From Mass Incarceration to Plan Colombia: Biden’s Role in the Failed War on Drugs

Former vice president Biden has a sordid history of opposing progressive criminal justice legislation, spearheading draconian police and immigration measures, and playing a central role in waging America’s failed war on drugs.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod

In an increasingly angry and bad faith campaign, Donald Trump and his team are presenting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as an anti-police radical controlled by the far left. Last week, the Trump campaign sent a text message to supporters warning them that Antifa would raid their homes if Biden wins in November. "They'll disarm you,

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Decades Later, America’s Meddling in Colombia is Still Costing Lives

From the drug war to Plan Colombia to support for right-wing paramilitary groups, decades of US interference in Colombia has caused so much instability that to this day, the country is still reeling from it.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
Colombia US violence Feature

On a warm Tuesday morning earlier this month in Llano Verde, an eastern suburb of the city of Cali, five Afro-Colombian children decided to leave their homes to take advantage of the fine weather to spend some time outside. They would never return. Only a few hours later, they were found dead; their bodies burned, cut to pieces with machetes and

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As US Laments Human Rights in Venezuela, US-Allied Colombia Descends into Drug-fueled Humanitarian Crisis

The dichotomy between Washington’s relationship with Venezuela and Colombia is yet another clear example that the public justifications for the U.S.’s Latin America policy are little more than window dressing for the U.S.-backed expansion of neo-fascist governments throughout Latin America.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Colombia | Violence

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA (Analysis) -- Several troubling situations are currently playing out across Colombia, yet the country’s continuing downward spiral into drug-fueled and politically-motivated violence has caused little concern in Washington, offering yet another clear indication that the U.S.’ current posturing on Venezuela is hardly motivated by

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Can Colombia’s Peace Process Survive the Coming Hard-Right Regime of Ivan Duque?

Ivan Duque’s stated “obsession” with security measures and alignment with hard-right politicians, as well as the continued hype surrounding the bogeyman of a “Refounded FARC,” offer ominous signs to the marginalized rural poor and national minorities of Colombia.

Elliott Gabriel
By Elliott Gabriel
Colombia's President Ivan Duque, right, speaks to the media as his vice-president Martha Lucia Ramirez stands next to him at the Presidential Palace in Bogota, Colombia, June 21, 2018. Fernando Vergara | AP

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – Leaked reports from the Colombian Armed Forces have alleged that scattered groups of dissident former members of the dissolved Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) plan to hold a guerilla conference and formally unite as a large new guerilla force in the country’s lawless border regions and rural

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On Brink of a Stable Peace, Colombia Faces Familiar US-Backed Right-Wing Elements Seeking to Subvert It

Colombia’s peace agreement with the FARC has been threatened by continued violence against social leaders and now, with elections approaching, a potential far-right resurgence fueled by fear could trigger a return to militarism.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2015 file photo, Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe listens to a question during an interview in Bogota, Colombia. Colombian authorities have detained President Uribe's younger brother Santiago, on Monday Feb. 29, 2016. He is being charged with the creation of a paramilitary groups during the 1990's. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- With Colombia’s March 11 legislative elections ending in a near tie between right- and left-wing coalitions, the future of an already precarious peace process most likely hinges on the May 27 presidential vote. When far-right uribista Ivan Duque of Centro Democratico (Democratic Center) squares off against left-leaning former

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Operation Pacific Eagle: The US and Duterte Take Aim at China and the Armed Poor

Pacific Eagle appears to be a major escalation of U.S. intervention in the Philippines at a time when tensions in the Korean Peninsula are becoming explosive and when China is transitioning from a regional to a global power. And just as in Plan Colombia, there is both the regional and the internal dimension.

Elliott Gabriel
By Elliott Gabriel
Protesters march towards the Presidential Palace with the effigies of President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Donald Trump to mark the 154th birth anniversary of the country's revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

As we conclude this exclusive MPN series, we compare Operation Pacific Eagle to the notorious counterinsurgency initiative “Plan Colombia” and look at how the new Pentagon mission enables the U.S. to continue encircling China with its military bases. We speak to exiled Filipino revolutionary Jose Maria Sison and Professors William I. Robinson and

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