Colombia is plagued by paramilitary groups, from traditional ones like the Clan del Golfo and Pachencas, to the diverse gangs of former FARC members, ranging from the “Arañas” in the south of the country, to the “Mordiscos,” “Calarcás,” “Pescados,” and “Mechudos” in the Catatumbo region.
This system, which began with the infamous “pájaros” (birds), was further developed during the visit to the country by U.S. General William Yarborough in February 1962. At that time, he established operational guidelines for a counterinsurgency force that “operated outside the State” but was deeply intertwined with it.
The general also added recommendations to conduct censuses to control the population in the regions and, of course, to carry out interrogations using polygraphs and “other aids” when suspects were captured. Then, in the 1980s, with the help of the DAS (Administrative Department of Security) and the National Police, the infamous Israeli Colonel Yair Klein arrived to give the monstrosity a third push, placing it in the hands of the drug lords, the very ones who moved with impunity through the 13th and 4th Army Brigades—you know who I’m talking about.
Thus began the alliance that persists to this day: paramilitaries, drug traffickers, and the Armed Forces; of course, the three sisters from the north—the DEA, CIA, and FBI—couldn’t be left out. Naturally, the heads of these “forces” occasionally had their little squabbles—you can imagine why; there’s no need to be so explicit, it’s best to leave something to the imagination. This alliance resulted in paramilitarism, used as a counterinsurgency tool financed by drug money, and also by the money that the three sisters would funnel to provide liquidity to the North’s financial system.
At the end of the last century, while the Americans pushed Plan Colombia in the south of the country, supposedly to combat drug trafficking and the insurgency, they shamelessly gave the paramilitaries (AUC) free rein in the north to finance the counterinsurgency war with drug money. At that time, the three sisters turned a blind eye, just as they did when Colonel Oliver North financed counterinsurgency operations around the world with “drugs.” It was the season when the paramilitaries became infamous, in a macabre way, playing soccer with human heads—ah, those were the days!—certain figures now on the brink of justice will say.
Now we are indeed in the “fourth generation” of paramilitaries, both of the former and the latter. The former are among the “Clans” and “Conquistadores”; the latter come from the “Arañas” and other groups, but they continue to be financed by drug trafficking, and the government negotiates with them, whether in Qatar, Guaviare, Putumayo, Nariño, or Catatumbo. They also have their little fights with them, just like before, but they continue to move around in military helicopters and those convoys. As you can see, it’s a negotiation that serves the interests of narco-paramilitarism. Oh, and the three sisters are still around, coordinating their less-than-friendly plans against Venezuela with the Colombian Armed Forces and these gangs.
Of course, in Colombia the plan is to fight for territory, to wage the kind of counterinsurgency that the oligarchy and the Americans like. Drug trafficking money, just as it has been used to finance the counterinsurgency war, has also been used for political campaigns, thus serving the political regime; and beyond that, it has also been invested in the economy and even in soccer. As you can see, this is not a “moral” issue, but essentially an economic and political one.
Just as the three sisters treat it to prop up the power of the empire, just as Trump uses oil, while all of humanity sees it as the poison that is killing the planet, he steals it like a gangster to trade it. And we are faced with a “good example of morality,” since the Northern Empire is sustained by both of these “poisons.”
ADDENDUM 1: Has anyone considered what would happen if Trump, megaphone in hand, decided to tell the Colombian military the same thing Petro said to the American military?
ADDENDUM 2: Meanwhile, Yair Klein remains under Netanyahu’s protection in Israel, who I imagine has already been nominated by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for the next Nobel Peace Prize. Everything changes, like “morality” in the context of “poisons” and “peace” with narco-paramilitaries.
Comandante Antonio Garcia
Source: ELN