At 12:07 AM 10/11/01 -0000 Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>The USA supports any relatively legitimate g*vernment that has dollars
>to buy weapons - as it's the case with Columbia. The USA can't "walk
>away" from Columbia [BTW, is this the English spelling? In Spanish
>it's Colombia] because AFAIK there are no USA troops there. And the
>country can't be destabilised - as it is a mesh of three or four groups
>that take control of large parts of it.
Yes, you have the government, the FARC rebels, the ELN rebels, and then the
AUC paramilitaries (who think that they are on the side of the government,
but in practice are barely tolerated by the government.)
>>Does the US support (materially) the Columbian government?
>>
>No more than the USA supports Argentina O:-)
The US supports Colombia much more than Argentina. We are currently
providing extensive mlitary training and aid, ni the hopes of having the
government win the civil war and bring the drug industry under control in
that country.
Colombia, by the way, is the English spelling also. Columbia is our
National Capitol District (which is frequently misspelled as "Capital
District", even by the g*vernment. :)
>>Is it an overt war, or a Northern Ireland/Moro type thing?
>>
>Columbia is a _very_ violent place to live. Kidnappings and
>political assassinations are common. However, there's no
>overt war, and this is something that I can't understand.
>Probably the military forces are so corrupt that they don't
>have any will to fight the guerrillas, and the guerrillas - who
>control about 50% of the country - are happy with the
>status quo, getting money from drugs and crime [something
>that would have to stop once they became a legitimate
>g*vernment!]
President Pastrana's strategy so far has been to grant the FARC a large
"demilitarized zone", in which the FARC have de facto control, and the
government basically does not operate militarily. By making the FARC feel
relatively safe in the demilitarized zone, Pastrana has hoped to bring them
to the peace table. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked all that well so far,
and patience with the plan is starting to run out.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Freedom itself was attacked today, and Freedom will be Defended."
-U.S. President George W. Bush, 09/11/01
