Colombia has suffered for 50 years because of the guerrilla. This war that has been going on for 50 years has left many victims including my family. My family was victimized twice, the first time was around the 1980s, when they went to my uncle’s farm and made him leave, and the second time was in 1995 when they kidnapped one of my uncles. This are tactics the guerrilla used, they used to kidnap people because they needed the money. That is what happened to my family.
My family like many others suffered because of the guerrilla, a group that caused many problems to Colombia and their citizens. “Internecine violence has claimed 220,000 lives, driven 6 million people from their rural homes into cities and stunted the economy of a country rich
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My uncle used to live in San Alberto, Cesar. An area where the ELN (The National Liberation Army), has always been there. My father’s godfather son was kidnapped and they were negotiating his freedom. My grandfather sold one of his farms to pay for the rescue of his friend son. When all of that was over, my uncle was in the village and that is when the guerrilla decided to kidnap him. Things were not easy for my family, my grandfather had sleeping problems and he started taking pills. He had to sell another farm and in this farm he had livestock so the person that bought the farm was charging him a lot of money to keep his livestock. While my uncle was kidnapped, my family used to receive calls or letters from the guerrilla in which they asked for the amount of money they wanted. The guerrilla had my uncle for 2 months, during this 2 months my dad says that my uncle told them that they had to walk a lot, they were moving from place to place frequently so that the army couldn’t find them. My dad told me he remembers very well how the liberation happened. My father used to work in a bank in which my grandfather had his account. The day of the liberation my grandfather went to the bank to get the money and they put it inside a toolbox, so no one would be suspicious. The guerrilla told my grandfather that he needed to bring them the complete amount of money that they had ask for because if he didn’t they were going to do something to him. When my uncle was home, he was really skinny because they didn’t give him many food and because they had to walk a lot. After some time my grandfather bought another farm but my uncle didn’t want to work there anymore. The family was not the same, because my grandparents didn’t live together anymore. My grandfather was blaming my uncle for him losing all his money. He decided to sell everything he had. He chose to go live in Cartagena a
Before reading this, I, like I am sure so many others, had no idea of the magnitude of injustices that can occur during these conflicts. Also, this was not very long ago, nor far away, and it speaks volumes of the differences in government ideology and politics. El Salvador is an extreme case of how a government will treat its citizens. Massacre at El Mozote truly was an eye-opener and I doubt I will soon forget it.
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
There was piece in the streets, no more bombs, less violence, kidnapping, etc… I want people outside of Colombia to know about what truly Colombia is about. We always take into the fact that when people associate Colombia they associate it with the negative actions of Pablo Escobar and how he smuggled Cocaine into the United States. When people associate Colombia, they do it with Pablo Escobar, when the actual reality is that Pablo Escobar was at war with
Pablo Escobar is remembered around the world as a criminal, a drug lord, and a gang leader. Escobar is believed to be responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 police officers, soldiers, lawyers, and politicians. Still to this day, almost every person in Colombia knows someone whose life has been affected by the actions of Pablo Escobar. He is recognized not only for his notorious crimes, but also for his generous support to the poor and his donations to many underprivileged communities. Despite his death over twenty years ago in 1993, the actions and decisions Escobar made while he was alive still have major influences on the world today.
Narcoterrorism has a long past in the history of Colombia, focusing mainly on the market development of one drug: cocaine. Colombia, with its arid tropical climate and lush land, is an ideal place for the sowing and reaping of the coca plant whose extracts are synthesized into the powder cocaine drug. As Colombian cocaine production skyrocketed in the 1970’s and 1980’s thanks to booming demand for the product in Americas, drug kingpins in Colombia began to wield immense power in the country. ...
The government changed its tactics to end the rebellion, resorting to low intensity war. Paramilitaries with differing levels of tacit and explicit support terrorized Zapatistas and their sympathizers. The killings in Acteal in 1997 that claimed the lives of 45 innocent people remains a particularly gruesome example of paramilitary massacres.
War and violence in Central America is a result of governmental injustice due to the United States’ foreign policies. The United States supported El Salvador with weapons and money throughout the civil war. As a result of enforcing these policies, El Salvador’s poverty, population and crime rate increased. The books “.After.” by Carolina Rivera Escamilla and “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar give us a glimpse of the issues Central Americans face.
The civil war of Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002. In this civil war approximately fifteen thousand kids were forced to become soldiers. Either by being kidnapped or by having their lives threatened. The situation was an extremely sad one. They had no choice weather they wanted to be soldiers or not. Like Ishmael said in A Long Way Gone, “It was either kill or be killed.” This situation is one where most people would not even be able to imagine themselves in. Ishmael Beah was a boy who suffered, because of the civil war. His family was killed and he was forced to become a soldier for the military. He eventually was rescued by UNICEF and eventually moved to the United States. For a decade, there has been a war between Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government. There have been an unacceptable number of kids that have been used as soldiers in this war. Approximately, thirty thousand youngsters have been forced into becoming soldiers. In contrast to Sierra Leone, the soldiers here are only for the drug cartels, but in Sierra Leone even the government made the children become soldiers too. Just like the children of Sierra Leone, the children of Mexico are also kidnapped or threatened into becoming soldiers. Once captured, they are transformed into belligerent
Colombian citizens experience and live through the good and bad things Pablo does, when Americans only hear about the negative actions Escobar commits. Hearing versus seeing plays a vital role in the difference of perspectives between the Colombians and Americans. In the United States, only hearing about Pablo Escobar leads to confusion among different people as “For what, exactly, isn’t easy to understand without knowing Colombia and his life and times” (15). American civilians not knowing personally know why they hate Escobar reflects poorly on the United States. The media does not inform the general public about all the great and generous things Escobar accomplishes for Colombia, and only publishes the stories of his cartel killing innocent people. From the perspective of Colombians, they only know Escobar as a hero of Colombia as “At his death, Pablo was mourned by thousands. Crowds rioted when his casket was carried into the streets of his home city of Medellin” (15). Colombians create a national mourning day for Escobar after his death, when the Americans celebrate their success in killing him. This represents the difference in opinion of Escobar between the two countries. Pablo made promises and he conqueres them; he said he would end poverty as he provided education and housing to the poorest people inside of Colombia. On the other hand,
The acts of violence that were performed by rebels in Africa were horrific. Adults and children were murdered, mutilated, tortured, and raped. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone performed despicable acts of cutting off a people's body parts with machetes to instill fear in the community. If you were working in the diamond mines and not performing up to the standards of the rebels you would lose a body part as punishment. Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone that over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed to these innocent victims was clearly a violation to their human rights. The RUF collected 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone.
Mexico has been fighting drug cartels and their violence since December of 2006, since then, the activity between these organizations and crimes have been on the rise. In Mexico, over 70,000 people have lost their lives in crimes and violence associated with the leading cartels of Mexico. These leading cartels include: The Beltran Leyva, Gulf Cartel, Juarez Cartel, La Familia Michoacana, Los Zetas and the Tijuana/Arellano Felix Cartel. One of the most important effects of these cartels is in the social life of the citizens. Most of the citizens are terrified of these cartels, to the point where streets seem vacant because the people are too scared to roam the streets. These cartels impose fear with acts such as that of September 15, 2008, when grenades were thrown into crowds in Morelia town square in an independence day celebration killing eight people. The soci...
Unfortunately my action led to more brutal and inhuman actions towards my family. In the late 1970s, my family was accused of taking part in the guerrilla movement that was established in the Quiche area. In 1979, my brother was arrested, tortured and killed by the army. My father was killed the year after by security forces in Guatemala’s capital. Not long after this, my mother died after being tortured and raped. I had fled to Mexico in 1981. There I became active in the organizing of Guatemalan opposition from abroad.
Congo is at a really high risk of genocide. Even though the wars were from 1996 to 2003, Congo still continues to have many conflicts now. There are so many things that happen and are happenin...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, a.k.a. the DRC, or more commonly “the Congo”, has experienced an endless nightmare of violence, poverty, famine, sickness, and murder for the past 16 years. The constant bloodshed between the national and armed forces has led to countless civilian deaths, or the genocide in the Congo. Before I go on any further, I must explain what a genocide is. A genocide is the attempted destruction of an entire group of people. The most famous example is the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II. It is tragic to say that history has repeated itself and over 5 to 7 million Congolese civilians have lost their lives since 1996. In order to truly understand the events that are transpiring at this very moment, we must look back in the past to the root of this problem, see what is going on at this moment, and try to do something to help stop these atrocities.
The people of the Congo faced physical, psychological damage due to the violation of their human rights and the rape and other sexual violence, which contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The health care, education and legal systems are in shambles due to the ongoing violence of the war and are still a factor today. The UN still aid in trying to end the ongoing war that’s now in its thirteenth year it is the largest and longest lasting war to date with the uncontrollable attacks from the rebels. The rebels continue to kill and plunder the natural resources with impunity. The international and political support continues but their efforts have proven futile.