Plan Colombia. 58 minutes. 2003.
The war on drugs in Colombia is a subterfuge. It's not about drugs. It's about propping up a corrupt government friendly to U.S. oil companies and U.S. banks. The 2 billion dollars per year of U.S.-made weapons given to the Colombian government are used against the population in parts of Colombia where political opponents of the government are. This U.S. "aid" goes to the army and its allied paramilitary groups, who murder and terrorize the population, on the pretext that political opponents of the government are "communists" or "terrorists," or else growing coca. In fact, the paramilitary is more heavily involved in the drug trade than the political opposition is. And, shamefully, when weapons for the Colombian regime were debated in the U.S. congress, the debate was only on how many helicopters would be made by Sikorsky in Connecticut, and how many by Bell in Texas.
If it were about reducing drugs, by far the most cost-effective (and humane, and just, and every other measure) is drug addiction treatment programs here in the U.S. It's not about drugs.
It's a powerful movie. Too powerful. The shots of corpses murdered by Colombian government-backed paramilitary troops, with U.S.-provided weapons, are hard to look at.
It's by Free-Will Productions. Website http://www.plancolombia.com/ contains a slide show with a detailed synopsis.
7/10.
The war on drugs in Colombia is a subterfuge. It's not about drugs. It's about propping up a corrupt government friendly to U.S. oil companies and U.S. banks. The 2 billion dollars per year of U.S.-made weapons given to the Colombian government are used against the population in parts of Colombia where political opponents of the government are. This U.S. "aid" goes to the army and its allied paramilitary groups, who murder and terrorize the population, on the pretext that political opponents of the government are "communists" or "terrorists," or else growing coca. In fact, the paramilitary is more heavily involved in the drug trade than the political opposition is. And, shamefully, when weapons for the Colombian regime were debated in the U.S. congress, the debate was only on how many helicopters would be made by Sikorsky in Connecticut, and how many by Bell in Texas.
If it were about reducing drugs, by far the most cost-effective (and humane, and just, and every other measure) is drug addiction treatment programs here in the U.S. It's not about drugs.
It's a powerful movie. Too powerful. The shots of corpses murdered by Colombian government-backed paramilitary troops, with U.S.-provided weapons, are hard to look at.
It's by Free-Will Productions. Website http://www.plancolombia.com/ contains a slide show with a detailed synopsis.
7/10.
