With Guest Dr. Manuel Rozental

Colonization is a political agenda of an ideology quite often associated with forcing non-westernized peoples who suffer from the consequences of colonization, in the appropriation of land use benefiting the colonizer. This is quite often rationalized as the eminent good for all people, including the Original Peoples of a particular region, in this case the Indigenous peoples of the Association of Indigenous Councils in Cauca in Colombia, South America. Tiokasin visits with First Voices Radio friend and regular guest Dr. Manuel Rozental, who provides us with a report on current events in Colombia, including the recent news of the cowardly assassination of 14 year-old Indigenous activist Breiner David Cucuñame of the Nasa people, who was shot dead while on patrol protecting his territory with the unarmed group Indigenous Guard. Manuel puts this most recent assassination into context for us. He reports that as of January 23, 2022, there have been 10 massacres in Colombia with 96 people being assassinated. In 2021 there were more 96 massacres, with more than 338 people murdered. Proportionally, given the number of Indigenous peoples in Colombia, the greatest number of people assassinated in these massacres were Indigenous and Afro-Colombian people. Though the media generates confusion about this and conflicting versions, the way to understand these massacres is to understand who benefits from this. The beneficiaries are people related with the huge drug trade, not gangs but the massive trans-national corporate money-making business in the world that involves the Colombian economy massively. Ninety-two percent of the cocaine produced in the world comes out of Colombia. Territories are being invaded by the monocultures of coca and marijuana and these are transformed and are being distributed. Those who profit from this are large corporate interests and elites throughout the planet and then most of the money, though it’s Colombian-based, flows north just like it happens with any corporate interest.

Dr. Manuel Rozental is a long-time Colombian activist, researcher and community organizer. Manuel’s been involved with grassroots political organizing with youth, Indigenous communities, and urban and rural social movements for four decades.