Colombia's History Puzzle (2/2)

Hello WSN. Here it goes the second and final part. Thanks, Emilio
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6) Colombian economy
Our  economy has always been concentrated in a few hands, and based on the 
exports of natural resources (wood, coffee, gold, emeralds, quina, tobacco, 
bananas, oil, coal, nickel ...and recent illegal drugs). It was always 
self-sufficient in food production prior to neoliberal imposition.
In 1899, Usona sold guns to both sides of the civil war: to the dictatorial 
conservative government and to the liberal party opposition, during a bloody 
war where peasants and simple people put the deads. Dismembering was 
encouraged by those elites: when ammunitions were over they ordered to 
continue with machetes. At the end, in 1903 they signed a peace treaty, 
Usona stole the Canal, and Panama became a new nation.
Few years later, it started the caucho boom. Usona-latin companies enslaved 
and killed indians of the Amazonic jungle to profit. Decades later, usonian 
biologists took the best caucho seeds and the multinationals planted them in 
South-East Asia.
From 1920 to 1970 we had an slow but firm process of industrialization based 
on protectionism (Keynes-Prebisch). First unions and left parties were 
created, and the first masacre of union workers was accomplished by the 
colombian army instigated by the Usona ambassador. (Eduardo Galeano and 
García Márquez wrote about it).
Around 1946, the conservatives launched a terror campaign in the rural areas 
to clean them from liberals and to take over their lands. They used civil 
gangs called "birds" and police gangs called "chulavitas", which today are 
called as "paramilitaries", or simply "army". This pushed millions of 
refugiated people to the cities, and increased misery and the land and 
income inequality social problems. Some liberals tried to defend theirselves 
and formed gangs called "bandoleros". After some hundred thousand deaths and 
dismemberings, the elites joined at elegant hotels in Europe, and signed 
peace among them. But some of the bandoleros created their own independent 
communities, far from official control, around 1958. At this point, Usona 
pushed the government to launch a heavy attack on them with napalm, planes,  
bombs, and thousands of soldiers. When they took the area, the 48 families 
had moved to another place and multiplied later to become the left guerrilla 
Farc that has conducted a low intensity civil war during last 36 years. At 
the same time, another guerrilla, ELN, inspired by christian and urban 
students, developed their armed resistance.

During 1970s marihuana appeared as an export product. The boom lasted a few 
years: as soon as usonians learned to cultivate it in their land, it became 
good, legal and full of medical properties.
Later came cocaine and heroine; coca was an spiritual and medicine plant of 
andean people who chewed their leaves. Occident developed it as concentrated 
cocaine, a luxury product, and it became common among high income artists, 
executives, politicians, militars and university students in Usona during 
hard working moments. Colombia is a nation ideal for smugglers and when coca 
was displaced from Bolivia and Peru it became a plantation product. Soon, 
capos became big landowners, and industrial investors. Even the church 
benefited from their donations. Traditional elites, always criminal and 
corrupted, found a new political and rich business partner, pushed more 
peasants to the jungle and financed their growing. The rest is easy to 
observe: highly trained paramilitars started another round of killings and 
dismemberings. Militars looking to another side, elites quiet, while 
colonels North and Hyett trafficked at the White House and embassies. Small 
peasants and those ones pushed to the jungle found a way to survive from the 
cultives, just when agricultural basic prices and exchange rates fell down.

Around 1970 some colonizers medium land-owners of the east-plains invited 
close to 100 indians for a lunch. Once they finished the lunch they killed 
the indians. Only anthropologists and left newspapers protested. When 
justice asked the colonos they said "We did not know that killing indians 
was that bad". They soon recovered freedom. The only difference with usonian 
thanksgiving day is in the timing of the killing.

Conclussions:
1. Through history, we have had elites with assasin, patriarcal and racist 
mentalities, but highly civilized manners. Our history is a mixture of 
dominations, colonialist genocides, medioeval practices, slavery, 
inquisitions, and efforts to modernize. Marxist analysis is useful in 
several moments, but not enough to understand the process.
2. Land, racial and social problem have completed more than 400 years 
without solution.
3. Empires like Spain, Britain or Usona, their armies, diplomatics and TNC 
elites, have been promoters of resources pillage, social injustice, cruelty 
and death squads in this nation.
4. It would be great if usonians learn to cultivate coca and heroin in their 
land, legalize it, and leave us without the advantages of their presence and 
help. But it is not probable, because it goes against the Usonian Dream and 
those of their needed allied colombian elites.
5. Usonian and colombian official versions of our conflicts may be found in 
big media news and their apologetic history text-books.
6. Usonian middle class naivete about this topics is so huge, that we 
suspect it has to be intentional.
7.  Usonian official stand declares that the problem started 40 years ago 
due to communist guerrillas which recently became financed -directly or 
indirectly- by narco-money, and recomends a militar solution bombing our 
peasants with  bullets, chemicals and fungus, while favouring their arms 
industry. That is as ridiculous as solving usonian anguish by poisoning 
their anguished people with fungus, and calling them corrupted ones.
8. Our corruption is considered a problem only when it does not fit the 
corrupted practices of the nordic imperial forces and elites.
9. The main difference between usonian necrophylia and colombian one is that 
ours needs a closer contact with the victim, while they prefer a long 
distance, more technical, efficient, civilized and antiseptic killing. Both 
are cultural problems to be solved by each nation, and both come from 
centuries ago.
10. If usonians want to repeat the Vietnam experience with us, of course it 
will be very hard for us. If that is the case, I wish they would not try to 
help us in reconstructing ourselves after destroying us, just to prove how 
noble they may be. It would only add humilliation to a tragedy they could 
have avoided on time. Perhaps such an  action might help to build the 
latinoamerican unity that Bolivar never got, but which it is still part of 
our dreams.
11. I think our social-psychologists, and theirs, should re-read Erich Fromm 
to understand and change our/their sick souls and values, there and here.
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