The Election of Alvaro Uribe Velez in Colombia: Why it bodes ill for the people of Colombia
On August 7, 2002 Alvaro Uribe Velez was inaugurated as Colombia's president. For the Bush Administration, the warmongers in the Pentagon, and the multinational corporations pushing harsh austerity measures throughout Latin America and the Caribbean this is a welcome development.
Uribe's Background: The election of Alvaro Uribe is cause for deep concern. During his election campaign, news sources reported that the paramilitaries backed Uribe and urged people to vote for him. This is no surprise. In the mid-90's, as an elected official Uribe helped develop civilian defense groups, bolstering the extra-legal paramilitary groups already in existence, such as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). The AUC is a coalition of death squads that targets and kills Colombian civilians with impunity.
Uribe's standard approach, honed as mayor, is to arm and supply paramilitary forces. As mayor of Medellin, he created 69 such groups, providing them with radios and motorcycles and authorizing them to carry guns. As head of the civil aviation administration in the early 1980's and then mayor of Medellin, Uribe's policies served the interests of the international drug trade. For example, his authorization of permits for the construction of private airstrips in Medellin did nothing for peasants in desperate need of roads to take their goods to markets.
As president, Uribe pledges to create a militia of one million civilians at the expense of the state to "help" the armed forces. Who is better trained and more willing to enlist in these civilian militias than those in the paramilitary?
Plan Colombia: Uribe welcomes the $2 billion military package pledged by the U.S. for Colombia. His endorsement widens the door for Plan Colombia, the military wing of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. The Bush and Uribe alliance gives the U.S. the green light to potentially make Colombia this hemisphere's next Vietnam. Instead of fighting a real war on drugs, Plan Colombia will only aggravate a dire situation in the U.S. and in the region.
Uribe is calling on the U.S. to help him intensify the war against civilians. He wants to double defense spending and is asking for more helicopters and greater US involvement in areas such as intelligence sharing.
Many in the Bush administration are eager to help. Army Lt. Gen. James T. Hill recently told a senate committee that he and others should be sent to Colombia ASAP: "You need to let me get on the ground."
The Colombian government - the world's third largest recipient of U.S. aid - backs paramilitary groups that kill unionists, students, human rights workers and others who oppose the right of U.S. corporations to have free reign. Congress' response? To add $35 million to the previous $2 billion in U.S. aid to the Colombian government because, in Hill's words, "it would be a terrible loss if democracy failed in Colombia."
For years the AUC and other paramilitaries have done the vast majority of the killing in Colombia's civil war. Human rights groups, the Red Cross and others report that the death toll from these activities is rising steeply. According to the Washington Post, they are "killing more Colombians than ever before." (June 24, 2002)
Colombians' pensions next? Uribe plans a World Bank-mandated radical purge of Colombia's public administration. As governor of Antioquia, Uribe pushed for deep cuts in the state payrolls, increasing unemployment. Now several ministries and government departments are in his sights. The Economist states: "Wall Street analysts see a pending pension reform as a test of Mr. Uribe's ability to balance the books."
Unemployment in Colombia is over 20%; some claim it is much higher. Two million Colombians are displaced as a result of the conflict. Over 35,000 Colombians have been killed in the last three decades. The Colombian people have endured an avalanche of atrocities.
The election of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia in conjunction with the bellicose attitude emanating from the White House bodes dangerous times for the Colombian people. The most urgent task of the progressive and anti-war movement is to stop Plan Colombia now.
U.S. Committee to Stop U.S. Intervention in Colombia__________________________
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