The Violence Currently Facing Colombias Dispossessed - Essay Example

? Evaluating the ment “The violence currently facing Colombia’s dispossessed is indicative that the country could soon experience a revolution such as the one impacting Mexico during the 1910s” The Mexican Revolution came at a time when the country, ruled by the “Strong Man of the Americas” Porfirio Diaz (Brenner 8), had the economy largely at the hand of the landed elite and the bog foreign corporations, while majority of the nation’s population, both the mestizo and the indigenous landless peasants and urban proletariat, dwindled in poverty (Brenner 8-10). Mexico in the 1910s was a period of confusion and tremendous social inequality; while the agrarian and other economic reforms pushed by the previous administration of Juarez under the Juarez constitution was still in place, it was not practiced. The church and the landed elite were still in control of the nation’s agricultural lands, while “the Spanish maxim for inconvenient laws was practiced. Observe, do not fulfill” (Brenner 8). From this background, different leaders arose and rebelled against the government: although these leaders had different agendas, the support of the Mexican masses lied on one desire: the desire to change the social structure, to implement reforms that would give economic and socio-political empowerment to the majority of the people (Brenner 35-40). From the above statement, the researcher of this paper thinks that a similar revolution is also brewing in Colombia: a revolution to empower the dispossessed and make radical reforms that would change society’s structure and give more opportunities to the poor. As the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s sought to overthrow the elites and give “Mexico back to the Mexicans” (Brenner 62), so will happen with Colombia, where several rebel guerilla groups, most notably the FARC-EP, are already there proclaiming itself as the army of Colombia’s poor and dispossessed. For this paper, the researcher would look into similarities between the Mexican social structure in the 1910s and the Colombian social structure in the present, wherein the possibility of a brewing Colombian revolution will be based upon. Heavy textual evidence will be used from both Anita Brenner’s “The Wind That Swept Mexico” and Alfredo Molano’s “The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia.” One of the main characteristics of Mexican society in the 1910s was the monopoly of political power by the elite. In the time of the dictatorship of Diaz, almost all of the positions on the government bureaucracy were given to the elites, either to the “biggest landowner or businessman” (Brenner 10). Such political tradition gave Diaz the support of the elite for much of his administration. In addition, this political; system was justified with the fact that Mexico is not ready for democracy, given that ninety percent of its people is dominantly Indian, viewed as “racially inferior” and “subhuman” (Brenner 10). While the idea of open elections was also dismissed by Diaz due to the fact that only “not even fifteen percent (of the population) can read” (Brenner 10), it was also declared that democracy was a utopia that must not to be toyed with. In addition to political power was economic power: both the elites and foreign corporations controlled the Mexican economy (Brenner 14). Much of the economy was driven buy investments from foreign corporations, most notably the United States, using cheap Mexican labor that neither have control over their own land or their country’s national resources (Brenner 14). Most of Mexico’s industries where controlled by foreign enterprises, reaping much revenues, making Mexico a “bonanza land” for investors using a steady supply of Mexican “cheap and docile labor” (Brenner 15). Meanwhile, in the countryside, haciendas ruled the land, with them owning almost all of the arable lands, making the land reform of the previous Juarez regime useless (Brenner 19). In fact, it was actually decreed by the Diaz regime that every untitled land in the country must belong to haciendas, virtually making much of Mexico’s peasants landless (Brenner 19). As the elites in Mexico of the 1910s both controlled politics and the economy, so are present-day elites in the country of Colombia. In the book “The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia,” it is stated that being a desterrado is actually a way of life for the Colombian masses (Molano 16). Desterrado is actually derived from the Spanish word desterrar which means “to cast one from territory or land by a judicial order or a governmental decision” (Molano 15). In this case, it is said that due to the elitist control of Colombian society, the country is now riddled apart by competing paramilitary groups, the conservatives and the Marxist guerillas, resulting to the dispossession of almost “three million Colombians since 1985” (Molano 15). And this displacement does not only means losing their land (as similar in Mexico in the 1910s), but also of losing “livelihoods, family ties and any sense of stability in their lives” (Molano 15). Just as the dispossessed of Mexican society lived in a miserable state, such is also the case in Colombia at present. As stated by Molano: “Displacement is a palpable and tragic reality…a metaphor for life today in Colombia. Colombia…for the people who live there has been transformed into a foreign land…The state has weakened, there is an absence of ideological discourse to link people to a struggle for democracy; unemployment looms like a ghost; socio-economic imbalances resulting from drug trafficking and corruption are profoundly unsettling; the bankruptcy of industries that could not survive free market reforms which liberated imports and the crashing of coffee prices—all of these phantoms are the life companions with whom the Colombian people have had to learn to co-exist in recent years” (Molano 16) Although it may be argued that there are notable differences between the situation in Mexico before, specifically in the presence of a dictator such as Diaz, and the present Colombian political structure, there are still important similarities that must be noted. One is the prevalence of poverty, wherein there is a lack of economic opportunities and equity among majority of the Colombian population. Another is the loss of control of the people over the natural resources of their country, wherein both Mexico and Colombia experienced foreign multinationals controlling their vital natural resources. Another yet is the control of local landlords and goons over the socio-economic landscape of the countryside, which is now manifested in Colombia through paramilitaries (Molano 43). It is also important to note that these factors have been major causes of the Mexican revolution that happened in Mexico, wherein leaders such as Madero, Fuentes, Obregon, and Zapata even rose up armed against the government to make radical societal reforms (Brenner 22, 37). In Colombia at present, there are also several guerillas already operating in the country (Molano 44), most notably the FARC-EP or “Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejercito del Pueblo” aiming to radically change Colombian society and transform the social system similar to what the Maderistas and the Zapatistas of Mexico have fought for. Works Cited Brenner, Anita. The Wind that Swept Mexico: The History of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1942. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. Print. Molano, Alfredo. The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005. Print. Read More