Colombia's Tumultuous Journey With Liberalism

As of the mid twentieth century, Colombia has faced a variety of trials and tribulations in the wake of the countries supposed triumph of liberalism. Dating back to the foundation of the Colombian Liberal Party in 1849, the liberal movement has remained one of the dominant political systems in the country of approximately 49.5 million. However, following the revolutionary liberal movement of the 1960’s, militant communist groups rose up against the democratic government and became one of the deadliest criminal organizations in the world over the span of decades. Due to a combination of these violent insurgent groups, drug cartels, as well as the countries complex political history, Colombia is a prime example of the atrocities and over all desecration a nation can face without a strong and trusted government that is not impacted by corruption.

In Colombia, the second half of the twentieth century brought a violent struggle for territorial control between the democratic government under liberal president Carlos Lleras Restrepo and guerrilla communist groups which began to seek control in the country. Due to this, the country served as a primary example of a nation where, “In the second half of the 20th century, democracies had taken root in the most difficult circumstances possible,” (2014). The most prominent of these groups is the FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The first attempted solution was enhancing the countries current military in the war against communism, an act which was funded by the United States and the Kennedy administration. As referenced in class discussions on March 6th 2019, President Theodore Roosevelt implemented the Good Neighbor Policy which granted the United States the right to intervene in Latin American countries as they saw fit. In the short documentary America’s Backyard: Colombia, Roosevelt asserted our countries supposed “right to intervene” in others internal affairs, having been quoted stating, “If any South American countries misbehave, they should be spanked”. Motivated by the inherent threat of Soviet Communism spreading to another country in Latin America as it did with Cuba, and the sense of justification given to them under the Good Neighbor Policy, the United States became directly involved with the creation of an official paramilitary organization. In a report from the United States military to the Pentagon during this time period it was stated, “A concerted country team effort should be made now to select civilian and military personnel for clandestine training to execute paramilitary, sabotage and terrorist activities against known communist proponents”. This proposition commenced Colombia’s possibly most effective solution in maintaining democracy and a legitimate government although not without committing a vast multitude of atrocities such as terrorizing Colombian citizens until they relinquished their support of the FARC and other organizations.

Unfortunately, the reign of terror stemming from these guerrilla groups were far from the only threat to peace and the democratic government of Colombia. According to the Vimeo clip Colombia, a Brief Animated Political History, the already weakened central government became, “incapable of dealing with multiple and simultaneous security threats” with the arrival of powerful and violent criminal drug organizations such as the Medillin Cartel. Despite decades of attempts to eradicate these criminal forces such as the assassination of Cartel leader Pablo Escobar, in present day society, “Despite billions of dollars in aid, the US and Colombia are losing the battle to cut the supply”. The influx of criminal drug organizations brought about even less faith in the government for Colombian citizens. These cartels implemented a reign of terror and violence which was the cause of thousands of civilian deaths throughout the decade.

In 1991, Colombia attempted to employ yet another strategy to combat these forces with the creation an advanced political constitution. However, this did little to circumvent what would become one of the leading issues in not only Colombia but the majority of Latin American countries today, corruption. Forces such as the FARC began to work together with drug organizations taxing coco leaf and serving as an outlet to distribute cocaine. With their simultaneous rise in power and influx in money, the police force and several government figures were able to be more easily corrupted and subsequently viewed as less trustworthy in the eyes of the people, “the military and police suffered both demoralizing and brutal setbacks”.

Once again employing the Good Neighbor Policy, the United States elected to intervene and invest in Colombia both socially and financially by offering military aid to further fight the threat of communism under President Bill Clinton. This was only exacerbated due to an increase in the United States desire to combat narco terrorism following the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. Combined with the election of Alvaro Uribe Velez, hope was again restored in the population of reaching an effective solution to the tragedies they had been unable to escape since the rise to power of guerrilla communist groups. President Uribe created specialized police units deployed to corrupt and neglected areas of rural Colombia and employed funds from the U.S. to institute counter narco terrorism government operations. In militarily confronting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the president regained the trust of the people and levied a war tax toward’s the countries wealthy men and women. Following the raise in taxes implemented in 2006, approximately $4 billion was financed toward the expansion of elite security forces. However, the deal had it’s fair share of critics both in Colombia and America. Some have since alleged that the military plan should not be funded by the United States as it was “Too skewed towards trying to win the unwinnable war on drugs by spraying coca fields from the air, and too compromised by giving money to an army stained by human rights abuse” (Bello,2016).

Not only were larger cities able to see a significant decrease in terrorism and increase in prosperity but for the first time in decades smaller rural areas were as well.

In present day Colombia, the FARC managed to transform itself into a political party after spending decades as a violent guerrilla military movement. This was following the Colombian peace agreement ratified on November 24h 2016 between military leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and President Juan Manuel Santos in Havana Cuba. The agreement, which sought to bring an end to the countries internal conflict that has lasted fifty years and killed over 200,000 men, women, and children stated, “FARC fighters who demobilize and confess to war crimes would be spared jail time and extradition, but this protection does not extend to crimes committed after the peace deal was ratified”. The deal was met with disapproval and hesitation from many Colombian citizens, particularly the conservative political parties, who felt that the peace deal was far too lenient toward extremists who have committed war crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and murder. Although hundreds of thousands were against the treaty, it was ultimately approved by congress despite the popular vote. However, the peace accord did have a multitude of beneficial effects, including nearly 9,000 weapons being submitted to the United Nations from former fighters as well as the hundreds of child soldiers being released from the movement and turned over to the Red Cross. As death and internal displacement rates dropped significantly in the year since signing the peace accord, it again appeared that Colombia was on a path to improvement and healing.

Despite the sacrifices the President of Colombia and his people were willing to make to ascertain peace, it appears that certain members of the FARC have no plans to cease engagement in criminal activity for the sake of their freedom or for the sake of their country. On April 10th 2018 a former leader of the communist organization known as Jesus Santrich was arrested and charged with preparing to smuggle $320 million worth of cocaine into the United States. Although rallies from former members of the FARC and sympathizers of the organization to release Santrich, President Santos has since made a statement that, “my hand wouldn’t shake at the authorization of his extradition”. In the year and a half following the application of Plan Colombia, the United States has remained in close ties with the Colombian government in attempt to assure that peace efforts are successful. In the podcast Understanding Latin American Politics: Implementing Peace in Colombia, the host engages in an in-depth discussion with Adam Isacson, Director of the Defense Oversight Program for the Washington Office on Latin America. In regards to a USAID mission to bring legitimate government to damaged and rural “post-conflict” areas Isaacson stated, “How do you get a government into a place that’s simply never had a government? By government, more than just a military and a police force…as well as a week in Bogota spent talking to the people who are supposedly running these programs at the national level, in general getting a sense of how well or how badly is the Colombian government implementing the peace accord that was signed back in November of 2016.” Without question, instituting Peace in a country which has been marred by violence and corruption for over half a century remains a work in progress.

In conclusion, Colombia has been forced to face numerous obstacles following the triumph of liberalism beginning in the 1960’s, throughout the cold war, into the nation’s present day. Beginning with the rebellion of the FARC, funded by the USSR and heightened by the Narco drug war, Colombian citizens have striven relentlessly to establish a legitimate government and achieve peace for decades. In the face of widespread corruption, the country has learned to institute three primary principles of government as depicted again in the video Colombia: a brief animated political history, “1.If the people do not support the government security forces, these must be reformed and their legitimacy and credibility restored,

2. If military and police actions are not accompanied by simultaneous and social interventions victory will be fleeting, 3.Only a sustained integrated effort by the state will be able to outlast the enemy”.