October 12,2008:
The U.S. has continued using its
influence with the international banking system to fight terrorism. This time
it's to impose restrictions on FARC's International Commission. These are the
people who represent the Colombian rebels
in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela,
Panama, Mexico and Canada. These reps are careful to keep it legal where they
operate, even though some of them are wanted for actual crimes back in
Colombia. The FARC reps look after terrorist interests (local political
support, fund raising and recruiting operatives for overt and covert work, overseas and back in Colombia.) Some of
these reps have long been suspected of involvement in criminal acts in the
countries they operate in. The new financial sanctions involve closer scrutiny,
which may lead to indictments.
The fighting
against FARC produces far more refugees than combat casualties. So far this
year, over 270,000 civilians have fled areas where the army is driving out the
local FARC gunmen. The leftist fighters are particularly dangerous as they are
poorly trained, trigger happy and ill-disciplined. FARC also uses a lot of
landmines, and civilians are the more frequent victims. Nearly three million people
have been displaced by the war with the leftist rebels during the last two
decades. Most of the displacements, and
FARC losses, have occurred in the last five years.
October 10,
2008: Police arrested 37 members of the
gang that controls most of the cocaine smuggling via Panama (and most of the
crime along the Panamanian border.) While the army concentrates on FARC, the
police take the lead in going after the drug gangs, particularly in urban
areas. There are several special investigation and SWAT type units that work
both the FARC and drug gang sides of the war. And it is a two front war, since
FARC and the drug gangs are allies, and drug money is increasingly all that
keeps FARC alive and fighting.
October 8,
2008: In the southwest, eight soldiers
were killed when they moved into a FARC minefield. Factory made, and improvised,
land mines cause about a thousand casualties each year, about 20 percent of
them fatal. The FARC rebels have been making more use of mines and booby-traps
to slow the advance of soldiers into rebel controlled territory. But the mines
are placed along the same routes used by civilians. Worse, the rebels usually
don't record the location, or remove the mines after they have served their
purpose. The rebels mine a route, and then just tell their people not to use it
any more. Naturally, even some rebels are being killed and injured by these
mines. Clearing these devices is particularly difficult, because you don't know
where they are, and seasonal rains and mud slides, can move them around as
well. These FARC mines will be a problem for years to come.
October 1,
2008: FARC has pledged to defend
president Hugo Chavez and his socialist movement in Venezuela. Chavez is under
increasing attack inside Venezuela because of how he has squandered Venezuela's
oil income on pet projects at home (weapons purchases and corruption) and
abroad (large giveaways to Cuba and other leftist allies). As the price of oil
falls, and income shrinks, the poor voters who put Chavez in office are increasingly
impatient to see promised economic progress in their lives. Economists point
out that Chavez has screwed his poor supporters and is having a difficult time
trying to reverse that. FARC's guns may not be sufficient to save Chavez.