Colombia: More Bad News, More
Interference by the United States
August 9, 2001
The government of Colombia
has just broken off peace talks with the second largest rebel group in that
country. According to the newspaper account,
the U.S. State Department supported this move. A better wording would
likely be "ordered" this move. The U.S. has pumped over a billion
dollars into Colombia, including a huge amount of military aid. As in
the past, the infinitely powerful Northern uncle calls the shots.
Equally alarming is the report
yesterday that an ultra-violent right-wing paramilitary force, the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia:
- numbers 8,000 men
- is extremely well-financed
to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, by donations from large
landowners, ranchers, industrialists and financiers
- enjoys the collaboration
of certain military units
- has killed nearly 1,300
people this year, including trade unionists, peasant leaders and human
rights workers.
According to the Attorney
General of Colombia, the Self-Defense Forces are waging "a war without
quarter against the Colombian left."
Colombia: Parallels to
1980's Nicaragua
Supposedly, "alarmed
officials in Washington" are pressuring Colombia president Andrés
Pastrana to dismantle the organization. Sure. How much would
anyone like to wager that the U.S. military/CIA/NSA is deeply involved
in the activities of these paramilitary killers?
Indeed, we have here in
Colombia a Contras-type terrorist organization. Just like the Contras,
the Self-Defense Forces earns huge sums from the cocaine trade. And,
of course, just like the Contras were fighting to restore the Somocista
oligarchy in Nicaragua, the Self-Defense Forces are fighting to maintain the
privilege and extreme wealth enjoyed by the Colombia elite at the expense of
the impoverished citizens of that country.
I earlier wrote about how Coca-Cola and some of
its bottlers in Colombia have been accused of utilizing right-wing
paramilitary groups to intimidate and assassinate labor organizers. I discussed elsewhere how the
Bush administration has "re-hired" hard-line Reagan-era diplomats
like Elliott Abrams, John Negroponte and Otto Reich, and has set up a
well-funded effort to interfere in Nicaragua's upcoming presidential
elections.
Doesn't this all sound
nauseatingly familiar?
Despite the end of the Cold
War, the United States is continuing its murderous ways in Central and South
America. Our southern neighbors have a saying, "so far from God,
so close to the United States." All I can say is, God help the
suffering poor in Central and South America. |
