Uribe's People:
Civilians and the Colombian Conflict

Jason Hagen

As countries around the world take up the anti-terrorist cause, some policymakers in the United States and abroad have come to view Colombia's conflict in a singular light. While Colombia's history of violence has long been attributed to insurgents representing political grievances, as well as the business of drug trafficking, during the past year, the Colombian and U.S. governments have increasingly characterized Colombia's security problems as a matter of terrorists and criminals confronting a state ill-equipped to defend itself and establish authority. New Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez has promised to tackle Colombia's terrorist violence and establish state command over the nation's territory once and for all. His policies have been radical, but they are not entirely novel: not only do they jeopardize basic rights, but they could, in fact, provoke even more violence. As more countries crack down on terrorism and insurgency, often with outside aid, the Colombian case sugests that unchecked, aggressive security measures can have unpredictable and possibly frightening consequences.

On August 7, 2002, Uribe became the president of Colombia in the midst of this brutal conflict, which can be traced back decades. That conflict today has become a turf war fought by two leftist guerrilla organizations against the Colombian state and officially outlawed right-wing paramilitary organizations, which are often allied with the Colombian armed forces. Inseparable from this clash is Colombia's prominent role in the international drug trade, its world leadership in kidnappings and assassinations, the internal displacement of 1,000 of its people per day, a murder rate ten times that of the United States, and impunity as old as the country itself.

The guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have their origins in the early 1960s, while the paramilitary United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC), an umbrella organization, came together in 1996. The U.S. State Department regards all three forces as terrorist organizations.

The guerrillas' Marxist ideology has dimmed over the years as their political cause has become overshadowed by their military operations, which have often targeted civilians. In July 2002, for example, the 18,000-member FARC announced that it would consider all of Colombia's 1,098 mayors and other municipal officials as military targets if they did not renounce their positions. The FARC is also in the process of accumulating hostages. . .

Jason Hagen is Associate for Colombia at the Washington Office on Latin America.