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by Chris Thompson '98 Jeff Carlson recently graduated from Saint Olaf with a BA in Spanish. He spent a semester in Colombia in 1998. Monica Mesa is from Colombia. She is studying at Saint Olaf this year. Chris Thompson is an intern at the Northfield News. Chris-- Although the persistent violence in Colombia is rarely mentioned in the mainstream news, Colombia has the worst Human Rights record in the Western Hemisphere. Who is perpetrating these abuses? Who is fighting whom and who is dying in Colombia today? Monica-- Basically there are three factions fighting: the Guerrillas, the Paramilitary, and the Colombian Army. The first guerrilla groups formed during the 1960's in response to fighting between the two main political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives. During the 1980's the government armed and organized civilians into what they called, "self-defense groups." These paramilitary groups perpetrate much of the violence today because they have no accountability for their actions. When they commit atrocities, the government looks the other way, claiming that they have no control over them. A paramilitary soldier may wear army-issued fatigues, and carry an army-issued gun, but he is not part of the army. In effect, the paramilitary groups are doing the "dirty work" of the war--killing or displacing innocent people in order to erode the support network of the guerrillas. All sides abuse human rights. The majority of people dying today are civilians. Chris-- Colombia's war is not a "clean" war. How is it fought? Jeff-- Mostly through terror tactics. One paramilitary group is known as "the Decapitators." But guerrillas also fight by spreading terror--setting off bombs in the city, or kidnapping civilians or foreigners. Again, it is the civilians that lose. Neutrality doesn't exist for the civilians. The Army and the Paramilitary see the civilians as the sea in which the fish, (the guerrillas), swim. Rather than trying to catch the fish directly, the anti-guerrilla forces would rather empty the sea of water...which for them, is a safer method. More concretely put, "emptying the sea of water" means making the civilians flee or killing them outright. The typical mass-slaying occurs in this fashion: Men arrive suddenly. Pointing guns and shouting orders, they herd villagers to the central plaza. They line them up and shoot them one by one. Sometimes they have a list of people they want--community leaders, activists, writers, or teachers. Sometimes they just kill indiscriminately. If you're lucky you get a warning, then you have the chance to flee. Chris-- Where is the fighting occurring? Jeff-- Although the cities can be dangerous, it is quite rare to hear of a battle within a major city. The countryside stages the real war. People in the large cities live relatively peaceful lives--most of them shut out the war by covering their ears and eyes. They don't want to acknowledge the blood spilling in the countryside. Near the Peruvian and Ecuadorian borders, where jungle predominates and no roads exist, people say uncharted guerrilla-cities flourish. Monica-- Yes. Once I wanted to go hiking in a national park with a friend. We had to ask permission from a guerrilla chief who controlled the region. Most of the National Parks are in guerrilla-controlled territory. Chris-- What factors do you think cause the fighting? I've read that it's a "complex tangle of forces, including industrial development; the ambition for land, some of which holds rich supplies of minerals and oils." Perhaps another factor perpetuating violence is the inequality caused by an age-old gap between rich and poor. Jeff-- Yes these are all factors. Here's an illustrative example: There's a powerful family who has owned a vast track of land--thousands of acres--since 1948. They are notorious for owning arms and using them ruthlessly against landless peasants who try squatting on an unused portion of their land. At some point the government brokered a deal that allowed a few peasants to farm. But in 1991, the family changed its mind and again ruthlessly scraped the peasants from the land. This is just one example of many. And in each case, the wealthy are happy to employ the paramilitary to do the dirty-work. "Land" could be the title of a broad sub-topic of factors. In part, competition for land turns violent because the land in Colombia is so amazingly fecund. It can produce great wealth. Chris-- Especially challenging to peacemakers, I think, is the fact that Colombia has had a long history of such violence. The current conflict started about 40 years ago. What solutions are there? Monica-- Yes, violence, unfortunately, seems a part of our culture. And we've become habituated to it. When 20 people die, we say, "wow, only 20 people died, that's not very many." I think violence creates violence. We need more dialogue. And the government needs to be smarter. Sometimes the government gives easy solutions that border on absurdity. One of their solutions was to "give the guerrillas taxis and let the them become taxis drivers." During the 1980ss the government persuaded one guerrilla faction called the M-19 to lay down their arms and become a third political party. Since then, nearly every active member of this party has been murdered. What kind of example does this become for the guerrilla factions still fighting? Chris-- I'd like to talk now about the relationship between the United States and Colombia. Recently Madeline Albright announced, "We need to prepare to examine critically democracies this year in important countries like Colombia, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Indonesia. Unfortunately many democracies are fragile and the people are only partially free. We have to work together in order to defend freedom in those countries where it already exists and to promote it where it doesn't." Then she goes on to say that in Colombia, "we need to teach judges and attorneys and to strengthen democratic institutions and human rights."(from Miami Herald) Do you think that this is the answer? To me, it seems like an ironic statement when one considers the great amount of aid the U.S. has given the Colombian government in the form of troop training, strategic/planning expertise, money, arms--as cited by groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch/Americas. Jeff-- Albright is right in what she says but not in what she does.... 97% of murders in Colombia go unpunished. In Medellin, from 1990 to 1991, 453 police officers were killed. Judges became afraid to prosecute because many were assassinated. So strengthening of civil institutions is direly needed. Right now, however, our government gives training, advice, and weapons to the military--a group known to have intimidated nuns and killed civilians! For more information students can go to the Colombia Support Network or the U.S. Committee for Refugees.
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