Colombian cover-up unravels
By Dara Mac Neil
It appears the Colombian army has acquired the services
of a good public relations firm. Dogged by repeated
allegations - and substantial evidence - of collusion
with right wing death squads, the army recently moved
against the very forces they have ably assisted for so
long. Or so it seemed.
In early February, as reported in this column two weeks
ago, death squads massacred 48 civilians in the towns
of Puerto Asis and La Hormiga. The military tried
implicitly to shift the blame onto left wing
guerrillas, by claiming there were no ``armed
paramilitaries'' in the area at the time of the
massacre.
However, survivor testimony and evidence produced by
church groups quickly smothered that particularly
ham-fisted attempt at black propaganda.
The army was forced to retract and began a belated
search for the killers - long after they had fled the
area, of course. However, the army's arrival didn't
exactly inspire confidence in the people of La Hormiga
and Puerto Asis. The entire population of both towns
fled.
Their decision to vacate the area ahead of the arrival
of the military was doubtless based on long years of
experience. Equally it would have been prompted by
eyewitness accounts that told how the killers had been
ferried into the area aboard ``official helicopters.''
The perpetrators of the massacre were never found.
However the army, aware of the damage done to its
already tarnished image, promptly announced an
offensive against the death squads, many of which are
funded by large landowners and drug traffickers.
Thus, in recent weeks the Colombian army actually
managed what must rank as an historic first by
capturing and arresting alleged death squad members.
In mid-February, they announced the capture of 23 such
individuals, in the province of Choco.
d in early March, there was an announcement of a
further large-scale arrest. On this occasion, eleven
supposed `paramilitaries' were taken into custody.
Interestingly, this latest mass seizure took place near
the town of Puerto Barrio, in central Colombia. The
region has long been known as a stronghold of the
right-wing paramilitaries.
However, what was curious about the Puerto Barrio
arrests was that they occurred just as the selfsame
paramilitaries were confronted by members of the
insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC).
In the ensuing battle, the rebels inflicted heavy
casualties - including several fatalities - on the
right wing militias.
Coincidentally, the army arrived in the region and
seized a supposed arms cache and eleven militia gunmen.
FARC pointed to the army's remarkable sense of timing
and claimed that the `capture' amounted to little more
than an elaborate rescue mission.
Official intervention, they said, had merely saved the
militias further casualties at their hands.
The guerrillas' scepticism was matched by a number of
Colombian human rights groups, who dismissed the army's
triumphant announcement as little more than ``a joke.''
Equally, the alleged capture took place ahead of 8
March congressional elections in Colombia. Colombian
commentators regard the `offensive' against the extreme
right as little more than a ``government promotion'', an
attempt by President Samper to ``improve his image.''
Meanwhile, the government has embarked on a massive
offensive against the FARC guerrillas. The offensive
has resulted in some of the bloodiest battles between
guerrillas and the army in the history of the 35
year-old conflict.
There have been an estimated 120 casualties so far - 70
soldiers and 50 guerrillas. Earlier military claims
that they had killed some 500 rebels have been
rubbished.
The offensive - involving thousands of troops and
specially trained counter-insurgency units - began
early last week when the army moved on a guerrilla
stronghold in the Caguan region, some 600 kilometres
south of the capital, Bogota.
Observers have pointed to the discrepancy between the
ferocity of the offensive launched against the
guerrillas, and the virtual non-event that passed for
an offensive against the country's right wing
paramilitaries.
The latter have been responsible for the deaths of
thousands of civilians in recent years.
The guerrillas also claim that the selfsame
paramilitaries are actually fighting alongside the
Colombian army in the offensive.
The FARC - which was formed in 1964 - is the oldest
insurgency movement in Latin America. It is estimated
to have some 12,000 members.
Not such a New World Order
In 1945 the victorious Allied powers began the
construction of their very own New World Order,
reshaping the world after their own desires.
Reflecting upon the changes being wrought, the then
British Prime Minister articulated what was to be the
essential principle governing this task:
``The government of the world must be entrusted to
satisfied nations, who wished nothing more for
themselves than what they had. If the world-government
were in the hands of hungry nations, there would always
be danger. But none of us had any reason to seek for
anything more. The peace would be kept by peoples who
lived in their own way and were not ambitious.
Our power placed above the rest. We were like rich men
dwelling at peace within their habitations.''
Almost half a century later, in 1990, the editor of the
Sunday Telegraph, Peregrine Worsthone, outlined his
vision of the New World Order then being shaped. A
veritable archetype of the `rich men dwelling at peace
within their habitations' Worsthone opined that it
would be necessary to ``help build and sustain a world
order stable enough to allow the advanced economies of
the world to function without constant interruption and
threat from the Third World.''
Worsthone went on to note that this would require
``instant intervention from the advanced nations'' or
possibly ``pre-emptive action.'' Certainly puts the
recent fuss over Iraq into perspective. How things
change.
(Taken from World Orders, Old & New by Noam Chomsky.
Published by Pluto Press, London.)
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