President apologizes to indigenous Amazonians .

[Judi Lynn]

President apologizes to indigenous Amazonians .
Friday, 12 October 2012 14:33 Caitlin Trent

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos formally apologized to the indigenous people of the Amazon on Friday for massacres that occurred in the early 1900's during the rubber boom.

On Latin America's "Dia de la Raza," or Day of the Race, Santos acknowledged the atrocities that occurred during the rubber boom between 1912 and 1929 in the southern municipality of La Chorrera, reported El Tiempo. Allegedly more than 80,000 indigenous people were killed during this period at the hands of the rubber company that was founded in 1912, Casa Arana.

According to newspaper El Espectador, in admission of the massacres, Santos signed a petition saying that "on behalf of the Colombian State, which did not prevent the barbarism unleashed by the greed that generated the rubber bonanza...I ask for pardon for the deaths, for the orphans, for the victims."

"We can not enjoy economic development if it is achieved at the expense of the life and the physical and cultural integrity of people," said Santos, referring to the indigenous populations that were subjected to exploitation and massacre by Casa Arana, mentioning various tribes of the Amazon such as the Bora, Okaina, Muinane, Andoque, Nonuya, Mirana, Yukuna and Matapi tribes.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/26487-president-apologizes-to-indigenous-amazonians.html

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Funny, in my old dyslexic mind I read "President apoligises to indiginous Arizonans.

Makes sense to me.

[Judi Lynn]

2. That should have happened a long time ago, too!

Instead of that, we have a former President George H W Bush who played hide-and-seek with the skull of Apache leader Geronimo with his slimy brat friends from the Skull-and-Bones Society, and OF COURSE never a hint of an apology for the genocide of the indigenous people from one coast to the other.