Verses from Uganda

Idi Amin Dada is perhaps the most famous African tyrant in history. From a homeless man on the streets of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, who became a military officer in the British occupation forces and then dictator in 1971; He was accused of causing more than 300,000 deaths in his country in the midst of a totalitarian, brutal and tyrannical regime that lasted 8 years with a mixture of madness and sarcasm that the world saw between horror and laughter given his eccentricity.

In addition to the bloodbaths, Idi Amin started the economy by nationalizing companies and banks causing immediate capital flight. He then expelled about 50,000 Indians from the country – they were the Ugandan trading base – and handed these businesses over to his friends who soon bankrupted them. Meanwhile, he expanded the public sector to satisfy the masses who supported him with jobs; The end came when one of his finance ministers (here called the Treasury) told him that “the government’s coffers are empty”. “You’re stupid,” Amin shouted at him. If we do not have money, the solution is very simple: more money must be printed.” The minister fled, his replacement had to print more banknotes to save his life, and Uganda went into a dark well of poverty.

He called himself “the Last King of Scotland” and used to send diplomatic messages to world leaders such as Queen Elizabeth II herself, offering food donations to President Richard Nixon with the possibility of asylum, to the UN Secretary-General, Kurt Waldheim, praising the offer of Hitler and Soviet leader Brezhnev and Mao. The Chinese support them as mediators.

Let’s leave Eidi alone, who died a proud, happy, millionaire in exile in Saudi Arabia 19 years ago. Let’s go back to our country’s fears. Sacrificing a world to polish poetry, the poet Guillermo Valencia said, in these lands a century ago, he exemplifies the Colombian’s morbid enthusiasm for euphemism, those elusive phrases and words to avoid facing reality. We don’t talk face to face, we surround ourselves with answers to challenges.

Let’s talk up front. The risk of bankruptcy for the country is real if the new government continues to announce measures similar or more suicidal than those applied 50 years ago by Idi Amin Dada in that very poor and backward Uganda. (Or only if the new government continues?)

Irene Vélez and Gustavo Pietro say and repeat – while Minister Ocampo tries to modify that dangerous plan – that Colombia will not sign more contracts for gas and oil exploration, supposedly to contain global climate change (Colombia puts only two parts per 10 thousand); “Rising rates unleashes inflation,” says Gustavo, while all the world’s central banks are raising them to contain inflation. Now and always.

Either Pietro is Marx’s new and renewed global economy, and the experts from the planet’s central banks are fools, or Eddie Amin’s economic theories have been reincarnated in Colombia. We will be Uganda, not Venezuela