Archive for 2002
Comuna 13: Colombia’s Urban Battleground
By now the scene is familiar. In the early morning hours of May 21, 2002, some 700 troops backed by tanks moved in while neighborhood militias attempted to impede the advance with machine guns. Blackhawk helicopters rained down bullets indiscriminately on targeted neighborhoods; house-to-house searches that gave way to looting were conducted with no warrant and announced with bullets through front doors; young men were dragged into the streets, bound, beaten and/or killed with children looking on. Heroic neighborhood residents tried to rescue the injured and provide medical attention amidst a hail of bullets fired by agents of the state. People hung white sheets, towels, and shirts from their windows to express their desire for a cease-fire; children armed with sticks and stones confronted soldiers and police, demanding that they leave the neighborhood, shouting, “We want peace! We want peace!” The siege lasted more than twelve hours, and by the time it was finished, nine people including three children were dead, while 37 were injured and 55 detained. Read more»
Uribe’s Dictatorial Rule Suits Oil Companies
On August 7, 2002, mortar attacks hit the inauguration ceremony of President Alvaro Uribe, symbolizing a new phase in the Colombian conflict. Evading the 20,000-strong force of soldiers and police guarding the capital during Uribe’s big day, and operating undetected by U.S.-supplied helicopters and radar jets, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched nineteen 120mm mortar shells, killing 21 people in the vicinity of the presidential palace. Since his inauguration, Uribe has responded by using U.S. military aid not only to target leftist guerrilla groups, but also to protect the economic interests of U.S. oil companies operating in Colombia. Read more»
Telling Half-Truths
The story of the ongoing conflict in Colombia as told by administration officials in Washington has been a tale of half-truths. The U.S. public has been presented with certain facts intended to portray the conflict in a light considered desirable by the Bush White House. While such misinformation strategies were utilized throughout the Cold War and the “war on drugs,” they have escalated dramatically since 9-11 as part of a propaganda campaign that seeks to justify expanding the “war on terrorism” to include Colombia. The perpetrators of this misinformation have clearly abdicated their moral responsibility with regards to providing the U.S. public with all the relevant facts pertaining to the true nature of terrorism in Colombia. Read more»
Venezuelan Ranchers Fear Escalation of Colombian Conflict
Venezuela’s western border area is a sparsely populated region of rolling hills, small farming towns, sprawling cattle ranches–and drug traffickers, guerrillas and fear. With Colombia’s civil conflict intensifying, observers have been speculating that the war next door could spread into western Venezuela. Area residents, however, say they have been feeling the war’s effects for a long time. Businessmen and cattle ranchers feel it in the lurking threat of kidnappings, which have accelerated in recent months. Residents of towns like El Nula, which lies about 20 miles from the border, feel it in the murders of fugitive Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers. And everyone feels the threats of the many irregular armed groups that are taking advantage of the lawlessness to operate here. Read more»
Reinventing Carlos Castaño
The U.S. Justice Department timed its request for the arrest and extradition of Colombian paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño on drug trafficking charges to coincide with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s arrival in Washington. Undoubtedly, the White House wanted to use the issuing of the extradition request and the “anti-terrorism” pow-wow between President Bush and Uribe as evidence that Washington and Bogotá are combating right-wing paramilitaries as well as leftist guerrillas in Colombia. But while this charade was clearly a public relations ploy, what’s not so obvious is the reasoning behind Castaño’s announcement that he is willing to cooperate with the extradition request and face justice in the United States. One possible explanation is that the Bush administration has entered into some kind of Faustian deal with Colombia’s notorious death squad leader. Read more»
Fill the Land With Smoke
On August 7th, a new president assumed office in Colombia. Like the president who took power in the United States in 2001, Colombia’s new leader Alvaro Uribe is a right-winger who supports military solutions to social problems and, also like President Bush, was elected by less than 30 percent of the eligible voting population. Another parallel to Mr. Bush is Uribe’s distaste for democracy. Indeed, he has announced plans to eliminate the current two houses of Congress and replace them with a single house. Also, governmental actions that currently require legislation would in future simply require presidential decrees. Uribe justifies his plans by claiming they will make the government leaner and meaner. Most observers agree, however, that the underlying motive is to free up more money for the military and police forces. Read more»
Colombia’s Deteriorating Human Rights Situation
On Monday, September 9, the U.S. State Department cleared the way for $41.6 million in U.S. military aid to be delivered to Colombia when it certified that the Colombian government had met the human rights conditions called for by the U.S. Congress. The conditions demand that the Colombian military suspend officers involved in serious human rights violations, cooperate with civilian prosecutors, and sever ties with right-wing paramilitary forces. Human rights groups criticized the certification, claiming that the Colombian military had not met any of the three conditions. On August 22, a little more than two weeks before the State Department issued its certification, I interviewed Catalina Diaz, a lawyer for the human rights group Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), about the human rights situation in Colombia since the collapse of the peace process, the imminent expansion of U.S. involvement from counternarcotics to counterinsurgency, and the inauguration of President Alvaro Uribe. Read more»