Who Are the Players?
The FARC. The FARC guerilla army has been active in Southern Colombian jungles since 1964. It originated in self-defense organizations of peasants who were being hounded off their lands by the Colombian army acting on behalf of the large landowners. Other guerilla armies formed in the 1970s.
When, in the 1980s the government tried to end the guerilla war, the FARC founded its own, legal political movement. But within months most of its 3500 members were assassinated or disappeared and the FARC melted back into the jungle.
Today the FARC and the other guerilla forces are stronger than ever, thanks in part to the taxes they levy on coca fields and transport, but thanks also to the support of peasants to whom the FARC offers some protection against government and paramilitary violence. However, many commentators believe that the FARC has lost its clear political focus on the protection of poor peasants.(7)
The Drug Dealers. Since the 1970s drug dealers have also been active in Colombia. They have processed coca leaves into cocaine and have used Colombia as their base for smuggling drugs into the US.
They fiercely resisted all government attempts to crack down, not hesitating to murder judges and prosecutors who threatened them. In 1989 they assassinated the Liberal presidential candidate Luis Carlos Gaitan.
Many drug barons invested their huge profits in large land holdings and formed their private armies-the paramilitaries-to protect those. Having moved into the class of large landowners, they have formed an alliance with the most conservative strata of Colombian society. Together drug lords and large landowners jointly finance the paramilitary armies. (8)
The Military. The Colombian military, the main beneficiary of the Plan Colombia, is corrupt, inefficient, and a threat to democracy.
The mass murder of FARC members who tried to become legitimate political candidates in the 1980s is usually laid at the door of the military.(9) Since then the army has continued to kill large numbers of citizens they are supposed to protect.
According to the Andean Commission of Jurists-Colombian Section (CAJ-SC), of the political murders in the first nine months of 1993 in which a perpetrator could be identified, approximately fifty-six percent were committed by the army and security forces (10)
As military aid from the US swelled the Colombian government's military budget, the army has become less effective in its war against the guerillas and suffered progressively more serious defeats. The military has failed again and again to protect civilians against massacres by paramilitary groups.(11) Instead they have armed paramilitaries, shared intelligence with them and cooperated with them as well as with the drug dealers. Human Rights Watch has found detailed evidence of the close cooperation of Army personnel with both the drug dealers and paramilitary groups. (12)
The Paramilitaries. The paramilitaries are the private armies of the drug barons turned large landowners, As such they secure routes for the smuggling of drugs and the importation of illegal arms. (13)
The most notorious of those, the AUC under Carlos Castaño, is guilty of a large number of murders and great cruelty against ordinary country folk in Colombia. In the war to death against the leftist guerillas the paramilitaries kill large numbers of peasants for allegedly supporting the guerillas or merely to make quite sure that they will be too terrified ever to do so. Their savagery clears the countryside of peasants, whose lands are then absorbed into the large properties of former drug lords, turned landowners.
As the Colombian military loses its effectiveness, the paramilitaries do most of the fighting against the guerillas and devastate the Colombian countryside.
The Government. The Colombian government bears a good deal of responsibility for this state of affairs. At least 40 out of the last 50 years, the country has been ruled under a state of siege where civil rights were suspended and political opposition was not tolerated. (14)
Citizens have not been able to mobilize and express their grievances or advocate changes in government policy. Violent solutions to the very real problems in the country appeared to be the only solution to many well-meaning citizens. Colombia is a democracy in name only.
Ordinary citizens first heard about the Plan Colombia when it was announced in the newspapers. No public discussion preceded its formulation or debate among elected representatives.
When, in the 1980s the government tried to end the guerilla war, the FARC founded its own, legal political movement. But within months most of its 3500 members were assassinated or disappeared and the FARC melted back into the jungle.
Today the FARC and the other guerilla forces are stronger than ever, thanks in part to the taxes they levy on coca fields and transport, but thanks also to the support of peasants to whom the FARC offers some protection against government and paramilitary violence. However, many commentators believe that the FARC has lost its clear political focus on the protection of poor peasants.(7)
The Drug Dealers. Since the 1970s drug dealers have also been active in Colombia. They have processed coca leaves into cocaine and have used Colombia as their base for smuggling drugs into the US.
They fiercely resisted all government attempts to crack down, not hesitating to murder judges and prosecutors who threatened them. In 1989 they assassinated the Liberal presidential candidate Luis Carlos Gaitan.
Many drug barons invested their huge profits in large land holdings and formed their private armies-the paramilitaries-to protect those. Having moved into the class of large landowners, they have formed an alliance with the most conservative strata of Colombian society. Together drug lords and large landowners jointly finance the paramilitary armies. (8)
The Military. The Colombian military, the main beneficiary of the Plan Colombia, is corrupt, inefficient, and a threat to democracy.
The mass murder of FARC members who tried to become legitimate political candidates in the 1980s is usually laid at the door of the military.(9) Since then the army has continued to kill large numbers of citizens they are supposed to protect.
According to the Andean Commission of Jurists-Colombian Section (CAJ-SC), of the political murders in the first nine months of 1993 in which a perpetrator could be identified, approximately fifty-six percent were committed by the army and security forces (10)
As military aid from the US swelled the Colombian government's military budget, the army has become less effective in its war against the guerillas and suffered progressively more serious defeats. The military has failed again and again to protect civilians against massacres by paramilitary groups.(11) Instead they have armed paramilitaries, shared intelligence with them and cooperated with them as well as with the drug dealers. Human Rights Watch has found detailed evidence of the close cooperation of Army personnel with both the drug dealers and paramilitary groups. (12)
The Paramilitaries. The paramilitaries are the private armies of the drug barons turned large landowners, As such they secure routes for the smuggling of drugs and the importation of illegal arms. (13)
The most notorious of those, the AUC under Carlos Castaño, is guilty of a large number of murders and great cruelty against ordinary country folk in Colombia. In the war to death against the leftist guerillas the paramilitaries kill large numbers of peasants for allegedly supporting the guerillas or merely to make quite sure that they will be too terrified ever to do so. Their savagery clears the countryside of peasants, whose lands are then absorbed into the large properties of former drug lords, turned landowners.
As the Colombian military loses its effectiveness, the paramilitaries do most of the fighting against the guerillas and devastate the Colombian countryside.
The Government. The Colombian government bears a good deal of responsibility for this state of affairs. At least 40 out of the last 50 years, the country has been ruled under a state of siege where civil rights were suspended and political opposition was not tolerated. (14)
Citizens have not been able to mobilize and express their grievances or advocate changes in government policy. Violent solutions to the very real problems in the country appeared to be the only solution to many well-meaning citizens. Colombia is a democracy in name only.
Ordinary citizens first heard about the Plan Colombia when it was announced in the newspapers. No public discussion preceded its formulation or debate among elected representatives.
