November 30,
2008: As FARC and drug gangs are driven from large areas along the borders
(that being the best place to grow coca, and export the refined cocaine to
overseas markets), the government inherits a lot of old social and economic
problems. These were suspended by the decades of FARC and drug gang rule, and that in turn created
some new problems. Now the newly liberated populations are free to vote,
demonstrate and protest, and many have legitimate reasons to do so. A lot of
the problems have to do with real estate. Indian tribes want their land rights back,
farmers want title to the land they have long worked, business owners want their
property (which owners had to leave behind when they fled to escape getting
killed by the rebels or gangs) back. The government is having a hard time
sorting all this out, especially while under pressure to get legitimate
economic activity going in what was long lawless "bandit territory."
Meanwhile, leftist
governments in Venezuela and Ecuador have provided refuge for FARC and the
smaller ELN. Venezuela still talks about giving diplomatic recognition to these
leftist rebels, but the Venezuelan people are tired of their leftist president
Hugo Chavez and his increasingly expensive misrule. In last week's local
elections, the opposition overcame attempts to rig the vote, and took control
of 40 percent of the local governments. Venezuelans along the Colombian border
are particularly upset with Chavez, who allows the Colombian leftists to take
over. That means FARC checkpoints, and forcing local businesses to pay
protection money (in effect, double taxation, since the government tax
collectors are still around.) FARC is bad for local businesses. Many of which
will shut down, or simply flee to escape the violence. This leaves the locals
paying more for goods, and seeing their kids recruited into the gang life. The
Venezuelans along the border have no illusions about where all this will lead,
as they have heard all about it from the Colombians right across the border.
These Venezuelans want their government to solve the problem, not become part
of it. Chavez is running out of options, as the sharp decline in the price of
oil this year has taken away the one tool he could depend on; cash.
November 28,
2008: In some two hundred towns and cities, hundreds of thousands of Colombians
demonstrated against FARC and other kidnapping gangs. There was a time, not
long ago, when threats of FARC violence would have prevented this sort of
thing. But FARC, and the other leftist groups are on the run, having betrayed
their populist rhetoric with drug dealing and old-school gangster behavior.
