Postscript: How Skillful the Juggler?
"Betancur saw the opportunity for Colombia to play a positive, independent role in the Caribbean basin, and he seized it." Belisario Betancur moved quickly to chart a new international course for...
...So much for the good news...
...As early as 1965 he spoke against the "imperialist behavior" of the International Monetary Fund...
...From the early 1960s, he has condemned the role of the U.S...
...In late April 1983, four Libyan jets bound for Nicaragua were detained 32 NACLA ReportMav/June 1983 "The posting of a hawk to Colombia at a moment when the Colombian president was trying to hammer out a peace strategy for the region was provocative, if not insulting...
...Lewis Tambs built his reputation not in academic circles, but as an active participant in rightwing organizations including the Council for National Policy and the United States Global Strategy Council...
...Belisario Betancur moved quickly to chart a new international course for Colombia...
...His parents lost 17 of their 22 children...
...He permitted the air force to purchase 12 A-37 fighter-bombers and one Boeing 707-C from the United States...
...Congressional Record, Senate, December 1, 1982, p. S13693...
...And this is happening at a moment of increasingly severe budget deficits in Colombia...
...He has criticized those who maintain Colombia's commercial links predominantly with the United States and who resist extending them to the Soviet Union...
...At first, the defense ministry claimed that Colombia had captured one of the Libyan planes which had landed in their country...
...The World According to Tombs It was within this context that Reagan nominated Lewis A. Tambs to be U.S...
...In terms of domestic policy, Betancur has already backed down significantly before military and civilian hardliners...
...bassador in Washington, and a representative In the foreign policy arena, Betancur must of the most conservative and militarist faction of juggle his desire to play an active, peaceful part the Conservative Party...
...Not only has the amnesty fallen through-as of this writing the Colombian military has again launched a major offensive against the guerrillas-but the president has been unable to generate any economic program to alleviate the hardships caused by the proCampesino shack, outside of Bogota...
...For example, his stress on military solutions to Central America's problems was evident in an article he had written in October 1981: "The Cuban-Sandinista cancer in the Caribbean and Central America can be removed through surgery, killed by chemotherapy, or isolated through quarantine...
...In October 1982, the Reagan Administration had attempted to undercut Mexican and Venezuelan peace moves in the region by forming a group of seven Caribbean basin "democracies" that were faithful to U.S...
...businesses and U.S.-dominated agencies in Latin America...
...has agilely kept all the balls in the air: seizing Should the right-wing forces find that Betan- what diplomatic initiatives he can while allowcur has become more of an obstacle than they ing the military to re-arm and build for future bargained for, they have already settled on his wars...
...He claims a strict adherence to the traditional principles of the Conservative Party: Christianity, Western culture, representative democracy and the importance of family life...
...This issue was discussed in Jimeno, "ColombiaAnother Threat in the Caribbean...
...While no shred of evidence existed to prove this, the military had made its point: Colombia's domestic unrest was nurtured by CubaNicaragua-Libya...
...5. Belisario Betancur, "Colombia busca un cambio," in Alberto Lleras, et al, Los Caminos del Cambio (BogotA: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1966), p. 13...
...The Administration has made some public noises indicating support for the Contadora initiatives, but in private the Administration was fuming...
...7 Thus, to get past the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this time, Tambs essentially had to retract most of his published statements of the last decade...
...And the Future...
...El Espectador September 17, 1982...
...POSTSCRIPT 1. Miami Herald, August 8, 1982...
...ambassador to Colombia...
...they even carried 172 guerrillas on board...
...He has been most active in the Council for Inter-American Security (CIS...
...He set off on a series of lightning trips to the other three countries in an attempt to re-establish the group's initiative in the region...
...4 His perspective on foreign policy has been much more consistent...
...Unlike the vast majority of Colombia's political leaders who are drawn from the nation's traditional oligarchy, Betancur grew up in an impoverished rural Colombian village...
...government, U.S...
...2. Miami Herald, November 26, 1982...
...Whatever the reasons for accepting Tambs, Betancur was obviously being pulled in two directions as he elaborated his foreign policy...
...In brief, he opposes both "excessive capitalism" and socialism, both the United States and the Soviet Union...
...1 To pay for these new weapons systems, the construction of a new air base in eastern Colombia and new naval and air force facilities on the Caribbean island of San Andrds, the military budget for 1983 has been increased to $2.6 billion, an enormous rise from the 1970s annual average military budget for some $200 million...
...The posting of a hawk to Colombia at a moment when the Colombian president was trying to hammer out a peace strategy for the region was provocative, if not insulting...
...4. Ibid, pp...
...Surprisingly, the Colombian government accepted the appointment without public recriminations...
...He believes in a "non-interventionist" state, yet has been sharply critical of 30"Most of the people of the Third World have little experience or apparent desire for self-government or participatory democracy...
...policies...
...Lewis A. Tambs both Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher of England...
...Will the Real Betancur Please Stand Up...
...210-211...
...In the 1982 campaign, for example, he attacked the party's policy for Central America which he characterized, simply, as "pro-American...
...Now, Tambs assured the senators that he was prone to "overstatements," which weren't necessarily valid today...
...For example, at the same time that he seemed to be wrestling Colombia back from active participation in Reagan's Central American plans, Betancur named General Gonzalo Forero Delgadillo as ambassador to Honduras...
...Local authorities found that they carried military, not medical, supplies...
...It is not surprising that anyone Mav/June1983 31"The defense ministry asserted that the planes detained in Brazil were actually going to supply M-19's guerrillas...
...opposition...
...they died from a disease "known as underdevelopment," as Betancur explains it...
...While participating in these discussions, Colombia, in January 1983, began meeting with Mexico, Venezuela and Panama-the so-called Contadora group-to search for a method of deescalating tensions in the region that would have a greater chance of being acceptable to all parties involved...
...Even more indicative of the forces tugging Betancur along a conservative path is the issue of Colombia's arms build-up...
...A history professor specializing in Latin America at Arizona State University, Tambs had worked for seven years in Venezuela as an engineer...
...Nevertheless, his ideas are closer to the Christian Democrats of the 1960s than those of the current Colombian Conservatives...
...While the diplomatic consequences of this were being played out among Brazil, Libya, Nicaragua and the United States, Colombia's top brass stepped in...
...As an apparent democracy, Colombia's support for U.S...
...Contrary to many diplomatic appointees, Tambs at least was familiar with the area of his assignment...
...Security Council, despite concerted U.S...
...He was particularly vociferous in his opposition to the U.S...
...At his inauguration in August 1982, the new president announced his intention to bring Colombia into the Non-Aligned Movement and improve relations with the country's Latin American neighbors.' Soon thereafter, Betancur supported Nicaragua's bid for a seat on the U.N...
...Although there was much hesitation on the part of many senators-one called it a "mistake to send as our representative a man with preference for military rather than diplomatic solutions in Central America"-in early March 1983, Tambs received the Senate's consent, and packed his bags for BogotA...
...2 In December, Betancur continued his offensive by the openly critical reception he provided for President Reagan in Bogota...
...CIS is a rabidly anti-communist think tank led by retired General Gordon Sumner, currently special adviser to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas Enders...
...Associated Press wires received in New York, April 21, 1983, 1812 GMT and April 22, 1983, 0049 GMT and see Latin America Weekly Report, May 6, 1982...
...when they stopped for refueling in Brazil...
...Historical particularities, social structures, economic differences all fade into insignificance...
...The most important aspect of this was the construction of new airfields and naval facilities on the island of San Andrds, hard off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast...
...He lauds the "sanctity of private property," yet favors the nationalization of some sectors of the economy...
...6 Even if they knew it was coming, Reagan and his foreign policy team were seriously disturbed by the Colombian turnabout under Betancur...
...Lacking any means of proving this, the ministry then asserted that the planes detained in Brazil were actually going to supply M-19's guerrillas in Colombia...
...The bad news is that Tambs makes Jeane Kirkpatrick look like a dewy-eyed liberal...
...For Tambs and CIS, the world is a simplistic chess board where everything can be understood in terms of maneuvers by the Soviet Union's military forces...
...With the new year, the Colombian leader became a vital new force in the search for political solutions to Central America's crisis...
...El Espectador (Bogota), November 28, 1982, and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Yearbook 1982 (London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd., 1982), pp...
...He also put forth a Colombian candidate to preside over the annual general assembly of the Organization of American States, a direct, if unsuccessful, challenge to the U.S.-supported Honduran candidate...
...1 4 By April 1983, the military's determination to have its voice heard in foreign affairs had left the realm of subtle interjection...
...24-40...
...3. Francisco De Roux, Candidatos, programasy compromisos (BogotA: Cinep, 1982), p. 25...
...invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, arguing that such action "tramples on the principle of self-determination and only seeks to chain our soul-which [the United States] believes to be underdeveloped--to the desires of Wall Street...
...In April, Betancur snatched the baton from a domestically preoccupied Mexico and became the prime mover among the Contadora nations...
...policy lent the latter a degree of legitimacy that could not be provided by Argentina or Honduras, for example...
...The Colombian foreign minister declined to veto the nomination on ideological grounds...
...6. De Roux, Candidatos, p. 39...
...They had to be fought at home and stopped abroad...
...15...
...who could say, "Most of the people of the Third World have little experience or apparent desire for self-government or participatory democracy," would be rejected for three different Latin American assignments for which he had been proposed...
...Betancur's political beliefs have remained remarkably constant, if ambiguous, over the past 30 years, during which time he ran for the presidency five times...
...But given the strength of the forces arsuccessor: Alvaro G6mez Hurtado, the vice rayed against him, one wonders when his hands president selected by congress, Colombia's am- will tire and the balls will come tumbling down...
...Looking for a silver lining, he said that the nomination was actually welcome since it would guarantee Betancur direct access to someone who shared Reagan's views on the region...
...Armed occupation, incitement of rebellion or air and naval blockade of Cuba and Nicaragua are the three major options...
...Betancur: The Conservative's Liberal These initial moves were not at all out of character for Betancur, who has made a name for himself as a maverick in the Conservative Party...
...Where Betancur will go from here is the question on everyone's mind...
...7. Lewis A. Tambs, "Introduction," in United States Policy Toward Latin America: Antecedents and Alternatives (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona State University, 1976), p. 8. 8. Lewis A. Tambs and Frank Aker, "Shattering the Viet Nam Syndrome: A Scenario for Success in El Salvador" (mimeo, 1981), p. 7. 9. CARACOL radio network, as cited in FBIS, February 7, 1983...
...Once Again, the Generals Once again the military establishment appears to be setting the course for Colombia, and the civilian president seems unable to fundamentally change or challenge it...
...3334 NACLA Report longed recession...
...Unfortunately for Tambs, the same qualities that endeared him to such far-right congressional supporters as Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), made him distinctly unpalatable to the foreign service...
...This international line has been repeatedly articulated in campaign after campaign regardChildren of Mocoa...
...less of the official position of his own Conservative Party...
...For a president who proclaimed that "The Soviet Union underlies all the unrest that is going on [in the world]," Tambs was the horse for the course...
...Under Turbay, the military shifted its concentration on traditional disputes with Venezuela over oil-producing territories to a strong projection into the Caribbean...
...in the region's affairs with the military's seem- Up to now, however, it appears that Betancur ing desire to play an active, bellicose role...
...Given that Honduras has become one of the keys to Reagan's plans for Central America (both in terms of weakening Nicaragua and strengthening El Salvador), Betancur's move was highly significant...
...1 Forero is one of Colombia's top experts in counterinsurgency warfare...
...FBIS, December 28, 1982...
...While Betancur was calling for an end to "the importation of heavy offensive weapons" in the Caribbean basin, he placed an order in Washington for 240 Seasparrow ship-to-ship and ship-to-air missiles...
...And he has not challenged Turbay's order for four West German frigates to be armed with 32 Exocet missiles of Malvinas/Falklands fame...
...These moves were a breath of fresh air from a country whose previous administration slavishly supported Reagan's every move in Central America...
...The Libyan jets made this very clear...
...While he believes that Cuba has fallen into the grips of "another imperialist power," he also has criticized counterrevolutionary forces who have tried to invade the country...
...The Tambs appointment was one indication that Betancur would have as many problems elaborating his foreign policy as he had in formulating a domestic policy...
Vol. 17 • May 1983 • No. 3
