With a heavy heart, Oscar Gamboa issued an ominous plea for help to community members who gathered at the American Friends Service Committee office on Thursday, August 8, 2002: the violent civil war, complicated by a global war for control of natural resources and narcotics--and fueled by global arms dealers, will become exponentially more bloody and deadly for the people of Colombia, and perhaps the region, as the newly elected president, Alvaro Uribe, promises to step up military action, reportedly to advance the cause of his allies, the US and other dealers of narcotics, arms and natural resources.

On Thursday, August 8, his first day in office, Uribe initiated his plan of forming a million man army of informants, a strategy eerily reminiscent of Nazi tactics and current measures instituted by the US government since September 11th.

According to mainstream media reports, the unarmed army of informants will only provide information to government and military officials for action against the guerillas, which is a group "calling for freezing of privatization, subsidizing energy and agriculture as is done in the rich countries, and stimulation of the economy by protecting local interests," and against the paramilitary forces, who are private armies created by "ranchers, investors and legal commericial farmers...[to] serve as a means to violently expropriate land from indigenous peoples, peasants and settlers."

However, from personal reports received by Gamboa, these informants are being offered firearms by the government if they ask for them.

The assaults on the poor, apparently by the guerillas as well as by paramilitary and military forces, leaves Gamboa distraught and frustrated with all factions. Yet with all these mounting challenges, he has devised a strategy for dealing with this crisis at home and abroad. When he returns to Colombia later this month, he intends to encourage Colombians to refuse to participate in Uribe's army of informants. Then, when he returns to the States next month, he will meet with many organizations--non-governmental, religious, community and activists groups--imploring them to take action and leverage immense pressure on the US government to change its policy and strategy.

"Plan Colombia," a $1.6 billion package of mostly military aid and crop spraying with poisonous chemicals, passed by the Clinton administration, will likely be enhanced by the current US regime which has a vested interest in continuing the war and securing control of the natural resources and narcotics in that region.

Gamboa noted that, to many Colombians and peoples throughout the world, the true president of Colombia in terms of agenda and strategy development is certainly not Uribe, but GW Bush--implying that once again the slaughter of many people to serve the greedy self-interests of a few will be financed by American taxpayers.

Stressing the devastation of continuing with this failed policy, Gamboa suggested that the focus shift to the consumption side of the equation, but that has fallen on deaf ears among the leadership in Colombia and the US. The US market for narcotics is one of the world's largest and generates billions of dollars in tax-free income.

In addition, looking at the production side, Gamboa explained that the peasant farmer can only grow a coca plant. Cocaine is derived through a chemical process involving potassium permaganate, which is not produced anywhere in so-called "Third World" nations. That comes from high-tech, industrialized nations.

The urgency of Gamboa's message, coupled with the rapidly unfolding Bush-Cheney agenda, prompted many at the presentation to discuss re-evaluating current strategies and priorities in light of this critical situation.

As stated by one participant: "Ignoring the spin generated by FOX, CNN and other media giants is essential, and we must focus on the truth. We live in a fascist state whose leaders are determined to achieve Empire status by controlling the production and distribution of oil and narcotics and controlling arm sales. And of course, life on the planet hangs in the balance. Our strategy for action must stem from this understanding."

The talk by Gamboa was hosted by American Friends Service Committee-Baltimore Urban Peace Movement. To contact AFSC, call 410-323-7200 or e-mail mar-AT-afsc.org.

Quotes in the third paragraph are from "Rogue States" by Noam Chomsky.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

This Global Exchange link provides in-depth background about the situation in Colombia.
www.globalexchange.org/colombia/dirtywar.html

The following two links provide articles about Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's connections to drug trafficking.
www.narconews.com/narcocandidate1.html
www.narconews.com/uribevsthepress.html

And this link leads to an article describing the Bush-Cheney Drug Empire.
www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/bush-cheney-drugs.html

For more information about the American Friends Service Committee, go to:
www.afsc.org/