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"We are in war and we are winning" is a motto used in the military in Colombia. Does the military define winning by the number of rebels they kill? It is silly for the military to think that they are winning a war when there are people starving and without shelter while guerilla groups receive millions of dollars#fruit of drug trafficking, kidnappings, and extortion. Yes, there are people who do join the guerillas voluntarily. But there are also those who are forced and do not find the courage to refuse because they do not want to be killed later along with their loved ones.
Last summer, I received a letter from my older brother who is in the Colombian army. He used to scold civilians for not giving out information. He wrote: "You don't imagine how bad I felt when in one of those occasions a lady answered me while she cried that she wasn't bad, and that she didn't want her children to become guerrilla rebels, but she didn't want them dead either and that is why she couldn't say anything." Fear reigns among many people in my country.
Around 2.5 million people have been displaced since the beginning of the conflict and over 2,000 people are kidnapped every year in Colombia. Terrorism takes place every now and then, and many companies see the necessity to leave the country because the guerillas use extortion.
The Colombians elected a president who promised to end the war, no matter at what cost. I cannot blame them. Colombians are tired of the war and wish peace over anything else.
The U.S. is thousands of miles away from a place that has been consumed by a bloody war. But people here can help with their willingness to make their voices be heard. Instead of millions of dollars for military support, it would be stupendous to advocate for more intense and bigger campaigns against the use of drugs. Instead of using large amounts of aid in fumigation that affects farmers' health and plantations and damages ecosystems, it would be more effective to invest in educational and socioeconomic programs that would give Colombians the opportunity to build a better future for Colombia. It is not a dream, it is a hope. You are a hope!
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Word UP!
"Colombia's U.S.-backed security forces have committed more human rights abuses since President Alvaro Uribe decreed a state of emergency last August, the United Nations said on Tuesday [March 18, 2003]. The government has also not done enough to break links between the security forces and far-right paramilitary outlaws, Michael Fruhling, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, said in an annual report on the war-torn country."
–– Reuters, March 18, 2003
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