State building efforts in Southern Colombia

We hear so much about the combat and military side of what Uribe is doing. It's nice to read this about some other uses of US funding and of efforts being made by the Colombian government to fulfill Uribe's promises to people in rural Colombia, too.

By ANDREW SELSKY - Associated Press Writer
SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia - (AP) Aided by U.S. forces, the government opened a new phase in the battle against rebels for this sweltering ranching town _ but this time the weapons are books, desktop computers and music.

Colombian and American soldiers swarmed through San Vicente's main plaza as U.S. Ambassador William Wood helped lead the charge Saturday in this second offensive _ one that officials say is crucial to winning Colombia's protracted war.

"The goal in Colombia is not simply victory against narcoterrorists," Wood told The Associated Press in this remote southern town. "The goal in Colombia is stability and to strengthen democracy so it serves the citizens better."

A C-130 Hercules air force plane ferried in dozens of officials from the capital and a female "ranchera" band _ The Young Fillies _ for the day's ceremonies.

The officials opened a new school. They did a ribbon-cutting to inaugurate classrooms packed with desktop PCs. They donated an ambulance to the local hospital. They opened a library, a block away from a police station that was reduced to rubble by a huge rebel bomb two years ago.

For years, San Vicente de Caguan was controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, until Colombia's president ended peace talks in 2002, angered that the insurgents had hijacked an airliner.

Within days of the collapse of the peace process, Colombian troops, backed by warplanes and helicopters, entered this ramshackle town of concrete and brick buildings as the rebels pulled back into the surrounding countryside. They are still there. An army soldier was recently found dead outside town, his throat slit after a female rebel lured him from his guard post, said police Capt. Fabio Rojas.

Although the military's grasp on the region is tenuous, authorities want to show the town it will benefit from the government's presence, and deprive the rebels of any support here.

A total of US $3 million (Â€2.38 million) has been spent on the projects here and another US $5.1 million (Â€4.05 million) is in the pipeline, the government said. The U.S. military donated most of the money for the library.

"This is a new push, so we can have a permanent institutional presence here," said Luis Alfonso Hoyos Aristizabal, President Alvaro Uribe's High Commissioner for Social Action. "This second phase is very important."

In the central plaza, where FARC rebels used to summon townspeople for weekly lectures, a school marching band performed for government officials, Wood, and thousands of spectators as U.S. and Colombian soldiers eyed the crowd for any rebel threat. Army snipers were perched on rooftops.

"We will build what is lacking and not destroy what exists," read a banner held by several children.
Local residents _ many of them poor and with little education _ said they welcomed the new development projects.

"It's good," said Rosa Maria Garzon, 70, who lives in a wooden shack with her family. "I don't know how to read, so I won't be able to use the library, but my children can."

Gen. Freddy Padilla, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the rebels lost their chance to gain civilian support when they controlled San Vicente del Caguan.

"Mao Tse-Tung once said that military victory is possible only if you have the support of the people," Padilla said in an interview. "After running this place for three years, all the rebels did was alienate the people."

The development projects are also going up in other areas government forces have seized from the FARC.
In Cartagena de Chaira, a small town in southern Colombia that was a center for FARC-controlled cocaine production, the government recently built a school and opened a bank. Previously, cocaine or coca paste were used as currency there.

Government forces, backed by U.S. aid, training and logistics support, have been pushing into rebel strongholds in an offensive that began a year and a half ago. But the rebels have shown they remain a threat, launching their own attacks that have killed dozens of soldiers and police this year.

Gen. Carlos Alberto Fracica, commander of the offensive, said the offensive has dealt the FARC strategic blows by hitting rearguard areas and attacking their cocaine-production operations, but that the war could be expected to continue for years to come.

By Mr. Hollywood on May 22, 2005, 10:09 in Politics & the war.

juancegomez says on May 22, 2005, 11:53:

It's interesting and commendable to see some positive projects at work, however, it also serves to highlight the fact that much more social and economic investment of this nature is still necessary, remaining as one of the most evident flaws of the current U.S./Colombian strategy (both as far as its COIN and counternarcotics aspects are concerned).