This take is just as accurate as the CNN’s “mostly peaceful protests” last year. To begin with, Duque’s government is as conservative as Biden’s. They are comparing a centrist to very left wing ideologues.
I am a Colombian with family in bogota and Barranquilla. These protestors have destroyed public and PRIVATE properly, attacked private shop owners, burned down businesses and are being agitated by supporters of Maduro. they are being led by faction of Petro’s henchmen, the ex-mayor of Bogota, a crooked, power hungry politician who is again trying to win the presidency next year. Petro was a disaster for Bogota. He is an inept leader whose Marxist beliefs and sympathy with Venezuela will ensure that Colombia WILL be the next Venezuela.
My brother’s business is paralyzed. He cannot transport materials that are waiting at the port and he cannot transport his good out for delivery. He cannot get paid, but he has to pay storage penalties at the port. During the pandemic, he has kept his employees working in safe and stable conditions, but he is unable to pay his rent and is losing business daily.
These so called protests are disruption the life of the country more than the pandemic, and if my brother has to close his business, many people will be put out of work. Many businesses are under this same stress. It is not sustainable and it is not genuine. People are being manipulated into believing that these protests are reasonable, but they are riots.
This is the consequence of the so called peace plan. After over 8 years of “taxes for the rich” where capital was taxed at disproportionate rates in order to pay for the peace deal, the country has not only seen the the rich and also international investors flee, losing jobs and opportunities, but it is still at war, still completely bankrupted and unable to help the vulnerable, and now the economy is handicapped.
young people in this video don’t understand what they are protesting for or against. They don’t understand the history of Marxism in the region, and they don’t seem to understand that this is the road to total collapse like in Venezuela.
We adopted our son from Medellin in 1987. Yes, 1987 when the country was Thunderdome. I spent time in Medellin and Bogota w/ Carlos before bringing him to Miami to meet his new mom. The country of Colombia is flawed, like all countries. But, the people are good, hardworking, religious, people. I saw the darkside of Colombia first hand as I saw the the good hearted side. People were so nice to me as I, a new dad, stayed in hotels w/ a 2 year old boy who spent the first 2 years of his life in orphanages and foster homes. The brave attorneys, judges, and journalists took their country back from billionaire sociopathic drug kingpins. It wasn't pretty! We need to care about Colombia. You see, our cocaine habit turned their country into chaos. Yes, the coke industry just moved elsewhere. But, we owe a debt to these people. Thanks Matt for writing this. I have been following the conflict, mostly from foreign sources. Please follow Matt's prompt and keep apprised of what is happening in that beautiful country.
Colombia is not just launching pad for Venezuela coups but a long-standing US military fortress built on Colombian soil to destroy FARC and non-CIA cocaine trade, using military trained at US School of the Americas. Pure terrorism.
So, we'll either see a police state or maybe another Venezuela. Don't you think its about time we let people figure out what they have to do without sticking our noses in it. Armed with ideology, weapons, cockeyed self serving strategy, wrapped in a wonderful narrative....in the end it always ends up like this: Chaos or a Police State. Greenwald had a recent funding on how our gov't is spending $2 billion on capitol police...and not just in Washington. So same is beginning to happen here.
Matt, any chance we get some commentary on the demise of that piece of shit Donald Rumsfeld? The willfully ignorant take of the Wapo in situations like this reminds me of them washing their hands of the mess they cheered on in 2003.
«If they’re technically allies, protests tend to be portrayed as illegitimate»
The eternal difference between "freedom fighters"/"resistance" and "terrorists"/"enemy combatants".
«The usual “Democracy Promotion” script involves the U.S. backing this or that politician with money, weapons, and sometimes even military manpower, turning a blind eye to corruption or other excesses connected to that politician»
Nothing new again, here is my usual quote from George Orwell in 1945:
“The Daily Worker disapproves of dictatorship in Athens, the Catholic Herald disapproves of dictatorship in Belgrade. There is no one who is able to say - at least, no one who has the chance to say in a newspaper of big circulation - that this whole dirty game of spheres of influence, quislings, purges, deportation, one-party elections and hundred per cent plebiscites is morally the same whether it is done by ourselves, the Russians or the Nazis.”
Since the US doesn't appear to be very successful at stopping chaos in its own streets why does it feel compelled to butt its nose into other country's chaos? Does anyone think that Joe Biden could sit down & coherently explain what's happening in Columbia without a teleprompter?
So we are leaving Afghanistan and the heroin trade. Are we going to lose control of the cocaine business as well? Is this a result of America going soft on drugs and legalizing marijuana? Come on people, we have a recreational economy going to Hell and no one is minding the store!
Thank you for any insight and coverage of foreign affairs. The history of South America seems heart breaking. So much potential so much poor/dysfunctional leadership sometimes abetted by the USA. I am of the mind that we should, in general, mind our own business and seek amity with all peoples and sometimes their leadership.
And Americans will respond with outrage to the fact that those people hate us for supporting an authoritarian regime they suffer under, just like they did when the Shah of Iran was overthrown many years ago. "How dare those ingrates not love us! Dammit, we're the good guys!"
Am a Canadian who has lived and worked in Bogota, and agree that at the root of this is class conflict. You will hear very different perspectives on the protests if you speak with a Medellin business owner or a factory worker. The truth is businesses in Colombia exert a disproportionate amount of power over the labor force, one that Amazon can only wish it had. Two hundred union and human rights activists were killed in the country in 2020, which goes to show the US should have demanded more be done during negotiations of the bilateral trade agreement - calls for same fell on deaf ears at the time. We need some inequality to drive innovation, but we are seeing what happens when a country heads north of 50 on the Gini index. This should concern us as the USA has slid by 10 to 40 in the last few decades, when most of the wealthy stable western democracies are in the 20 to 30 band. We don't need a complex regression analysis to see where we are headed unless we make some structural changes sooner rather than later. It is also far past time for Uribe to retire from the field. I was as pro Uribe as most of were when he wore down the FARC to the point where the later negotiated deal could be negotiated - but the dynastic control he has fought behind the scenes to retain undermines this legacy. I challenge anyone to argue that Duque's presidency is more than a copy-paste of Medvedev - and now his son is running? Colombia is a fantastic place, with really great people. They are in dire need of real leadership and is disheartening that there does not even seem to be the base conditions for such a unicorn to flourish even if they did exist.
“Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason — the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks. Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit — and, most of the time, genteel — oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company in which they are the controlling shareholders. [...] The government, in its race to stop the bleeding, will typically need to wipe out some of the national champions — now hemorrhaging cash — and usually restructure a banking system that’s gone badly out of balance. It will, in other words, need to squeeze at least some of its oligarchs. [...] Under duress, generosity toward old friends takes many innovative forms. Meanwhile, needing to squeeze someone, most emerging-market governments look first to ordinary working folk — at least until the riots grow too large.”
There is some speculation as to in how many years “until the riots grow too large” in the USA itself. So far they are easily contained and racialized.
I see even Senile Uncle Joe's regime continues to refer to Random Guy-'doh as Venezuela's "Interim President" - because as far as foreign policy in service to the banking-energy elite swamp they're no different from Trump, Bush, Reagan, Clinton or O-Blam Blam where the rubber hits the road.
When did the media abdicate their traditional role? When did they stop reporting what is going on in the world? When did they become extensions of government power?
Thank you for covering this important topic. This has gotten marginal, equivocating press in the USA. We bear more responsibility because our tax dollars fund the government and end up supporting some human rights violations so we need to know what’s going on. I hope you cover some of the affected news outlets in depth.
You may want to check in on Colombia Reports, a small English language news outfit recently hit with a SLAPP-style suit and being defended by Primera Linea Juridica, which seems like a hastily constructed Colombian ACLU.
This take is just as accurate as the CNN’s “mostly peaceful protests” last year. To begin with, Duque’s government is as conservative as Biden’s. They are comparing a centrist to very left wing ideologues.
I am a Colombian with family in bogota and Barranquilla. These protestors have destroyed public and PRIVATE properly, attacked private shop owners, burned down businesses and are being agitated by supporters of Maduro. they are being led by faction of Petro’s henchmen, the ex-mayor of Bogota, a crooked, power hungry politician who is again trying to win the presidency next year. Petro was a disaster for Bogota. He is an inept leader whose Marxist beliefs and sympathy with Venezuela will ensure that Colombia WILL be the next Venezuela.
My brother’s business is paralyzed. He cannot transport materials that are waiting at the port and he cannot transport his good out for delivery. He cannot get paid, but he has to pay storage penalties at the port. During the pandemic, he has kept his employees working in safe and stable conditions, but he is unable to pay his rent and is losing business daily.
These so called protests are disruption the life of the country more than the pandemic, and if my brother has to close his business, many people will be put out of work. Many businesses are under this same stress. It is not sustainable and it is not genuine. People are being manipulated into believing that these protests are reasonable, but they are riots.
This is the consequence of the so called peace plan. After over 8 years of “taxes for the rich” where capital was taxed at disproportionate rates in order to pay for the peace deal, the country has not only seen the the rich and also international investors flee, losing jobs and opportunities, but it is still at war, still completely bankrupted and unable to help the vulnerable, and now the economy is handicapped.
young people in this video don’t understand what they are protesting for or against. They don’t understand the history of Marxism in the region, and they don’t seem to understand that this is the road to total collapse like in Venezuela.
We adopted our son from Medellin in 1987. Yes, 1987 when the country was Thunderdome. I spent time in Medellin and Bogota w/ Carlos before bringing him to Miami to meet his new mom. The country of Colombia is flawed, like all countries. But, the people are good, hardworking, religious, people. I saw the darkside of Colombia first hand as I saw the the good hearted side. People were so nice to me as I, a new dad, stayed in hotels w/ a 2 year old boy who spent the first 2 years of his life in orphanages and foster homes. The brave attorneys, judges, and journalists took their country back from billionaire sociopathic drug kingpins. It wasn't pretty! We need to care about Colombia. You see, our cocaine habit turned their country into chaos. Yes, the coke industry just moved elsewhere. But, we owe a debt to these people. Thanks Matt for writing this. I have been following the conflict, mostly from foreign sources. Please follow Matt's prompt and keep apprised of what is happening in that beautiful country.
Colombia is not just launching pad for Venezuela coups but a long-standing US military fortress built on Colombian soil to destroy FARC and non-CIA cocaine trade, using military trained at US School of the Americas. Pure terrorism.
So, we'll either see a police state or maybe another Venezuela. Don't you think its about time we let people figure out what they have to do without sticking our noses in it. Armed with ideology, weapons, cockeyed self serving strategy, wrapped in a wonderful narrative....in the end it always ends up like this: Chaos or a Police State. Greenwald had a recent funding on how our gov't is spending $2 billion on capitol police...and not just in Washington. So same is beginning to happen here.
Matt, any chance we get some commentary on the demise of that piece of shit Donald Rumsfeld? The willfully ignorant take of the Wapo in situations like this reminds me of them washing their hands of the mess they cheered on in 2003.
«If they’re technically allies, protests tend to be portrayed as illegitimate»
The eternal difference between "freedom fighters"/"resistance" and "terrorists"/"enemy combatants".
«The usual “Democracy Promotion” script involves the U.S. backing this or that politician with money, weapons, and sometimes even military manpower, turning a blind eye to corruption or other excesses connected to that politician»
Nothing new again, here is my usual quote from George Orwell in 1945:
“The Daily Worker disapproves of dictatorship in Athens, the Catholic Herald disapproves of dictatorship in Belgrade. There is no one who is able to say - at least, no one who has the chance to say in a newspaper of big circulation - that this whole dirty game of spheres of influence, quislings, purges, deportation, one-party elections and hundred per cent plebiscites is morally the same whether it is done by ourselves, the Russians or the Nazis.”
Since the US doesn't appear to be very successful at stopping chaos in its own streets why does it feel compelled to butt its nose into other country's chaos? Does anyone think that Joe Biden could sit down & coherently explain what's happening in Columbia without a teleprompter?
So we are leaving Afghanistan and the heroin trade. Are we going to lose control of the cocaine business as well? Is this a result of America going soft on drugs and legalizing marijuana? Come on people, we have a recreational economy going to Hell and no one is minding the store!
Thank you for any insight and coverage of foreign affairs. The history of South America seems heart breaking. So much potential so much poor/dysfunctional leadership sometimes abetted by the USA. I am of the mind that we should, in general, mind our own business and seek amity with all peoples and sometimes their leadership.
And Americans will respond with outrage to the fact that those people hate us for supporting an authoritarian regime they suffer under, just like they did when the Shah of Iran was overthrown many years ago. "How dare those ingrates not love us! Dammit, we're the good guys!"
It is a mixed bag--- we are in Medellin.
Am a Canadian who has lived and worked in Bogota, and agree that at the root of this is class conflict. You will hear very different perspectives on the protests if you speak with a Medellin business owner or a factory worker. The truth is businesses in Colombia exert a disproportionate amount of power over the labor force, one that Amazon can only wish it had. Two hundred union and human rights activists were killed in the country in 2020, which goes to show the US should have demanded more be done during negotiations of the bilateral trade agreement - calls for same fell on deaf ears at the time. We need some inequality to drive innovation, but we are seeing what happens when a country heads north of 50 on the Gini index. This should concern us as the USA has slid by 10 to 40 in the last few decades, when most of the wealthy stable western democracies are in the 20 to 30 band. We don't need a complex regression analysis to see where we are headed unless we make some structural changes sooner rather than later. It is also far past time for Uribe to retire from the field. I was as pro Uribe as most of were when he wore down the FARC to the point where the later negotiated deal could be negotiated - but the dynastic control he has fought behind the scenes to retain undermines this legacy. I challenge anyone to argue that Duque's presidency is more than a copy-paste of Medvedev - and now his son is running? Colombia is a fantastic place, with really great people. They are in dire need of real leadership and is disheartening that there does not even seem to be the base conditions for such a unicorn to flourish even if they did exist.
«openly described the Colombian protests as a “class war,”»
Another one of my my favourite articles:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-quiet-coup/307364/
“Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason — the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks. Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit — and, most of the time, genteel — oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company in which they are the controlling shareholders. [...] The government, in its race to stop the bleeding, will typically need to wipe out some of the national champions — now hemorrhaging cash — and usually restructure a banking system that’s gone badly out of balance. It will, in other words, need to squeeze at least some of its oligarchs. [...] Under duress, generosity toward old friends takes many innovative forms. Meanwhile, needing to squeeze someone, most emerging-market governments look first to ordinary working folk — at least until the riots grow too large.”
There is some speculation as to in how many years “until the riots grow too large” in the USA itself. So far they are easily contained and racialized.
I see even Senile Uncle Joe's regime continues to refer to Random Guy-'doh as Venezuela's "Interim President" - because as far as foreign policy in service to the banking-energy elite swamp they're no different from Trump, Bush, Reagan, Clinton or O-Blam Blam where the rubber hits the road.
When did the media abdicate their traditional role? When did they stop reporting what is going on in the world? When did they become extensions of government power?
Thank you for covering this important topic. This has gotten marginal, equivocating press in the USA. We bear more responsibility because our tax dollars fund the government and end up supporting some human rights violations so we need to know what’s going on. I hope you cover some of the affected news outlets in depth.
You may want to check in on Colombia Reports, a small English language news outfit recently hit with a SLAPP-style suit and being defended by Primera Linea Juridica, which seems like a hastily constructed Colombian ACLU.