Political Crossfire Forums

[Mr.Zemme]

So my world politics class had this discussion on state sponsored terrorism. Our professor was only moderating and one of the major speakers kept talking about Columbia how the United States and the United Kingdom keeps shoveling money into Columbia… but his arguments confused me. Can anyone here help me understand what he could have been talking about?

[Snow Patrol]

Well i'm not quite sure exactly what you're looking for but i'll try to give a brief outline.

There's different types of terrorists in Columbia: communist rebels (FARC), right wing nutters opposed to the communists and sometimes the Government and last of there is the drug barons. The Columbian government is also particularly brutal and will do quite alot to do what it sees fit, legal or otherwise.

The problem is drugs, all the terrorists use drug money to arm and fund themselves. America ploughs money into Columbia as part of it's war on drugs, it equips the and trains the Clumbian army and some say also fund some of the terrorists who oppose the communist rebels. The whole situation is quite messed up due to money and drugs being involved everywhere.

As for the British, i'm not aware of us having anything to do with Columbia. Although conceivably we could have been involved as a while ago there was reports of the IRA getting involved with training and arming some of the Columbian rebels.

[Mr.Zemme]

I guess the question is, how opposed to the drug baron's is the government really? What was brought up in my class yesterday was that the Government was using its army to run drug traffic through its own country while America continues to pay for for them to stop that same trafficking.
I'm mostly interested I guess, on what the opinion of the Columbian government is.

[The_Right_Honourable]

Snow Patrol wrote: Well i'm not quite sure exactly what you're looking for but i'll try to give a brief outline.

There's different types of terrorists in Columbia: communist rebels (FARC), right wing nutters opposed to the communists and sometimes the Government and last of there is the drug barons. The Columbian government is also particularly brutal and will do quite alot to do what it sees fit, legal or otherwise.

The problem is drugs, all the terrorists use drug money to arm and fund themselves. America ploughs money into Columbia as part of it's war on drugs, it equips the and trains the Clumbian army and some say also fund some of the terrorists who oppose the communist rebels. The whole situation is quite messed up due to money and drugs being involved everywhere.

As for the British, i'm not aware of us having anything to do with Columbia. Although conceivably we could have been involved as a while ago there was reports of the IRA getting involved with training and arming some of the Columbian rebels.

I thought FARC was left wing as - supposedly are the IRA - but their both catholic....

Columbia is one of the biggest benificiaries of US aid.

Want to learn about state sponsered terrorism? Nicuagua...

[Snow Patrol]

FARC are communists as i said. IRA aren't really left wing or right wing, outside of fighting for a united Ireland they have little or no policys, Sinn Fein do but it's not completly the same.

As for further Columbian stuff sorry i can't really help. Google it for relevant articles.

[Anson]

In Colombia the violent government of Alvaro Uribe has usually not been associated with state terrorism although that is changing as more and more nations are recognizing their brutal human rights violations as they are closely aligned with extremist right wing paramilitary organizations that have terrorized and executed and tortured thousands of indigenous and union organizers in Colombia in the last few years. These men and women responsible for these crimes are often armed by the Colombian government and rarely brought to justice for their crimes against humanity. And the Colombian government has received almost $4 billion in military aid from the US government in recent years, where a lot of that goes to combatting indigenous movements, union organizers, and other legitimate human rights observers.

Meanwhile the left wing group, FARC, is as well a brutal terrorist network full of thugs and intimidators. They have little concern for human life, and this has been demonstrated in their massacres in Toribio and other indigenous areas. Their platform used to be more along the lines of justice and bringing social welfare to the country, but with civil war going on for decades now, they are primarily concerned with battling the right wing governments and their closely aligned paramilitary terrorist organizations.

Both sides are quite brutal with their actions, and the Colombian people in the middle are the real victims in this mess as they have been targetted by both sides. All of this can be found out if you choose to read up on the disturbing trends in Colombia. Here is a good source that critiques both the right wing paramilitary groups as well as the FARC.

I hope this clears a few things up. :)