The US Congress has allocated $1.3 billion to the government of Colombia for a military intervention which was denominated Plan Colombia. The official purpose of this 'Plan' is to put an end to the illegal growing of coca by destroying illicit crops, to put an end to the guerilla and to stabilise Latin Americas 'oldest democracy'. 84 % of the money will flow straight back into US economy as it is destined for military aid, primarily Huey and Black Hawk helicopters. Anyone digging up just a bit more information about the situation in Colombia will immediately see that the drug war is nothing but a pretext and that the real motivation is to secure access to natural resources (especially oil) and to gain control over a geopolitical strategic region in order to continue the implementation of a neoliberal development model in the whole region and especially the planned AFTA (American free trade agreement) to be discussed in Quebec / Canada in April this year.
A closer look to the region shows us that Colombia is like a natural trade platform, having access to both the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean and being the connection between North and South America. The Panama canal is becoming too small to deal with the increasing flow of goods between South East Asia , USA and Europe, especially considering China as an upcoming market. The infrastructure of the Canal is old and slow, so new interoceanic connections are being planned. The oil resources from Colombia are enormous and they are even bigger in Venezuela: BP, Exxon, Shell (via Oxy Petroleum a sister TNC) have been granted generous concessions for oil drilling. Several megaprojects like road infrastructure, dams, oil pipelines, monocultures and harbours in order to efficiently sap the resources are on their way. The displacement of the population by paramilitary and supported by the government match exactly the places for these planned megaprojects. The social movements of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil and Panama are an obstacle for these neoliberal plans. Venezuela's external policy (role in OPEC making oil prices raise and contacts to Cuba and Iraq) is causing concern in Washington. Colombia has seen 30.000 murdered people and nearly 2 mio people displaced in the last year. It isn't wrong to state that Plan Colombia is like a remake of the Vietnam war and one of the cruellest forms of expression of capitalism.
Since the protests in Prague against the IMF/WB summit, the contact between PCN (Black Communities Process) and European grassroots groups has been developing rapidly. About 25-30 % of the Colombian population is black. Most live in cities but many communities are spread around the Pacific and Caribbean coast. The black communities perceive themselves as the outcome of centuries of struggle for freedom. Struggles against slavery, against colonialism and now economic globalisation. They have developed forms of living which have little or nothing to do with capitalism and that are in harmony with their environment, one of the places on Earth with the highest biodiversity. They struggle to defend their right to live, their constitutional right to autonomy, identity and space to live. Today they are approaching European grassroots groups that would like to join their struggle and continue the process of convergence. The first exchanges have resulted in:
Plan Colombia | PCN Tour (draft)