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February 18, 2002 A Bright Shining Lie Colombia is a nation blessed with stunning natural beauty. The Sierra Nevada Mountains in the northeastern corner of the country are majestic. The vast eastern grassy savannahs called Los Llanos are breathtaking. The coastal beaches on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are magnificent. The dark mysterious Amazon in the southeast portion of the country still contains large sectors of virgin jungle. And in the center of the country perched high in the Andes Cordillera Oriental is the seat of power and the gem of the nation: Bogotá, the birthplace of a bright shining lie that conceals the true nature of Colombia's violence.
Prudent management of the economy has historically been a major priority of the ruling elite and as a result Colombia, unlike many of its neighbors, has never defaulted on its foreign debt. Consequently, Colombia is considered a reliable trading partner and strong ally of the industrialized nations of the world. Here lies the paradox: Despite one of the most beautiful landscapes on the face of the earth and the glittering skylines and sophisticated shopping malls of its five major cities, Colombia has fewer foreign residents than any other comparably sized Latin American country. Moreover, its once vibrant tourism industry is vanishing. The core of the problem is violence. Colombia has the tragic distinction of having the most massacres and kidnappings on earth. Main Street USA and most of the modern world has no idea why. The automatic assumption is drugs. However, the answer is much more complex and lies hidden under layers of history. And when one does seek answers from the Colombian elite they are told a bright shining lie. They are not told of the weakness of the state, instead they are told tales of a "tolerance for violence" and a nation of "rule breakers." When in reality the oligarchy has been conducting a dirty war against the poor for decades and this is why Colombia is a violent nation. Anyone who doubts this should read the U.S. State Department's Colombian human rights report, Human Rights Watch Americas report on Colombia, and Amnesty International's documentation of paramilitary wrongdoing in Colombia. Additionally, Colombian journalist Maria Jimena Duzán, in her book Death Beat, provides an authoritative and compelling account of a critical period in Colombia's history when she describes how the cocaine cartels spawned the paramilitary death squads and how they executed her sister. As one critic proclaimed about Duzán's book, "You need body armor to read it." In the February 18 issue of Newsweek magazine, reporter Steven Ambrus provided a chilling account of Colombian paramilitary terror in which he concluded, "As the paras have spread their influence, the government has been unable, or unwilling, to stop them." Consequently, the truth behind the bright shining lie can no longer be kept secret. The Colombian Armed Forces do have links with the bad guys. They let paramilitaries pass through checkpoints unmolested and provide them with intelligence and supplies to combat the common enemy: the guerrillas. This is the root of Colombia's cancer. And now the reputed leader of the ruthless paramilitary death squads is taking center stage and promising an even bloodier chapter in Colombia's long civil war. Just last week, Salvatore Mancuso proudly boasted that his ranks have swelled to 14,000 killers from just 850 a decade ago. Furthermore, he plans to nearly double his forces in the year ahead. Americans should not misinterpret the intentions of the death squads; they are killing machines. Even the New York Times in a January 21 editorial reported that the paramilitary death squads are responsible for 80 percent of the violence in Colombia. The horror has reached such levels that an average of 39 Colombians now flee the countryside every hour. All told, 341,925 Colombians were displaced in 2001, according to Colombia's Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy (CODHES). Another 13,527 Colombians crossed the borders last year into neighboring Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama. In recent years, some two million Colombians have fled the violence of the countryside for the poverty-ridden squalor of the big cities. This number is likely to continue growing as the violence intensifies. If this were not enough, the right wing anti-guerrilla candidate, Alvaro Uribe Vélez, holds a commanding lead only three months before May's presidential elections and may become the first candidate to win in the first round of voting since the constitutional reforms of 1991. Uribe Vélez, an eloquent speaker, has built an impressive "authority" platform, promising the nation he will use the overwhelming force of Colombia's army, navy, air force and national police to crush the guerrillas if they do not heel to his commands. In the midst of all this the Bush White House has proposed to deepen U.S. military involvement in Colombia's civil war. The White House is orchestrating a critical policy shift from a war focused on counternarcotics to a strategy designed principally on counterinsurgency.
Perhaps the Washington Times revealed the real reason the Bush White House is leaping into action when it disclosed a recent U.S. intelligence report claiming that the "leaders of Colombia's largest guerrilla force reached a consensus at a summit last month to aggressively seek the overthrow of the country's democratically elected government." The Washington Times article may explain why no one in the administration has stepped forward to demand Colombia do something to end the greatest human rights crisis in the Western Hemisphere. The lone crusader criticizing the Colombian government's human rights record is the U.S. Ambassador in Bogotá, Anne W. Patterson. The human rights situation in Colombia is coming to a head. The Colombian government has already received over $1.3 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars and will receive another $625 million unless Secretary of State Colin Powell decides by the end of the month to suspend assistance to Bogotá based on its failure to stem human rights abuses. Hence, the Bush White House is in the unique position of being able to end or extend Colombia's paramilitary campaign of terror. If the Bush administration decides against flexing U.S. muscles to pressure Bogotá into sanitizing Colombia's armed forces, then the White House will be officially sugarcoating Colombia's bright shining lie. Moreover, such a denial of the worst human rights crisis in the Western Hemisphere will require that President George W. Bush override congressional conditions on aid to Colombia that will allow U.S. tax dollars to illegally finance the slaughterhouse activities of Colombia's ruthless paramilitary death squads. And now that the FARC have thrown down the gauntlet by demanding that the Pastrana government disband the paramilitaries, end privatizations and boot all U.S. advisers out of Colombia, it appears the nation is about to dive head first into hell and the bright shining lie will prevail. Bert Ruiz is chairman of the Colombian-American Association and author of the book, The Colombian Civil War. He also served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the United States Marine Corps. This article originally appeared in Colombia Report, an online journal that was published by the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA).
Copyright © 2003 Colombia Journal. All rights reserved. |
Within
the borders of this beautiful country--roughly the size of France,
Spain and Portugal combined--lives a diverse population of 42 million.
Like most Central and South American nations, Colombia is ruled
by an elite sector of society. However, unlike its neighbors, in
Colombia it is extremely rare for someone outside of the oligarchy
to assume the presidency. The ruling elite in Colombia own or share
controlling interests in the biggest economic entities in the country,
including the major newspapers and magazines, as well as most of
the television, cable and radio stations.
As
the St. Petersburg Times pointed out in a February 14 editorial,
"The administration wants $98-million from Congress next year
to pay for helicopters, communications equipment and training for
Colombian troops guarding the Caño Limon pipeline. The 500-mile
line is jointly operated by Colombia's state oil company and the
U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum. Having the U.S. train soldiers
for such a mission would give visual aid to the rebels' view that
we are there to exploit Colombia's resources. This perception is
not one Washington should spread, especially with the conflict bogged
down in a military stalemate." The article also pragmatically
observed, "Bolstering ties to Colombia's security services
will strengthen the paramilitaries."