Colombia’s second-generation terrorists

What do the guerrillas want?

Ostensibly, social justice. The main rebel groups—the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC) and the National Liberation Army—are rural-based Marxist organizations that launched their insurgencies during the early 1960s. That first generation of rebels idolized Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Fidel Castro, and many of them trained for revolution in Cuba before returning to the jungles of Colombia. From their hideouts, two generations of rebels have conducted a hit-and-run campaign against Colombia’s government, which they say is an oligarchy that oppresses the nation’s peasants.

Isn’t Colombia a democracy?

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This is a matter of debate. Colombia has democratic elections in which all citizens may vote. But U.S. human rights organizations say the government works hand in hand with right-wing paramilitary forces that have massacred suspected rebels and civilian sympathizers. And Colombia’s rebels say the government is corrupt and controlled by a wealthy elite. The upper class owned 32 percent of the nation’s land in 1984; now that figure is 47 percent. The richest 5 percent of Colombian families also control 42 percent of the nation’s wealth. That is a higher concentration of wealth than is found in neighboring countries. But it’s not as skewed as in the U.S., where the richest 1 percent control nearly 40 percent of the nation’s wealth.

What are the rebels’ tactics?

They rely on kidnapping, murder, bombings, and other staples from the terrorist handbook. During the sporadic violence over the past decade, about 40,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed. The guerrillas also abduct about 3,000 people a year, making Colombia the kidnapping capital of the world; about 120 Americans have been abducted, and 18 are dead or presumed dead. In February, the rebels abducted five Colombian legislators and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and offered to swap them for jailed guerrilla leaders. President Andres Pastrana refused, and broke off peace talks the government had been conducting with the rebels since 1998.

Why is the U.S. involved?

Because of Colombia’s major export—cocaine. Colombian drug cartels export about 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the U.S. In the past two years, under Presidents Clinton and Bush, Washington has sent nearly $2 billion to Colombia to wage war on cocaine growers. Congress has stipulated that this aid may only go to fighting drugs, because the Colombian government has been accused of human rights violations.

What is Colombia’s motive?

Colombia’s government has come to share American distaste for the cocaine trade, ever since the rebels turned cocaine into a lucrative source of funding. The rebels have opened remote plots of land to coca farmers in exchange for a share of the profits. This arrangement generates about $200 million annually for FARC and its 18,000 fighters, making it one of the most well-funded insurgency groups on the planet. The money pays for explosives, assault rifles, and other weapons.

Why would the U.S. get more involved?

Because of Colombia’s other major export—oil. Colombia provided 2 percent of the U.S. oil supply last year, making it one of the country’s most important suppliers outside the volatile Persian Gulf region. But rebels dynamited Cano Limon, Colombia’s second-largest oil pipeline, 170 times last year, leaving it idle for two-thirds of the year. Since Sept. 11, Washington’s attitude about these bombings has changed, and the Pentagon says the Colombian rebels should be added to the list of targets in the war on terrorism. President Bush included $98 million in his 2003 budget to train 500 to 1,000 Colombian soldiers and buy them equipment so they can protect the 485-mile pipeline. Cano Limon is jointly operated by the state oil company, Ecopetrol, and a U.S. firm, Occidental Petroleum.

Is this a significant change?

Some members of Congress say protecting the pipeline is the first step toward much deeper involvement in Colombia’s civil war. “This is no longer about stopping drugs,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). “It’s about fighting the guerrillas.” The Bush administration says it has no plans to send ground troops to Colombia, but has signaled it may ask for more aid after Colombia’s presidential elections in May.

Can Colombia defeat the rebels?

Not without a massive amount of help. After breaking off talks with the rebels last month, President Pastrana ordered the army to invade an area the size of Switzerland, which he had ceded to rebel control in 1998. Military experts say Colombia’s army, which has 70,000 soldiers, would need to be twice as large in order to mount a campaign that could wipe out the guerrillas. Such growth could only be fueled by billions in foreign aid. For now, the government and the guerrillas seem locked in a stalemate.

The endless revolution

At its inception, FARC was a ragtag group of a few hundred farmers, campus intellectuals, and angry young communists who dreamed of remaking Colombia into a socialist utopia. The guerrillas, 38 years ago, were armed only with shotguns and homemade weapons. “In one ambush, we used spears,” FARC’s founder, 71-year-old Manuel Marulanda, proudly told foreign journalists last year. The government dismissed the rebels at first, but FARC grew into a force 18,000 strong. Today the unpaid ideologues have been replaced by a salaried, uniformed cadre paid with the hundreds of millions of dollars FARC takes in each year from narco-taxes, kidnappings, and extortion. Many of FARC’s young foot soldiers sport Che’s image on T-shirts and tattoos under their olive green fatigues, John Otis reported in the Houston Chronicle, but they “can’t explain why the guerrilla icon who helped win the Cuban revolution is so famous.” Appalled by FARC’s brutal tactics and attacks on the nation’s infrastructure, the majority of Colombians are not sympathetic to the group. Nor does anyone seem to understand its goals. Eduardo Pizarro, a Colombian scholar who has written several books on the organization, said the rebels long ago gave up hope for a socialist Colombia, hoping only to keep the war going. “It’s a chronic insurgency,” Pizarro said.