Colombia, for the ones that don't know what it is, is a country located in northern South America. Colombia has been suffering of one of the cancers of current life as we know it. The never ending war between capitalism and communism. Americans have a good feeling of the sense of disagreement between social oriented folks and conservative people. Well, imagine the same ideological conflict but throw in some armed forces , weapons, drug trafficking so to spice things up a bit. Well, that has been Colombia's socio-political life for the last 50 years. Colombia has been trying , or at least the civilian society, to end the continuing conflict that in Colombia has taken all forms. From the symbolic peaceful lawful protests to the bloodiest bombings and kidnappings.
Colombia's government for the last 12 years has been supported by the American government because both align to the capitalist ideology. President Andres Pastrana was known to have an excellent relation with president Bill Clinton. However, president Pastrana was not a hard liner with the rebel guerrillas and gave in a lot to achieve the peace in Colombia by meeting with FARC, Colombia's biggest and oldest guerrilla and the world's oldest, biggest and most organized rebel group.
After president Pastrana's effort to reach a peace agreement with FARC being a failure, Pastrana declared FARC the country's enemy and ordered a full military attack. The lack of willingness from the rebels despite being given all the opportunities to become a political movement has made of FARC not trustworthy to the Colombian people. The rebel's actions yield the apropriatte atmosphere for the election of a hardliner president. Enter Alvaro Uribe. Colombia's most popular ever president has been seen as a savior and FARC's fiercest enemy. Not only from the ideological perspective, Uribe is seen as a strong supporter of capitalism and the American government, but also from the personal perspective, Uribe's father was killed by FARC.
As Uribe raised to bring Colombia a little bit of more security on the rural areas where it was impossible to go without being afraid of being kidnapped by rebels, the neighboring countries of Venezuela and Ecuador were moving to the left side of the ideological spectrum.
Venezuela's president is a well known socialist who has been controversial for its actions. Although for a time Hugo Chavez tried to respect Colombia's ongoing internal conflict, only in the last years he has widely become more supportive of Colombia's rebel groups to the point of openly defending them in a speech in front of the congress. Chavez as many other presidents in Venezuela can become even more popular by making anti-Colombian speeches. Colombia and Venezuela have had historically a love-hate relationship. This comes from the fact that for example Colombia and Venezuela were liberated by the same liberator: Simon Bolivar, who wanted to bring Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador into a unified country named Gran Colombia. On the other hand, Colombia and Venezuela have had problems because of the Gulf of Venezuela, where Colombian territorial claims have been an unfinished issue way until today.
Despite the fact of being on the extremes of their ideological spectra, Colombia and Venezuela have tried to engage in friendly relations. This is of paramount importance to the region since each other have a myriad of commercial business both private and official. However, Colombia's internal conflict and a neighbor who sympathizes with Colombia government's enemy has made of the regional relations a total nightmare.
To the south things couldn't be worse. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa is also an advocate of president Chavez and has also harshly criticized president Uribe especially because of the trespassing of the Ecuadorean border where Colombian rebel commander Raul Reyes was killed when Colombian commandos attacked a FARC base in Ecuadorean territory.
Uribe's actions and the obvious sympathetic attitude to the rebels by the neighboring leaders is polarizing the region in an unprecedented way. Not only is this dangerous to the economies, since the three countries and their people depend a lot on each other but is also dangerous because the attitudes of president Chavez and Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa are enticing a social xenophobic behavior towards Colombians.
South America as a whole has been extremely supportive of Correa and Chavez because most of South America has moved to the left. Chile and Argentina both have presidents that are known to implement a socialist approach to their government policies. Bolivia's president Evo Morales has been seen as Hugo Chavez's main supporter and ally in the region. President of Brazil Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva has a union laborer socialist upbringing. Da Silva has nevertheless kept his distance from the regional situation often offering himself as a mediator between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.
This ideological difference has isolated Colombia day after day. This is why Colombia has been seen as the United State's most loyal ally in the region. Whether it is good or bad for Colombia to be seen as the only country different to the rest of South America is not really the issue. The fact of the matter here is that the leftist rebels have harmed innocent civilians throughout the last 50 years and whether one is a socialist or a capitalist, the reality is that there is only one thing clear in this world: you don't harm the people you are supposedly fighting for and this is exactly what FARC has done. FARC with its attacks has killed millions of people even innocent ones that were not part of the conflict like the bombing of a church in Bojaya.
This is what the rest of South America does not seem to understand. Just because you sympathize with a rebel group it doesn't mean that what they are doing is right. The current president of Colombia is not a choir boy either, but he is a president that was officially elected by the Colombian people through democratic means and that should be respected by the leaders of neighboring countries.
Imagine for a second if Canada or Mexico were sympathetic of Al Qaeda. What would America do if it was known to the American Government that Al Qaeda has a nice base on the neighboring city of Juarez in Mexico or outside Toronto, Canada?
Those are the kind of fears Colombians live with at the present time. Now, it has become fashion to bash the Colombian government on TV during Correa's or Chavez's speeches. It is disrespect for the Colombian people without any shame. Americans know what it is like. Hugo Chavez called president George W. Bush the devil during a speech in the United Nations, to disrespect him as bad as Bush might have been is to disrespect the people that elected him.
But apparently common sense and diplomacy no longer exists in South America. The Union of South American Nations is demanding Colombia to analyze with its neighbors whether Colombia should or should not allow four American bases in Colombian territory. Whether it is good or not to allow American bases in a foreign land is not really the issue, what gets you is the hypocrisy from countries like Ecuador who was never questioned during the time it allowed itself a full military base in the city of Manta. Neither Colombia or Venezuela for that matter protested the presence of gringos in Ecuador. Now, suddenly having them in Colombia is a big issue. The arguments: Colombia is the sheep of America who is quietly trying to depose the Venezuelan government or so they say it in Caracas.
The situation stinks and the world is not really noticing it. Although the problem has been analyzed in newspapers all over the world, the reality is that nobody gives a s... because it is only a problem that has to be resolved by the Colombians, Venezuelans and Ecuadoreans respectively and besides..damn,America is too busy with its own problems, Europe is trying to deal with its unemployment, so who cares.
The reality is that Colombians are being cornered and humiliated. Yet, Colombians try to put up with people that don't want to put up with them, because that is what tolerance is all about right?
In the meantime Colombia will have to continue fighting not only the leftist rebels but also the right wing death squads, the corruption, the poverty, the impunity. But let's not forget that as long as Colombians as people have a deep sense of what is right and wrong, they will continue having the moral authority that has been with them so far.
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Dia Sideral/Sidereal Day
