AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN WAR
During the last 40 years, an apparently endless war has killed tens of thousands of Colombians and turned countless more into refugees.
Yet, compared to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - not to mention celebrity trials in the United States and a missing white girl just offshore in Aruba - Colombia's war receives such miniscule international attention that many outsiders don't even know there's a war there at all. As a result, its victims die silently and interminably, with no reprieve in sight.
This web site's goal is to let the forgotten victims of a forgotten war tell their stories.
Ironically, Colombia's war is as intimately linked to U.S. policies as are Iraq's and Afghanistan's. Colombia's armed groups finance themselves by selling heroin and cocaine - most of it to the U.S. At the same time, the U.S.'s Plan Colombia arms and trains Colombia's government forces. And, Washington strongly backs drug prohibition. Critics argue that prohibitionism has failed, and only ensures that the drug trade's huge profits go to criminal groups like the guerrillas and paramilitaries.
Colombia's U.S.-backed erradication has reduced the area under drug cultivation and in 2005 cocaine prices on U.S. streets have risen. Meanwhile, however, cocaine production in Peru and Bolivia has increased. And so does the suffering.
We hope you find this site interesting and informative.