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Geopolitics

Latin Americans Denounce U.S. Racism — But Are They Any Better?

Latin American media have joined the chorus that has condemned institutional racism in the United States, but rarely denounce discrimination and violence targeting non-white groups in their own countries.

At a protest against racism in Rio De Janeiro
At a protest against racism in Rio De Janeiro
José E. Mosquera

-OpEd-

BOGOTÁ — Latin American media, and thousands of news outlets worldwide, are dedicating wide coverage to the protests in U.S. cities that have united so many Americans of differing backgrounds in expressing their ire at the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis policeman, Derek Chauvin.

Millions around the world are rejecting the racist segregation that White Anglo-Saxon Americans have imposed on African Americans for more than four centuries. Not surprisingly, Latin American media have joined the global condemnation of ongoing civil rights violations and the brutality that include white policemen killing African Americans. Media reflecting a range of opinions have also criticized President Donald Trump's brazen, xenophobic and authoritarian response to the protests.

In Colombia, an editorial in the newspaper El Espectador, observed that Trump preferred war to facing racism and criticized his failure to build bridges instead of doing what he did best, namely "divide, mislead and foment violence." The daily warned of a "dangerous time bomb," and needless to say I share its views.

They stay quiet about the same racism, segregation and exclusion against black Latin Americans.

Yet I also must add a dose of criticism directed at Latin American papers, most of which historically have lacked a coherent editorial policy rejecting with equal vigor the racism afflicting the black population in Latin America. They condemn racism and segregation in the United States, but are quiet about the same racism, segregation and exclusion against black Latin Americans.

Their execration of Trump's racism or of discrimination in the United States should also be directed at the racism of the élites that have held political and economic power for the past two centuries in the southern half of the Americas.

These have historically excluded black and indigenous minorities from the power pyramid and all the benefits of development. Our minorities live in backward, neglected zones, with the lowest living and developmental standards, and the worst levels of access to earnings, education, healthcare and social welfare in this hemisphere.

It is shocking to find Colombian media failing to condemn police and judicial abuses committed every day against Afro-Caribbean Colombians. None of our media condemned the killing last month of 19-year-old Anderson Arboleda. The black youngster from Puerto Tejada in the Cauca department died three days after he was beaten unconscious by two white policemen. Why? He had violated the quarantine. No editorials or press outcry against the "white" policemen: that must be because Arboleda was poor and living in a forgotten district of a marginal part of the country along the Pacific coast. Place matters too.

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Green

Why Colombia's First Rare Earths Mining Project Has Gotten So Toxic

Following the announcement of Colombia's first rare earths mining project, Climate Tracker reports on the incomplete licenses, unreal expectations, bad relationships with indigenous populations and suspicion of planted minerals that surround the venture, which seeks to extract minerals critical for the energy transition.

An aerial view of the Minastyc project​ in Colombia.

An aerial view of the Minastyc project in eastern Colombia.

Daniela Quintero Díaz

PUERTO CARREÑO — A Canadian mining company project in the Vichada department of Colombia seeking to extract key minerals for the energy transition has divided indigenous communities and raised questions about the permits received, the Orinoquía natural region's potential, illegal mining and minerals trafficking across the Venezuelan border.

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In April 2023, Auxico Resources Canada made a surprising announcement: Orinoquía's regional environmental authority, Corporinoquía, had granted the company's Minastyc project an environmental license for the exploitation of rare earth elements. With this permit, Auxico, which produces critical minerals, high-value metals and rare earth elements, would be the first company authorized to legally extract these minerals, fundamental for the energy transition, in Colombia.

Rare earths minerals are used in countless everyday products, including rechargeable batteries, fiber optic, cell phones and airplanes. These 17 elements have similar geochemical properties and are generally found together in geological formations. Despite their name, these elements are relatively abundant in the Earth's crust.

The “rarity” is finding deposits of “commercial utility”, that is, those that merit an economic investment and whose extraction and refinement (they are very difficult to separate) is profitable.

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