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Showing posts from January, 2006

The High Cost of Free Trade for Indigenous and Afro-Colombians

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Victoria Marie, PhD Presented at the Racial Violence and the Colour Line of the New World Order Conference Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia April 2, 2005 The power of spreading the word… When governments speak they don’t speak the truth. Plan Colombia is not addressing social probems but spending more on war, which seems to have the aim of eliminating the civilian population (OFP, 2004) . Introduction Colombia has been in a state of civil war for the past 40 years. The combatants are the legitimately armed actors, such as the army and police; paramilitaries, who protect the interests of legal and illegal businesses; and two major groups of revolutionary forces. However, it is the civilian population that is most adversely impacted from the ongoing conflict. They are endangered by the warring factions, who routinely murder, displace or conscript them. The aim of this paper is to explore how this conflict and economic policies have adversely affected the people of colour in Col