Colombia in World War II

A sailing ship called a 'goleta,' like Colombia's The Resolute, sunk by a Nazi U-boat in 

Today is the 70th anniversary of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II - and pulled Colombia in in its wake.

Colombia, like most of Latin America, formally backed the Allies during the war, lending use of its territory and natural resources, but did not participate in fighting. Colombia was, however, strategically important because of its nearness to the Panama Canal, which the Allies feared could be attacked by Germany or Japan.

At the war's start, many Colombians still resented the U.S. for its role in turning the province of Panama into an independent country in order to dig a canal across the isthmus. But U.S. Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had improved relations with his Good Neighbor Policy. Also, then-Colombian Pres. Eduardo Santos (the great uncle of current Pres. Juan Manuel Santos) was a Liberal and had studied in France, and so sympathized with the French, who were suffering under Nazi occupation.

After the Pearl Harbor attack, Colombia broke relations with the Axis powers and allowed the U.S. to station troops in the country - a relationship which has continued until today. Colombia had also accepted some Jewish refugees from Europe during the pre-war years, but, like most countries, shut the door in the late 1930s.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Colombia declares state of beligerance towards the Axis powers.

In June, 1942, a Nazi U-boat sank the Colombian sailing ship The Resolute, killing six sailors. (Some sources say the Germans sank three Colombian ships.) In response, Colombia declared a state of 'belligerancy' against the Axis powers. In 1944, the Colombia destroyer ARC Caldas, escorting a tanker on its way to Panama, sighted and sank a German U-boat, apparently Colombia's only hostile action during the war.

The Hotel Sabaneta in Fusagasugá, where
several dozen Germans and Italians
were interned during the war.

More troubling, Colombia, like much of Latin America, participated in the U.S.-backed policy of monitoring, expelling and interring Japanese, German and Italian citizens. A group of prominent Japanese and Germans were even put aboard a ship headed toward New Orleans and then the Portuguese colony of Mozambique in Africa, altho it's not clear whether they got there. Many other citizens of German, Italian or Japanese origin had their property confiscated.

Another group of several dozen Japanese and German citizens was interned during the war, under the protection of the Spanish and later the Swiss embassies. They apparently suffered little except for boredom, in a hotel in the tropics.

One colony of Japanese farmers in Cauca province received particularly close observation by Colombian officials, because of fears that they might build an airstrip, from which planes could attack the Panama Canal.

Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango: Colombia and Allied Cause in World War Two - Thanks to the BLAA for the photos of the hotel and the El Tiempo headline. 

The Japanese Community in Colombia During World War II

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

No Nukes is...more coal, and more deaths in Colombia

Colombian coal country. A legacy of Japan's disaster?

In the wake of Japan's ongoing nuclear disaster, many nations are putting the brakes on new nuclear power. But nuclear's gotten bad P.R. Besides three notorious disasters: Three Mile Island, which killed nobody, Chernobyl, which is still killing people, but was a badly-designed reactor whose accident was handled terribly, and now the Japan disaster, whose impact hopefully will be limited - nuclear has produced lots of power with relatively little impact. 

In the U.S., more than 100 nuclear reactors provide 20 percent of the country's electricity, without causing deforestation, mining disasters air pollution, global warming or any of the long train of natural disasters and human tragedies which fossil fuels have brought us.

Nukes didn't kill these guys.
(Photo: America Economia)

Here's a sampling of what a single Google search about coal turned up:

Colombia coal mine blast kills 20 - 17 Jun 2010
Colombian Coal Mine Blast Kills at Least 18 - NYTimes.com - 26 Jan 2011
Colombian Coal mine blast kill at least 5  - 24 Nov 2010
21 workers killed in Colombian mine blast - Nearly 100 coal miners were killed in work-related accidents across Colombia in 2010, 


And that's just in Colombia, and only the disasters which made the international news. I bet that right now someone's dying in a Colombian coal mine, and others are dying of coal dust-related diseases. And, all over the world, people are dying of coal pollution - 30,000 per year in the U.S. alone, according to one study. And, less nuclear energy will mean more deaths from coal: you can bet your life, and death, on that!

And that's without mentioning the coming impacts from global warming. 


But the tragedies caused by fossil fuels are so numerous and frequent that we barely notice them anymore. 


The Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 men and injured 17 others, as well as devastating the Gulf and innumerable other lives. The Japanese nuclear disaster hasn't killed anybody...but I don't hear many people calling for an end to oil production.


Well-meaning dreamers talk about large-scale wind, solar and wave-power projects. All of those would be wonderful, but they aren't coming soon enough to head of serious climate change. Nuclear power is the only source of proven, carbon-free power we have, and we'd better keep using it, or we'll regret it. 


Nuclear power makes little sense for Colombia, which has plentiful hydroelectric power and also a terrorism problem. But Colombia is paying the price for the rest of the world's reliance on fossil fuels, especially coal. 


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

From Disaster - Generosity

Instead of self pity - generosity

A lot's been written about the maturity and fortitude with which the Japanese people have handled the triple earthquake/tidal wave/nuclear disaster which has battered the nation. There've always been plenty of reasons to admire the Japanese (as well as lots of ugly things in Japanese history): from a nation in ruins after World War II, with few natural resources except their people, they came back to create the world's second-largest economy. 

A few years from now, this mega-disaster will be a bad memory and Japan will come back better and stronger than ever (and, hopefully, nuclear power will too.)

Amidst all of these needs at home, the amazing Japanese people are still sticking to their foreign aid commitments. Even while Japan's own hospitals are overwhelmed, Japan just donated 700 million pesos in equipment - about US $380,000 - to four Colombian hospitals. 

Of course, Japan can still use help, and here's how: http://www.globalgiving.org/

More than money or equipment, people across the developing world ought to look toward Japan as a model for building a strong democracy and economy, without reliance on natural resources - which inevitably become exhausted.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours