Corrections and Additions By Donnel Jones, May 9, 2003

There are a number of errors in the immediately preceding entry, Oh Colombia. Also included is some additional FYI.

I visited Colombia in 1998, not 1997.

Eleven, not eight, soliders were also murdered by FARC along with Guillermo Gaviria and Gilberto Echeverri, two high-level politicians in the state of Antioquia.

Here's more information on the kidnapping. I had written in my last post the two men were kidnapped during a peace rally in which they willingly encountered guerillas of FARC. That is not really the case, but there is this: President Pastrana condemned the kidnapping but criticized Gaviria for ignoring the Colombian army's warnings about security in the zone. The press released an Apr. 16 letter in which Gaviria said that if he were kidnapped, the state should "not accept any type of concession with my captors for my release."

It must then be said that Gaviria knew of the risk he assumed as a result of his activism. If to be deemed foolhardy, Gaviria is equally to be commended for his bravery. As he insisted, no exchange of prisoners was made between the Colombian govenment and the guerillas so Gaviria could be released.

3,500 Colombians are reported kidnapped every year.

National Liberation Army (ELN) is another leftist guerilla group.

The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) is a right-wing paramilitary group responsible for human rights abuses in their fight against the FARC and ELN.

With the unromantic punch of direct truth-telling (from hyperlink to Washington Times immediately above; same for all quotes below): "The fundamental difference between the guerrillas and the AUC," said David Spencer, a security consultant in Washington, "seems to be that AUC doesn't want to overthrow the government, and they don't believe in quashing private enterprise, where the guerrillas want to overthrow the government and want to establish a centrally controlled economy."

Now we know why Castano, leader of the AUC, is so well trained: The AUC was set up in 1997 under the leadership of Carlos Castano, who also leads its largest faction, the Campesino Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU), in northwest Colombia. The ACCU represents more than 75 percent of the AUC, according to Mr. Castano, who says retired Israeli military instructors trained him in Israel in 1983.

I present you the minister of propaganda: FARC's propaganda chief, Alfonso Cano, disagrees. He said the paramilitaries are creations of "the oligarchy," a clandestine weapon of the state, and a reason why guerrillas have taken up arms.

Let me get this straight: the guerillas take up arms because the paramilitias took up arms (and this is the part left out) because the guerillas took up arms.

By far the best conclusion in my book: "If the state could re-assert its own monopoly over the war effort against the guerrillas, then the lines of the conflict would become sharper and clearer, with the state on one side and the guerrillas on the other. This would constitute progress. Eventually, it could lay the foundation for a future negotiated settlement."

This is one instance where triangulation doesn't work.