I have ducked into a small Internet Cafe off a main public square. A massive public protest is taking place over the torture and political violence visited upon Colombians by Ultra-Right Wing Paramilitary Forces in this conflicted nation. The wealthy landowners (as is the case in all South American nations) employ the "services" of the paramilitary. This includes groups like the AUC and others.
People vanish... independent judges vanish...by the thousands, those who would oppose the suffocating hold the few wealthy have on this country seem to defy actuarial statistics and disappear. Today a massive public demonstration is taking place here in Bogota. I have stepped into this Cafe to report and will return shortly. I can hear the chants and whistles outside. I would estimate the crowd to be somewhere between 200,000 to 300,000. A contact I have with RCN network informs me that a simultaneous demonstration is taking place in Washington D.C.
Network television and radio from across the continent and world are here. The paramilitary are the guardians of the wealthy... and the income disparity is immense... the top 10% of Colombians directly control 48% of all wealth here... just under half... while the bottom 10% hold only 7% of assets.. kind of like Huntington's "Two Americas" on steroids... Wherever I go in the world... whether the issue is the rise of radical Islam in Southeast Asia, flawed elections by a military dictator in Pakistan or here, the underlying issue is always the unequal distribution of wealth.
And in each country, the right wing of the United States is leaving its most unwelcomed footprint...
Back to the protest... will write again later..
JRJ
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