Jun. 15, 2009—US anti-drug funds from Washington appear to have funded companies in Colombia with links to ultra-violent paramilitary groups and drug traffickers. The monies were funneled to these companies via Plan Colombia, the multi-billion-dollar military aid package.

Interview: US Drug War Money Reaches the Wrong Hands

Jun. 15, 2009—US anti-drug funds from Washington appear to have funded companies in Colombia with links to ultra-violent paramilitary groups and drug traffickers. The money was funneled to these companies via Plan Colombia, the multi-billion-dollar military aid package.

In Depth: Plan Colombia and Palm Oil

Jun. 19, 2009—Teo Ballvé, periodista de The Nation, es autor del artí­culo titulado 'The Darkside of Plan Colombia' en el cual afirma que el Plan Colombia financió a una empresa de 'Macaco' y otras que tenía­an ví­nculos con paramilitares.

Interview (Spanish): El lado oscuro del Plan Colombia

May 20, 2009—Colombia's decades-long civil war has produced a massive humanitarian crisis. The country has the largest internal refugee population in the world after Sudan's. Forced displacement in Colombia reached almost unprecedented proportions in 2008, the second-worst year on record. Behind the numbers is an array factors, from a renewed government offensive against armed groups, to the changing dynamics of the drug trade.

Colombia's Internally Displaced Continue to Struggle After Decades of War

Feb. 2, 2009—Although trash recyclers remain at the bottom-rung of the global economic ladder and face harassment from authorities, they are increasingly organized and have won important victories. Colombia's waste pickers were among the first to organize, and they recently invited their counterparts from around the world to discuss shared problems.

Organizing Trash Recyclers Worldwide

Apr. 6, 2009—Afro-Colombian communities in the northwestern province of Chocó were violently forced to leave their lands in the late 1990s. When they returned in 2002, they found their farms covered in oil palms, which are grown to produce biofuels. Despite almost certain reprisal, they are fighting to get these lands back.

Biofuel Boom Expels Afro-Colombians from Lands

After Colombia's 2-1 victory over the Ivory Coast, I spoke with Meleiza Figueroa producer of KPFK's "The People's Game," a show about politics and society during the 2014 World Cup. We discussed Colombia's history in the World Cup, its current winning streak, and how soccer in the country has crossed paths with the drug trade, the armed conflict, and its contemporary political conjuncture.

teoballve