Actualidad Colombiana IN ENGLISH

All Are Worthy

ALEJANDRO ANGULO S.J
General Director of Cinep

Where do we go from here?

2004 began with the news of negotiation with the paramilitaries and closed with the proclamation that they are being demobilized. There are some who say that this is good news: there will be less soldiers. But there are some who ask how long this breaking down will last until the build up begins again.

We still do not know everything about the demobilization, since questions on impunity have not been answered, and the chosen areas have left many doubts regarding their feasibility. Yet they insist on telling us that improvisation is the norm. But when this includes the ignorance of communities bordering sites who would benefit from an injection of manual labor, in addition to the economic insecurity of the converts into society, one has to ask oneself: where are we going?

Interweavings of the War

ALEJANDRO ÂNGULO
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF CINEP

Of the 1,098 municipalities in Colombia, 382 of them, more than a third, have been under the military-political and social control of the paramilitaries. However, these are only the official numbers authorized for publication. The paramilitary policy is a subject much more ample and interwoven with all the devices of the Colombian State. The actual numbers are not known. Nor is the corruption that all this entails.

Students

THE STUDENTS AGAIN
Camilo Castellanos
Director of ILSA

I like students because they are the leavened bread that comes out of the oven full of flavor, for the poor man who will eat it in sadness. – Violetta Parra

We are fast approaching June 8th and 9th, the Days of the Colombian Students. Some only see this day as a kind of ‘Saint’s Day,’ holding no great significance. But it is appropriate to remember its origin as a way of comparing then with now, drawing on its stories that need not be forgotten.

In 1928, Colombians began to feel the beating of the worldwide economic crisis. The 1920s had been of a fictitious prosperity, derived from the theft of Panama’s resources, the abundant government credit, and the unexpected coffee bonanza. Such abundance used with indiscretion in public works can still be seen: as monuments to irresponsibility and lack of foresight. The fact is that when the banks no longer created new money, happiness fell to the floor and beneficiaries of the regime turned their back on the country. Now this is known by the name of “the dance of the millions”.

The crisis developed throughout the decade. New contingencies of workers struggled to enter the political scene, while the indigenous sought to recover land and autonomy. The farmers demanded an end to landowner exploitation and the surrendering of land. A large part of the educated people were on the side of these reclamations and their voices opposed tradition and privilege. Throughout the decade, a new spiritual climate was forming.