Colombia's fight against the FARC and ELN terrorists has become harder,
due to the fact that $55 million in military aid has been frozen by a
U.S. Senate subcommittee led by Senator Patrick Leahy. This freeze holds
the potential to greatly aid FARC and ELN, simply by preventing Colombia
from keeping up the pressure, and shows how the change in control of
Congress affects the global war on terror. How?



The answer lies in the fact that the new congressional majority is led
by people who tend to view FARC and ELN in a more sympathetic light. The
U.S. and Colombian government consider FARC and ELN to be terrorist
organizations. Senator Leahy is a long-time outspoken critic of aid to
the Colombian government that went for both counter-insurgency and
counter-narcotics efforts as well.



Leahy, though, needed an excuse, and the recent scandal involving
alleged connections to right-wing paramilitaries like the AUC provided
just that. This came about through a leaked CIA report, among other
things, that claimed one senior military leader had connections with the
paramilitaries, a charge that has been leveled against many, including
Colombian president Uribe. Much of the connections were due to officers
in the field taking the view that the enemy of their enemy was their
friend.



As a result, there was significant pressure from groups like Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch. Both groups have been major
players in the lawfare surrounding Guantanamo Bay, and Amnesty
International sued the CIA in 2001 to force the release of information
on activities of the group Los Pepes, during the hunt for drug cartel
leader Pablo Escobar. The freeze in aid, sought by those groups, could
not have come at a worse time. Why?



The answer is that Colombia's efforts, backed by U.S. aid, not only have
managed to get the AUC to disarm, but they also have put FARC and ELN on
the ropes. FARC has, in recent months, fled across the
Colombian-Ecuadorian border, seeking a safe haven. While a number of
left-leaning parties and officials in Europe have abandoned FARC and
ELN, recognizing their status as terrorists, they still draw a lot of
sympathy, particularly among the American left. In the 1980s, that
sympathy manifested itself in two forms: One was the Boland Amendment
and other restrictions. The other was a series of leaks that were
intended to undermine the Reagan Administration's policy in Latin
America.



That residual sympathy, combined with reflexive opposition to Bush
Administration policies, means that FARC now has a chance to recover.
How bad has FARC had it? In recent moths, they had to shift to bombing
attacks due to the need to conserve their trained gunmen. With the
reduction in military aid to Colombia by sympathetic Congressmen, they
now have the chance to replenish their forces. The success the Colombian
government has had in pushing back FARC has also resulted in an economic
recovery.



The human rights groups and those in Congress who support their agenda
have once again shown that they have more concern about terrorists and
their support networks than they do about the people that FARC and ELN
kill, kidnap, or maim. This is despite the fact that for years, the
State Department has considered FARC and ELN terrorist groups. This
means the war in Colombia will go on longer, with more casualties. –
Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)

They'd be better off to spend that money on scholarship grants anyway.
They are making about as much progress winning the war on drugs as they
are winning in Iraq..