Roxy Bar and Screen - Documentary Season - Empire in the Andes

The first time I have visited the Roxy on Borough High Street but I doubt it will be the last - reminiscent of places in South East Asia where you can sit and watch pirated DVDs over your dinner, this place is a touch classier and shows less mainstream stuff - for obvious copyright reasons that don't bother the populations of Laos or Indonesia. Last night was a documentary about US imperialism in Colombia and the support they have given to the "War on Drugs" in Plan America which has left the country in a state of civil war. The US has had operations in Central and South America for many years and it is well documented, but somehow these actions seem to slip under the radar of the mainstream media and the billions of dollars spent on military aid or on US companies supporting activities in the region are ignored. The list of US contractors spraying coca crops with fumigating chemicals went on and on. These companies are funded and run from the US but because they are not directly government or military they don't get the same level of coverage. These actions destroy other crops in the region and cause peasant farmers to lose their livelihoods and they are forced to move into the cities. The documentary sketched out an overall US plan in the Andean region covering oil pipelines and the dominance they hope to gain in the region. South American politics has started leaning left in the last few years with Hugo Chavez leading the way in Venezuela but also Bolivia and others beginning to take a more socialist route. I hope this continues and the US is scuppered in its schemes which seem to leave the majority of the region in conflict.