Pubdate: Sat, 27 Jul 2002
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2002 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Paul St. James

POLITICAL CORRUPTION: US SHOULD DO SOMETHING TO HELP COLOMBIA FIND PEACE

Colombia is a tragic, lawless nation on the brink of collapse after 37 
years of warfare between leftist guerrillas, right-wing militias, armed 
drug cartels and the national army. An estimated 3,500 civilians are killed 
each year. Political corruption, kidnappings, assassinations and the like 
are rampant. Various groups hold about 3,000 hostages, including 
presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was seized by Marxists in 
February.

Flamboyant Charleston artist Paul St. James has lived in several countries 
and often travels to war zones. He visited Sarajevo during the Bosnian 
conflict and went to central Mexico during the Zapatista rebellion. He 
recently visited Colombia, where he lived 30 years ago, and faxed this 
report to the Gazette.

POPAYAN - Colombia is still one of the most beautiful and wild countries I 
have ever seen. What changes have occurred in the 30 years since I lived here?

First, the crooks were more honest 30 years ago. They were straight-up as 
they robbed you. Now, there's fraud, deceit, trickery and lying. The 
banditos are more than just the guerrillas. They are also the corporations 
and manufacturers - such as those selling boxes of matches only half full.

How do the robber barons get away with it? Because the government spends 
all its time and money fighting the guerrillas, and has no time to police 
anything else. Profiteers come out of the woodwork when there's nobody to 
keep them in check. Keep in mind that the guerrillas own 40 percent of this 
country. Most Americans don't realize this. In Colombia, you must travel 
from one safe haven to another, from one safe corridor to another safe 
corridor. There are places in the high Andes where the front lines are only 
yards apart.

When I stopped at the American Embassy in Bogota a few weeks ago, I was 
told by an aide that I was the only American riding around Colombia on 
buses. Everyone else flies from one safe haven to the next. I can see why, 
because two of the bus lines I use have suffered holdups by guerrillas. But 
how can you learn anything if you're not on the ground?

I learn a lot from bus drivers and truckers. Both showed me hotels, 
restaurants and other businesses that once were thriving, but now are 
closed because of the guerrillas. They told me that local farmers who used 
to grow food for the hotels and restaurants now grow drugs, and get more 
money for it.

Riding buses, I saw the Colombian infrastructure. Route 25 has about 160 
miles that nobody should travel. I'm talking boulders as big as cars, to 
say nothing of mudslides on top of old mudslides. We came to a bridge with 
a six-foot hole in one lane.

Anyone who thinks American tanks given to the Colombian military could go 
through that area is joking. And giving the army helicopters is just a 
Band-Aid. Yes, it is possible to wipe out most of the guerrillas or drive 
them back into remote areas. However, it takes only 200 of them to tie up 
5,000 troops, or even 10,000, because of the logistical support to keep 
soldiers in the field.

I talked to some Colombians who want to make drugs legal - not because they 
like it, but because they think it would end the stalemate and stop the 
guerrillas from making money from them. Others say they want the United 
States to come in and wipe out the guerrillas. They think we could do it 
because of success we've had in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

I don't like either plan. I think, somehow, a peace can be worked out. Have 
you looked at a topo map of Colombia, in case America might fight a war 
here? I can tell you, Vietnam's jungle wouldn't fill a corner of Colombia, 
and the Andes are not like Afghan mountains. The tree line goes up past 
12,000 feet, and it's cold as hell. And you could put any swamp you name in 
the swamp on the west coast of Colombia.

The guerrillas can hit any city they want, any time they want. After the 
Soviet Union and Cuba dried up, the guerrillas turned to drugs to support 
their war. The war has gone on for so long that it's hard to remember the 
reasons they were fighting in the first place. The Colombian government 
lied and cheated the peasants in the past, and let the land barons kill 
them, and nothing was done about it.

When I lived in Colombia in 1974, six Colombians out in the plains country 
killed eight Indians, but the court set them free. They grew up knowing it 
was all right to kill indigent people.

I'm not saying there haven't been some damn fine people in the Colombian 
government. It's just that their voices have been drowned out by the gunfire.

I think America should do something to help this country. Just what, and 
how much, I can't figure out.
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