I'd say the region as a whole (Latin America) has made major progress since the 1800s. Look at all the Brazilian officials busted and removed for corruption. It never would have happened even 20 years ago. It caused political instability, but the government did not collapse. Colombia has successfully changed administrations repeatedly without economic or political collapse.
A problem with nations like Venezuela is they were too dependent upon commodities such as oil. When oil prices are very high globally things are fine. When oil prices drop low Venezuela is screwed. Venezuela didn't develop it's corporate sector well enough to produce other things that could be exported outside of commodities and that could bring in revenues.
Survived? What a joke. People get killed there on a daily basis just for trying to protect peasants from human rights abuses
“Killing With Impunity, Every Three Days”
Quote:
“We made this film because no one, particularly the US media, seemed to care,” Tom Laffay told The Atlantic. Laffay, a filmmaker and journalist based in Bogotá, is referring to the parlous situation in Colombia, where social leaders and community organizers are routinely assassinated with impunity. “The rate is now at one killing every three days,” Laffay said.
In the case of Argentine Peron himself screwed that one up. Peron, followed by equally bad people in the 70s and 80s. Argentina could be a very wealthy nation if not for Peron and the military stupidity post WW2.
There's gotta be more to it than that, because we are well past the 1980s, yet Argentina is now in the middle of yet another economic failure. I know someone in Colombia who a couple years ago went to Argentina to look for work, stayed for a month and went back to Colombia because he had more opportunities in Colombia. He said Argentina was falling apart.
What a joke. People get killed there on a daily basis just for trying to protect peasants from human rights abuses...
"We made this film because no one, particularly the US media, seemed to care,” Tom Laffay told The Atlantic. Laffay, a filmmaker and journalist based in Bogotá, is referring to the parlous situation in Colombia, where social leaders and community organizers are routinely assassinated with impunity
Uh, well there's a few words here that stand out as being misleading: "social leaders and community organizers". This could mean so many things. And depending on what kind of community organizer you're talking about, many of them are *not* at any risk or in any danger.
The main reason people get killed in Colombia is because they're interfering with someone's business. Most peasants don't fall into this category, peasants being people who are living and working on farms. Most farms are involved in legitimate agricultural business - coffee, plantains, oranges, etc - and these are pretty standard businesses. Actually I would argue the peasants there are treated better than our migrant workers in California. And to use the word "peasants" is also misleading. They aren't "serfs". Nobody is forced to work on a coffee farm.
But, if you're talking about country folk who happen to be on land used for illicit cultivation, then yes, of course there's problems. It's organized crime, so what do you expect. Same thing happens in Mexico with country folk who live in drug trafficking routes.
If you are an activist who is trying to protect people who are working on lands controlled by drug traffickers, of course you're going to get killed. Why would you even do that in the first place?
No matter how you look at it, community organizers are not "being killed every day." .... The people who are being assassinated every day in Colombia are people who are involved with or interfering with illegal business.
I would have liked to visit Medellin in the 80s or 90s. It seems too touristy now. I like places that are not so on the radar.
That's easy for you to say from your safe condo in Vancouver. Medellin in the 70's perhaps, but 80's or 90's? C'mon!
As for off the radar places, plenty of places around Medellin and even within Medellin itself (i.e. Sabaneta/La Estrella) not to mention cities like Manizales, Pereira, Armenia, Rionegro and Santa Rosa not to mention a plethora of towns like Jerico, Jardin, Tamesis, Salamina, Aguadas and Filandia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanLuis
Do places like Buenaventura and Narino recieve a lot of foreign tourism??
Buenaventura receives practically no tourists apart from a handful of people from Cali going to the beaches at Malaga and Ladrilleros or stopping by at San Cipriano in between both cities.
I think you would really like southern Colombia it receives much less tourists but has a lot to see like the Tatacoa Desert, San Agustin and Garzon relatively near the city of Neiva or on the other side of the Andes; Popayan, Purace, Tierradentro, Pasto, Las Lajas and Cocha lake.
Ok maybe not then but right before it became so popular. Don't get me wrong I would still like to see Medellin. Lots of beautiful places in Colombia, I wish I could see them all.
I have been in some pretty dangerous cities. The only place I have had guns pulled on me and been caught in shoot outs was in Los Angeles California back in the early 90s.
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