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There was a period in the 1990s when
I honestly thought that Colombia would become Washington's next
Vietnam. Instead, it turns out that the counterinsurgency assisted
financially and militarily by Washington is more like the so-called
low-intensity conflicts waged by Washington and its host clients
in Central America during the 1980s. Forrest Hylton's new book
Evil
Hour in Colombianot only documents the essential
truth of this, it also provides one of the most coherent and
honest histories of Colombia's last one hundred or so years.
With the understanding that the two party system in Colombia
is mostly a system that serves the country's elites (with occasional
inclusion of the non-white and peasant members of the population),
Hylton details the relationship of the rest of Colombian society--the
Afro-Colombians, indigenous and other disenfranchised groups
to the bourgeois democracy that is Colombia. He begins his telling
in the late 19th century and ends it in early 2006--almost yesterday.
Told not only from a viewpoint
that places Colombia's politically excluded on equal footing
with those who are represented by the two-party system, Evil
Hour in Colombia also acknowledges the role skin tone plays more
than any other Colombian history I have read. It spares no side,
either, not only noting the various guerrilla organizations failure
to reach out to the indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations,
but documenting their biases against these groups in their organizing.
Despite these instances, however, Hylton makes no bones that
most of the racist and anti-indigenous sentiment stems from the
ruling parties and the elites they represent. Consequently, so
have most of the attacks against those groups.
The text draws a clear line
from the colonialist assumptions and practices of Colombia in
colonial times to the Colombia of today. The rapaciousness of
the light-skinned invader is replaced by today's paramilitaries
and the Colombian Army. The Spanish invader is now the Pentagon
and its School of the Americas counterinsurgency training center
in Fort Benning, Georgia. The land is still owned by a very few,
only now the primary sources of their riches are drugs, oil,
and flowers. (According to CIP Online, the wealthiest ten percent
control 60. 9 percent of the income, the poorest ten percent
control 1.1 percent). In earlier days it was coffee, whose price
was also somewhat controlled by the demands of the north and
whose riches were reaped by the corporations of the north and
their cohorts among the latifundia inside Colombia.
The tale told here is a history
of exploitation determined by money, skin tone and topography.
It is about criminals and thugs strong arming the poor for the
rich and, ultimately, the criminals becoming the new rich. This
latter dynamic is the result of the drug trade which is now the
dominant part of Colombia's economy and, consequently, a major
player in its political scene. Indeed, the two parties have become
so enamored with the money that drug profits bring that they
have even relegated some of their traditionally allies in the
Church establishment and Colombia's old money establishment
for the huge monetary resources the drug rings bring into the
mix. Of course, with that money comes the thuggery of the drug
gangs and their paramilitaries, whose antiguerrilla politics
and tactics fir nicely into the desires of the traditional politicians'
hatred of the guerrilla and the demographic they partially represent--the
poor.
At the same time, some of the
guerrilla make their own deals with the drug trade. Foremost
among these groups, of course, is the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias
de Colombia FARC-EP.(FARC). Not only do the FARC tax coca farmers,
they also protect them from the US-directed counterinsurgency
that operates partially under the facade of the so-called war
on drugs. Under the Bush administration, that facade is less
of a factor as Washington has incorporated its war against those
who oppose its plans for Latin America into its war on terror,
yet the spraying of farmers' fields by US-trained troops and
their US advisors in guerrilla held territory continues unabated.
Hylton documents the history
of the insurgencies in Colombia, detailing the genesis and growth
of the various organizations that have waged and continue to
wage war against the Colombian government, its military and their
paramilitary allies. He traces the current groups origins back
to the 1948 Conservative destruction of the popular movement
named for its leader known as Gaitanismo. The attack on the movement
resulted in the deaths of thousands and the displacement of many
more Colombians. The beginnings of FARC are to be found there.
Other smaller groups took shape in the 1960s and continued to
grow into the 1990s, changing shape and tactics and shifting
philosophies ever so slightly according to the the shifts in
the international Marxist and other liberation movements and
events on the ground.
Conversely, one could argue
that the current government--a pro-military anti-guerrilla regime
very close to the right-wing drug paramilitaries--had its genesis
in the birth of the FARC. I say this because the current president's
father was killed by the FARC. Besides the personal aspect, Uribe
came to political power in a region controlled by the paramilitaries
and his connections to it are numerous. Since he first took political
office as mayor, several of his administrative actions have made
it easier for the paras to operate and, even more importantly,
have helped to incorporate these men into the political system
as legitimate players. This has diminished the role of the Catholic
Church; a role that supported the most conservative elements
in the political sphere, and seems to have increased the bloodshed
against the popular movements, most of which are not connected
to any armed organization. Nonetheless, the reason given for
the murders and disappearances of peace community residents,
union organizers and other activists is usually that they are
guerrilla. Just like anybody painted with the terrorist label
in the US no matter how untrue that label may be, can be tortured
and denied their rights, so can anybody painted with a connection
to the guerrilla in Colombia be killed without much objection.
Evil Hour in Colombia is a well-written and extensively
researched study of Colombia's history and present day reality.
The story told herein is an ongoing example of the Monroe Doctrine
at work in the worst possible way. As the third largest recipient
of US military aid over the past decade or so, the importance
of what happens in Colombia can not be overstated, nor can the
US involvement. Hylton's reasoned analysis and refreshing perspective
on the situation makes this book must reading for those interested
in what might lie ahead for the growing opposition in Latin America
to Washington and the Yankee dollar.
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
