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Playing Soldier in the Dariën With Reuters
By The Boss on May 17, 2008 | In Politics, Media | 3 feedbacks »
Only North Americans can of course come up with an idea to give military aid to a country that has no military.
Or hasn't it? Reuters' Andrew Beatty reports that Panama is to deploy a Special Force on the Colombian border which, we read, is going to "combat the flow of cocaine and weapons and to catch leftist guerrillas along its jungle border with Colombia (...)".
Oh?
Had Beatty done research in the Dariën instead of copying what our crooked government tells him, he would have realized how totally idiotic this story really is. Every other year or so the creation of new and better border patrol forces is announced by whomever holds the Ministry of Government & Justice at that moment, in conjunction with assistance from the United States. But if you try a quick tour of the Dariën you'll notice that that border is impossible to control - something most members of the border forces du jour will tell you privately as well.
Beatty also says that the "new" border force will catch leftist guerrillas. Will they leave the paramilitaries alone then? Again, had he gone to the Dariën instead of penning down this ridiculous spin, he'd have heard that many an attack there that was attributed to the FARC had, in fact, been carried out by Uribe's right-wing paramilitary forces. But maybe Beatty also believes that other fairy tale, the one about how the paramilitaries have been disarmed and no longer exist.
Where do stories like these come from? Easy. The gringos want a base in Panama to help the narco-president of Colombia and screw Chavez and Correa as they're getting their asses kicked out of Ecuador. This will of course be called an "anti-terrorist" initiative and wrapped in endless drivel about "regional cooperation" and "relations with our allies" and all the other usual pretexts to do the wrong thing.
3 comments
Regards.
First, the story announces: "Panama to deploy special force on Colombian border"
Yet, there is already a special force being deployed on that border, and has been for years. Every now and then you can see them leave or return on Albrook airport; heavily armed soldiers that make up the border unit of the National Police. Already in 2001, when I was in Boca de Cupe when the nearby FARC commander threatened to attack a village, I witnessed how helicopters brought in arms and even mines for soldiers armed to the teeth. These are not "regular police forces" as your story claims.
Second, this and the other statements in the story are mainly attributed to Daniel Delgado Diamante, minister of government and justice, as you state correctly. But the pure spin he disseminates goes totally unchecked by you. Kidnappings on the rise? What does that have to do with the Dariën border?
Guarding the Dariën border with Colombia? How do you guard a border that is often only vaguely defined and runs through inaccessible areas?
The real story here is of course that Delgado Diamante is militarizing the National Police, and that this effort has a regional context. But that story you don't report.
Simply passing on this government spin without any independent verification of the facts nor asking other sources for their take on things does reflect an opinion of the reporter. And with that opinion I happen to disagree.
is Triple D !
(As revealed 2 months ago, when some colombians chased a heavely armed contingent of border GN. And no, it was not a small group of GN, it was altmost 30 GN. And no, it was not "200 FARC's operatives.)
Mean while, Triple D has a standing order to apprehend folks in the comarca,
who are just trying to survive the abandonment of this goverment, for helping both sides in exchange for a few grains of food.
Some one better get to Darien, and "see" for itself what's going on.
Or we going to end up with one million "gringos" in another Vietnam, figuratebly speaking. And no idea why we there.
Roberto
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