Guest post by Chief Wiggum.
The San Francisco Chronicle has an article that indicates that the Colombian Marxist group FARC is on its last legs:
Colombia’s efforts have rebels ‘falling apart’Residents of this picturesque hill town set amid poultry and dairy farms readily recall the day leftist guerrillas bombed City Hall and then subjected them to extortion, robbery and worse. “If you didn’t cooperate with them, they took you away, they kidnapped you and they killed you,” said Hector Velasquez, a 45-year-old truck driver.
Velasquez is referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which dominated the region’s 6,000 inhabitants for a decade until government soldiers drove it out in 2002. FARC’s supremacy in Quetame had long symbolized the weakness of the central government, which has been embroiled in a 44-year civil war with FARC and a smaller rebel group called the National Liberation Army. Both groups are on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.
But since 2000, the army – fat with $5 billion in U.S. military aid to defeat the rebels and combat drug traffickers – has driven the rebels out of Quetame and organized area peasants into a self-defense force. Today, only a few bullet holes around the main square – a 2-hour bus ride from the capital, Bogota – are reminders of the guerrillas’ reign.
Across Colombia, there are similar stories, causing some giddy officials to proclaim an imminent victory over Latin America’s oldest, richest and most powerful guerrilla army. They argue that FARC is now nothing more than an unorganized armed militia.
“The FARC is falling apart,” said Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos.
This article was quite a surprise, as the likelihood of a Colombian “victory” in this ongoing civil war is problematic. History shows that “light at the end of the tunnel” scenarios can be ephemeral. Kaplan’s discussion of Colombia in Imperial Grunts didn’t suggest a resolution anytime soon.
Counter indications? The failure of the US Congress to approve the Colombia free trade agreement. After the raid into Equador of a FARC camp, and the discovery of communications on a FARC laptop indicating that an Obama administration would be less supportive of the Colombian government.
Kaplan’s description of FARC sums up what the organization is about: “Karl Marx at the top and Adam Smith all the way down the command chain.”
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tdaxp » Blog Archive » Democratic Congress against Colombia added these pithy words on Apr 24 08 at 2:50 pm[...] Colombia is close to winning the war against Marxist rebels. [...]
Julián Ortega Martínez added these pithy words on 24 Apr 08 at 2:38 pmMost Colombians would love FARC to be finished, including me. Nevertheless, that’s (less) far to happen. Of course, during and after the failed peace process (1999-2002, safe haven included) FARC had a huge territorial control, and with Álvaro Uribe some things have indeed improved. But all Colombian administrations, including Álvaro Uribe’s, have failed by treating FARC as a conventional army, forgetting it’s still a guerrilla group which, once in a while, tends to retreat deep in the jungle.
Juan Manuel Santos, for example, is a professional traitor, who managed to create a political party (Party of the U, the U obviously stands for Uribe) in 6 months for the 2006 Congress elections, formed by other traitors who were elected thanks to Uribe’s popularity. His cousin is Vicepresident Francisco Santos and both own El Tiempo, Colombia’s main and only national newspaper (until May, when long-time rival El Espectador, currently a weekly, will be back as a daily).
Plan Colombia has been here since Pastrana’s administration (1998-2002), but only last year an important FARC chief has been… well, killed. The raid into Ecuador killed FARC number 2, a kidnapper, terrorist, and sexual molester who was involved in the hostage/kidnapped swap with French, Spanish and Swiss governments. And now they have 3 Toshiba laptops with a lot of information who reportedly incriminates a lot of people, including Venezuelan and Ecuadorian officials, among others.
The laptops are a blessing right now, specially when around 60 congresspeople, most of them of the ruling coalition, are being investigated for alleged links to blood-thirsty paramilitary squads. On Tuesday, Uribe’s cousin and closest political ally, Mario Uribe Escobar, tried to seek asylum in Costa Rica after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Now, in less than 2 weeks, Interpol official will finish to assess and verify the information on the laptops, so the government can start its counter-offensive. On Monday, in an interview with the local version of FOX News (RCN TV), paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso (currently in jail as part of the so-called demobilization process) proudly said that paramilitaries have infiltrated “all institutions of (Colombian) State.” El Tiempo and RCN are part of a huge media strategy, so far successful for Uribe, who yesterday “denounced” a probe on his alleged involvement in a massacre in 1997, when he was governor of Antioquia department.
The one who said that FARC are an “unorganized armed militia” is Uribe’s main adviser, José Obdulio Gaviria, cousin of narco-terrorists Roberto and Pablo Escobar, and brother of two men jailed in the US for drug-trafficking in the 80s, who are now working for a government agency (Gaviria can be considered as Uribe’s propagandist and “ideologue”). Maybe there are indeed problems of “communications” between the FARC’s Secretariat (BTW, no member of the Secretariat has been captured yet) and the other fronts (as the murder of the 11 lawmakers last year), but unfortunately, FARC will be still around for a while. And of course, as Pablo Escobar’s wife said when his husband was killed in 1999, that his death won’t put a stop on drug-trafficking, Colombia’s problems won’t be solved if FARC are over, though FARC is a huge load in our minds.
A great blog in English to follow what happens in Colombia is http://cipcol.org/
Julián Ortega Martínez added these pithy words on 24 Apr 08 at 2:45 pmOh, and I should add opposition parties (Liberal Party, which Uribe used to belong to, and leftist Alternative Democratic Pole) aren’t quite useful too, and have been discredited by the media strategy I told you before. The latter, a coalition of left-wing and left-of centre parties, have among its members noisy FARC supporters (few but noisy) and its leaders have not been tough on FARC, despite its crimes against humanity and terrorist practices, a useful ‘weakness’ for the propaganda machine.
Yeah, we Colombians have been put to choose among FARC Marxist terrorism with all its allies in the State and AUC paramilitary mafia with all its allies in the State…
DJ added these pithy words on 25 Apr 08 at 7:42 amI guess we should not expect the media to explore the Obama representatives meetings with FARC.
Adrian added these pithy words on 25 Apr 08 at 12:22 pmDJ - what are you talking about? FP blog said FARC’s references to Obama were wishful thinking:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8340Got anything more than a conspiracy theory based on your own wishful thinking?
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