Robert Villa. Monday, Aug. 20, 2001.
NewsMax.com.
BOGOTA, Colombia – On Saturday, Aug. 18, orders for the capture of 40
foreigners with criminal and terrorist records who have entered Colombia were
issued by the attorney general's office. While the names were not released, the
countries of origin were announced to be Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cuba, El
Salvador, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Nicaragua, Pakistan,
Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.
In the past week, the involvement of urban terrorism experts from the Irish
Republican Army (IRA) and various Cuban and Venezuelan military operatives
specializing in artillery and anti-air operations has alarmed Colombia's
military. Rumors of involvement of the Basque independence guerrilla group, ETA,
have also surfaced but have yet to be confirmed.
Despite repeated concerns regarding the true commitment of both Cuba and
Venezuela to the peace process, the current president of Colombia, Andres
Pastrana, has been die-hard on involving both groups in negotiations, due to
their ideological closeness to the guerrillas.
The President’s Peace Commission even planned for the eventual
participation of a contingent of Cuban soldiers that would be members of a U.N.
verification team in northern Colombia. The team would have been responsible for
verifying the good conduct of the guerrillas in a distension zone controlled by
the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN).
Negotiations with the ELN failed last week, however, due to the government's
failure to produce a timeline acceptable to the guerrillas.
A U.N. verification team was never created for the present distension zone
already occupied by the Frente Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia (FARC). That
zone, created in 1999, has since become the national headquarters for FARC
training, kidnapping, coca growing and military operations.
Formerly, the United Nations and the European Union both had given their
support to the creation of the zone, putting aside concerns about illicit
activities, but in the past month and a half, a U.N. vehicle has been stopped by
the FARC and a member of a U.N. team kidnapped, three Germans have been
kidnapped and held in the zone, and many U.N. and E.U. diplomatic missions are
making plans to leave. Denmark has already closed up shop.
The appearance of foreign insurgents in Colombia is nothing new. Since the
1948 creation of the Organization of American States, which occurred in Bogota,
foreigners have been attempting to overthrow the Colombian government, long a
strong ally of the United States. On April 9, 1948, a popular Liberal Party
leader was assassinated just as the OAS's first meeting to organize was being
convened. The result was massive rioting that shook Bogota for several days,
leaving nearly 5,000 dead.
The leaders of the FARC, which traces its origins back to this time, have
always lamented that they did not take advantage of the opportunity presented by
the rioting, known as the Bogotazo. A young Fidel Castro took part in the
rioting. At the time he was supposedly affiliated with a group of Peronistas who
were participating in a youth conference.
No one knows for sure who pulled the trigger in the assassination, but
speculation has long centered around Soviet involvement because the U.S.S.R.
feared that the OAS would create an unshakeable sphere of U.S. influence in the
Americas.
Cubans have been involved in Colombia since the 1960s, when a group of
leftist students, professors and priests took to the mountains, following the
foco theory of Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the other
proponents of the Cuban revolution. The foco theory insisted that a Communist
revolution could be inspired by taking to the mountains, instructing the natives
on the importance of overthrowing the regime, and then coming down from the
mountains to take the cities.
The ELN dates from this epoch, and while the great majority of the young
idealists who founded the ELN were killed in Colombia as they were in other
Latin American countries where the foco theory was attempted, Cuban aid long
sustained the organization.
Based in northern Colombia, Cuba has lately been involved in the peace
process, which had continued unabated until last week in Caracas, Venezuela,
under the watchful supervision of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Those
talks were broken off last week, however, and in the past few days the ELN has
launched a series of attacks crossing through Venezuelan territory to attack
Colombian border posts.
General Fernando Tapias, commander of Colombia's armed forces, stated that "the
objective of the FARC is to strengthen its war against the cities, and they know
that they need to learn new strategies and technology." Their "urban
offensive," declared last month, was inaugurated with an attack on several
of the government's maximum security prisons. The FARC stated that if the
government refused a prisoner exchange as part of the peace negotiations, the
guerrillas would simply seize the prisons.
There is little question that the FARC has the funds available to pay for
international aid in training its soldiers. The Colombian attorney general's
office placed the guerrillas' income for the year 2000 at between $500 and $700
million. One military official stated that "they have the money and drugs
sufficient to pay for the most sophisticated weapons, training and the highest
technology in the world for communications and terrorism."
Three IRA explosives experts were detected leaving from three distinct
points in Europe by European intelligence, and were followed closely by
Colombian officials until they attempted to leave the country, whereupon they
were apprehended. The Colombian police have reviewed their records and found
that the same three IRA operatives have repeatedly entered the country since
1991.
The incident has sparked unrest in the United Kingdom as well as in
Colombia, due to concerns that the IRA is taking payments in arms or drugs. The
IRA has resisted the last few British proposals for disarmament.
Colombia's police in charge of immigration have now raised earlier estimates
of at least 20 Cuban military experts to close to 30. This development is also
disturbing, due to the supposed commitment of Cuba to the Colombian peace
process. Working together with these Cubans are "at least 10"
Venezuelan ex-military personnel.
Artillery experts from the two countries are probably training the
guerrillas in the creation of new rocket attack methods. For the last 20 years,
the FARC and ELN have both used a homemade gas canister rocket that, due to its
inaccuracy, has wreaked more havoc on civilians than on military bases.
Anti-aircraft missile experts from Cuba and Venezuela are probably working
on the seven anti-aircraft missile bases that have been detected under
construction in the distension zone. Armaments tracking detected the arrival of
Stinger and Redeye anti-aircraft missiles from Syria several years ago. More
shipments of anti-aircraft missiles and launchers have probably been made by the
Russian mafia, closely linked to the FARC because of its unique ability to pay
in highly lucrative cocaine, which Russia distributes throughout Europe.
A partially completed submarine was discovered last year in central
Colombia. The small but highly sophisticated sub was designed to transport drug
shipments. The engineering plans were in Russian.
The final destination of the IRA terrorists is still uncertain. Within five
days the Colombian attorney general's office should determine whether they will
be tried in Colombia or deported. The Bush administration has still made no
comment on the case, other than to say that it supports the Pastrana
administration's continuing efforts for peace and that it will be watching how
the case progresses.
Cuba, for its part, is denying the presence of Cuban troops. Cuban
chancellor Aymee Hernandez said in Havana, "It’s a great fallacy, the
whole world knows that there are no Cubans there [in Colombia]."
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