Colombians in the US

While Colombians are one of the largest latin groups in New York next to Puerto Ricans and Dominicans they have connections home. There has been conflict in Colombia for most of my life. I have never known it to be calm there. According to Between Two Nations a book by Micheal Jones-Correa Colombia is different than many other latin countries because it allows citizens to vote even if they are no longer residents. This means that a Colombian living in New York can go to the consulate and register, then come back and vote on election day or go to one of the polls set up by the consulate. Although according to Jones-Correa Colombians think politics are dirty. Which, is understandable. If we take a look at Colombian politics and the in-fighting between rebels and the government and all of the un-rest that is there. In the book it says that about 60% of Colombians abstain from voting and being involved in electoral politics. That is a high number of people to be not be involved in politics. It goes back into their beliefs, if they beleive that politcs are evil then why should/would they be involved. Is this feeling because of politics back home in Colombia or here in the United States though. There is so much turmoil going on in Colombia and the United States plays a large role in a lot of it. It just makes you wonder why people think and do the things that they do.

Will there be War?

With the instability in South America these days it does not seem that war is too far way. Ecuador's President had now demanded the resignation of its defense minister along with some other high ranking officials after the latest armed Colombian raid into Ecuador. Ecuador's president is worried that there are American spies in their ranks along with the invasion of the CIA intruding into their intelligence. This could be very well fact but there seems to be no proof of American involvement at this time. Although the United States has been backing Colombia for several years this would be a new level of involvement. It seemed that issues were going to settle down for a while it seems that it was just the calm before the storm.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080409/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/ecuador_defense_minister;_ylt=Av6r7b3sYaHTT1TEyMsrZLq3IxIF

United States' Involvement in Colombia

Recently Gov. Bill Richardson went on a diplomatic trip to Colombia to meet with Colombian President Uribe; Richardson's goal was to help release three American hostages. While these are not the only American hostages involved in the Colombian wars it does seem to follow the trend of United States involvement in Colombia. President George W. Bush has been involved with Colombia since the beginning of his presidency. Although there are many diplomatic reasons for this there are private sector reasons also. While there has been US involvement in Colombia there have been benefits to US oil companies. Plan Colombia has been enacted since the first term of Bush's presidency. With this plan there has US Army Special Forces deployed to Colombia to protect Colombia's main oil pipeline, and over 100 million dollars for anti-terrorist aid. The help that the US has been giving seems to have helped oil companies such as Harken Energy more than actually helping Colombia. Harken Energy which just happens to have a close tie to the president. President G. w. Bush was on the board of directors from 1986-1990. It just seems fishy to me that we have sent money down there to protect the people and we just seemed to be protecting the oil.

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia198.htm