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The peace road is lined with guns
It bears repeating that Colombian politics cannot be
simplified.
There
is FARC, the largest left-wing guerilla group,
then ELN, the second largest, both of which began
their revolutionary
roads with high ideals about
reducing poverty, but now constitute the single
largest drug dealing consortium and
extortion-through-kidnapping
racket in this continent.
Their export records in cocaine and heroine beat any
of the Cali Cartels including Pablo Escobar.
This is
not to mention their records of robbery from and
murder of ordinary people including campesinos and
farmers,
and Indigenous peoples here.
Add to this the many right-wing paramilitary groups
who are adept are cold-blooded
murder of entire
families who may have stood by while the FARC took
their remaining cattle and pigs.
Either
way, the country people cannot win. They get
kidnapped by the FARC or ELN, and then when they cant
pay, they are
murdered. If they are robbed of their
little possessions by any of the groups, the opposing
group comes into town
and wrecks revenge on the whole
town. The truckies who are brave enough to run long
distances without an army
escort end up having their
trucks burnt by the FARC.
In the midst of this, the current government has
managed
(with a lot of funds from the USA and yes,
that comes with conditions) to increase medical,
education and military spending
by treble that of the
previous governments. There are more soldiers and
police in towns now where they dare not
go before. The
roads are safer to travel on because the army lines
the route. Many more corrupt politicians and
bureaucrats
are now in prison. And drug dealers are
extradited to the USA. Whatever the criticism of
Uribe, who was democratically
and overwhelmining
elected, his government has done wonders and people
appreciate the new sense of security and hope.
So
in this setting, you can imagine the anger last
week, when one of the big radio stations interviewed a
young woman from
Rebellion, a Danish anarchist group.
She proudly admitted sending USD $8000 of
organisation funds to FARC to
support their purchase
of guns for the revolution. She claimed that FARC
only hit military targets, neatly evading
the
facts...that FARC burnt to death 100 civilian women
and children in a church on the Pacific Coast last
year,
and in cold blood blew up a young homeless guy
who in fright had not delivered the bomb he was paid
to drop at a local
police station in Bogota. The
country went mad when they heard, and has been talking
ever since.
Many
people said that this woman should be punished by
her own government for funding the death of people in
a country not
her own.....
• The parents of the 15 year old girl who had been
kidnapped for a year and then murdered when the
moderate
income family could not deliver USD20 million
to FARC, then her body dumped near a morgue in the
downtown of Bogota.
• The family of Greens President Ingrid Betancourt who
has been kidnapped for nearly two years.
• The
people of Choco who live on the streets here
because they are too frightened to go back to an
insufferable existence
there where they have lost many
family members.
Uribe acted fast. He called for her extradition to
Colombia to
face trial for complicity in the murder of
Colombians.
People with the courage of their convictions are here
too
and should not be forgotten. There is a brigade of
20 young Quakers who have committed four years of
their young lives
to small villages deep in the
jungles, working and living with the people, and being
human shields. One of the
young men, a North
American, recently spoke of an instance where some
paramilitary came into the village and threatened
to
shoot one of the men. This young boy wrapped his arms
around the man and the paras were so astonished they
left.
That is true courage. And that is true
commitment. And that is what Colombians will never
forget.
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