How English-speaking Colombian islands have been caught up in Trump’s ‘drug war’ airstrikes

At least 16 fishers from San Andrés and Providence said to have gone missing since January after US began attacking boats in Caribbean and eastern Pacific Officially, the islands of San Andrés and Providence belong to Colombia – but the language spoken by most of the local Afro-descendant population is not Spanish. Walking among brightly painted wooden houses raised above the ground and lined with verandas – architecture more reminiscent of the Caribbean and the southern US – the language most commonly heard is Creole, a distinct variety of Caribbean English. Yet the same emerald waters that provide fish for local communities and attract tourists from around the world have become “mass graves” for local fishers. Because of the islands’ strategic location north-west of mainland Colombia between South and North America, young seafaring-skilled men have for years been recruited by groups moving cocaine produced in Colombia northwards, often as far as the US. They are members of the Raizal people, shaped by different waves of settlement over the centuries, but above all, defined by their African heritage. Although the involvement of young Raizal men in drug trafficking is