Military victory in Iraq has inflated the Beltway Rambos’ fantasies of using American firepower to remake the world. This new imperial hubris could propel the United States into far riskier adventures than the war against Saddam Hussein, including one not far from home in violence-torn Colombia. Here, a militarily toughened but politically degraded guerrilla movement faces a hard-line, right-wing government aided… return to article
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Reader Comments (7)Page 1 of 1 pagesI enjoy articles like this, they sound like the rantings of a drugged out hippie. I have known a few in my time. This is not responible journalism. The facts are so taint with personal opinion it feels as though he is dragging me instead of just reporting the horrible situation in Columbia. But it seems as this is just a waste of my time. I like most of this site and the very left point of veiw. This and a few other artcles I have read are the same and makes people who are on the left side of democracy look ridiculous and scared.
Posted by E on May 6, 2003 at 8:09 PM This is a high quality, well written news story on the Colombian situation. The writer obviously spoke with sources that are not usually consulted. The inclusion of the stark, Washington Consensus” IMF imposed economic policies is important to understand the social pressures operating on the population. I’ve been living and working in the region for nearly five years and I do not think that the writer’s veiw is exagerated here. Well done.
Posted by Rhett Doumitt on May 7, 2003 at 6:55 PM A well-researched article that gives you a full picture of the realities that occur in Colombia. This is much better than the drivel that comes from, say, AP. While writer’s opinion about the Bush administration is obvious, the story of the country itself is what is reported in fact. The guy who claims this is “the rantings of a drugged out hippie” claims that facts are tainted with personal opinion (even though facts can’t have subjectivity), but I noticed that he didn’t mention which facts were incorrect. A little more left-wing bashing probably would have made it closer to his type of “reporting”.
Posted by Rob Krier on May 9, 2003 at 6:24 PM I think this is a very well written and well thought out piece of writing. I agree with the writers point of you and I agree that a great changer has occured in the world and the biggest risk is not noticing it. I especially like the quotes “After a three-week success in Iraq, weíll think we can take on all the bad guys everywhere. All we need is provocation.î and ” the pendulum is swingin ever more so to the right”
Posted by tristancrisante on May 13, 2003 at 1:06 PM It is incredible that you use Emcali as an example. You can see what the ordinary citizens of Cali feel about this corrupt, inefficient state-run monopoly and its equally corrupt union at the following forum: http://www.caliescali.com/det_noticias.php3?plantillas =0noticia_grande.php&codigo=507&ver=1
There you will see that the citizens of Cali are sick of a union whose members can retire and get pensioned at 35 years old, sometimes with 3 pensions at a time! Not only that, but their pensions are many times higher than that of any other government workers. It is for this reason that the company is going broke.
These people hide behind the rhetoric of labor movement to protect their robbing of the people of Cali.
Lucho Garzon himself says it (I quote from your article): ìThe labor movement has to change,î he argues. ìThe union movement has to speak to the entire society, not just organized workers,î
The labor movement in Colombia today does not care about the vast majority of poor Colombians. It only seeks to protect the special privileges of those already in the unions. In the case of Emcali, it means that the citizens of Cali have to endure terrible service and ridiculously high monopoly prices while these lazy unionists rip all of us off.
Posted by Enrique Eder on May 14, 2003 at 5:13 PM <<In 2000, President Clintonís ìPlan Colombiaî provided $765 billion in aid to Colombiaís military>> Are you sure you’ve got your facts straight? Seems off by about $762 billion.
Posted by Howard on May 14, 2003 at 11:52 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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