Canada-U.S.: Don’t Plan on Colombia

An interview with labour activist Liliany Obando Villota

May 3, 2004

Derrick O'Keefe

Liliany Obando Villota recently completed a speaking tour across Canada and Quebec, in an effort to build awareness of the social and political struggles in Colombia. Obando Villota is the head of the Human Rights Department of FENSUAGRO, the Colombian National Federation of Agricultural Workers. During her visit to Vancouver, she met with a number of solidarity activists and trade unionists, and spoke at a public forum on Saturday, April 17 at the Russian Hall. Derrick O’Keefe of Seven Oaks Magazine sat down with her to discuss the conflict in Colombia and the state of social movements in Latin America.

Seven Oaks: The Colombian crisis is often presented to us as an irrational war, or as just a war about drugs. What are the social roots of the conflict in your country?

Liliany Obando Villota: Colombia lives under a social and armed conflict dating back 40 years. This conflict has internal and external causes. Internally, there exists a great social inequity, with the concentration of wealth and land in very few hands and huge numbers of people living under exploitation and facing extreme poverty. Over 60% of Colombia’s population is poor, without access to even the minimum guarantees of social security. Another internal root cause for this conflict is the lack of any avenue for open and free political opposition. Opposition in Colombia is harshly repressed through dirty war and intimidation from the different security structures of the state.

Full: http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/features/11_liliany.html