Peace Corps Colombia: What do Colombians think?
Always the very best way to understand Peace Corps history in a country is to turn to that country for perspective. There may be conflicting opinions and that may be at the heart of the current controversy. In 2009, then President Uribe wrote to Acting Peace Corps Director Jody Olson inviting the Peace Corps to return to Colombia. His letter is a powerful testimony to the value of Peace Corps. But years earlier, there was a popular movie in Colombia, entitled “El Rey”. The movie’s premise was that Peace Corps Volunteers had brought cocaine production and marketing to Colombia. Peace Corps Online, published by RPCV Hugh Pickens, described the movie and the controversy. Here is the link to those articles: http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2024372.html Thanks to RPCV Bob Arias for a copy of President Uribe’s letter. Bob’s extraordinary Peace Corps resume includes work with Peace Corps Response over five years in various South and . . .
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One has only to read early Spanish observations of the Andean native populations to know that narcotics were produced and…