MIM NOTES 195	October 1, 1999

United $tates escalates military aid to Colombia

Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering recently irascibly 
denied that the united $tates plans military intervention in 
Colombia. "The canard floating around is that the United States is 
about to introduce a military intervention into Colombia. It is 
totally false, totally crazy... The stories floating around about 
a dramatic change are just not true."(1) MIM actually agrees with 
Pickering. Amerika will not introduce military intervention in 
Colombia soon, for the simple reason that it already has 
intervened. Amerikan military meddling in Colombia will not 
dramatically change the situation -- intervention is the status 
quo.

There are currently between 200 and 300 Amerikan military 
personnel in Colombia under the aegis of the so-called War on 
Drugs.(2) For comparison, there were officially 50 Amerikan 
soldiers in El Salvador at the height of Amerikan participation in 
the civil war there. Some of the Amerikans in Colombia operate 
u.$.-built-and-funded radar stations; some fly spy planes (in fact 
five Amerikan aviators were killed in July when their plane 
crashed); others sum up the intelligence gathered for the 
Colombian military. The Department of Defense admits that Amerikan 
special forces, a.k.a. Green Berets, train the Colombian military 
and police in combat techniques.

Although this training is supposed to help the Colombian 
government fight drug smugglers, the Amerikan military admits that 
it might be used against the Colombian people directly. Death 
squads organized by the Colombian military have previously used 
advice from Amerikan intelligence experts. One of these was 
responsible for 50 killings.(2) Humyn rights violations by 
military units receiving Amerikan aid was such a problem that the 
U.$. Congress had to pass a feel-good resolution banning aid to 
units with a history of abuses.(3) Of course, Congress still funds 
the Colombian police no questions asked, and there really is 
nothing stopping allegedly non-abusive units from sharing their 
materiel with other units.

Pickering's denial of Amerikan intervention came after "Drug Czar" 
Gen. Barry McCaffrey asked for $600 million in aid to Colombia for 
next year.(1) That is a $311 million increase over this year's aid 
level. Colombia is the third highest recipient of Amerikan foreign 
aid, behind Israel and Egypt.

Washington is throwing money, personnel, and materiel at the 
reactionary Colombian government because it fears that 
government's collapse would threaten business as usual for 
Amerikan imperialists in Colombia and throughout Latin America. On 
the other hand, the Colombian government, which turned down aid 
throughout the 1980s for fear of looking like an Amerikan puppet, 
now greedily accepts and asks for more and more aid. For example, 
one Colombian general argues that because the army is isolated 
from the people, "we cannot get intelligence from them."(2) Hence 
the need for Amerikan radar stations and spy planes.

The crisis in the Colombian government stems from its inability to 
meet the people's basic needs -- food, jobs and real economic 
development for people's needs. This inability in turn stems from 
the fact that the government is in the hands of corrupt and 
reactionary bourgeois elements, which ultimately allies with 
Amerikan imperialists to preserve their power and wealth. This is 
why Communism, and in particular, Maoism, remains of utmost 
relevance to the oppressed and exploited masses, the majority of 
whom live in neo-colonies like Colombia. Because the imperialist-
backed puppets will defend the status quo with arms, Protracted 
People's War is necessary to mobilize the masses to overthrow them 
and institute a socialist government. A socialist government could 
address the people's needs, unhampered by the need to defend a 
tiny minority's "right" to profit off of the working and toiling 
masses. Mao's theory that class struggle continues under socialism 
is the best weapon for preventing the rise of new bourgeois 
elements inside the revolutionary state, who would then sell the 
country back to the imperialists. 

Notes:
1. Miami Herald 11 August 1999.
2. LA Times 17 August 1999.
3. MIM Notes 171, 1 October 1998.