Archive for 2001
Targeting Colombia’s “Evil-doers”
The U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Anne Patterson, announced last week that the United States will provide Colombia with counterterrorism aid as part of Washington’s new war on terrorism. But many critics are concerned the new aid signifies an escalation of U.S. involvement in Colombia that might result in direct military intervention. Patterson’s announcement followed on the heels of a declaration by the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, Francis X. Taylor, that Washington’s strategy for fighting terrorism in the western hemisphere will include, “where appropriate, as we are doing in Afghanistan, the use of military power.” Taylor left little doubt about who would be the “appropriate” target when he stated that Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), “is the most dangerous international terrorist group based in this hemisphere.” Read more»
Bolivia’s Zero Coca Program Leaving Hunger in its Wake
In December 2000, Bolivia’s President Hugo Banzer Suarez visited Chimoré in the tropical zone of Cochabamba and declared victory for his zero coca program known as Plan Dignity. But for Epifanio Cruz Centellas, mayor of Chimoré for the past six years, the coca eradication program that began in 1997 is anything but a success. Instead, he claims that Plan Dignity, which is being used as the blueprint for coca eradication and alternative development programs getting under way in Colombia and other nations targeted by the Bush Administration’s Andean Initiative, has serious flaws. Cruz says these problems are pushing some 35,000 former coca-growing families in the Chapare region toward economic ruin, hunger and, inevitably, back to coca cultivation. Read more»
Colombia’s Right-Wing Terror Campaign Easy to Shut Down—If Only the U.S. Had the Will
The day before the U.S. suffered the worst terrorist attack in our history, Secretary of State Colin Powell designated the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” and imposed economic and political sanctions on the group. “This designation,” said Powell, “makes it illegal for persons in the United States or subject to U.S. jurisdiction to provide material support to the AUC; requires U.S. financial institutions to block assets held by the AUC; and enables us to deny visas to representatives of the group.” Read more»
Washington Wages a Selective Drug War
Most of the more than $2 billion the United States is currently spending to fight the drug war in the Andean region is going to the Colombian military and an aerial fumigation campaign that is devastating the food crops and livelihoods of impoverished peasants. Washington’s militaristic policies have also resulted in a controversial shoot-down policy of “suspect” planes in Colombia and Peru that has killed innocent people. Furthermore, the White House uses its unilateral drug certification process to coerce Latin American countries into cooperating with Washington’s war on drugs or face the risk of economic sanctions. However, such tactics are nowhere to be seen with regards to U.S. drug policy in Europe, where Belgium and the Netherlands are the leading manufacturers, and Russians (and Israelis) the principal traffickers, of the club drug Ecstasy (MDMA), the drug of choice for America’s youth. Read more»
Washington’s Anti-Terrorism Campaign in Colombia
As Washington shifts its foreign policy focus towards combating terrorism, many have speculated that military funding for the drug war in Colombia will diminish. However, just the opposite is likely to occur as Washington can now escalate its military involvement in Colombia under the guise of anti-terrorism. With all of Colombia’s illegal armed groups on the U.S. State Department’s terrorist list, Washington can use the groundswell of public support for a war against terrorism as justification for further arming and equipping the Colombian army in its war against leftist guerrillas. Read more»
Alienating the International Community
Many Americans are justifiably stunned, bewildered and angry following the recent terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. But while we seek justice for these atrocious acts of violence, Americans should also reflect on why these fanatics harbor such hatred for the United States. It is not, as Washington so often claims, because they resent our “freedoms” or our “way of life”; it is because they resent a U.S. foreign policy that imposes Western cultural values on their way of life. And while the actions of this fanatical minority are inexcusable, they are indicative of a political viewpoint held by ever-increasing numbers of people around the world. Consequently, many in the international community see the United States as a rogue nation unilaterally imposing its political and economic will on the world at large. Read more»
Bishops Oppose Neoliberal and Drug War Policies
Catholic bishops of dioceses on the Colombian-Ecuadorian border, meeting in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, declared their opposition to Plan Colombia, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and U.S. President George W. Bush’s Andean plan to fight drug trafficking, calling them part of an unjust system that fails to address the problems of poverty and violence. Bishops Eugenio Arellano of Esmeraldas and Gonzalo López of Sucumbíos, in Ecuador, and their Colombian counterparts, Bishops Gustavo Girón of Tumaco and Arturo Correa of Ipiales, met June 18-21 to discuss ways of improving ministry with poor people, immigrants, indigenous people, those of African descent, displaced people and refugees in their dioceses, where violence has exacerbated existing problems. Read more»