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Violence And Pastoral Care In Putumayo, Colombia, Winifred L. Tate
Violence And Pastoral Care In Putumayo, Colombia, Winifred L. Tate
Winifred L. Tate
The southern Colombian state of Putumayo, a region of frontier colonization along the
Ecuadoran border, has been the scene of entrenched violence and illegal drug production for
more than three decades. During domination by the country’s largest and oldest guerrilla group,
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), peasant farmers in the area came to
supply more than fifty per cent of the coca used in the world cocaine trade. Beginning in the late
1990s, violence spiked as right-wing paramilitary groups steadily gained control of small towns.
At the same time, the United States orchestrated a major military counter narcotics …