'Colombia's indigenous communities in danger of disappearing' .

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

'Colombia's indigenous communities in danger of disappearing' .
Thursday, 12 April 2012 15:53
Marc Hall

More than 60 indigenous communities are in danger of disappearing as they fall victim to hunger and the ongoing armed conflict, the president of National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) said Thursday.

In an interview with Colombian weekly Semana, Luis Evelis Andrade said, "We believe that in the future if no clear action is taken, indigenous peoples will disappear. (...) (Government) institutions will be responsible for genocide."

Andrade called hunger the "worst weapon for extermination of indigenous peoples in Colombia," claiming indigenous communities have been abandoned by the state. He claimed that in certain parts of the country, such as the Choco department, nutritional standards were "equal to those of (...) Somalia and Ethiopia."

The ONIC leader said bad nutrition was having a worse effect on the Amerindian population than the war with illegal armed groups, but stressed that the cessation of conflict would contribute to a solution.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/23379-colombias-indigenous-communities-in-danger-of-disappearing.html

[Liberty Belle]

1. Terrible. And this isn't the only place where indigenous people are being exterminated.

At a conference last month I saw a presentation on how big energy companies are killing people - one was damming a river in South America for hydropower and creating a permanent drought that they said would kill 90% of the indigenous people who depend on that river to sustain life. Positively criminal.

[a la izquierda]

2. K & R

Thank you for posting, this is an excellent current event for my students for Monday.