While most people fixate on the pay-off to narco-terrorist in Colombia, there is a huge humanitarian crisis that is a result of this type of hush money. While I applaud Colombia for keeping its nose clean lately, especially in respect to the wild times of the late 80s and early 90s, this issue is one that needs to be addressed.
Yes, paying off narcos is bad, thanks Chiquita Banana for validating them! But what is worse is that the narcos are pushing off indigenous people who have to flee their ancestral lands. The narcos do this to create new growing fields and labs to process their drugs. Case in point, the Wounaan, who live in northwestern Columbia.
More information and the monkey fix paradox below the fold.
One of the biggest crying shames about Colombia is that due to their past reputation they cannot take advantage of eco-tourism. Even once shady cities like Cali are relatively safe these days, though no one has told the tourism board. Colombia also has part of the last great frontier on earth, the Amazon. Here the land is so virgin, indigenous tribes who have never had contact with the outside world still subsisted on basic hunting and gathering. But what where once was a location where only the foolhardy use to tread to see some of God's most amazing work, now finds itself under attack by narcos.
See, Colombia has pushed the narcos out of the cities and into the jungle, especially their labs. So in the narcos' search for "privacy", they are whole scale kicking indigenous people off the land not seen since the USA turned out their own Native Americans. So with the payoff money that Chiquita is paying the narcos, they are not only supporting the drug war, they are in effect destroying the last of the world's oldest and smallest indigenous groups.
Now for the record, from the UN Refugee Agency:
Colombia: Wounaan indigenous people fleeing ancestral lands
http://www.unhcr.org/...
Hundreds of Wounaan indigenous people have now fled to the small town of Istmina in western Colombia after two of their leaders were killed in their ancestral territory last week by members of an irregular armed group. By yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, some 400 people had arrived and a boat carrying 200 people had to stop for the night in a small settlement further downriver after running out of gasoline. In the next few days, many more families are expected to make their way upstream from the Wounaan ancestral territories, some eight hours by boat on the San Juan River.
All five Wounaan communities in Medio San Juan, or a total of 1,748 people, have taken refuge or want to take refuge in Istmina, home to 12,000 people of mostly Afro-Colombian descent. The director of UNHCR's bureau for the Americas, who went to Istmina on Tuesday when informed of the crisis, met with local authorities to ask them to provide the displaced indigenous people with adequate assistance, including shelter, food and security. He also met with the displaced people, who stressed that it was extremely important that their community should not be split and asked to be able to remain as a group near the San Juan River. The river, they explained, is an integral part of their culture and key to their survival as a community.
Those arriving said some 1,000 people remain in Wounaan territory waiting to make the trip upriver. There are not enough boats and gasoline for them to travel together in one group, and Wounaan leaders say they are very worried for the safety of those families that will be last to leave. They are also extremely concerned about the community's long-term prospects, saying that they cannot go back as long as irregular armed groups continue to be present on their territory.
Further to the south in Colombia, in the department of Nariño, hundreds of people are also fleeing this week because of violent clashes between the army and an irregular armed group. By Thursday, up to 800 people had left the remote mountainous areas where they lived to seek safety in the villages of El Ejido and Madrigal, to the north of the department. UNHCR is coordinating with the local authorities and other partners to ensure that the displaced receive proper assistance.
That's right, Chiquita Banana is supporting the land grab against these people. So every time you eat a Chiquita banana, remember, you just kicked another indigenous person off their ancestral land.
And now for the money fix paradox.
There is a tribe of people in the south, who were also kicked off their land by the narcos. They are called the Huaorani, and hail from the Ecuadorian Oriente. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Huaorani is that large parts of their population rejected all contact with the outside world. Being adapt hunters, as anyone who has been to the Amazon knows is tough as hell, their animist view of the world has created an extensive collection of hunting and eating taboos. This is very important, work with me here.
So the Huarorani, pushed off their land by lab-building narcos, start to arrive at far-flung Colombian towns seeking refugee. Mostly unable to adapt to our way of life, they have become trapped in a cycle of dependence since most are just waiting to return to their mother jungle. This has worked out okay, though there was a tax on resources. But every Saturday night, the non-Huarorani in the area noticed something very odd happening. The Monkey Fix.
Part of the Huarorani culture is the hunting of animals, especially monkeys. While it is forbidden by their culture to kill birds of prey or land-based predators, monkeys are in the house. And unfortunately, they really have a taste for several monkeys on the endangered species list. And specific monkeys on the list were a requirement per their animist religion to be eaten every Saturday. Think of it as Communion Bread of a totally different sort.
So now, in a liberal paradox, where would you side on the Monkey Fix issue? Do you side with the cultural rights of a displaced indigenous people following their traditions? Or do you side with the rare monkeys who are destined to be slow roasted on a pike over a fire?
Or do you think this can all be absolved by not paying off narcos and making the journey back to their beloved forest a reality for these people?
Long story short, don't eat Chiquita bananas, they lead to Monkey Fix paradoxes.