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Colombia and the Media: Illusions of a Drug War
PTTV in conjunction with the Colombia Media Project, a group for the fair depiction of Colombia in the media, bring us an in-depth look at the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of the political conflict in Colombia. In this frank presentation of Colombia’s political situation, media and communications professor Mario A. Murillo locates the tragic global consequences of the US’ War on Drugs in Colombia’s rural communities. Murillo’s presentation is spliced with Colombia Media Project member Victoria Maldonado’s interview with exiled Colombian journalist and human rights activist Richard Velez who has been a vocal witness to his country’s “Dirty War”. Velez was forced to flee Colombia when he recorded army troops killing civilian protestors. Velez’s story reveals the paradoxical nature of US foreign policy in Colombia, which has allowed the Colombian government to perpetrate extreme violence and civil rights abuses all in the name of the US-led War on Drugs. Ironically, as Mario A. Murillo points out, the US media is equally complicit in obscuring this country’s strife by figuring Colombia simply as “the Kingdom of Cocaine.”
1998 TRT: 28 minutes #274