Is the U.S. government about to create “another Vietnam” in Colombia, the Latin American country of 40 million inhabitants where a people’s war has been raging for decades?
This was the topic addressed at the Nov. 5 public meeting in Highland, N.Y., by journalist, CUNY professor, and International Action Center activist Andy McInerney. His answer, in essence: it certainly seems headed in that direction, despite disclaimers from Washington.
“In 1960, there were less than 1,000 U.S. military ‘advisors’ in Vietnam,” he began, noting that the multi-millions Washington was spending to support the corrupt South Vietnamese government at the time was small change compared to the multi-billions budgeted in later years. And of course, the Pentagon was saying that the “advisors” were to be kept out of combat. Within five years the U.S. was sinking into the quagmire of a widespread protracted war.
“The American people didn’t know anything about Vietnam in 1960, even though there were warning signs,” McInerney added. These same warning signs are showing up once again 40 years later in Colombia.”
“U.S. military aid skyrocketed to $90 million in 1998. A year later it increased to $300 million. This year Congress approved $1.3 billion. Colombia is now the Pentagon’s third largest recipient of free military aid.”
The 200 U.S. military ‘advisors’ in counter-insurgency war already sent to Colombia will be bolstered by 200-300 more, according to the latest Clinton administration plans. The latest allocation will include sending 60 combat helicopters to Colombia.
“Washington claims that all of this is part of a war on drugs,” McInerney scoffed. “This is just a sham--a cover for a counter-insurgency war, as in Vietnam.”
McInerney explained that the U.S. is getting deeply involved now in the decades-long guerrilla struggle waged by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) because “the success of the people’s struggle has reached the point where there is a serious contest for state power.” The territory of Colombia is larger than the combined area of France, the United Kingston, the Netherlands and Belgium--and the rebel forces occupy almost half of it. As in Vietnam, if the U.S. “loses” Colombia it fears a domino effect might result in “losing” other countries it presently dominates in Latin America.
To this end, the U.S. and the Colombian government of President Andres Pastrana have recently cooked up a major counter-insurgency scheme (backed by a projected $7.5 billion budget) called "Plan Colombia," the purpose of which is the eventual defeat of the guerrilla forces although it is supposedly aimed at Colombia’s export of drugs.
Speaking of the drug war, McInerney noted that the U.S. is the largest importer of drugs in the world and that “if Washington really wanted to end the drug problem in America it would take these billions and invest them at home in drug rehabilitation programs, in job training and job creation, and in vast improvements in educational services. Investing this money in the brutal Colombian army to fight the FARC and ELN won’t have any impact on America’s dependence on Colombian drugs.”
McInerney characterized as propaganda the notion that there is a “three-sided war going on in Colombia” composed of (1) the government and its armed forces, (2) the right-wing paramilitary armies and (3) the revolutionary forces. He said the paramilitaries--which he termed “death squads” responsible for the bulk of killings in Colombia--worked in collaboration with the armed forces, often doing its dirty work. There are only two sides in the conflict, McInerney said, “the government, which is backed by the wealthy ruling class and the death squads, and the people’s forces” composed of military and civilian components struggling to create a democratic Colombia free from control by the oligarchy, the drug lords, the military elite, global corporations and imperialism.
The speaker also disputed the “blame-both-sides” argument that the struggle is being waged between the government and the rebel forces with the masses of people squeezed between them. “Colombia is a nation of heroes, not of innocent people caught in the middle,” he said, noting the activism of the country’s strong labor movement and other insurgent forces fighting against International Monetary Fund demands for belt-tightening by the poor and privatization of national resources.
McInerney ended his nearly two-hour talk and Q&A with an appeal to progressive forces in the United States “to become active in the struggle against expanding U.S. intervention in Colombia.” He urged antiwar forces participating in the demonstration against the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Ga., this month to raise the question of Colombia “because it’s probably had more officers trained at the SOA than any other Latin country.” He also noted that the International Action Center has just formed a U.S. Out of Colombia Committee that planned to organize a nationwide movement to oppose U. S. intervention plans.
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