Colombia National Security
San Felipe de Barajas Fortress, Cartagena
IN LATE 1988, THE INCIDENCE OF VIOLENCE in Colombia posed
a general
threat to national security and appeared to challenge the
country's
thirty-year record of stable civilian-led government.
Colombia's
tradition of violence dates from the war for independence
in the
early nineteenth century; but the level of violence was
increasing
in the late 1980s, for reasons ranging from land disputes
to
criminal and political actions. The perpetrators of
violent
incidents included the private armies and gunmen hired by
the major
narcotics traffickers, guerrilla organizations, and
members of
right-wing paramilitary groups, or "death squads." Their
victims
included government officials, students, professionals,
unionists,
members of opposition political parties, and even petty
criminals.
During 1988 Colombian security forces were engaged in a
highly
publicized but unsuccessful campaign against narcotics
traffickers.
Enhanced by the military's two decades of experience in
counterinsurgency and irregular warfare, the campaign
focused on
eliminating clandestine processing laboratories,
eradicating crops,
prohibiting drug shipments, and arresting and prosecuting
known
narcotics traffickers. In reaction, the traffickers
increasingly
turned to co-optation and bribery, intimidation, and
murder.
Prominent individuals whose views and activities were seen
as
compromising the profitability of the traffickers' illegal
operations frequently were subjected to death
threats--some of
which were carried out. Between 1984 and mid-1988, a
minister of
justice, an attorney general, and a dozen Supreme Court
judges were
murdered by assassins allegedly hired by narcotics
traffickers.
Colombian security forces in the late 1980s also
continued to
struggle against the country's major guerrilla groups.
Despite
stepped-up military efforts, the guerrillas continued to
carry out
robberies, kidnappings, ambushes of security personnel and
facilities, attacks on the economic infrastructure, and
murders.
During the late 1980s, the Colombian government expressed
a
willingness to negotiate a political settlement, provided
that the
insurgents agreed to disarm before talks were held.
Despite the military's official role in the campaigns
against
the narcotics traffickers and the guerrillas, security
forces
allegedly were involved in some illegal activities. Some
reports
maintained that military and police officials helped
narcotics
traffickers process and transport contraband--most of
which was
destined for the United States--and received payoffs for
their
cooperation. Other reports--one prepared by a Colombian
attorney
general--linked military and police personnel with the
activities
of numerous right-wing death squads. These death squads
operated
throughout the country with apparent impunity, killing
suspected
subversives as well as common criminals. The hierarchy of
the armed
forces (under which the police were incorporated) refuted
such
accounts and defended its members' integrity. The
persistence of
the reports, however, suggested that serious problems
existed not
only within the military institution but also in the
civilian
government's ability to exercise its authority over the
armed
forces.
Data as of December 1988
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