Colombia's President Uribe and the Clownish Narco-terrorists
For more heartening coverage of the hostage rescue in Colombia, see this story from Saturday's Wall Street Journal and this opinion article, "Vindication for Colombia's Uribe" from Saturday's Washington Post. Schumacher-Matos usefully takes on Human Rights Watch for overstating Colombia's human rights problems; this organization seems interested only in proving that "right-wing" regimes are terrible and seems entirely willing to overlook the depredations of "left-wing" narco-guerrillas. It seems to be a prisoner of the paradigm of Latin American studies departments—that all conflict in Latin America is between the left-leaning "people" and right-wing oppressive regimes. Believers of this paradigm overlook the fact that President Alvaro Uribe and his government have approval ratings from the people of Colombia far higher than those of almost any other leaders or governments in Latin America (or the United States, now and for most of recent history, for that matter). Schumacher-Matos does criticize Uribe for seeking to change the constitution and seek a third consecutive term. "He should build the legitimacy of the presidency by letting it go to someone else," he concludes, without mentioning the shining example of such renunciation, George Washington. As much as I admire Uribe, I am inclined to think this is good advice.
One of the heartening things about the rescue operation is that the Colombian Army's brilliant performance makes the FARC narco-guerrillas look like such idiots. They were completely bamboozled and fooled. Terrorists want us to live in fear of them. Now we are free to laugh at them. The greatest weapon against terrorism is ridicule. Who will want to enlist in the guerrilla army that can't shoot straight? That everyone in the world is laughing at? That was outsmarted and outmaneuvered and humiliated?
Tags: Colombia | terrorism | Alvaro Uribe | FARC
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Revolutionary Romanticism
Every modern revolutionary movement turns into some corrupt tyranny of the left. They are, generally, much more murderous and dangerous to their neighbors than any right wing governments. Castro, on a far smaller population base, killed tens of thousands more than did the Argentine generals, who were about the worst Latin American right-wing dictatorship. Plus Castro did a much more thorough job of wrecking Cuba than they did Argentina.
Let us have no romantic fantasies about how wonderful FARC is, and how "The People" are supporting it and benefit from its beneficent, socialist character. They're a bunch of muderous Commie thugs, founded by sociopathic intellectuals drunk on fantasy ideologies just like the Khmer Rouge and Sendero Luminoso, who have survived for 44 years by support from other Commies and through participating in the narcotics trade. If they ever got hold of Colombia it would look like Cuba in no time, or worse.
Columbias Narco Terrorists
We always have a skewed perspective on events in Latin America when our news is controlled by the corporate media. We need to look at the FARC as a failed revolutionary movement that got corrupted by corrupting conditions in its quest for survival under state terrorism by the Columbian government that was co-signed by the U.S.A. Above all, revollutionaries must stand upon their basic humane principles and keep their original vision in mind. What is the role of drug addicts inside the United States in all of this in accordance with economic laws of supply and demand?
Do your homework, Mr. Barone
Mr. Barone,
Like your government, you fail to understand why the FARC is still around 44 years after its birth. Right-wing death squads who killed more than 4,000 demobilized guerrillas, people who tried the peaceful political route beginning in the mid-1980s, are part of the reason. So is Colombia's deeply ingrained social inequality. Ingrid Betancourt _ someone held for six years and four months by cruel rebel jailers _ understands this. She knows Colombia's conflict can't be ended by military action alone _ and that it's not just the violent left that has enriched itself with drug money but also the violent right.. Here's what she says in an interview just published by Colombia's Semana magazine (my translation):
"The FARC has its human resource, a youthful labor force ... young people with dreams who want to embrace consumerism, who want to be able to smooth on skin lotion, own a wristwatch. If we Colombians could only offer them this rather than coca or crime ... Why not offer these young people an option other than as coca leaf pickers? Ninety percent of the FARC guerrillas are coca leaf pickers who grow tired of this exhausting work an the inadequate money. So they join the FARC to have new clothes, boots and guaranteed meals. They get respect and own a few things, a radio, an oil lamp. In the FARC they find a way, they look for stability and if they don't get killed they seek a type of pension, because the FARC will find them a little farm, with a coca plantation and a few cows for them to manage. Are we going to let things remain this way forever?"
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