Similar to 1910s Mexico, Colombias dispossessed - Essay Example

The internally displaced in Colombia make up for 11 percent of the total country population and 19 percent of people who are internally displaced in the whole world. Once individuals are displaced, they become vulnerable to abuses of their rights, violence, and limited access to food, healthcare and education. The main cause of displacement in Colombia is the civil war that started when the National Liberation Army and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas revolted. The government established paramilitary groups that began to counter the insurgents during the 80s.

The paramilitary groups are still active and they keep on committing abuses. Other than the civil war, internal displacement is caused by wealthy land owners who dispossess people of their lands. Most of them use paramilitary groups to accomplish their mission of land acquisition. This paper will look at how Colombia’s “dispossessed” have their lands taken away by wealthy landowners with the complicity of the government. The dispossessed or displaced people in Columbia have their lands taken away from them by land owners who are wealthy.

Moreover, the government and wealthy land owners collude to help ensure the wealthy land owners acquire more land, which in turn leads to displacement of the population. Apart from government participation in their illegal an inconsiderate practice of acquisition of land, the wealthy land owners make use of the self-defense units, the guerillas, drug dealers, and paramilitary forces. While undertaking their activities, these illegal groups commit killings, rape, massacres, extortion and forced displacement (Brenner 121).

They more often than not, target members of the community that do not adhere to their orders. Paramilitary organizations and other illegal groups have assisted in allowing the access of multinational companies by chasing farmers and their family members away from their land. In addition, the dispossessed individuals are