Guerrillas in the midst

Three years ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to travel outside Bogota, but such a trip today would be dangerous, perhaps even foolhardy, given that guerrillas now routinely cut off highways in certain parts of the country, stopping autos at roadblocks, looking for possible kidnap victims -- especially foreigners -- whom they could hold for ransom. They will shoot on the spot anyone whom they suspect of working for security forces.

The reaction of the U.S. Government to this development has been ambivalent. From afar, U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey has echoed Colombian government officials by declaring the country's guerrillas to be the third cartel. Here in Bogota, the U.S. embassy sings a different tune. "The guerrillas are nothing but bandits and are only interested in money," U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette said. He added: "I wouldn't call them a cartel, though -- that is, a criminal organization that distributes drugs in a systematic manner."

Ambassador Frechette's caution is understandable. To assign the role of the Third Cartel to the Colombian guerrilla movement could lead to added pressure from the country's military for more assistance, but the United States is already under fire from human-rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who charge that American military equipment intended for anti-drug operations in Colombia has been diverted for use against the guerrillas and that the anti-guerrilla campaign has led to massive human-rights violations.

But in this country where drug trafficking dominates politics, it is now almost impossible to distinguish between the guerrilla as political revolutionary and the guerrilla as drug trafficker. "Often, the army will chase a regiment in some remote part of the country and stumble upon a cocaine laboratory," explained one Bogota-based U.S. official. "What's the army suppose to do? Turn around and walk away?"

On June 15 the guerrillas strengthened their position in the drug trade when the Colombian version of the better-publicized Peruvian hostage melodrama ended. In return for the release of seventy soldiers the guerrillas had held since last August, the Colombian military surrendered to the rebel demands and retreated temporarily from a jungle region in the state of Caqueta. The area in question -- about the size of Jamaica -- is the principal area for growing coca, the raw material for cocaine. Reports indicate that since the army retreated, gasoline, petrochemicals, and other basic materials needed for the production of cocaine have flooded into the area.

According to the government's agreement with the guerrillas, the military's withdrawal from the area is temporary, but as Tokatlian explained, "The deal shows the power of the guerrillas and the weakness of the [Colombian] government. Right now, there are some very upset generals in Colombia."

COPYRIGHT 1997 National Review, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning