Colombia War: "Highest Priority"

A war is being fought in Colombia right now. A six month war plan is
in place. The offensive is called "Operation Thanatos," named after
the Greek god of death and is divided into three phases.

Colombia is currently fighting its largest insurgency group, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in its own territory. A
42,139-square-kilometer area of Colombia was given to them three years
ago in an effort to establish a peace process, known as the
demilitarized zone, or neutral zone.

The first phase of the offensive is set to destroy rebels' logistical
positions, together with bombing, and is to take six weeks. The second
stage includes the penetration of counter-guerrilla troops throughout
rural areas occupied by the rebel group; it is aimed at retaking the
territory and will last for 15 weeks. The third will consist of the
permanent installation of battalions and counter-insurgency units in
the five municipalities.

On February 20th, Colombian President Andres Pastrana made the
dramatic decision to rupture the Peace Talks by ordering the armed
forces to retake the neutral zone, giving only two and a half hours
notice before sending planes and helicopters to bomb the zone. There
was virtually no time to organize protection; civilians in the
demilitarized zone were immediately engulfed in war.

The first day of the campaign, warplanes and helicopters flew more
than 200 aerial bombardments were carried out that night, dropping
500lb bombs; three civilians were reported dead.

Within hours after the army offensive began, rebel units struck back,
focusing on infrastructure. The FARC blacked out wide sections of the
country by dynamiting electrical substations and transmission lines,
blasting bridges, and blocking key highways across the country.

The Colombian military bombed targets to coincide with elite Rapid
Deployment Forces, backed by dozens of Air Force paratroopers sweeping
into the zone. Most of the 13,000 ground troops deployed to the region
are engaged in war, in and around the zone.

The zone has been bombed continuously since February 21st, causing
forest fires, and destroying homes, highways, and bridges throughout
the region. Many more deaths are expected as a result of the bombing.

Hostilities have increased all over the country. Battles are being
fought between Government troops supported by paramilitaries against
guerrilla groups.

Six of the country's 32 provinces have been affected dramatically,
plunging that part of the country into chaos and fear. The civilian
population is increasingly isolated from the rest of the country; they
are without roads or river communications, or fuel for generators.
Residents are suffering bombardments, fumigations, massacres, forced
displacements, and lack of water and basic foodstuffs.

Most harmful to the region is the fact that the paramilitaries, the
United Self-defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) have entered the area to
hunt down guerrilla sympathizers. Colombian television aired footage
of hundreds of well-equipped paramilitary fighters amassed at a jungle
site entering the southern Colombian ex-rebel haven.

The military has not allowed the press into the region, the CAFOD
(Catholic Agency For Overseas Development) reports that, "Because of
military control, little information about conditions in the region is
reaching the media." They have explained that, "Because of the threat
of political violence, residents who can be contacted are careful... a
Protestant pastor who left the zone and reported that civilians were
dying because the military was preventing humanitarian relief from
entering the zone has been murdered on his return, presumably by
paramilitaries."

Currently, the religious communities are best placed to give account
to what is taking place. They are having conferences, issuing
statements, seeking every venue available to them to give alert
regarding this situation. A letter sent March 13th to all US congress
members, from CMSM and LCWR (Women and Men's Catholic leadership
organization) gives testimony, "Our own people [are] there and are ...
informing us that the worst violence on non-combatants continues to be
perpetrated by the long-standing paramilitary groups throughout the
countryside."

According to anonymous sources the number of civilians to be
assassinated and massacred since March number in the hundreds.
"Paramilitary ranks arrive with former members of the community and
former FARC members that have joined the paramilitaries and are the
ones who have been guiding the cleansing of the population."

CHOOSING ALLIES

In response to the escalation of the war in Colombia, the White House
is seeking to expand the "War on Terrorism" to Colombia by singling
out the enemy, the left-wing rebels or the FARC. And to accomplish
this they will inadvertently be assisting the AUC, a military
organization that is on the United States Terrorist List.
International human rights groups have repeatedly accused Colombia's
military forces of tacitly backing the paramilitaries.

Examine the Afghanistan model: how the goal of destroying the USSR,
led to assisting regional mujahadeen forces, and their eventual
evolution into the Taliban. The US must reevaluate the state of its
allies, revise its objectives.

The CMSM and LCWR letter also addresses the paramilitary phenomenon,
"a group not being referred to in the current U.S. public debate about
the crisis there. Our people lived and died with the dramatic
consequences of uncontrolled paramilitary groups in the years of the
Central American wars."

Paramilitary forces have increased their number and influence
dramatically in the last few years, in 1998 they numbered some 4,000
troops, they now number over 11,000. AUC forces operate in 70% of
Colombia's territory. According to Colombia's Defense Ministry and
Human Rights Watch, the AUC is the country's leading author of
civilian massacres. The AUC's strategy of depriving guerrillas of
supplies and intelligence has contributed to the internal displacement
of over 2 million people. [http://www.hrw.org/]

The AUC's top leaders, Carlos Castano and Salvatore Mancuso are narco-
traffickers. They now have their own political party, the National and
Democratic Movement of the Autodefensas. Following recent
congressional elections, Moncuso speaks of their successes, "we
celebrate with patriotic sentiment ... we have largely surpassed our
goal of having 35 percent support in Congress." [www.aucolombia.com]

Maneuverings that followed recent congressional elections indicate
that Presidential Candidate Alvaro Uribe Velez is set to win. Uribe is
believed to be a front for the AUC and has stated that he will create
a national civilian militia and arm a million rural Colombians to
patrol the countryside. He has also pledged to strip Congress to one
chamber, to rid it of corruption. The rise of Uribe and the AUC are in
direct relationship to the amount of military assistance the U.S. has
been supplying to the Colombian government. The increased violence has
lead to increased kidnappings and attacks on the cities by guerillas.
Pastrana has clearly lead his country to war and not to peace, as he
has proclaimed. The peace talks appear to be a front for gaining time
for Colombian military to arm and train.

U.S. OBJECTIVES

U.S. military involvement in Colombia has been increasing
exponentially over the last few years. Congress approved $1.3 billion
for Colombia in 2000, a multiyear appropriation aimed at halting the
cultivation of coca and the production of cocaine.

Now the U.S. is seeking to increase the level of its involvement by
moving from the "war on drugs" to include the "war on terrorism". With
the U.S. functioning in a kind of "state of war" mode, priorities
placed on national security and access to oil are the motivations
pushing its role to become more involved.

U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, Luis Alberto Moreno, recently explained
that "In the Western Hemisphere, Colombia is of the 'highest priority'
for the United States," explaining that, "the FARC are not a terrorist
organization of global reach but regional, and the United States
shares this region," said Moreno. [El Espectador 03/06]

The administration is seeking another $400 million for the next fiscal
year as part of the war on drugs. An additional $100 million counter
insurgency aid to protect British Petroleum's Oil Pipeline, $29
million to help Colombia combat terrorist kidnappings and $25 million
to provide "critically needed training and operational assistance.

What do our military-minded rulers have in store us? Colombia can
return to the peace process. The United States can support Colombia's
return to democracy. Aid for Colombia needs to support civil society
- -- not war.