Colombia

The ongoing war in Colombia is probably the greatest threat to regional security in Latin America today. It pits government troops against leftist guerrilla armies and right-wing paramilitaries in a decades-old conflict that is fueled by huge profits from the drug trade and has been marked by gross human rights violations. While American involvement through its support of Plan Colombia has been widely noted, Cuba has played a role as a facilitator of dialogue between the Colombian government and one of the major guerrilla groups. Both the U.S. and Cuba want to see an end to the conflict, but there is much disagreement on how to achieve a settlement.

(Excerpt from 2001 meeting)


Col. Luis M. Garcia
Senior Analyst, Center for the Study of Information on Defense, Cuba


(Through translator): The situation in Colombia is really explosive. We believe that there are two angles from which you can approach the Colombian situation.

One of them is the angle of seeing what the internal conflict means for the Colombian nation. That conflict has roots going back many years. And has become more bitter with the drug trafficking issue coming into play.

And another angle is what the Colombian conflict represents for the countries in the region. I believe that if you approach either viewpoint in an absolute manner, you will not be able to see the real volume and extent of the problem.

First of all, there is the convergence of four principal forces. Some of them are in permanent contradiction. All these have counterpoints and, in our judgment, they are the four main players in the Colombian conflict.

First of all, there is the Colombian government, with its institutional apparatus as a government. Secondly, you have the guerrillas, with their viewpoints and their way of acting. But they are pillars or big actors in the conflict.

Another important actor in the Colombian conflict is the powerful machinery of drug trafficking in Colombia. Even though it has been hit in the last few years, it still weighs heavily in the Colombian national picture.

And the fourth element you have to take into account is the military structure that has been created there, the groups that are acting outside the government and which are also complicating the Colombian situation very much. I think the Cuban position regarding this Colombian conflict has been quite clear. Cuba has agreed to cooperate in the peace process, taking into account, first of all, the historic links we have with the Colombians. The Cuban and Colombian peoples have had their close links practically from the very founding of the two nations. But what has been quite underscored in the Cuban policy is that in Colombia, as it happened in the case of Angola, Cuba is not seeking its own benefits. Our cooperation has been very noticed. And besides, it has been extremely careful and unselfish. And in this sense, something which is key to us has been taken into account: namely, it is an internal situation.

Our government has always said and has always upheld the view that the countries' internal conflict should be solved by the countries themselves, even though in the Colombian case, due to the specific circumstances, certain international assistance may be required.

Another major point is that the Cuban involvement in the solution to this conflict has been with the consent of at least the most important parties in play, as the Cuban way of acting has been traditionally. However, our country has said and has been said all along that we didn't consider that a solution to this Colombian conflict is any act of force. We believe that an act of force would complicate the country's internal situation much further. And worse, it would expand such conflict into bordering nations.

We think that the key is to continue with negotiations and the implementation of national or international strategy to solve all aspects of the problem.

I have explained this because it is not just a matter of eliminating the cocoa fields. That's part of the problem. There they have drug smuggling structures and there are also structures for the related crimes, such as money laundering and so on. Therefore, it is not just a matter of doing away with the crops. Besides, doing away with the crops means trying to find alternative solutions to those who live on the crops.

I am not quite sure how much a kilo of cocaine is selling for today, but what I can say is that it is 300 times more expensive than a kilogram of corn. Therefore, a solution to those persons should also be a comprehensive solution. Hence, the conflict is really complex.

Cuba would be willing to listen to U.S. ideas as to finding a solution to the conflict. Of course, being willing to listen to the United States as to what it thinks about the solution to the conflict would not imply mechanically a commitment to act jointly. But nevertheless, it would be interesting to hear the U.S. viewpoint and hear how that country believes the problem can be solved. And that problem, we admit, is one of the hottest security problems in the region.

Gen. Charles Wilhelm, USMC (Ret.)
Fmr. Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Southcom
Distinguished Military Fellow, CDI


Colombia is an extremely complex problem with many actors, and there's no simple solution. It requires, just as you suggested, a comprehensive solution and the problem cannot be solved through the application of purely military means but by the same token nor do I believe that it can be solved by purely social means.

I believe that the problem can only be solved through a combination of the two. By that, I mean, military and social program in the right proportions. I would be very interested in your reaction and the other members of your delegation to play Colombia, which, despite some contentions from the press, is a Colombian plan and it is only supported by the United States.

What is your reaction to Plan Colombia? Is that a good roadmap that could lead to a successful resolution of a longstanding and tragic internal conflict?

Col. Garcia

The way I see it, Plan Colombia has grown faster and much more efficiently when it comes to military answers. When it comes to its economic and social answers evidently but entails a political cost because that's the apprehensiveness created by the plan, that it is a military solution.

You know the region because you were assigned a very important post for a long time. You know what we Latin Americans think about military options. Actually, our continent is not a region where big military conflicts have taken place. But the military component has played a major role in the shaping up of Latin American states. And evidently, there is always a rejection to this.

I believe that the international community has taken very timid steps and this is my personal view, when it comes to appropriating the necessary resources, especially the economic resources to implement the Colombia plan, I think it is something which is paramount because it would continue to change the view that people have about Plan Colombia.

Mr. Julio Valdez Infante
Ministry of the Armed Forces of the Revolution

(Through translator): The vision of many people, including me, is that it is a plan making much emphasis on the military component of the problem.

That is why we believe and following what Col. Garcia explained that Plan Colombia should start from the Colombians themselves. And it should be more comprehensive to be in line with the complexities in that country.

Some borderning Latin American countries are showing a reaction, and Brazil is among these countries, and they say that a plan of this kind may entail an expansion of the conflict that goes over the Colombian borders and leads to a substantial increase in the military component of the plan and not other aspects.

I'm pleased to hear every one using the term regional problem because that's exactly what it is, and I think the concerns of our neighbors in Venezuela, Brazil, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and literally every country with a common border in Colombia, all of those concerns are well founded. And it was for that reason that I urged the congress of the United States as they considered aide to Colombia to also consider assistance to the surrounding nations, who, in one way or another, will almost certainly be forced to confront the problem. That's the reality of the situation.

Unfortunately, sometimes facts get distorted and misrepresented. And in a sense, I think that has happened with Plan Colombia. It is true that the United States pledged 1.3 billion dollars to assist Colombia and it is also true that more than 50 percent of that money is earmarked for the security forces. And that has caused some people, I think, to categorize Plan Colombia as a military plan with a small social component. That's not correct.

Plan Colombia, as envisioned by President Pastrana and his cabinet is a 7.5 billion dollar social program with a military component. The Colombians recognize that the only solution to this problem will be one which occurs at a negotiating table, not on a battlefield. The question that they confront is how to get the parties to the negotiating table in a meaningful way, and they hope that by increasing the capabilities of their military they can create conditions in the countryside to provide a real incentive for meaningful negotiations.

Col. Luis M. Garcia
Senior Analyst, Center for the Study of Information on Defense, Cuba


(Through translator): A solution or one of the most efficient alternatives for the solution of the Colombia situation in its drug trafficking problem is to eliminate the consuming problem, because if there is not consumption of the drug, then there is not any traffic. And if there isn't any traffic, there isn't any production. And if there isn't any production, then there isn't a problem.

Gen. Wilhelm

The drug problem has two components: consumption and production. And though it is not widely publicized, considerable progress has been in the United States in the last five to seven years in consumption. It's been reduced by over 50 percent, yet drugs continue to be produced in the same quantities in the production zone. Where are they going? Answer, the United States continues to get its share. Europe is using more and more. And tragically, because of a change in business practices within their trafficking organizations, more and more is being consumed by other nations in our hemisphere.

When the big cartel is paid in cash, we didn't have this problem. Now, they pay in drugs. Some get sold, and some goes up the nose and into the arm of our children. So, the solution has to be a very, very broad one. And I think we all see it in the same way but we can't look to Colombia by itself to solve it, not when we're all either directly or indirectly sending the money that enables the insurgence to pay their troops and to buy the best automatic weapons available on the world market.

I use the word insurgent, that's a loose, loose term. Are they insurgents or are they criminal bands of a size and of a sophistication we've never seen before? Both of our countries have fought in many places. In these things we loosely call insurgencies. This one is the first one I've ever seen -- this is the first insurgency I've ever seen that is self-sustaining. Why? Because of this unholy marriage between guerrillas and Narco-traffickers.

So I think you're correct in saying many of the old lessons don't apply. But I do believe very sincerely that this is a problem that together we're going to have to solve, and if we don't, we're going to pay a huge price in terms of the purity of our societies and our collective prosperity.