Don’t Make Colombia Another Vietnam

“Colombia’s Patience Ends” (editorial, Feb. 22) rightly describes the right-wing paramilitaries as thugs hired by the rich. But those paramilitaries, who carry out 70% to 80% of Colombia’s political killings and torture, are not simply a third element. Reports of paramilitary atrocities in many parts of Colombia show close cooperation between the paramilitaries and the government’s armed forces. In some cases they are the same people.

Carlos Castano, leader of the paramilitaries’ umbrella organization, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, has welcomed U.S. military aid. Last year the U.S. State Department added the AUC to the list of terrorist organizations. But actions speak louder than words.

In Colombia, human rights are violated by both sides of the war. U.S. military aid favors the side that kills the most Colombian civilians but supports the U.S. economic policy. Our leaders need to rethink their priorities.

Patrick Bonner

South Gate

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“U.S. Debating Wider Assault on Colombia Rebels” (Feb. 23) quoted a researcher’s view that expanded U.S. military intervention “would reflect the [Bush] administration’s view that the insurgents are a threat beyond Colombia’s borders.”

I believe this is what is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. President Bush’s Pentagon seems to be demanding a South American rerun of the Reagan administration’s misguided Vietnamization of Central America. Dumb idea! Don’t enough armed nuts hate us for our imperial overstretch already, without our going out and cultivating new enemies?

Michael Katz

Berkeley