News (Media Awareness Project) - US WI: Editorial: America's Stake In Colombia |
| Title: | US WI: Editorial: America's Stake In Colombia |
| Published On: | 2002-08-09 |
| Source: | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-22 21:00:34 |
AMERICA'S STAKE IN COLOMBIA
Any doubts about the power and audacity of the rebel movement in Colombia were dispelled by Wednesday's mortar attack that killed 17 people in the capital during the inauguration of President Alvaro Uribe. It was a brazen challenge to Uribe to make good on his campaign promise to crack down on Colombia's leftist rebels.
Washington has plenty of reason to help in Uribe's fight; Colombia is the world's largest processor of cocaine, and it supplies about 90% of the cocaine that comes into the United States and a large percentage of the heroin, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.
The rebel movement in Colombia is financed in part by profits from the drug business; last week, President Bush signed legislation that expands U.S. military assistance to Colombia so it can wage the fight more effectively.
There does not appear to be a political solution to this fight, at least not soon. The insurgents have been battling the government for 38 years. Uribe's predecessor, Andres Pastrana, tried for three years to negotiate with the rebels, but in the end they double-crossed him.
As a sign of good faith, Pastrana granted the insurgents a huge demilitarized zone in the southern part of the country while peace talks were under way. But the rebels built up their forces in this supposed safe haven and used it to hide kidnapping victims.
Uribe, determined not to repeat this mistake, proposes to double the number of police officers and soldiers in Colombia. In a more controversial move, he talks of organizing up to 1 million civilians to cooperate with the badly outmanned and underfunded security forces.
In the past, international groups have accused the Colombian military of serious human rights violations, and organizing and arming civilian forces could create paramilitary mobs that the government might not be able to control.
Uribe is an experienced politician and a U.S.-educated lawyer who seems genuinely intent on taming the rebels and rehabilitating his country's economy. The U.S., for reasons of self-interest, ought to be a part of that effort, but Washington needs to remind Uribe not to permit the kind of atrocities that have marred that struggle in the past.
Any doubts about the power and audacity of the rebel movement in Colombia were dispelled by Wednesday's mortar attack that killed 17 people in the capital during the inauguration of President Alvaro Uribe. It was a brazen challenge to Uribe to make good on his campaign promise to crack down on Colombia's leftist rebels.
Washington has plenty of reason to help in Uribe's fight; Colombia is the world's largest processor of cocaine, and it supplies about 90% of the cocaine that comes into the United States and a large percentage of the heroin, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.
The rebel movement in Colombia is financed in part by profits from the drug business; last week, President Bush signed legislation that expands U.S. military assistance to Colombia so it can wage the fight more effectively.
There does not appear to be a political solution to this fight, at least not soon. The insurgents have been battling the government for 38 years. Uribe's predecessor, Andres Pastrana, tried for three years to negotiate with the rebels, but in the end they double-crossed him.
As a sign of good faith, Pastrana granted the insurgents a huge demilitarized zone in the southern part of the country while peace talks were under way. But the rebels built up their forces in this supposed safe haven and used it to hide kidnapping victims.
Uribe, determined not to repeat this mistake, proposes to double the number of police officers and soldiers in Colombia. In a more controversial move, he talks of organizing up to 1 million civilians to cooperate with the badly outmanned and underfunded security forces.
In the past, international groups have accused the Colombian military of serious human rights violations, and organizing and arming civilian forces could create paramilitary mobs that the government might not be able to control.
Uribe is an experienced politician and a U.S.-educated lawyer who seems genuinely intent on taming the rebels and rehabilitating his country's economy. The U.S., for reasons of self-interest, ought to be a part of that effort, but Washington needs to remind Uribe not to permit the kind of atrocities that have marred that struggle in the past.
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