We read in the Establishment Media how the US gives money to the Colombian rulers so that the "war on drugs" may be fought.
After encountering an interesting note in the Feb. 1999 World Oil Journal, I saw something noteworthy regarding Colombia that there is indeed more to the program than waging a "war on drugs." This little bar mentioned of the "understood unlimited potential" of oil exploration in Colombia, but some 25% of oil related business activity had declined due to the "political instability."
How coincidental that the "war on drugs" happens to coincide with the fact that the FARC leftist rebels now control 45% of the countryside (an area almost the size of three El Salvadors). How coincidental the liberal-centrist establishment media are on the go making a spotlight of Colombia and the urgency to "fight the war on drugs."
A former Special Forces veteran, Stan Goff, reveals just what a program the "war on drugs" is in Latin America.
The heat is on. We're being prepared for war in Colombia. It's the bulk of our foreign affairs news. If you have sons, daughters, neighbors, brothers and friends who may have to be shipped off in the event that the death squads and Colombian military lose control, they are being placed in danger of risking their lives so that Shell, Conoco, BP and Occidental may have a safer road for greater profits. But you will be told they will be defending "freedom and democracy." I can see a Bush in the White House making that proclamation now.
Be it Gore or Bush, the Demo-Publican stance regarding Colombia will be the same. Only the details of HOW will be argued in Washington's planning rooms and debate halls.
The Reaganite/Buckley National Review simply made the usual power for power's sake stance regarding the leftist rebels. "Power" is all that the leftists want, according to this right-wing periodical not known for detailing the work of the CIA, Pentagon and the Fortune 500 in Latin American affairs. (Notice how in the National Review article, 12/6/99, that this rag is not concerned about the "war on drugs", rather it wants to bad-mouth the leftist FARC just for the heck of it. But then we know of Buckley gang's stance on drugs, eh?).
What the extremely anti-socialist National Review forgot to mention is that the FARC gave up the violence some several years ago in a peace agreement, and had many people who won elections...but the leftist winners were brutally and systematically murdered by the Colombian security state and death squads (while Washington smiled silently at this display of "electoral democracy"). Thus the FARC took up arms once again to "take power."
Supposedly we are to take this "war on drugs" seriously when much of the US taxpayer aid going to the Colombian authorities actually makes the drug trade flourish. Many upper echelons of Colombian authority are in the drug trade, for example, the Colombian Air Force is one such cocaine cartel. Many of the paramilitary death squads quite intimate with the Colombian military (behind media curtains) are also involved in the drug trade.
Look at Carlos Castano, leader of the 5,000 member AUC death squad who's knee deep in drugs. The mainstream media may know he's deep in them...what they may not detail closely is how Castano is quite cozy with the Colombian military (which is quite cozy with US elites).
The CIA seems to love drug lords.
The leftist FARC only taxes what independent growers of coca produce. These growers are poor farmers, not drug lords like Castano nor cocaine traffickers like the Colombian Air Force. Since the New World Economy's rules do not actually see fit for these poor farmers to produce anything else, they duly appreciate the protection given by the FARC.
We are to gratuitously lavish money on Colombia when our own laws like the Leahy Amendment prohibits US taxpayer money from reaching those Colombian military units that engage in violating human rights. Well, leave it to Republican Reps. like Ben Gilman and Dan Burton along with the CIA and Pentagon to find ways to sidestep. It's a tough task for them (maybe not), since some 70% of the Colombian military are engaged in violating human rights.
Cuba does not suffer from grave starvation, death squad repression and helicopter gunship assaults from its leaders but certainly sanctions from the US rulers. That's what normally happens when an independent government like Castro's refuses to let the Fortune 500 rape the country. And a nation like Colombia where state-killing of people are dimes-a-dozen, it gets $800 million, courtesy of the United States taxpayers.
Colombia is not about the "war on drugs." It is a program by the US entrenched interests to make sure that an alternative non-capitalist order does not take power, since these nominally leftist Latin American governments have a history of feeding and housing the mass of poor even if the rich have their personal economies messed up. These "infectious examples" would then rot the rest of the barrel, thereby giving hope to people around the world who are sick of starvation wages, cruel Taiwanese bosses, US imperialist companies polluting their homes and CIA trained death-squads among other things.
It is a program where the US elites will use the lives of American young men and women to make Colombia a safer place for the business of the multinational oil companies. Already, several US servicemen have died "defending freedom and democracy" or "waging the war on drugs."
Now in the middle of 2002, President Pastrana stepped down only to have Alvaro Uribe win the election. Uribe is a Hitlerian fascist. His inaugeration saw the parade of 200,000 troops, 20,000 extra security police, lockdown of Bogota airspace and...some bullet-oriented fireworks. He is also a Mother Goose of death squad activity in Colombia. Quite a guy. The suffering of the Colombian people will continue as well as the bloodshed. But let us not delude ourselves into thinking because of these further fascistic developments that the US program managers will stop the "Plan Colombia" intiative or decrease aid to this terrorist government that uses paramilitaries to kill off Colombian dissent.
Escalation City. Kind of smells like Vietnam all over again, though in a 2K context. If you have to see your loved one shipped off to defend corporate profits or exploration grounds once again in some far off nation, blame it on the entrenched interests structure which includes the GoreBush creature.