NPR has an odd story about Colombia this morning. The report deals with victims' of the atrocities committed by Colombia'a rightwing paramilitaries. There are some really unsettling (dare one say "spooky") aspects to NPR's report. The first thing that struck me was the NPR reporter -- Juan Forero. His name was new to me and I noticed that he's not listed as one of the NPR voices even though Inskeep introduced him as "NPR's Juan Forero." So I did a little poking around and found Forero has a less than savory history in journalism (see this report from FAIR and look over this angry, but informative website).Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the "report" was the omission of one key player in the four decades long Colombia tragedy--THE UNITED STATES! To discuss the torture and death squad paramilitaries without mentioning the kindess shown them by the US does show an abundance of chutzpah. But since NPR won't dig up these ugly tidbits I'll do it for them: take a look at the history of the paramilitaries from ZNet, the benevolent attitude of the US noticed by CNN in 2000, and the continuing help shown the paramilitaries in the "Drug War" in 2001. Finally for some of the latest human rights news on Colombia take a look at Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International's excellent report.
2 comments:
Bah! When NPR comes on with a story on Latin America I head for the kitchen to make some tea: from Scott Simon to Tom Jelten (sp?), it's always the same condescending BS--no history, no context. Just scary "revolutionaries", voiceless peasants, drug lords and well-intentioned IMF officials. If all you knew about Latin America came from listening to NPR...well, I can't think of a clever way to end that sentence!
Amen!
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