Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [15]
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In March 2008, Uribe approved a tricky bombing mission across Ecuador’s border, resulting in the successful killing of FARC leader Raúl Reyes and the retrieval of computer files that indicated that FARC were trying to acquire uranium for bombs (the files were later authenticated by Interpol). In May 2008, the Economist predicted defeat of the guerrillas was ‘only a matter of time.’
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While Colombia’s international reputation as a dangerous country of kidnappings and cocaine continues to soften, the national tourist board got into the act with a new campaign in 2008 (‘the only risk is wanting to stay’) to attract visitors.
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The bombing mission, however, nearly set the region into broader conflict, with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez immediately getting into the action and moving tanks to the Colombian border, but things soon settled – particularly after the contents of seized computer files from the raid embarrassingly showed Chávez had contributed up to $300 million to FARC. Meanwhile, back in Colombia, Uribe’s popularity hit 90% approval levels.
Not all news for Uribe has been so cheery, however. Scandals followed him throughout his first term, and – after a controversial amendment to the constitution (allowing him consecutive terms) – his second. By 2008, following his public feuds with the Colombian Supreme Court, 60 congressmen had been arrested or questioned for alleged ‘parapolitics’ links with paramilitaries (Uribe’s cousin was also implicated, and even fled to the Costa Rican embassy for protection, though the charges were later dropped).
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In November 2008 more than 20,000 indigenous Colombians (part of Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia, or ONIC) blocked traffic in a march along the highway outside Cali to protest slow-moving land reform.
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Even more embarrassing were widely published reports of falso positivos (false ‘positives’), the local moniker referring to killed civilians who were posthumously dressed in guerrilla uniforms. Implications of the controversy spread through the military, and Uribe fired 27 officers in November 2008, the same time leading commander General Mario Montoya resigned. Amnesty International estimates that nearly half of these deaths were by local military groups financed by the US.
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LOOKING AHEAD
Colombia faces an interesting transitional period over the coming years. A 2009 referendum will be held to allow Uribe to run for a third presidential term, prompting some criticism that Uribe may be emerging as yet another authoritarian strongman in a region with no shortage of such leaders.
Much of Colombia’s economic plans hinge on the upcoming US-Colombia free-trade agreement (tratado de libre comercio, or TLC). Since 1991 the US has had a confusing overlap of various trade agreements with the Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) beginning with the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) in 1991 and expanded significantly under George W Bush’s watch with the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). Under such programs, Colombia’s exports to the US have steadily risen (including a 50% increase from 2003 to 2007, with a notable rise in flower exports).
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Despite a rocky start to 2008 with Colombian-Venezuelan relations (Chávez sending tanks to the border and news he assisted FARC), by summer the leaders patched things up, meeting to discuss ongoing trade between the countries, which amounts to as much as $6 billion a year.
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Throughout 2007 and 2008, however, the US Congress fought over the policy’s renewal (which expired at the end of 2008) that proposes new provisions to allow 80% of US exports to Colombia to go tariff-free. Opponents, chiefly the Democratic party (along with the USA’s new president Barack Obama), pointed to a recent bump in the numbers of killed union leaders, while mostly Republican backers found some surprising endorsements from newspapers such as the New York Times