On Plan Colombia, etc.....
It is a very complex problem, and I cannot argue with some of the difficulties in its enactment which you raise. But from my perspective, there are two really important parts to it which mandate its continuance. The first is that the military aid we have sent to Colombia has rejuvenated their ability to take on the FARC, who are plainly and simply the most dangerous guerrilla/terrorist group in the Western Hemisphere, as our own Department of State correctly rates them in my opinion. Just think about that point for a brief moment. Here the U.S. is involved in a world-wide War on Terror and it is the Colombian government which is taking the point in fighting the number one threat in the western hemisphere. The second reason to continue the program is that it has reassured Colombians that the world is aware of what is happening to them and that they are not standing alone. This is more necessary than one might expect if the facts come out into the open. Last year alone, over 1,100 people were killed by land mines in Colombia, mostly in the southeastern corner of the country in the area bordering Peru, Brazil and Venezuela; i.e. "FARC country." This is the largest number of citizens killed by land mines anywhere in the world (read about this
here at this link, go to end of text). I'll have more to say about Colombian casualties in a second.
I think there is also some evidence that the Colombian government may be winning the struggle, in spite of some of the problems you mentioned. There have been two leftist guerrilla groups fighting the Colombian government; the FARC and the ELN (
Ejercito de la Liberacion Nacional or the National Liberation Army). The ELN has been active mostly in northern, and especially northwest Colombia and
they are now asking for peace talks. So it appears to me that the Colombian government's strategy has been to eliminate the ELN first and then move on to the FARC and, if that's the case, it's working.
The FARC is by far the greater danger, in fact, they are a far greater danger than many people realize. They have the support of Hugo Chavez -- in spite of all his denials to the contrary -- and their involvement in the cocaine business earns them about $400 million per year according to one estimate I read recently. The FARC wants the Colombian government to essentially cede control over the southeastern corner of the country to them, so they can grow their coca, process it, and sell it with impunity. It is true that they have been able to rebound after eradication campaigns, but that is mainly because there is such a widespread area available for them to cultivate coca, a region larger than Rhode Island in fact. But their international connections, which include developing attachments with Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican EPR, a minor but dangerous guerrilla group, as well as rumors of Middle Eastern connections (I doubt the validity of all these reports, but with so many I've got to believe something must be true); mark the FARC as a danger that must be eliminated, at whatever the cost. For a $7.5 billion investment on our part, plus $4 billion from Colombia and $3.5 billion from elsewhere, I'd say that Plan Colombia is doing ok, in spite of the problems.
And finally, Colombians are dying in large numbers (thousands over the past fifteen years) in the drug wars and terrorist conflicts. These include hundreds of judges, at least one favored presidential candidate, numerous policemen at all levels, local government officials, federal agricultural agents (a favorite target of the FARC, who fear agricultural development in their areas of control), newspaper men (the drug cartels' favorite targets) and ordinary citizens. In spite of all of this, Colombia is standing with the U.S. in the War on Terror and its larger political landscape has moved away from the left, who they rightfully fear for the dangerous policies they truly represent. I say that if Colombia is sticking with us in spite of all the terrible costs they have paid, we should stick with them.
All you really have to know is that the Colombians hate Hugo Chavez and he doesn't like them in turn. A lot of people missed the fact that it was a Colombian reporter from Barranquilla who embarrassed Chavez so badly two days ago in his press conference by asking him to explain how he could speak to the peaceful nature of Venezuelan democracy when there are international reports of leftist murders of local opposition leaders surfacing regularly. And Chavez only asked her where she was from and when she told him, he moved on to the next question without answering her.
I like the Colombians.
Yours is an inspiring bit of news, St. Jacques. Very heartening. Even so, it contrasts with Evo Morales' presentation the other day. His presentation seems so oddly in contrast to what you've written about Columbia.
Last evening I did some digging around Chavez and Maduro. Found some fascinating data.
In re "And Chavez only asked her where she was from and when she told him, he moved on to the next question without answering her"... see here. It appears that Chavez is behind some privacy invasive software in his "coup" bids to power; listing names, how people voted, where they live, etc.:
--snip:
This window has lots of information to discriminate, harass, classify and label people near wher you live. You have the ID number, age, whether the person signed petitions against the opposition, against Chavez, whether the person is rated as "opposition", abstainer and in columns not shown, whether the person signed or not against Chavez and if his or her signature were rejected or not. Then in the buttons below, you can print, search, filter according to categories or simply click on the button labeled "patriots". Press that and you only see the true "Aryans" loyal to the process, those that signed against the opposition. These are your revolutionary, fascist buddies, ready to die or whatever for the revolution. In fact, if they are not on your side but they participate in any of the misiones, you can threaten them with removal of their meager perks, if they don't want to follow orders. Cute, immoral and perverse, no?--end snip
Second, there's a freep posted article from 2003 which details AQ/Hamas/Hezbollah connections to Venezuela.
--snips:
Venezuela's Margarita Island, a tourist destination with a large Arab population, has been identified as a source of funding and site of money laundering for the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups.
Investigators say Rahaman has ties to the region where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet. Local Arab traders there are accused of sending millions back to Hamas and Hezbollah. U.S., Argentine and Israeli authorities believe the area was the launching site for bombing attacks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, against the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center in 1994 that left 86 dead.
Brazilian federal police also said recently that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged al-Qaida chief of operations and Sept. 11 mastermind who was arrested earlier this month in Pakistan, visited the triple-border region at least twice in the 1990s.
And in 1999, police captured an Egyptian terror suspect affiliated with al-Qaida who established himself at the triple border in order to set up a network there, according to Argentine intelligence documents.
Rahaman had phone contact and other ties with suspected extremists in the triple border region, a U.S. official said in an interview. It is not clear whether Rahaman traveled to the area, the U.S. official said.
Investigators in Europe and Venezuela have not yet determined what Rahaman's target might have been, the U.S. official said.
But if he turns out to have been part of an al-Qaida operation, it would mark the first time the group has tried to launch an attack from Latin America, raising fears of a new front in the U.S. government's war on terror just hours from Miami. U.S. law enforcement officials are monitoring the case, but have not opened an official investigation.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who heads the Washington office for Rand Corporation, noted that al-Qaida's Web site was paid for from a Caracas-based bank account for a brief period last year.
--end snips
I have absolutely no doubts in re FARC; an utterly heinous organization. Some years back, doing some digging on another subject? I found "FARC" representations at California colleges. These, if they still remain, no longer show up on search engines.
P.S. My favorite coffee beans are from Columbia.