Colombia - Another Threat in the Caribbean?
Shortly before leaving office in July of this year, Colombia's President Julio C6sar Turbay asserted that his country's armed forces "cannot remain either inactive or indifferent; in...
...Direct intervention by the United States would immediately take the conflict beyond its micro-regional boundaries, potentially opening it up to involvement by other countries, such as Cuba or even the Soviet Union...
...The Cascavel model has been acquired by the Soviet Union, among other countries...
...2 The Parrot Speaks for Itself Even before Reagan took office in January 1981, his campaign advisers had set the theme of East-West conflict in the Caribbean...
...One of the agreements consisted of a propaganda offensive, in which they would denounce "the intervention of Fidel Castro in the preparation and training of Colombian guerrillas" as well as "the communist coalition between Cuba and Nicaragua to intervene in El Salvador...
...Coffee makes up 55% of Colombia's exports, and for most of the postwar period the United States accounted for 70% of its market...
...Baltimore Sun, March 4, 1982...
...The 14 ambassadors held inside-including U.S...
...2 The formal explanation for Colombia's "coincidence" with U.S...
...8. Ibid...
...Michael T. Klare and Cynthia Arnson, Supplying Repression (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Policy Studies, 1982), pp...
...Officials close to the deliberations, according to the Times, affirmed that three action alternatives against Cuba and Nicaragua were being studied: "A second proposal called for American assistance in the formation of a 1,000-member paramilitary force already being assembled by Latin American nations, including Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia...
...New York Times, March 4, 1982...
...actions without incurring the active rejection of their own populations, particularly with postMalvinas nationalism still so fresh...
...psyche, but are finding voice in broad-based solidarity movements with Central America, in growing draft resistance and in the 15 a m a 4NACLA Report anti-nuclear movement...
...Interventionism Although the United States has its own military facilities in the Caribbean, from Panama to Puerto Rico to its new regional command in Key West, Florida-not to mention the Guantanamo base in Cuba-the new projects are explained by the difficulty the United States might encounter in using its own troops in a regional conflict...
...El Espectador, September 17, 1982...
...Portland visited Colombia too...
...Today the old movements continue to operate and their activities have only been augmented by new groups such as the M-19...
...The great wave of repression that swept the country between 1979 and 1982 had been ineffectual...
...Beyond this, we cannot forget the new military base in Barranquilla and the modernization of 17NACLA Report one in Cartagena...
...But with the Sandinista victory in 1979, Turbay pressed his case, openly acknowledging its political nature: "[The U.S.] used it to play with international policy, saying to Nicaragua that U.S...
...And two, "it permitted a gauge of the defense capability of the island, definitely poor in arms, with gaping logistical deficiencies...
...Expressly excluded were three small keys claimed by the United States and relinquished to Colombia in a 1971 bilateral treaty...
...Special Report, No...
...One, it changed the attitude of the island's population toward the militarization...
...Since the late 1960s, West Germany has moved to share first place with the United States...
...The listing went on and on: "...four Mirages have been assigned...an indeterminate number of duly armed T-33 combat planes and A-37 military reconnaissance airships...
...3. The Committee of Santa Fe, A New Inter-American Policy for the Eighties (Washington, D.C.: Council for InterAmerican Security, 1980), foreword...
...14Sept/Ilst2 tism...
...The latter was expedited within a month...
...occupation, in which Colombia recognized Nicaragua's sovereignty over the Miskito coast and Nicaragua ceded to Colombia the islands of San Andr&s and Providencia...
...But even the disclaimer became part of the low comedy when it too was paralleled in the same terms by the U.S...
...The rural expansion of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the novel strategy of the M-19 form a power alternative that alarms those who today rule Colombia...
...The further danger that military intervention would fail to resolve the conflict does not facilitate such an official decision...
...The publicity show put on by Colombia and Honduras against outside influence in the region provided the perfect smokescreen for a proxy military buildup...
...Duly recorded, but virtually unnoticed, is the implication of Colombia in Washingtonmasterminded covert plans against Nicaragua, revealed in the press earlier this year...
...Army School of the Americas in Panama...
...Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) March 25, 1981, p. Q1...
...which has become the newest symbol of the Reagan-Turbay "international communist conspiracy...
...Nothing is defined...
...officers train troops from Colombia and other Latin American countries at the U.S...
...As a counterpart to this agreement, Colombia would receive the "tactical military assistance" it required, and the facilitation of the treaty reaffirming Colombia's sovereignty over the islands in question...
...He responded that they mainly foresaw improving facilities in the region to which they had access...
...Interview with President Turbay, October 4, 1982...
...Accusing the Soviet Union of trying to undermine governments in the region through Nicaragua and Cuba...
...Since 1948, guerrilla movements have been a constant in Colombia's domestic life, in certain movements even putting in question the viability of the traditional economic and political institutions...
...When it was all over, after 61 days, the M-19 had achieved its objective: the watching world knew about the hundreds of arbitrary political detentions, the assassinations, the military trials of civilians without due process and the official torturers...
...It can be carried on ships equipped with ramps, such as the frigates described below.22 The four FS 1500 frigates, ordered from West Germany in 1981, are celebrated for their warfare capabilities and easy maneuverability...
...Its basic purpose is to transport troops in combat...
...1 6 In what seemed more like prefabricated theater than an unforseen event, one had to appreciate the agility of the Colombian armed forces in mobilizing public opinion to their side...
...The Central American Democratic Community and the new so-called Forum for Peace, to which Colombia has just been invited, are just such instruments...
...State Department, Bureau of Public Affairs), December 14, 1981, pp...
...But Belisario Betancur is one of the few changes...
...State Department, Bureau of Public Affairs), December 14, 1981, p. 10...
...In November 1981, the Colombian Navy sank a boat full of arms, apparently destined for the M-19...
...All armaments listings were taken from SIPRI Yearbook 1982 (Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) and Supplying Repression...
...markets...
...By way of encore, in March 1982 Colombia insisted on being included in Reagan's Caribbean Basin Initiative, promoting itself as an industrial partner of the program together with Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and the United States...
...However, its course was not to the mainland...
...Among the participants was the commander of the spectacular takeover of the Dominican Republic Embassy in Bogoti a year earlier...
...Between that date and 1960, 300,000 people were killed in a period known in Colombia as "La Violencia...
...approval depended on how they handled themselves...
...He is surrounded by the same military command and many of the same civil officials who served under Turbay...
...The Reason for the Unreasonable The origin of Colombia's current posture in the Caribbean Basin does have its independent explanations...
...Letter by Samuel Hart, Director of Andean Affairs Office, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, U.S...
...U.S...
...The provocation need not even involve Colombia...
...Still on order are 6 T-38 Talon trainer planes...
...48, 50...
...It was not until the later months of presidential campaigning that candidates aspiring to succeed Turbay in the May 1982 elections began to speak of initiatives for domestic peace...
...Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs Thomas Enders: "what can only be described as a state of danger in the Caribbean Basin [is]...the role of Nicaragua as a platform for intervention throughout Central America...
...Given the relative failure of this internal policy, the government saw no alternative to dosing ranks around the Reagan policy in the Caribbean, a decision quickly taken advantage of by Washington...
...ElEspectador, April 14, 1982...
...The Nation, on March 6, 1982, wrote: "According to two people present at secret briefings held last November and December, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas Enders told members of the Senate and House select committees on intelligence that the CIA is secretly providing training, money and weapons for former members of Gen...
...Between 1950 and 1979, the United States has trained 7,907 Colombian military personnel-almost the same number as Peru (7,966), slightly less than Brazil (8,659) and more than Argentina (4,861).' Between 1976 and 1980 alone, 225 Colombian officers received training in "small unit infantry tactics" at the U.S...
...All of this has been at the overt level...
...When one takes into account that the majority of the threats to Nicaragua are concentrated in the eastern Miskito region bordering with Honduras, the importance of the militarization of San Andr6s and the strategic position of the barren little islands under dispute become more obvious...
...352 (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...objectives in the region, and particularly its focus on Nicaragua, rested on two points...
...Colombia is treated as a case study of the alleged role of Cuba in supporting armed opposition movements: "Cuban assistance to Colombian guerrillas was stepped up after the February 1980 seizure of the Dominican Republic Embassy in BogotA...
...According to figures from Washington, it has a 70,000-man military force whose armament and training is geared toward counterinsurgency.' 9 This profile, atypical of Latin America, is explained in part by the absence of serious border conflicts, the secondary political role played by the military for many years, and by the grave internal problems that have obliged it to concentrate its resources on "internal security"--to control the guerrilla movement and quell popular discontent...
...El Espectador, April 17, 1982...
...The most important aspect, however, is that it also includes training for 800 military personnel--190 in the United States and the rest overseas...
...The accords with Colombia encountered no obstacles...
...officials in charge of civil and military policy in the Caribbean area in order to "deal with the communist presence in Latin America...
...In the last two years, President Turbay has sought to play an active and aggressive role in Caribbean politics, running the full gamut from diplomatic posturing to a powerful military presence...
...But the airport was closed down, the A-37 pursuit planes were prepared for take-off, and the post commander maintained an "open line" with the minister of defense in Bogoti...
...Shown the State Department's satellite photos of tiny Nicaraguan military bases in mid-March 1982, President Turbay leaped to observe: 16SepIOct10 2 "When a country is armed with much more than it needs, it's looking to use that military force internationally...
...In 1952, Colombia responded to President Eisenhower's petition via the OAS to send troops to Korea, the only Latin American country to do so...
...Rapid Deployment Forces...
...The following month, March 1982, a commercial plane was captured by the M-19, forced to land in the north of the country where it was loaded with weapons that contraband dealers had delivered that far, then flown to the jungle, brought down in a riverbed and unloaded...
...2 First, there is the 1981 purchase of 275 EE-9 Cascavel and EE-11 Orurutu tanks, made by the Brazilian firm, Engesa...
...We must not forget the capacity of the powers-that-be to manipulate the press to create fictitious events which could incite the general support of the Colombian population for an aggression against Nicaragua-another "invasion" of San Andr6s, perhaps...
...During the Congressional presentation, it was noted that "Colombia is expected to purchase more training and aviation spare parts through FMS [Financial Military Sales] cash procedures...
...4. Current Policy, No...
...Second, the severe criticisms by the Reagan Administration of the interventionist policy of the Soviet Union in neighboring Afghanistan and Poland would backfire drastically were Reagan to send troops into Central America...
...thus military acquisitions this year accounted for 20% of that total...
...In 1981 Colombia exported $3.3 billion...
...Of the 1982 request, $10 million is slotted for 12 UH-1H helicopters...
...Limits of U.S...
...economic and military favors...
...Ram6nJimeno, a Colombian lawyer and social researcher, is preparing a forthcoming NACLA Report on conditions in Colombia...
...an actual meeting of minds and goals exists between Colombia and the warmongering posture of the Reagan team...
...Tell the launch to go intercept...
...Three months later, 150 guerrillas from the M-19 invaded the Pacific Coast of Colombia...
...The two batallions received onthe-job training which was put to use on their return to quell a virtual civil war that had raged since 1949...
...Colombia is now suffering the sudden attack of internationally inspired guerrillas...
...The reply by Cubtas foreign ministry to the breaking of relations by Colombia speaks to the exaggerations: "It is no secret that many revolutionaries from various Latin American countries, whose regimes are characterized by a state of siege...bloody repression, tortures, missing persons and the cruelest methods of repression developed and extended on this continent by the CIA and other official agencies of the United States, have found asylum in our country, although the politically persecuted do not always share our ideology...
...The installation of powerful military radar equipment on San Andr6s, with a 200-mile reach and other specifications which remain secret, gives Colombia a distinct edge...
...Air Force F-16s were on red alert in the Canal Zone, ready to come to San Andr6s, and that they could get here in no more than 12 minutes...
...At the same time Colombia purchased 32 Exocet MM-40 ship-toship missiles from France, specifically for the frigates...
...all is in flux...
...439 ff...
...Ibid...
...El Espectador, May 6, 1982...
...1. El Tiempo (Bogota), July 25, 1982...
...it might be Honduras, the other U.S...
...Bullets and Bankruptcy A brief comparison with historic arms purchases by the Colombian military lends a sense of scale to this accounting...
...Another 500 trade union and peasant leaders and politicians were assassinated by death squads that appeared alongside the Army...
...3 (1982), p. 6. 26...
...It is equally clear that Colombia's military posturing and verbal threats, particularly aimed at Nicaragua and Cuba, are not hollow...
...In addition, in their battle against narcotics traffic, Colombian armed forces work with a number of Drug Enforcement Agency advisers, who also tend to fulfill other functions...
...Turbay's solution to hook up with Reagan and "stop subversion at its source" finds favor in expected places within Colombia...
...The bulk of the tanks not stored aboard the frigates are kept in this area, since the small size of San Andr6s precludes all being housed there...
...3) in Barranquilla, a city on Colombia's Caribbean coast...
...Ibid...
...This disproportionate expenditure takes on even greater significance in light of Colombia's $1.8 billion fiscal deficit, the highest in its history...
...By August, Turbay's minister of defense needed only invoke it obliquely to justify Colombia's purchase of costly new military equipment: "Given the danger lying in wait for us and the inoperativeness of the international organisms, the military institution of the republic must itself confront the peril, equipped and ready either to dissuade or to act...
...And this impressive array was before the expected shipment of new arms...
...alliance...
...5 But besides that, it brought to light another fact...
...military counterparts...
...While this training is of inestimable value for a Central American war, the arms acquired by Colombia between 1980 and March 1982, as well as their new destination, illustrate a shift in Colombia's new armaments policy...
...Convincing the Islanders The transformation of San Andr6s was described by the Colombian press in early May, lending weight to the thesis that its militarization was not merely defensive: "Up to this moment several marine contingents, some warships and combat planes of the Colombian Air Force (FAC) have been detailed to the island...
...Invited by him to investigate the situation in Colombia, Amnesty International provoked his further ire by fully documenting the systematic violation of human rights under his rule . With the arrival of the M-19 commando to Cuba following the embassy incident, Turbay launched his military campaign in the Caribbean, in full support of the Reagan line...
...Despite armed forces efforts to reduce their operations, they have consistently strengthened not only their number but their offensive capacity...
...Colombia's increased participation in the Central American proxy war has already paid off...
...7 In all fairness, his preoccupation with the military aspect is not unfounded...
...Nicaragua contested both treaties, the first by virtue of its own lack of sovereignty in 1928, and the second because of the treaty's bilateral nature...
...7. El Espectador, June 4, 1981...
...One wears Playboy T-shirt, manufactured for re-export in Colombia...
...Since 1972, Colombia has maintained average annual military expenditures of $200 million...
...2 69lt c0ltpeS 13NACLA Report On February 28th of this year, President Turbay met with Venezuelan President Herrera Campins, and officially proposed to him the creation of "a common army to defend the free determination of the peoples" of the Caribbean Basin...
...Asociaci6n Nacional de Instituciones Financieras (ANIF), Carta Financiera (Colombia), February 1982...
...Senate without ratification...
...3 3 The irony is that the M-19, unlike many leftist organizations in Latin America, is supremely nationalist and completely independent of any international alignments...
...The Colombian Army was perhaps the first in Latin America to receive counterinsurgency training...
...The first was Nicaragua's rapid and "disproportionate" military buildup and its supposed arms traffic to the Colombian guerrillas...
...Turbay Lends a Destabilizing Hand Not only did Turbay cool diplomatic relations with Nicaragua and actually re-break them with Cuba in 1981 (after a rapprochement in 1975), he put Colombia forward as an alternative candidate for the Latin American seat on the United Nations Security Council in 1980, finally blocking Cuba's election in favor of Mexico after more than 150 successive vote calls...
...Turbay's efforts to recoup his image were ineffectual...
...The event had several effects...
...But today, there is a new element of "coincidence...
...Colombia Today, Vol...
...For example, the newsletter of the powerful Financiers' Association commented: "If Reagan's policy in the Caribbean is successful in stabilizing the zone, stopping the communist advance with a minimum of warlike force, our country will be one of the largest winners...
...2 a It is evident that the armaments are of greater concern than the deficit they are helping to aggravate...
...unwillingness to engage in political dialogue with what Reagan insists is the unrepentant enemy, the situation in the region is highly volatile...
...The second was the Sandinistas' diplomatic claim to San Andr6s, Providencia and other smaller islands lying hard off Nicaragua's Miskito coast in the Caribbean Sea.* Beginning in June 1981, Colombia's military high command met with U.S...
...Since 1975, guerrilla movements have increased their activity in the countryside, and even more in the cities...
...17, No...
...They created a consciousness about the possibility of an invasion, or about the loss of a part of the national territory, and they managed at the same time to foster public enmity toward a nation which had never so much as inferred a threat to the Colombians...
...9. Washington Post, March 2, 1982...
...The United States will provide money and advisers for this unit...
...cannon, a laser range-finder and moves with great agility at a speed of 95-100 kms per hour...
...Furthermore, Latin American countries could not justify such U.S...
...Moving to the Air Force, apart from delivery in March 1982 of 12 modern Israeli Kfir-C2 fighter jets equipped with air-to-air and air-toship missiles, all are purchased from the United States...
...Estrategia Econdmica y Financiera (Colombia), July 1982, p. 15...
...Rumors flew around the island that planes were bombing close to the islands to distract military attention so that "the Nicaraguans would find the way cleared for their invasion...
...30 It is clear that if any Colombian sectors contemplated another solution to what they perceived as the guerrilla threat, they did not find it being voiced...
...In these first days of March, Weinberger himself visited Colombia, promptly followed by Admiral Harry D. Train, commander of the Atlantic Sixth Fleet (NATO...
...Standing out on the list is the A-37B Dragonfly, a counterinsurgency fighter plane of which Colombia has received 10, all apparently concentrated in the San Andr6s area and on continental territory near the Caribbean ports...
...A few weeks earlier, following protests by the population of San Andr&s against the militarization, the islanders were "frightened by strange explosions...
...90 (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...He had been in Cuba ever since the episode...
...A similar model, called the Hydrocobra, is being produced by Engesa and the Aerospace Division of Textron for the U.S...
...Proxy No...
...Yet it is the M-19 20 CAN ERepdSoranIIfdU2 I E E U.S...
...It's Not an Internal Problem" Huge mobilizations of the military during "La Violencia" never completely extinguished the insurgent movements...
...New York Times, March 18, 1982...
...Ambassador Diego Asencio-assured the seriousness of the negotiations as they dragged on...
...ambassador to Colombia, Thomas Boyatt...
...The first is to be found, as always, in its dependence on coffee exports to western and, most particularly, to U.S...
...Orders went out," described a journalist on the scene, "shots went up, the air was filled with the metallic sound of bolts clicking rounds into rifle chambers, soldiers occupied positions at fivemeter intervals along the cliffs...
...The ship docked at the island of San Andr6s, where its crew measured the depth and the capability of the "new base that Colombia is constructing there to better defend against Cuban and Nicaraguan communism.'"" They also reviewed the air strip...
...These actions are being reinforced with the emplacement of anti-air batteries, and in the near future the installations of a modern military radar system...
...But as long as Turbay was in power, the government's attitude was clear...
...Ten days later, on the very day Turbay called for the creation of a multinational military force, the New York Times added new details to the disclosure of covert plans...
...As the observing journalist put it, "For my part, I was calm....I learned that 18 U.S...
...Four hundred miles off Colombia's northwesternmost tip, they lie in a rumpled chain the length of northern Nicaragua and only 120 miles off its shores-within what Nicaragua claims as territorial waters...
...In the event of a military conflict, Cuba is an ally that could hypothetically offer to assist besieged Nicaragua with supplies...
...5. El Tiempo, March 1, 1982...
...Special Report, No...
...As a result of the unrestricted support of the United States, Colombia was favored in the reassignment of quotas recently negotiated in London by the World Coffee Pact...
...State Department, sent June 22, 1982...
...All through the day locals and tourists were in a high state of tension, lacking any official word...
...From the United States, Colombia bought an unspecified number of Seasparrow ship-to-ship and ship-to-air missiles, also destined for the four frigates as well as for the warships already in Colombia's possession (four submarines, three destroyers and two older missile frigates, among others...
...Ever since the early 1960s, Colombia has traded its voice in diplomatic initiatives in which it had no clear self interest for hopes of U.S...
...Such was the case when Colombia led the call in the Organization of American States (OAS) for sanctions against revolutionary Cuba in 1962, and two years later called for Cuba's actual expulsion from the body...
...Colombia, the image of democracy in Latin America, had been placed among the ranks of the oppressive dictatorial regimes...
...The multiple incidence of multilateral alliances against Nicaragua and Cuba could mean the mobilization of any number of countries should Nicaragua make one false move, or even be accused of doing so...
...Interview with former presidentJulio Cisar Turbay, Bogota, Colombia, October 4, 1982...
...Ibid...
...In January 1979, Turbay unfastened the last legal restrictions on the military, allowing them free rein to recuperate more than 5,000 arms removed by the M-19 from the Army's own main storage depot through a hand-dug tunnel...
...7 On October 4th, almost two months after leaving the presidency, Turbay insisted on that peremptory conclusion in a NACLA interview: "The Nicaraguan arms buildup is unnecessary...unless it wants an interventionist policy in Central America, or unless it also wants a military confrontation with Colombia to dispute the sovereignty of the San Andr6s archipelago...
...The relative change in Colombia's internal political conditions-a democratic opening after an almost 30-year state of siege and the partial legalization of the M-19-does not necessarily imply the possibility of a change in the military's entrenchment in the Caribbean...
...Below: Campesino members of M- 19 pose near their jungle camp in Caqueta, Colombia...
...Given the militarization of the Caribbean by Colombia and other countries and current U.S...
...The effects of Vietnam not only remain in the U.S...
...Security Assistance Programs, Congressional Presentations, FY 1982, pp...
...4 The parallel arguments of Turbay and the Reagan team became so obvious that finally Turbay's Minister of Foreign Relations was obliged to comment on the "coincidence...
...Colombia's reward of 16.3% of the world market led the international press to comment on, and Brazil to protest, the Colombian-U.S...
...The End of the Beginning "Let our friends and our adversaries understand that we will do whatever is prudent and necessary to ensure the peace and security of the Caribbean," menaced President Reagan in his speech to the OAS in February 1982...
...Minister of Defense] Camacho Leyva came to Washington to request military assistance...
...To do so, it would have to carefully thread its way around Colombian air or sea space, creating a highly conflictual situation...
...Reagan Administration ambassador at large Vernon Walters has negotiated with the government of Argentina and with elements in the security forces of Venezuela, Colombia and Chile to cooperate with the CIA in destabilizing the Nicaraguan government...
...The Orurutu is an armored amphibian type, the optimum model for use both on land and in the water...
...One eloquent indicator, since purchases must be paid for with foreign exchange, is their relationship to export receipts...
...But the affair took on a new dimension when Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was asked by Representative Bo Ginn (D-GA) what actions the Pentagon planned to counter Cuban expansionism...
...Finally, 12 205 UH-1H (Huey) helicopters and 2 Hercules C-130H transport planes round out the major acquisitions for Colombia's "defensive" command of the air...
...So saying, he inaugurated a shiny new military air base (Combat Command No...
...Colombia and Honduras are among the sites the Administration is considering," he revealed, adding that "the Caribbean bases would be used for training, search and rescue missions, relief flights and other activities...
...In 1982, with the arrival of most of the orders, that figure more than tripled.a 3 It was further revealed that in a secret Senate session with the Army, the military presented a budget for fiscal 1983 that hit $2 billion, a figure clearly beyond any ordinary growth in military spending...
...That Latin American guerrilla groups have relations with Cuba is no more surprising than the exaggerated response of the White House and Colombian leaders...
...The supposed Nicaraguan offensive was not a new theme to Colombians who pay any attention at all to their leaders' foreign policy statements...
...Ibid...
...Two have already been delivered and are currently in operation in the Caribbean...
...School of the Americas in Panama...
...103 (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...But, Weinberger admitted, "We have discussions under way, basically of a classified nature, that would enable us to add to the number of facilities that we see in the future we may sometimes need...
...proxy, or even Costa Rica...
...Anastasio Somoza's Guard who are now carrying out armed incursions into Nicaragua from bases in Honduras...
...2 4 The implications this has for the weak Colombian economy are staggering...
...We are prepared for such an event, and believe that reason, law and even force are on our side...
...The Colombian government, eluding the question, again invoked the Inter-American mutual defense treaties...
...It has a 90 mm...
...A few days earlier, the story broke that a new military base was undergoing rapid construction on San Andr6s, without specifying whether or not the United States would have access...
...A second factor helps explain Colombia's new attitude...
...El Espectador, March 7, 1982...
...According to the Colombia press, the military reached concrete accords with their U.S...
...The disclaimer may have been considered necessary because Colombia has long been known as the parrot of U.S...
...Colombia's sales have actually grown despite forecasts to the contrary based on the coffee glut in the world market...
...In plain refusal to acknowledge this lineage and tenacity, Turbay insists that the problem is reducible to a question of external subversion...
...Turbay: the entire region is "threatened by communist penetration" from Cuba operating through Nicaragua...
...e Arms Speak with a Clear Voice Colombia has never before been distinguished for its bellicose capacity among the Latin American community of nations...
...military appropriations to Colombia have jumped from less than $1 million in 1980 and 1981 to $12.5 million in 1982 and a requested $12.9 million for FY 1983...
...At almost the same moment the Sixth Fleet's U.S...
...Each met with Turbay and the military high command...
...Another 228 received a course in "internal security operations" at the same school...
...Jesse Helms' subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs titled, "Cuba's Renewed Support for Violence in Latin America...
...The following morning the Colombian military vessels returned to port with the "invaders" in tow-nine stray Mexican fishing boats, with a crew of 120 and no cargo...
...The guerrillas can be detained in the measure that we effectively control our own borders and do not permit the penetration of more arms to strengthen them," he told NACLA in October...
...It has little enough support from the western nations for its Central American policy as it is...
...M-19 and the Bearded Bugbear In early 1980 the M-19 put itself and Colombia into the international headlines with its precision takeover of the Dominican Embassy...
...6. New York Times, March 17, 1982...
...foreign policy in the region...
...Amnesty International, Informe de visit a Colombia, April 1, 1980...
...U.S...
...Two weeks later, he made a new call to create an interAmerican naval force "to cut off Salvadorean rebels...
...Turbay invoked the Rio Treaty, a hemispheric mutual defense pact against outside agression...
...in case Nicaragua tries to crystalize its malevolent ideas, they must be prepared to offer a firm and categorical response...
...State Department, Bureau of Public Affairs), August 1982, p. 2. 20...
...In the Caribbean Sea a small naval fleet patrols or lies at anchor, comprising two destroyers...four frigates equipped with anti-aircraft cannons, and two submarines...
...Nicaragua, which had always manifested interest in the keys, succeeded in getting the treaty tabled in the U.S...
...2. El Espectador (Bogota), August 2, 1982...
...At least 3,500 people had been tried by military courts under the imposed state of siege, and 15,000 more were arbitrarily detained as of the end of 1981...
...Not surprisingly this upset the Colombian government," understated Samuel Hart, Director of the Inter-American Affairs Bureau's An18SepIctl1t82 1 Left: Later killed in M-19 invasion of Pacific Coast, negotiator "La Chiqui" gives victory signal for many demands met as result of Embassy takeover...
...General alert...
...3 Turbay was the first Latin American leader to jump on Reagan's propaganda bandwagon, and the voices soon began to sound as one...
...It began to appear that Colombia was well on its way to joining Honduras as a military proxy for the United States...
...1 The nature of these projected operations, he noted, would not require new treaties or the approval of the U.S...
...Ready to fire...
...APd finally, Reagan has not achieved domestic consensus for his East-West explanation of the conflict in Central America...
...COLOMBIA-ANOTHER THREAT IN THE CARIBBEAN...
...1 4 At this point the journalist interjected a commentary: "One doesn't need to be an expert in military affairs to realize that no ship with aggressive intentions is going to maneuver for an invasion with all its lights on, revealing its presence from more than 10 kilometers away...
...He explained his proposal by saying that the region "is today threatened by the influence of extracontinental forces, thoroughly outside of the Bolivar ideology, the democratic ideology...
...In December 1981 the State Department released the text of a research paper presented to Sen...
...Since August there has been a new government in Colombia-or rather, there is at the head of that government a figure who appears to have a different verbal approach to the conflicts...
...At a minimum, they are instruments to deny Nicaragua the right to peace, stability and sovereignty in the determination of its own future...
...At 8:30 that night came the news that "lights of a dozen ships in caravan" were approaching...
...Senate...
...For good measure, Colombia sniped at France and Mexico for their recognition of El Salvador's revolutionary forces, the FMLN/FDR...
...e State Department spokesman Dean Fisher was pressed to flesh out Weinberger's obscuran*While this conflict dates back to independence from Spain, a treaty was signed in 1928, while Nicaragua was under U.S...
...Bottom: Aeropesca plane, diverted from its route to transport arms to the M-19 and found abandoned in a jungle river.20 MACLA Rmrl dean desk...
Vol. 16 • September 1982 • No. 5
