(fwd from Chris Brady) COLOMBIA: Alarm Mounts in the Despeje

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ Chris: Panix hasn't made the subscription change yet. i'll remind
them on Monday. in the meantime, i will forward your posts. Les ]



NYT:
Unless a last-minute deal is reached to save the talks, Many residents
and human rights officials fear that paramilitary gunmen will move in to
replace the rebels, exacting revenge on a populace they regard as
sympathizers of the guerrillas.

 "If I lived in the zone, I would get out because the paramilitaries
will adopt scorched-earth tactics," said Adam Isacson, who follows
Colombia's war for the Center for International Policy in Washington.
"They are going to slit throats. They are going to see anybody who
stayed as a guerrilla."

[snip]
The crisis has resulted in the worst impasse in three years of talks.
The Colombian government has positioned thousands of troops outside the
zone in preparation for a possible takeover.

Although Mr. Pastrana has pledged that government forces will protect
the lives of civilians in the zone, foreign diplomats and human rights
groups believe that some army units collaborate with paramilitary
fighters. As a result, residents of the zone fear that an army takeover
there will bring an invasion of the right-wing militiamen.

Already, towns like Puerto Rico that are just outside the zone have
seen paramilitaries move in, leading to firefights with rebels who stray
outside their zone. In several cases, public officials have been killed,
though it remains unclear in most cases who was responsible?.

Full story:
At the Rebel-Held Zone in Colombia, Alarm Is Mounting as a Showdown
Threatens
By JUAN FORERO
NYT, January 12, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/12/international/americas/12COLO.html

{N.B.: the acknowledged connection between the forces of the capitalist
state, i.e., overt and covert.  Not a new development in itself, as such
actions are typical, but now significant in that it is clearly
understood even in the pages of the mass media.  Lest there be any
question: there is "good" terrorism, and there is enemy terrorism... and
there is "doublethink." --cb}




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