Colombia Needs Help in its Own War on Terror
by Maria Cristina Caballero, Boston Globe op-ed
September 28, 2024

Washington is paying more attention to Colombia's war on terror.

Colombia's warring factions - guerrillas and outlawed counter-guerrillas (or paramilitaries) - have been fueling their operations with drug money. In an announcement timed to coincide with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's visit to Washington this week, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the US government will seek extradition of Carlos Castano, leader of the right-wing paramilitary, alleging that he has brought 17 tons of cocaine into the United States and Europe since 1997.

Castano once said that 70 percent of his organization's operations were financed by drug money. This week he denied involvement in the drug trade.

Uribe met President George W. Bush and asked for further military assistance for his country's fight against guerrillas. ''We look forward to working with President Uribe to hold others to account if they continue to terrorize the world,'' Bush said. ''Terrorists attacked our country and hurt us. They attack Colombia and hurt them, they're still equally as guilty.''

The Bush administration has described Colombia's main guerrilla group (known as FARC) as the most dangerous international terrorist group in this hemisphere. Otto Reich, undersecretary of state for Latin America, recently said, ''Our security, and the future of our hemisphere are tied to Colombia's victory in its war on terror.''

Colombia's crisis of governance is evident: The rate of homicide is the world's highest (73.3 per 1,000 people killed annually compared with 8.2 in the United States), while the poverty rate is growing: 64 percent of the population lives under the poverty line.

Indeed, Colombia urgently needs more comprehensive attention. Phillip McLean wrote in the summer edition of The Washington Quarterly that if failed states on the other side of the globe can threaten the United States, then Colombia, just three hours by air from Miami, merits priority; ''A failed Colombia is truly a scary prospect.''

In June Bush authorized the use of US military aid against the guerrillas. Reich said, ''These are no insurgents ... These are terrorists. In the meantime, the paramilitaries have been focusing on selective murders and smaller-scale massacres, with the goal of keeping their bloody tactics off the international organizations' radar.

Uribe recently declared a state of emergency, and announced that Colombia plans to arm 15,000 peasants. The new soldiers, mainly poor farmers, will live in their homes. In theory, government forces will back these peasant soldiers. But there are no government forces in more than 170 counties. How will these peasants defend themselves, and their families, from trained guerrilla members? Is this a recipe for disaster?

Uribe recently created two ''security zones'' in which military commanders are authorized to conduct searches without warrants, restrict travel, interrogate civilians and impose curfews. There are fears that these measures could lead to a ''witch hunt.''

What are the US perspectives on the Colombian war? US officials point out the importance of strengthening the military forces until a new negotiation is viable. Others, such as Jonathan Stevenson, in an article for the journal National Interest, argue: ''With the FARC in Colombia and the PLO in Palestine futile efforts at patient negotiation suggest that [negotiations] may not be.''

Julie Sewig, deputy director at the Council on Foreign Relations, states that Colombia's strategy could be influenced by the experience in Afghanistan, which demonstrated the potential for American air power when combined with local proxies and limited US ground forces.

She also stated that with US special forces having been deployed to Georgia and the Philippines, the next months could well see the start of a debate on whether to provide such aid to the Colombian military.

If Washington expects to help Colombia, it would need to start an in-depth discussion about how to decrease demand for drugs in the United States. US addicts buy about 300 tons of Colombian cocaine per year, and all the illegal warring factions continue fueling their terrorist activities with this drug money.

Colombia's problems will hardly be solved while US consumption continues to fuel a multibillion-dollar narcotics industry. In this regard, the US government has a key and unavoidable responsibility.

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Maria Cristina Caballero is a Colombian journalist. Currently, she is a Center for Public Leadership Fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 9/28/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

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