01/30/21 - Dr. Manuel Rozental

Colonization is a political agenda of an ideology quite often associated with forcing non-westernized peoples who suffer from the consequences of colonization, in the appropriation of land use benefiting the colonizer. This is quite often rationalized as the eminent good for all people, including the Original Peoples of a particular region, in this case the Indigenous peoples of the Association of Indigenous Councils in Cauca, Colombia, South America.

Tiokasin catches up with First Voices Radio friend and regular guest Dr. Manuel Rozental with a report on current events in Colombia, including the recent news of the cowardly assassination of 14 year-old Indigenous activist Breiner David Cucuñame of the Nasa people, who was shot dead while on patrol protecting his territory with the unarmed group Indigenous Guard.

Manuel puts this most recent assassination into context for us. He reports that as of January 23, 2022, there have been 10 massacres in Colombia with 96 people being assassinated. In 2021, there were more than 96 massacres, with more than 338 people murdered. Proportionally, given the number of Indigenous peoples in Colombia, the greatest number of people assassinated in these massacres were Indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.

Though the media generates confusion about this and conflicting versions, the way to understand these massacres is to understand who benefits from this. The beneficiaries are people related with the huge drug trade, not gangs but the massive trans-national corporate money-making business in the world that involves the Colombian economy massively.

Ninety-two percent of the cocaine produced in the world comes out of Colombia. Territories are being invaded by the monocultures of coca and marijuana, and these are transformed and are being distributed. Those who profit from this are large corporate interests and elites throughout the planet; and then most of the money, though it's Colombian-based, flows north just like it happens with any corporate interest.

Dr. Manuel Rozental is a long-time Colombian activist, researcher and community organizer. Manuel's been involved with grassroots political organizing with youth, Indigenous communities, and urban and rural social movements for four decades.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Malcolm Burn, Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston, WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM, Kingston, NY
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: That Smell
Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd
CD: Street Survivors (Deluxe Edition) (1977)
Label: MCA
(00:25:32)

3. Song Title: Spatial Moon
Artist: Tiokasin Ghosthorse
CD: Somewhere in There (2016)
Label: Ghosthorse
(Note: Includes a few closing words from the late John Trudell)
(00:38:00)

4. Song Title: Sundancer (Leonard Peltier's Words)
Artist: Oliver Shanti & Friends
CD: 15 Years of Sattva Music (2001)
Label: Sattva Music
(00:50:37)

THE AKANTU INSTITUTE
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