Letter from Thomas Walker, director of Latin American Studies, Ohio University, April 3, 2002

Letter from Thomas Walker, director of Latin American Studies, Ohio University, April 3, 2002
April 3, 2002

The Honorable
Rep. Ted Strickland
336 Cannon Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Rep. Strickland:

An avid supporter, I must say, however, that I am somewhat depressed by the letter you sent a constituent recently concerning your position on US Colombia policy. I know you mean well, but you are dead wrong: For the last several years, the United States has been inching its way into an ill-advised and disastrous war from which it will have great difficulty extricating itself.

I think I understand the political dynamics that have propelled us into this: First, in 2000, it was the election-year need for politicians of both parties to prove their resolve in the war on drugs. Hence, Plan Colombia which, while having no impact on drugs, has escalated the killing - largely of civilians. Now, in the wake of 9-11, there is the impulse to demonstrate firmness with "terrorists" in our hemisphere.

The problem is that there are no "good guys" in the Colombian embroglio. The guerrillas (like all other major actors) are involved in drugs and have a poor human rights record. But "our side" is far worse. There are three components to "our side": 1.) An elite but powerless and irrelevant, "democratic" government, 2.) a brutal, essentially autonomous Colombian military, and, 3.) an utterly ruthless paramilitary movement which, like it or not, works in close cooperation with the military. Most human rights organizations and regional specialists attribute 70-75 percent of the slaughter of civilians to the paramilitaries. Add to that murder by the military itself, and one would have to say that "our side" is responsible for well over eighty percent of the 3500 to 4000 civilians killed annually. Regardless of rhetoric in Washington and Bogota, the standard operating procedure of "our side" is for the military to clear a guerrilla controlled area and then look the other way as the paramilitaries move in, round up the heads of civil society and execute them publicly. This is what the Pentagon has long called "counter-terror." It was used by the United States in Vietnam (over 20,000 civilian dead) and it was used by US trained and supported military dictatorships in Latin America during the Cold War (over 400,000 civilian dead). In the short run it is very effective in that it certainly has a chilling effect on all opposition activity. But it is morally reprehensible, ultimately counterproductive, and should not be taking place again.

For me - and I dare say most academic specialists on Colombia - US involvement of the type we are blundering into in that sad country is a tragic mistake. I served in Colombia in the Peace Corps in the early 1960s. It anguishes me to think that every day, scores of community leaders of the type I knew as a community action promoter, are being summarily eliminated by "our side."

Now, some might argue back that even Bush has labeled the paramilitaries "terrorists" and that the US government has forbidden military cooperation with them. Nice rhetoric, but the simple fact is that the military/paramilitary axis is one of the sides in the war whether we like it or not. And I am not even sure the Bush folks don't like it: In the last year there have actually been debates within administrations as to whether to file formal complaints to the Colombian government about some of these joint actions - and the decision was essentially to wink and look the other way.

But what should we do? My answer would be to stay out of the civil war. Instead escalate human development projects (now being terminated by the Bush administration), and promote a negotiated peace.

Thus I would urge you to reexamine your position and help prevent what now figures to be one of the most cruel and disastrous US foreign policy adventures of the early twenty first century. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Thomas W. Walker
Professor, Political Science
Director, Latin American Studies
Ohio University