State Department Brags About Uncle Sam’s Meddling in Columbia
01 May 2000
Patterns of Global Terrorism 1999 — Latin America Overview
(State Department issues annual report) (1320)
Following is the text of the Latin America Overview of the State
Department’s “Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999” report:
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999
Latin America Overview
Although much of Latin America continued to be free from terrorist
attacks, Colombia, Peru, and the tri-border region experienced
terrorist activity. In Colombia, insurgent and paramilitary terrorist
groups continued to pose a significant threat to the country’s
national security and to the security of innocent civilians caught up
in the conflict. Despite the beginnings of a slow and sometimes unsure
peace process, Colombia’s two largest guerrilla groups, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National
Liberation Army (ELN), failed to moderate their terrorist attacks. The
ELN carried out several high-profile kidnappings, including the
hijacking in April of an aircraft carrying 46 persons and the
kidnapping in May of a church congregation that resulted in 160
hostages. The FARC increased its attacks on Colombian security
officials and attempted to use kidnapped soldiers and police officers
as bargaining chips in negotiations. The FARC also kidnapped and
killed three US nongovernmental organization workers in March and
outraged international public opinion by refusing to turn over the
perpetrators to the proper judicial authorities. The FARC continued
refusing to account for the three New Tribes Missionaries it kidnapped
in 1993.
Over the year, U.S. concern grew over the involvement of the FARC, the
ELN, and paramilitary groups in protecting narcotics trafficking.
Estimates of the profits to terrorist groups from their involvement in
narcotics ranged into the hundreds of millions of dollars. During 1999
the Colombian Army trained, equipped, and fielded its first
counternarcotics battalion, designed to support national police
efforts to break terrorist links to narcotics production.
In a development in the investigation of the bombing in 1992 of the
Israeli Embassy, the Supreme Court of Argentina released in May a
report identifying the cause as a car bomb and issued an international
arrest warrant for Hizballah terrorist leader Imad Mughniyah.
Argentine authorities similarly brought charges against all suspects
being held in connection with the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli
Community Center (AMIA) in 1994.
Peru’s determination to combat terrorism diminished the capabilities
of both the Sendero Luminoso (SL) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
Movement (MRTA). Peruvian authorities arrested and prosecuted several
of the few remaining active SL members in 1999, including Principal
Regional Committee leader Oscar Alberto Ramirez Durand. Nonetheless,
the SL continued to attack government targets in the Peruvian
countryside. A particularly deadly skirmish occurred in November,
leaving five soldiers and six guerrilla fighters dead. The MRTA has
not conducted a major terrorist operation since the end of the hostage
crisis at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Lima in April 1997.
Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay consolidated efforts to stem the
illicit activities of individuals linked to Islamist terrorist groups
in the tri-border region and cooperated in promoting regional
counterterrorist efforts. Argentina led efforts to create the
Inter-American Committee on Counterterrorism within the Organization
of American States (OAS).
Argentina
Investigations continued into the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in
1992 and the terrorist attack against the Argentine-Israeli Community
Center (AMIA) in 1994, both in Buenos Aires. In May the Argentine
Supreme Court released a report concluding that the attack on the
Israeli Embassy was a car bomb and issued an international arrest
warrant for Hizballah terrorist leader Imad Mughniyah. The
investigating judge in the AMIA case determined in February that there
was insufficient evidence to continue holding an Iranian woman for
possible complicity in the bombing. In July, Argentine authorities
brought charges against all suspects then held in connection with the
bombing, but at year-end the trials had yet to begin.
The Argentine Government was one of the primary motivators in the
creation of the Inter-American Committee on Counterterrorism within
the Organization of American States.
Colombia
The nascent and slow-moving peace process did not prompt Colombia’s
two largest guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, or their
paramilitary opponents to reduce their terrorist activity. Bogota’s
exclusion of the ELN in talks it began with the FARC was a factor in
the ELN’s series of spectacular hijackings and kidnappings —
including the Avianca hijacking in April that netted 41 hostages,
including one U.S. citizen, and the Cali church kidnapping in May that
took 160 hostages. With these acts the ELN sought to demonstrate its
continued viability and induce President Andres Pastrana to include it
in the peace process as an equal. For its part, the FARC escalated
insurgent violence targeting security officials to demonstrate its
power and strengthen its negotiating position.
Colombian insurgent groups and paramilitaries continued to fund their
activities by protecting narcotics traffickers. Estimates of the
profits to terrorist groups from their involvement in narcotics ranged
into the hundreds of millions of dollars. In 1999 the Colombian Army
trained, equipped, and fielded its first counternarcotics battalion,
designed to support national police efforts to break terrorist links
to narcotics production.
The FARC and ELN also generated income by kidnapping Colombians and
foreigners for ransom and extorting money from businesses and
individuals in the Colombian countryside. In addition, both insurgent
groups attacked the nation’s energy infrastructure — including US
commercial interests — by bombing oil pipelines and destroying the
electric power grid. U.S. citizens who fell victim to guerrilla
terrorism, including three Indian rights workers the FARC kidnapped in
Colombia and murdered in Venezuela in March, were targeted because of
wealth or opportunity rather than their nationality. The whereabouts
of the three New Tribes missionaries kidnapped by the FARC in 1993
remain unknown.
In December, President Pastrana extended the FARC’s demilitarized zone
(DMZ) through 7 June 2000. Reports of FARC abuses inside the DMZ
continued to reduce the FARC’s popularity. Colombia’s peace
commissioner asserted that Bogota would not enter official peace talks
or a “National Convention” with the ELN until all remaining hostages
were released.
Peru
In 1999 the Peruvian judicial system continued to prosecute vigorously
persons accused of committing acts of international and domestic
terrorism. Peruvian authorities arrested and prosecuted several of the
few remaining active SL members in 1999, including Principal Regional
Committee leader Oscar Alberto Ramirez Durand (a.k.a. Feliciano).
Feliciano had headed the decimated group since the capture in 1992 of
its founder and leader Abimael Guzman, and his arrest dealt a mortal
blow to one of the region’s most violent rebel groups.
Peru’s tough antiterrorist legislation and improved military
intelligence diminished the capabilities of both the SL and the MRTA.
Both groups failed to launch a significant terrorist operation in Lima
in 1999 and generally limited their activities to low-level attacks
and propaganda in the rural areas. The SL continued to attack
government targets in the Peruvian countryside. Deadly clashes between
the SL and the military continued in the central and southern regions
as soldiers pursued two columns of approximately 60 to 80 rebels, led
by “Comrade Alipio,” through the southern jungle region. A
particularly deadly skirmish occurred in November, leaving five
soldiers and six guerrilla fighters dead. The MRTA has not conducted a
major terrorist operation since the end of the hostage crisis at the
Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Lima in April 1997.
The Government of Peru requested the extradition of SL member and
suspected terrorist Cecilia Nunez Chipana from Venezuela. The
Government of Uruguay informed Peru that MRTA member Luis Alberto
Samaniego, whom Uruguay refused to extradite in 1996, had disappeared.
Tri-border Region: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay
In 1999 the Governments of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay
consolidated efforts to stem the illicit activities of individuals
linked to Islamist terrorist groups in the tri-border region and
continued to cooperate actively in promoting regional counterterrorist
efforts. Despite some success, however, the tri-border remained the
focal point for Islamist extremism in Latin America.
Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov
This particular exerpt from the above article hints about something we learned this year, which is the unheralded fact that Columbia is the seventh-largest oil exporter to the U.S.
Mental MIlitia
“In addition, both insurgent groups attacked the nation’s energy infrastructure — including US commercial interests — by bombing oil pipelines and destroying the electric power grid.”
What has happened is that the U.S. has had the DEA down in Columbia for years, flying armed helicopters over the people’s landscapes. The DEA has been spraying the farmers’ crops, causing intense resentment as their anti-marijuana chemicals blow onto neighboring crops. The native population has awakened to Uncle Sam’s money-leveraging schemes as the CIA has arranged the marketing of the annual crops of marijuana and cocoa. Fedgov retaliates against peasant angst by offering huge Federal Reserve “foreign aid” money transfers to the government of Columbia while demanding that military operations against the citizenry be mandated as contingent for receiving the “loans”. The political puppets on the take down there are protected by U.S. propaganda programs and clandestine shields put in place by the DEA and the DoD, thusly assuring that what fortunes are skimmed off the top of these huge financial bribes go to and remain in the hands of the political machinery which Fedgov chooses. The citizens down there know these things, and when they revolt with force against economic pillars of the Columbian/U.S. control groups, Columbia’s oil resources make a handy military target which carries a message of tangible import to the imperialistic meddling of the U.S. government. So, according to DoD and the U.S. Justice Department, these native Columbians are commiting acts of Terrorism instead of waging a war to reclaim Columbia’s sovereign status as a nation-state. And we’re given this benignly-composed announcement by the State Department in hopes of enlisting public support against those “terrorists”! Want a little more?…..
http://www.thenation.com/issue/000522/0522silverstein.shtml
