Natural resource control
Miner with gold from river.
Photo courtesy of David Bacon.
Plan Colombia provides U.S. military aid and training for the Colombian armed forces to destroy coca crops and curb cocaine trafficking. But the war in Colombia is about much more than drugs. Wealth and land remain concentrated in the hands of a few and maintaining control and access to those resources requires military might.
In 2001, paramilitary forces carried out a massacre in the provinces of Cauca and Valle del Cauca. Known as the Naya massacre, the paramilitaries killed 120 people and displaced more than 4,000 people from their resource-rich lands. Most of those people were of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian descent. [11] It was widely viewed as no coincidence that the massacres and subsequent massive displacements took place in a region with large local deposits of natural resources, such as gold and precious woods, which are of interest to multinational companies.
U.S.-based corporations hold deep economic interests in Colombia because they need oil and other natural resources. The new FTA ensures access to Colombia's resources. Links between trade and war in Colombia are revealed when one takes a close look at the conduct of U.S.-based multinational corporations.
For example, an Alabama coal company, Drummond, will stand trial in U.S. federal court for contracting with paramilitary groups to assassinate three union leaders working at the Drummond coal mine in northern Colombia. And fruit giant Chiquita agreed in March to pay $25 million to settle with the U.S. Department of Justice after acknowledging that its Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, secretly funneled $1.7 million in protection money to death squads operating in zones where it had banana plantations. [12] Chiquita also is being investigated by Colombian prosecutors for smuggling 3,000 assault rifles in 2001 to their dock in Northern Colombia and delivering them into the hands of paramilitaries. [13]
- Time for a Change
- U.S.-Colombia Relations at a tipping point
- More human insecurity and displacement
- Silencing critics
- Natural resource control
- Threatened collective territories and the environment
- Change direction on trade and war in Colombia
[11] Craig-Best, Liam and Rowan Shingler. "The Alto Naya Massacre: Another Paramilitary Outrage", Colombian Journal, May 21, 2001.
[12] Muse, Toby. "Colombian prosecutor probes U.S. firms," Associated Press, 4/30/07
[13] Forero, Juan. "Unionists" Murdered Cloud Prospects for Colombia Trade Pact," Washington Post, 4/10/07
