Venezuelan Warzone! Hybrid Conflict Zone in South America - Socialist Deep-State and Paramilitary Actions in a Chaotic Game!

Venezuela is a case of abnormality in politics. Nor even North Korea is so much instable than Venezuela, is a kind of persecution of civil rights - and human kind for sure!

The hipocrisy of the Venezuelan leader called Maduro is admirable and enviable. Well, let's remember I once commited a mistake telling that Venezuela could have a better relation to Brazil before, after the Chavez death, it was the normal scenario in every way, but no, the relations gone worst, but the problem is not the international relations. 

Going against each theoretical model, into the classic realism or the neo-realistic, the behaviorist to idealistic one... each complexity has a core and an unroll of causes and effects or synthetical scheme to promote peace and intern security... even in a dictatorship, the president should (Maduro is the exception of the general rule) mantain the nation under security of living, with the basic needs, like the physioligical needs and the metaphysical needs, like desire for living, peace, happyness, and adversion to the pain and suffering.

But there, oh there - there is different! The rights and duties are anti-natural. The rights to shut up and accept that basic needs are not - and will not - be attended. The minimal payment for the professionals are out of service, being very sarcastic. The fake democracy of Maduro don't even hide the dictatorship. 

Every year there is a coup d'etat caused by the President in power. Arresting, attempting against the free thinking, going against the population with payed militias to promote persecution, death, torture and arrest of each member of the society against the government, even not protesting, but simply charging their needs like food, their needs to express that "they want a new president".

The contracted militias in Venezuela comes from many countries, like Colombia ex members of FARC, the ELN guerrilla from Colombia actiong directly as mercenaries in Venezuela, Cuban guerrillas and rural militias payed by the government to promote social control, cleansing and accusation of betrayal.

And what is the answer of Maduro is the best... Maduro says that the rejection of the government is a minority unsatisfied of fascists. People don't eat because they don't have salaries, and because Venezuela don't have food. People don't buy because the Venezuelan money don't have any credibility in international scenario to import things. They live of primary sector and oil, that government invests in military for a 'true USA menace of invasion" that Maduro really affirms to the population.

The military power of Venezuela is very strong, with the aquire of millions of AK-47 to the militias, the urban guerrilla very well armed, and the military equipment bought from Russia, they have a capability of defense and even a offense in countries like Colombia and north of Brazil.

I once talked to a Venezuelan friend and she told me that Venezuela is worst than it is showed in the media. It's lack of information, it's all fake news spread and media is bought by government. The media against is arrested. And there are lot of atrocities that international media don't show, also because they don't know, because the local media don't show or hide the facts.

Another friend from Venezuela told me that is hard to live there. He told me that is hard to him to go there and know that everything is very different each year. Harder even to citizens that left the country comes back.

Again I give myself the right to answer, because I once told that Venezuela could integrate better the bloc in South America and have a near politics of peace in region, but I was wrong, the model of dictatorship is completely out of diplomacy.

I won't say about the Temer, the ramshackle mummy, that helps nothing, but the case of study here is Venezuela - and if I was going to talk about Brazil, I won't stop never the critizing - and it's being a pariah in the diplomatic relation and with the economic war in South America, the reflex of the Economic War in Europe, that makes the South America more isolated.

Loutish Maduro cannot even understand the malefics of his government... but:

"It should be noted that a great ideology with mesmerizing values can also easily deprive people of the capacity for selfcritical control over their behavior. The adherents of such ideas tend to lose sight of the fact that the means used, not just the end, will be decisive for the result of their activities. Whenever they reach for overly radical methods of action, still convinced that they are serving their idea, they are not aware that their goal has already changed. The principle “the end justifies the means” opens the door to a different kind of person for whom a great idea is useful for purposes of liberating themselves from the uncomfortable pressure of normal human custom. Every great ideology thus contains danger, especially for small minds. Therefore, every great social movement and its ideology can become a host upon which some pathocracy initiates its parasitic life." (Andrew M. Lobaczewski - Political Ponerology - 200).

The case of Maduro is chromossomical, he is very well described in the pathologic kind of idiocracy or pathocracy, that cannot understand or have empathy, a psychopath with the power, so the capacity of discernment is fundamental, being the bottom for each solution for a nations healthy, like a strong society fueled with capital and private sector, the military and police ready to defend the nation, not the president or the party, and education, the basic needs, without doctrination, to make people capable to discern and capability of choice.

The grand problem is the effect of the Bolivarian ideology that was feed by Guevarist methoods of guerrilla and take power and perpetual dictatorship, the regime can be taken and the whole oposition destroyed and persecuted. The kidnaps, rapes, and violence of torture can be promoted.

The psychological war is always explored implementing fear. For exemple, people cannot follow their religious beliefs, the only leader is the president.

The joint of military and proletary army, and rural army is very well explored by Venezuela. The book Guerrilla Warfare, by Che Guevara, shows that Venezuelan Government took it to the right:

Above all, it must be made clear that this form of struggle is means - means to an end. That end, essential and inevitable for all revolutionaries, is the winning of political power. Therefore, in analysing specific situations in different countries in America one must use the concept of guerrilla warfare in the limited sense of a method of struggle in order to gain that end. (p. 1)

Peaceful struggle can be carried out through mass movements -and can - in special situations of crisiscompel governments to yield, so that the popular forces eventually take power and establish a proletarian dictatorship. Theoretically this is correct. When analysing this on the American scene we must arrive at the following conclusions: Generally speaking, on this continent there exist objective conditions which impel the masses to violent actions against the bourgeois and landlord governments; in many other countries there exist crises of power and some subjective conditions too. (p. 5)

In these conditions of conflict, the oligarchy breaks its own contracts, its own mask of "democracy", and attacks the people, although it always tries to make use of the superstructure it has formed for oppression, At that moment, the question again arises: What is to be done? Our answer is: Violence is not only for the use of the exploiters; the exploited can use it too, and what is more, ought to use it at the opportune moment. Marti said: "He who wages war in a country that can avoid it is a criminal; so is he who fails to wage a war that cannot be avoided." (p. 8)

The struggle is politico-military; so it must develop, and so it must be understood.

In the course of its growth guerrilla fighting reaches a point at which its capacity for action covers a given region, for which there are too many men and too great a concentration. Then begins the bee-hive action, in which one of the commanding officers, a distinguished guerrilla, hops to another region and repeats the chain development of guerrilla warfare, but still subject to a central command. Now, it is necessary to point out that one cannot hope for victory without the formation of a people's army. The guerrilla forces can be expanded to a certain size; the people's forces, in the cities and in other enemy-occupied zones can inflict losses, but the military potential of the reactionaries would remain intact. It must always be remembered that the final outcome should be the annihilation of the enemy. Therefore all these new zones that have been created, as well as the penetrated zones behind the enemy lines and the forces operating in the principal cities should be under a unified command. It cannot be claimed that there exists among guerrilla forces the closely-lined chain of command that characterizes an army, but there is a strategic command. (p. 20)

And to finish this article, the Maduro guy, shows that he exploits the situation with the technics of Psyops, like explored the theoreticaly use of Psycological Opeartions, exploiting the fear of the population.

In case of Offensive Operations, Maduro always attempted against his own population: The FM 3-05.301 (FM 33-1-1) - MCRP 3-40.6A (Psychological Operations, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures), is said that:

Offensive Operations

...

8-78. Tactical-level PSYOP support battles and engagements by bringing psychological pressure on hostile forces and by persuading civilians to assist the tactical supported commander in achieving the commander’s objectives. Tactical PSYOP are used to achieve rapid results with local and narrowly defined TA.

8-79. During war, PSYOP focus on supporting offensive and defensive operations. PSYOP support to stability and support operations continues but it is usually a lower priority. In times of war, PSYOP strive to undermine the enemy’s will to fight. This is, in fact, the chief mission of PSYOP during hostilities. PSYOP personnel will use various media, such as loudspeakers, radio broadcasts, and leaflets, to instill fear of death, mutilation, or defeat in the enemy and undermine the enemy’s confidence in their leadership, decreasing the enemy’s morale and combat efficiency, and encouraging surrender, defection, or desertion. 

Venezuela is collapsing into socialist induced chaos, yet it remains a Corbynista poster child

JASON MITCHELL

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/01/venezuela-collapsing-socialist-induced-chaos-yet-remains-corbynista/

he Venezuelan regime’s decision to unleash paramilitary groups on opposition protestors has revealed to the world yet again the moral bankruptcy of socialism. It also shows Jeremy Corbyn’s utter hypocrisy; he parrots on about universal human rights but is not prepared to speak out against the thugs who run Venezuela, a nation of almost 32 million people.

...

Venezuelan Paramilitaries Wreak Havoc with Cuban, FARC Support

https://panampost.com/panam-staff/2015/06/24/venezuelan-paramilitaries-wreak-havoc-with-cuban-farc-support/?cn-reloaded=1

EspañolStudies released by the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami have revealed that the Cuban regime is training Venezuelan paramilitary groups, including Los Tupamaros, La Piedrita, Simón Bolívar, and Alexis Vive. These groups have killed more than 25 students during protests, and injured over 300.

These studies show that for years the Venezuelan government has sent regime supporters to Havana to learn repression tactics in order to help their leaders stay in power. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a group designated as a terrorist organization by the US government, also trains these groups on Venezuela’s border with Colombia.

Since 1999, and Hugo Chávez’s rise to power, Venezuela has maintained a close political and economic relationship with Cuba. Even today, in the midst of economic crisis, Venezuela continues to send oil to Havana, while the Castro regime continues its unconditional political support for Venezuela. Around 7,000 members of Cuba’s Interior Ministry are scattered throughout Venezuela, but studies suggest that the figure rises to 40,000 when counting the medical personnel and staff from other areas.

Since Chávez’s time in office, Venezuela has sent hundreds of supporters to Havana to learn the tactics of the Castro regime that are used today in Venezuela by militant groups called “colectivos.” These groups are heavily armed and travel by motorcycle, and have been widely criticized by the international community for their abuses.

They have also been witnessed helping the National Guard suppress peaceful student protests in recent years, an issue that various NGOs in the country have reported and denounced.

Are Colombian paramilitary groups active in Venezuela?

https://colombiareports.com/are-colombian-paramilitary-groups-active-in-venezuela/

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro claims Colombian paramilitary groups are exercising criminal and political influence in his country. This is partially true. It also ignores the alleged key role of Maduro loyalists in illegal trade of any kind.

On August 19, Maduro ordered a temporary border closure between the Venezuelan state of Tachira and the Colombian province of Norte de Santander after 3 military officials were wounded in a shoot out with contraband smugglers. The closure was then extended indefinitely and over 1,500 Colombians were deported from their homes in Venezuela.

What’s going on Venezuela’s side of the border

The border between Colombia and Venezuela has existed in a state of mutual neglect for years. Neo-paramilitary groups and partners are taking advantage of this, smuggling gasoline, consumer goods, and drugs.

After Colombia began to crack down on drug trafficking over the first decade of this century, many large scale operations moved to Venezuela where they were received by a sometimes ambivalent, and often complicit government.  Rather than using Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the drug lords are now trafficked to Venezuela where widespread corruption among the authorities allows them to ship drugs to the Caribbean.

Drug trafficking is perpetrated by groups stemming from defunct Colombia’s paramilitary organization AUC as well as leftist guerrillas the FARC and ELN.

Illegal trade between the two countries isn’t limited to drug trafficking. Because of this state of neglect border cities like Cucuta in Norte de Santander, Colombia have grown dependent on the clandestine trade of consumer goods between the two countries. Shortly after the border closure, Cucuta experienced a shortage of gasoline, after its usual supply of cheap gas from Venezuela was cut off.

Despite the Venezuelan president’s measures, the deportations and border closures have had little effect on the smuggling of goods across the border. On September 14, the Colombian Army seized 3,850 gallons of fuel smuggled across the border in La Primavera, Vichada, where gas is smuggled on boats along the Orinoco River.

Since the closure, smuggling has been reported across clandestine roads and along rivers connecting the two countries, suggesting that the problem of smuggling is rooted in both sides of the border.

Why Maduro blames “Colombian Paramilitaries” 

Maduro and his Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez have repeatedly justified the course of action as necessary to combat the incursion of “Colombian paramilitaries” operating across the border, smuggling drugs and goods, and plotting against the Bolivarian revolutionary government.

Those who Maduro has accused of undermining his government are not strictly Colombian nor are they paramilitaries.

The use of the word “paramilitary” is politically charged, and refers back to Colombia’s history of right-wing armed groups who had battled the leftist guerillas in the country’s internal armed conflict, now 50 years old.

In 2003, the Colombian government negotiated the demobilization of paramilitary groups. That demobilization however was partial, as many groups splintered off to continue drug and contraband smuggling. Though, to call these groups “paramilitaries” is misleading and potentially politically expedient for the chavistas in Venezuela.

What’s important to remember is that ‘paramilitaries’ are, by definition, armed groups with political motivations. Since demobilization, those motivations have slipped away, and now what exist are better referred to as bands of organized criminal groups, or BACRIM, taking advantage of the porous border and economic imbalance between Colombia and Venezuela.

Paramilitaries morph into criminal groups

The now defunct paramilitary group the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, was active along the Colombian-Venezuelan border, controlling drug trafficking routes and smuggling contraband gasoline. While they were operating, the AUC did accuse the Chavez government of supporting the ELN and FARC, and according to organized crime watchdog InSight Crime, AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso testified that the AUC met with anti-chavez factions twice in the early 2000’s to discuss operating against the Bolivarian government.

After the 2006 demobilization, splinter groups formed to maintain and take advantage of lucrative illegal trade routes across the border.

Now, according to the national police, the organized criminal groups, the Aguilas Negras, Rastrojos and Urabeños all operate in Tachira, near the Colombian city of Cucuta, where the shoot out that spurred the border closure occurred.

In recent years, the Rastrojos have controlled much of the Venezuelan border, including the state of Zulia and its important port city of Maracaibo. There they are known to coordinate with the Mexican Zetas cartel to ship cocaine north. However high level arrests have depleted the Rastrojos, causing them to lose much of their dominance to rival criminal group, los Urabeños.

However, the actions of these criminal groups belie the supposed political nature that Maduro has cast upon them. The Urabeños and other BACRIM operate out of economic interests rather than political or ideological lines, going to far as to form tenuous alliances with the ELN and FARC – historical enemies of Colombian paramilitary groups.

What Maduro isn’t saying

On the Venezuela side of the border smuggling is coordinated by former Venezuelan military officials called the Cartel de los Soles. Using their connections and influence in the military, the Cartel de los Soles move cocaine through Venezuela to the global market.

The Soles aren’t a cartel in a traditional sense, but a loose connection of criminal cells within the various branches of the Venezuelan military. The Soles are most active in the border regions, where they are believed to work with the FARC, a Colombian leftist guerrilla group to move cocaine across the border.

The United States federal government has recently stepped up its investigation of governmental corruption in Venezuela. Their main target is Diosdado Cabello, the president of Venezuela’s national assembly and its second most powerful man after President Maduro. Cabello is believed to be the ringleader of a large narco-trafficking organization. They have also identified members of the upper levels of the Venezuelan government and military as the leaders of drug trafficking operations in Venezuela.

The convenient term for Maduro

Maduro has a habit of using the word ‘paramilitary’ to describe any group that is not in lock step with his regime.

According to professor Ronal Rodriguez, professor and investigator for the Venezuela Observatory at the Universidad de Rosario, under Chavez Venezuelan paramilitary groups were established, ostensibly to help protect the Bolivarian Revolutionary government. Those groups, he argues are less political in nature and more criminal – ranging from petty thugs to sophisticated organized syndicates.

Under the Chavez regime these groups were tolerated and relatively managed. Unlike his predecessor, Maduro has been unable to keep them in line and thus has taken to calling the “Colombian paramilitaries.”

In a recent op-ed for La Semana, Rodriguez wrote “Many of these bands have the Colombian component, without a doubt, but not as part of an orchestrated from Colombia’s right in order to destabilize Venezuela, but because, according to Maduro’s own statistics, one in every six Venezuelan is of Colombian origin.”

“That is to say Maduro’s talk of the last few days is the result security policy failure that has gotten out of control.”

In 2014, the Tachira state of Venezuela was a hot bed of dissent against the Venezuelan government. Students took to the streets and protested by blocking crucial roads. In the town of Rubio, pamphlets appeared, allegedly written by the Aguilas Negras, threatening death to student protestors if they failed to clear roadblocks. However, opposition leaders expressed doubt that it was actually the Aguilas Negras, but rather a fabrication of the chavistas looking to intimidate students protesting Maduro’s government.

It’s a befuddling accusation – an ostensibly right-wing group attempting to intimidate students protesting their left-wing government. Due to the decentralized and murky nature of the Aguilas Negras, it’s impossible to know if the pamphlets were actually made by the Aguilas. However, had it been them, it’s more likely that the intimidation tactic was spurred by the economic interest of maintaining smuggling routes, rather than a desire to sabotage the Bolivarian government.

“Colombia is safe for business, but not for people”: interview with Daniel Kovalik

https://www.investigaction.net/en/colombia-is-safe-for-business-but-not-for-people-interview-with-daniel-kovalik/

Murders of trade unionists and social leaders, paramilitary activity, coca production… If we only paid attention to the mainstream media we would not get the idea that these problems are actually growing in Colombia, one year after the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC came into place. To get a better picture and understand how all these elements connect to US policy and corporate interests, we interviewed Daniel Kovalik, a lawyer and human rights activist who has long been involved in the struggle for peace and justice in Colombia.

 

The peace agreement between the FARC and the Colombian government was brought into place about a year ago. And yet, as you stress in a recent article you wrote, trade unionists, social leaders, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, are actually being murdered at a higher rate than before. How do you explain this?

Yes, that’s true. And in fact, they are being killed at a higher rate even though the overall violence level in Colombia has gone down in recent times. I think it’s very easy to explain. The paramilitaries are still very much a factor and a force in Colombia. They are now starting to take over territory that the FARC once held, and frankly they are also feeling emboldened by the peace process.

This was a fear that a lot of folks had. You probably recall that in the 1980s the FARC also signed on to a peace agreement and put down their arms to run as a political party, the Patriotic Union (Unión Patriótica, UP). And 3000-5000 of their members were killed by the paramilitaries. That’s what led the FARC back into the jungle. So there was always this fear that this could happen again, and I think we are seeing this happening again. Only this time the Colombian government and the US government don’t even admit that there are paramilitaries. But they are very much there.

Recently there was this indefinite national strike (paro nacional indefinido) in Colombia. What were the reasons behind it?

Well, again I think some of it had to do with this violence against social leaders, and the strike was to put pressure on the government to protect the social leaders. But there are also grave economic injustices in Colombia, it is one of the most unequal societies in the world. There are very few workers under union contracts, and the protests were also in support of labour rights.

As you’ve said, there are many people fearful that the peace agreement is not being upheld by the Colombian government. The FARC even submitted a complaint to the United Nations last week. What exactly are they accusing the government of not doing?

Part of the peace deal was that the government would go after these paramilitary groups, which again the government doesn’t admit exist, they claim they are these criminal groups, the bacrim (bandas criminales). And the government is not doing that. Again, I think the view of the social movements, the view of the FARC, is that the government is, at best, turning a blind eye to these groups because they want to see the social movements eradicated.

The fear of course is that, now that the FARC have laid down their arms, giving them to the United Nations, the government feels like they don’t have to make any concessions to the FARC or even follow the agreement. Because what leverage does the FARC have now? None… It’s a very cynical position to take, but I think that is the position that the Colombian government is taking.

Back in 2003, then president Álvaro Uribe announced that the paramilitary groups were being dissolved but it seems they are alive and well. What are the (economic) interests for them to move into these territories where the FARC used to be?

Well, as you say, there was this fake demobilisation of the paramilitaries. Most human rights groups, Human Rights Watch for example, acknowledge that it was not a real demobilisation. And the paramilitaries have a number of interests in the land in Colombia. For example Francisco Ramírez, who is an attorney and trade unionist there, wrote a book that shows that, as mining interests move in to various zones, the paramilitaries tend to go in before them to subjugate the area. So the paramilitaries make money, both from their own engagement in illegal mining, but also they see their interests aligned with corporations, both domestic and international. They are basically the vanguard of these mining and agricultural interests.

Buenaventura is probably the most enigmatic instance of this economic reality. This is a city on the Pacific coast whose ports were built up in anticipation of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. There the paramilitaries have really taken over the city, engaging in a real social cleansing operation, forcibly disappearing hundreds of people. They chopped them up alive in these “chophouses”, it’s a very grisly situation. But again, the paramilitaries are very much aligned with mainstream corporate interests, both Colombian and foreign. These may be from from South Africa, like Anglogold Ashanti for example, or from the UK, but they are primarily from North America, from the US and Canada.

There was a story a few years ago of paramilitaries going after trade unionists in the Coca-Cola bottling plants, there was also a story about Chiquita paying paramilitaries to wipe out resistance. Therefore these groups are not a kind of isolated, lawless, southern phenomenon, they work very much hand in glove with transnational corporate interests, wouldn’t you say?

Yes, very much. By the way, I was involved in that Coca-Cola case, in the lawsuit and all (1). But Chiquita is probably the best example, because Chiquita has admitted to what they did. They pled guilty to paying the paramilitary groups 1.7 million dollars over a 7 year period, between 1997 and 2004, and giving them 3000 kalashnikov rifles. And while they claimed they were essentially being extorted by the paramilitaries, Uribe’s own attorney general, Mario Iguarán, disagreed with this. He said that they were not paying for security, they were paying for blood. Those are his words. They were paying for the subjugation of the banana region of Urabá. And they paid in blood, thousands of people were killed by the paramilitaries that Chiquita paid.

Not only that, paramilitarism was really able to take hold throughout all of Colombia because of what Chiquita did, and Chiquita never had to pay a real price for this. They pled guilty to this crime because they had been giving this aid to the AUC paramilitaries, who were designated terrorists by the US. But the plea agreement did not require anyone to go to jail, it only fined Chiquita 25 million dollars, which they were allowed to pay over a five year period, and the 8 Chiquita officials involved in the payment scheme had their names were actually kept secret from the Colombian government, so that Colombia could not extradite them. By the way, one of the Chiquita lawyers who helped negotiate the plea agreement was Eric Holder, who would become attorney-general under Obama.

And what does this say about the role of the US government?

I think this is very revealing. By the way, Salvatore Mancuso, one of the top paramilitary leaders, said it wasn’t just Chiquita paying them, but also Dole and Del Monte. So we not only see the corporate links but we see the US government’s true feelings about the paramilitaries, right? If Chiquita had been paying a group like al-Qaida, or ISIS, or even the FARC, let’s face it, some of their people would have gone to jail. But they were paying the US’ guys. The paramilitaries are the “good terrorists” in Colombia, according to the US government.

A few years ago there was a Washington Post story about how the CIA was crucial in helping the Colombian government weaken the FARC. The CIA helped the Colombian government track various FARC leaders, and also provided the smart bombs that were used to kill them. Meanwhile there is a little note in the Washington Post story. It says that at the same time the CIA for the most part left the paramilitaries alone. So both the AUC and the FARC were designated terrorist groups, but the AUC was left alone, because in the end they are doing the bidding of US interests.

You get the idea that they are there to do the dirty work…

Exactly. And we’ve known this, this has been true for decades! It was US General William Yarborough, who had the idea to create the paramilitaries in the first place, in 1962. This is even before the FARC was formed, that only happened in 1964.

Another interesting story appeared in the New York Times more recently. It is about how the CIA helped fly at least 40 paramilitary leaders out of Bogotá to the United States, so that they would not be held accountable for human rights crimes in Colombia. Because the fear was that they would start naming names, including Álvaro Uribe and his associates. So they were brought to the US, tried only on drug charges, given very light sentences, even though they are believed to be responsible for massive human rights abuses. Salvatore Mancuso, for example, is believed to have killed himself alone over 1000 people. And they are giving amnesty, or asylum, to some of those people as well, in the United States.

If I remember correctly, some of them are about to go free very soon, right? They are having their sentences commuted and being released early…

That’s right. These are real terrorists, people who have raped, killed with impunity. One guy, highlighted in the New York Times article, was known as “The Drill”, because in addition to killing people he was known to have a penchant for raping girls as young as 9 years-old. And this guy could be coming to a neighbourhood near you. So it’s pretty incredible, and once more this is all pretty revealing of the US’ true feelings about the paramilitaries.

Let’s switch to the drug trade for a second, because the “War on Drugs”, at least officially, is the justification for the huge US military presence in Colombia. Very often you would hear the description that the guerrilla problem and the drug problem were the same. However, after the FARC have demobilised, you saw one of the highest coca yields in years. So what’s the real story there?

That’s very important to point out. Namely that the FARC was being entirely blamed for the drugs and the human rights abuses, and yet the FARC is gone as an armed group. And as we’ve discussed, more social leaders are being killed than in years prior, and 2016 saw a bumper coca crop. And I know this, I was at the US embassy in Bogotá in March of this year, and folks in the embassy were saying that the CIA, the DEA were down here and they were panicking! Because they had to announce that 2016 saw the biggest coca crop ever in Colombia.

The FARC had been engaged in the ceasefire at that time, they were largely not a factor, so we see who the real drug traffickers are, and that’s the paramilitaries and, honestly, the Colombian military. I mean, the US, as we see time and time again, is not really worried about drug trafficking per se. They just want to make sure their buddies are the ones to profit from it and how the “war on drugs” can be used to serve US interests. We saw this during the Vietnam conflict, we saw this of course with the Contra-cocaine connection, that Gary Webb from the San Jose Mercury News exposed (2). When the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban had pretty much eradicated the poppy crops. Now, post-invasion, and with all these US soldiers, the CIA and the DEA running around, Afghanistan is providing 85% of the world’s heroin.

There are beautiful photographs of a military bases right next to huge poppy fields…

Yes, you also see pictures of soldiers running through the pink poppy fields. It’s a joke! There is no war on drugs. There is a war against poor people, under the pretext of the war on drugs. There was a war against the FARC, which was covered under the war on drugs. There’s a war against social leaders in all of Latin America, again under the pretext of the war on drugs. It’s a lie! It’s always been a lie.

Perhaps this absurdity has no example more striking than saying that you are going to fight drugs and that your biggest ally is going to be Álvaro Uribe…

You might remember that there was a document leaked a few years ago, in which Álvaro Uribe was listed by the US DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as the 82nd most important drug trafficker in Colombia, and as having close ties to Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel. We know he’s a drug trafficker! And yet he got the presidential medal of freedom from the George W. Bush. He was welcomed into the White House by Barack Obama. It’s a joke! It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic…

In a slightly different perspective, Colombia is always painted in a very positive light, and not just political leaders but also business people always describe Colombia as being “great for business”. They might say that it’s great for business despite all these atrocities we’ve been discussing, but I would actually say that it’s great for business because of these atrocities. Would you agree?

That’s absolutely true. And again, I’ll give you an example of this. Years ago, we sued Occidental Petroleum for its very intimate involvement with the bombing of Santo Domingo (3), you can read about this in a great exposé in the LA Times. So we sued Occidental Petroleum and the US State Department sent a letter to the court saying that they wanted the case dismissed because it was going to hurt US foreign policy interests. And if you read the letter, the implication was that if companies were to be held accountable for murdering poor peasants, it would be bad for business.

So I agree with you, I do believe that it is good for business, because these murders and atrocities have done a great job of wiping out the union movement there, a great job of wiping out the social movements, all to make it safe for business. It’s not safe for human beings! You know, Colombia has the hemisphere record for forcibly disappeared people, at 92.000. Argentina is usually taken to be the capital of the forced disappearances, but the total there was around 30.000.

It also has a very large number of internally displaced people, more than Syria I believe…

It’s almost 8 million now, out of a population of around 50 million. Can you imagine that? And yet, the only thing we hear on the news are bad things happening in Venezuela. But nothing on this scale is happening in Venezuela. There are no mass assaults on social and human rights leaders in Venezuela. There isn’t this huge internally displaced population. In fact, what a lot of people don’t know is that Venezuela has taken in 6 million Colombian refugees. You often hear on the news that there’s a wave of Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia, but the estimates are of about half a million Venezuelans in Colombia, compared to those 6 million Colombians in Venezuela.

Yes, it’s way beyond a “double standard”… So let me ask you about the role of the media in all of this. Why do you think there is, not only this double standard, but this kind of “kid-glove” treatment when it comes to Colombia?

Well I think it goes back to what the late Edward Herman explained. A lot of people don’t know his name, he was Noam Chomsky’s co-writer in the book “Manufacturing Consent”. In fact Chomsky gave him the primary billing for the book, his name came first even though alphabetically it would be the other way around.

Herman was the person who came up with the idea that there are “worthy victims” and “unworthy victims” in the world. The worthy victims are those who are killed and oppressed by the US’ enemies and adversaries. So, if somebody’s oppressed in China, or Russia, we know about it. But if someone is (wrongly) killed by the United States, or by its allies like Colombia, which the US’ number one ally in Latin America, then we don’t hear about it, because they are unworthy victims.

Those that we kill are unworthy, even though, if you look at the numbers, these greatly outnumber the so-called worthy ones. In fact, according to Chomsky, after 1960 it’s very clear that the repression by the West was much greater than the repression by the East Bloc and the Soviet Union. But again, you never knew that because the press would always remain silent about those being killed by the West. Colombia is certainly a great example, but another one is Yemen, where literally millions of people, at least 7M, maybe 12M, will die because of the Saudi war and blockade on Yemen, which the US is aiding and abetting in a very real way.

There’s also a cholera epidemic which is unprecedented in modern history…

That’s absolutely right. And yet, you don’t hear about it that much in the news, and when you do, you don’t hear that the US is very much a part of that war. So it goes back to Herman’s argument about worthy/unworthy victims. I’d urge people to go back to “Manufacturing Consent”.

Continuing along these lines of manufacturing consent, do you also get the idea that if there was a brighter spotlight on Colombia, then all this military involvement, all this war on drugs would receive greater scrutiny, which in the long run would be bad for business?

Absolutely. In that way the media is complicit in all of this. I’ll give you an example. I actually listen to National Public Radio (NPR) every day. I don’t know why because I can’t stand it! And I interact a lot on twitter for example with people from NPR, like Scott Simon or Steve Inskeep, and they respond to me sometimes. I have asked them time and again “why aren’t you covering Colombia?”. They have no answer for it. Even when I present them with facts, it never makes it into their stories.

They have an angle, it’s the same angle all the media have. That’s to perpetuate this crazy religious notion of American exceptionalism, that somehow America is this unique force for good in the world, that we support democracy, we support freedom, when in fact it’s quite the opposite. We live in an Orwellian world, where we support dictatorships and support repression in the name of freedom. And people need to wake up to that reality.

Interviewer’s notes

(1) Coca-Cola has been accused of being directly involved in the murder of several union leaders in its bottling plants in Colombia. Daniel Kovalik led the efforts to get justice for the families of the murdered workers. For more information see here. There was also a documentary made on the issue.

(2) The original articles published by Webb are available at this link. For more on Gary Webb and the persecution he faced from the media establishment, see here.

(3) On December 13, 1998, a US-supplied cluster bomb was dropped by a Colombian army helicopter, killing 17 civilians. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) was involved in providing the coordinates for the attack, as it enjoyed direct links with the Colombian military and provided military aid. For more on the lawsuit against OXY, in which Daniel Kovalik represented the plaintiffs, see here.

Daniel Kovalik is a human and labour rights lawyer and professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He has a decades-long history of involvement in the struggle for peace and justice in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, and he has brought cases against companies like Coca-Cola and Occidental Petroleum for their responsibility in human rights abuses. He can be followed on Twitter.