![]() Their message is this: for Colombia to remain peaceful, the government must guarantee the land and human rights of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. Our partners at Dejusticia and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) are pushing for the new aid package to reach those hardest hit by the war, and they’ll be watching as plans unfold. This sounds like good news, but notably absent from the commitment was any mention of the 50-year war’s most unfortunate victims: Indigenous and Afro-Colombians. You can read more about that here.)Īfter his meeting with President Santos, President Obama announced that he would ask for more than $450 million in aid to help Colombia end “half a century of wrenching conflict.” (There’s a history here-the US has invested more than $9 billion in aid to end the war between the FARC and Colombia, which has been controversial. And last week, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia met with President Obama to ask for US aid to facilitate a new, peaceful era in Colombia. Last year, a peace agreement was announced between the FARC and the Colombian government. More than 200,000 people have died, more than six million have been displaced.īut no group has suffered as much as rural Indigenous and Afro-Colombians, who have been systematically forced out of their homes or killed by cartels who steal, exploit, and pollute their land to fund illicit activities. For more than 50 years, the country has been locked in a war with the FARC and other left-wing rebels, and many people have suffered. The children’s deaths are one of a slew of tragedies in Colombia’s recent history. Run-off from the mines contaminates water and food supplies with the toxin, causing debilitating illnesses and slow, awful deaths for the people who live close by. These families hail from Choco, a rural province where FARC-controlled illegal mining-and therefore environmental devastation-are rampant. The suspected cause of death: mercury poisoning. In a jungle community in Colombia, families are mourning the loss of 37 children.
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