Abundant Verdor

The so-called "Global War on Terror" has shifted fear from a more imminent threat: eco-terrorism. The Defense Minister of Colombia, Juan Manuel SantosJuan Manuel Santos, when addressing the international court of opinion, discussed the issue of the coca plant, and the attendant cocaine bussiness, which remains today in the hands of the FARC. Whatever changes were effected upon Pablo Escobar's execution by the United States DEA, the remnant vaccum was far too lucrative to remain unfilled. Sadly, this business model relies on the destruction of the environment for the production, and development of a recreational drug for which the lungs of the earth are being traded. For every pound of cocaine produced, a thousand-fold poisionous by-products are generated. Poverty, lack of imagination, need for ingenuity, and developing trust in a fragmented political machinery, are all issues affecting the legitimacy of Colombia's approach towards international attitudes regarding narcotics. The puritan double-standard being preached to the Latin American nations by the United States, remains just that: political soundbites from a by-gone era, that naive time of Nancy ReaganNancy Reagan's "Just Say No." I submit that the problem is not only with the demand generated by the gigant from the north; it is a more seminal issue grounded on the needs of Pablo Pueblo, the veritable Joe Sixpack of the Spanish speaking countries. If it can be sold, and a living made, with lax government control within the political and geographical boundarier of their countries, people will continue to do the "juega vivo," the hustling that keeps everyone a few steps ahead of the law and each other all the time. There is one by-stander that suffers from this formulaic Western-reductionism of a sacred plant like the coca leave for coca production: the vast and interminable list of shamanic herbs known to indigenous cultures for centuries in the rainforests of Latin America. Land continues to be lost to abuse by coca sharecroppers, with very little being done to resolve the needs of the people. There can be no ideology without a full stomach. Eco-terrorism is a new word, with a meaning as old as man has roamed the Earth. The reversal of the trends will need concerned intervention, help from the international community, and the peace makers of the world to find a mutually affirming solution to the gap of trust currenty eroding both the environment, and the humanity of the autochtonous people of the American Continent.

Eco-terrorism in Colombia:

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