The Times has several reports on Colombia worth reading over the past few days. Yesterday, Juan Forero wrote about drug dealers attempting to link themselves with the right-wing terrorist AUC in an effort to gain leniency for themselves as part of President Uribe's plan for the demobilization of the AUC:
"What is clear is there has been a revolving door where drug traffickers looking for impunity from international law, from extradition to the United States, have bought franchises in the paramilitaries," said a high-ranking official in Colombia's security services, who asked that his name not be used. "The negotiating table is not really run by Self-Defense Forces, but by traffickers who are using the table for themselves."
At least a half-dozen men who now say they are paramilitary commanders have played little or no role in the group's brutal war against Marxist rebels, a long campaign financed by landowners and cocaine money. Instead, the Colombian and American authorities say, their raison d'être has been to traffic in cocaine.
There is no guarantee that the paramilitaries, whether traffickers or not, will ever get a deal they will accept. That is still under negotiation. But the traffickers are willing, in effect, to bet millions on the off chance that a deal will be struck under which their property and assets will be validated and the threat of harsh jail sentences removed.
Does anyone wonder why I remain skeptical of Uribe's plan? Mark Kleiman adds a valuable perspective that speaks to the absurdity of granting amnesty to the AUC leaders.
Forero also has a good summary of Uribe's plan in today's Week in Review section of the Times that is worth reading:
What is done here could have wide resonance throughout Latin America. Offering leniency for atrocities has been tried before, but the current talks in Colombia represent the first time any government in the region has begun open negotiations with what is essentially a right-wing death-squad army - one whose fighters turned thousands of civilians into targets, sometimes killing them with chainsaws or claw hammers.
A multiparty group in the Colombian Congress wants a law that would require jail terms reaching 10 years, a dismantling of the United Self-Defense Forces, extensive reparations for victims and the disclosure by paramilitary commanders of all the secrets of their organization's military structure.
Mr. Uribe's government, though, is leaning toward a far weaker bill. It would provide for disarmament but would not press commanders to reveal details of their octopus-like organization. Commanders would disarm, but would not be required to guarantee the demobilization of their entire force. [my emphasis]
What could be the consequences of such leniency towards these narco-terrorists?
But a high-ranking Western diplomat in Bogotá was more skeptical. "They are basically cutting a devil's pact with the paramilitaries," he said, referring to both the Colombian negotiators and the Americans.
In the worst case, the road Colombia is taking could mean that, while fighters in camouflage drop their weapons, out-of-uniform killers would remain available for hire and commanders would retain their wealth and power. That means cocaine trafficking to the United States could continue unabated.
I really see no reason to believe that anything but the worst would happen; that the likes of Salvatore Mancuso and Diego Murillo would not stop their illicit enrichment. Experience should tell us that greed only begets more greed.
Meanwhile, I remain skeptical about this report that the FARC planned an assassinate attempt against President Bush while he visited Cartagena; not that I would put it past the FARC, but for these reasons:
But the group's presence in Cartagena and across a great swath of northern Colombia has waned as the military and right-wing paramilitary units have advanced. The rebels are still a potent force but mostly in the south and far east, far from the coast. Cartagena is considered the safest city Mr. Bush could visit. [my emphasis]
Cruise ships routinely stop in Cartagena. The colonial city is often a backdrop for filming films set in colonial Ibero-America. I think that this is just puffery designed to switch attention from Uribe's impunity amnesty plan to the FARC. It's not necessary. A sad fact of life for Colombia is that there are enough bad players to go around on both sides of the political spectrum.
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