Colombia

Description

Two words describe Colombia best; violence and paradox.

The paradox with Colombia is that although it has always struggled, it has always managed, to keep its economic head above water, a rare commodity in any Latin American country. It was little affected by the 1930`s depression, or the great devaluation's and massive inflation found in other countries during the 1980`s such as Argentina, Brazil , or Chile.

Despite its relative financial "security," Colombia is riddled with a violence, which seems endemic to its history, from the days of Bolivar`s fight against the Spanish, to The 1000 Day War, to La Violencias in the 1950`s, which seems to have spilled over into the current 40 year old war, including the narcotics war since the 1960`s against primarily the USA`s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the UK`s assisting Special Air Service (SAS) opposition. Harding 1996:32

The prospects of Oil, Gas and Coal reserves have taken great interest, not least in the US, as an alternative source of power from the Middle East, however, the civil war against the communist FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios Colombiana) and the more Maoist ELN (Ejercito De Liberacion Nacional) has not been won by the Colombian military, or the right wing AUC (United Self Defence Group of Colombia) to the point where Human Rights Watch has declared the development of a "Sixth Division" operating in Colombia of paramilitaries with access to official military means, and conducting paramilitary acts of violence virtually unimpeded. (Human RightsWatch Report 2001)

Effect on Capitalism

Colombia has seen its fair share of unfair treatment of capitalism, mostly through global commodities markets, since its largest exports are Oil, Coffee and Bananas. The low price of the coffee markets in the mid 1990`s, threatened a widespread strike by landowners and traveling labour force. In contrast, the narcotics trade of first Marijuana, then Cocaine has led to a number of powerful families or Cartels to import huge sums of cash from abroad, from which which they have become a part of the oligarchy. In historical terms, the War of the Thousand days (1899-1902) led to a breakaway Republic of Panama in 1903, which consented to the US Canal project, in which the US retained land adjoining both sides of the canal, and which Colombia was powerless to stop (Harding 1996: 19).

Effect on Democracy

The endemic violence, civil war, local landowners and corporate interests, fueled with narcotics money ("Narcodemocracy" as US Senator John Kerrey described Colombia), has led to a corrupt society, to which the country`s image rarely shakes away (Harding 1996: 45). Allegations of corruption are either proven or rife, the current President; Pastrana was accused of taking 'Cali' cartel money during the 1995 elections (Harding 1996:53)Summary

Colombia reflects the perfect opportunity to expand the "War on Terrorism" into Latin America, being relatively poor, often in disarray, and already heavily servicing US intelligence for anti narcotics ;The "prize" for the US could be the eradication of any communist threat, by destroying the FARC and ELN, and of course to improve the supply of oil from one of Latin America`s largest supplier, whilst the Middle East is in turmoil, from virtually its own doorstep. Little wonder that Bush has sought a $372,5 million military aid package to the region of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia (Pan Andean Initiative/ Plan Colombia), nor that Congress has approved $62 million (Engel 2002)

Human Rights Watch argues the "Sixth Division" in Colombia (Human Rights Watch Report 2001) allied with the illegality of the aid (Human Rights Watch Press Release, Washington, May 16, 2002) leads one to conclude of a dual purpose aid package, destined to ignore the right wing listed terrorist organisation AUC, in favour of attacking only the left wing paramilitary FARC and ELN. While the European Union refuses to put the FARC or ELN on its terrorist list, to the protest of many. In the alleged search for Al Qu'eda and Hezbollah terrorists in Colombia as claimed by Armitage, there are deals being struck in the surrounding countries of Ecuador and Peru to combat narcotics and terrorism.

The former airbases of Ecuador were previously used for joint US / Ecuadorian defence of the Panama Canal after Pearl Harbour, and later as a joint training ground. The implicit threat of using the airbases to attack the FARC guerrilas on the Colombian/Ecuadorian border, instead of defence was obvious. The Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress country study of Ecuador (ed. J Hanratty 1989) reveals the historical link of US airbases for the Protection of the Panama Canal after Pearl Harbour that COULD be used to attack FARC on the Ecuador border. Ecuador naturally does not want to instigate a guerilla war with the FARC, and become embroiled in another cross territory war which could spread across northern Latin America. The USA needs to think very clearly about its use of anti-terror as it has used anti-narcotics, to fulfill ideological imperatives.(Hanratty 1989,Zirnite 2001, Engel 2002)

Copyright S Coleman 2002 13 July 2002

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