Anyway death to US imperialism & all of its lackeys
Having maintained the support of the Trump administration, the unpopular government of Ivan Duque has announced that it will seek to retain the 5 billion dollar investment throughout Biden’s tenure. The newly conceptualized “Colombia Growth Initiative” (CGI), previously known as Plan Colombia, is said to consist of “economic initiatives accompanied with great efforts to eradicate coca production in the countryside.” Duque has also stated that the plan will continue its emphasis on combating drug trafficking.
Independent analysts, however, suggest that the motives of the program will continue to be profit-driven, interventionist and political in nature. U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, for example, bluntly stated that the plan is to advance the geopolitical goals of the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere as well as “advancing towards the security sought by the United States.” It reaffirms the imperious rhetoric observed a few months ago in his meeting with President Duque.
Plan Colombia is known to have protected transnational capital since its inception through its funding of military operations so that U.S. companies could benefit from the exploitation of natural resources. The three proposed “anti-narcotic” military bases in the original Plan Colombia were all strategically placed in mineral and energy-rich zones.
The first was located in South Bolivar, close to one of the most important gold deposits in the world. The second was near Catatumbo, Norte de Santander, alongside the Caño-Limón Covenas pipeline owned by Occidental Petroleum. Norte de Santander also possesses large coal deposits, 90% of the production of which is bought by U.S. companies to use in the steel industry. The third one was near Ataco, Tolima, overlooking important gold and precious metal deposits; this area has one of the highest rates of displacement in the country and the highest in the department of Tolima.
Additional to U.S. military bases, the Colombian government established “Rehabilitation and Consolidation Zones” areas in which civil liberties were suspended. Several studies by human rights organizations such as CINEP and Justicia y Paz have shown how the actions of paramilitaries and other mercenary groups in these areas seriously violate the human rights of the local population. Recent reports show that the decades-long Plan Colombia was a failure in combating the drug-trade but highly successful in fighting left-wing insurgents.
It is important to note that an “anti-drug-trafficking” façade has always been pushed to the public as the driving force for the project. However, U.S. policy continues to show that its main concern is protecting their private capital investments in the country.
The new Plan Colombia, the Colombian Growth Initiative, will continue to provide funding for the Colombian military and, therefore, by extension, to its paramilitary tentacles. Furthermore, it is likely that billions of dollars will go to the highly unpopular coca field fumigations across the country as well as to the further dismantling of the peace deal
When the coronavirus temporarily shuttered businesses across the country, Alexi Minko was nearly ready to give up on his bar, Alibi Lounge.
“I was 75% done with the business,” Minko said to NowThis. “I was wondering, was it worth it?”
But after a prolific GoFundMe campaign and what he describes as a renewed sense of responsibility, Minko said Alibi Lounge is thriving, even in the middle of a pandemic.
[…]
This March, Alibi Lounge temporarily closed due to the coronavirus. Minko said he was rejected twice for assistance from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which chains including Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steak House were not. He then reached out to the Small Business Association’s Network for LGBT Businesses and got approved for a PPP loan.
I don’t think people realize just how draconian and horrifying this is, and they’re keeping it that way, because this is a “must-pass” bill forced into a federal spending bill and if this isn’t included in it, then the government will be forced to shut down during the pandemic and during a time of massive poverty and hunger and homelessness
In essence, this law seeks to criminalize DMCA violations, whether it be copyrighted music included in a tiktok or instagram video, copyrighted footage of a movie on youtube, or copyrighted music in a twitch vod, not with a DMCA strike or a take down, but fucking imprisonment
Senator Thom TIllis, the wretch forcing this shit into law, is backed by Creative Future, a lobbying group consisting of corporate lawyers and lobbyists for the entertainment industry, which, under the name Creative America back in the early 2010′s, were the ones behind the SOPA/PIPA bills that would’ve drastically controlled communications on the internet and given control of it to corporations
This doesn’t appear to be reversible as trying to veto this legislation would shut down the federal government. It isn’t just a major blow to creativity and freedom of expression that will force streamers and social media personalities into totalitarian servantry under the command of massive media corporations, but opens the doors for the total annihilation of freedom of speech online.
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
