By María Fernanda Barreto on March 15, 2022
photo: EFE
Less than five months away from handing over the presidency of Colombia, Iván Duque managed to meet for the first time with Joe Biden on March 10, in the midst of the war in Ukraine and after the rapprochement of Joe Biden’s administration with the government of Venezuela.
Duque’s effort to obtain that interview is a desperate attempt to avoid two imminent failures of Uribism: the electoral defeat that is looming in the next presidential elections on May 29 and the historic defeat that will mean leaving the Palacio de Nariño leaving the Bolivarian Revolution standing, after twenty years of fruitless conspiracies to topple it.
The meeting lasted only minutes, some media said it was twenty minutes, others even forty, but, minutes more or less making it a very brief meeting of which the most important news turned out to be that Biden informed Duque of his intention to name Colombia as a “major ally outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)”.
Colombia, a major non-NATO ally
Although Colombia has been a NATO global partner since 2018, this subordinate position within the organization does not make it a member, so it is not contradicted by this new designation of “major non-NATO ally.”
The Colombian president, visibly excited by this new imperialist interference, lied or demonstrated his ignorance by saying in the interview that this “distinction” is only held by “four or five countries in the world” when in fact it is now eighteen, among which there were already two Latin American ones: Argentina and Brazil.
The bill that would accompany this appointment was just introduced on March 9, by Democratic Senators Robert Menendez and Tim Kaine, and although it has not yet been approved by the U.S. Senate, it is expected to be. Once the appointment and its bill are approved by the U.S. Congress, Colombia would further deepen its military interaction with the United States.
In addition to the very tone of the bill, which underscores the subordination that the U.S. Congress expects from the Colombian State, is the creation of an Advisory Committee to jointly strengthen the security of the country with the Colombian government is striking in this document.
Although it would be expected that the first objective of this Committee would be the fight against drug trafficking, it is placed second, after the counterinsurgency fight. The third objective refers to cybersecurity, the fourth to border and maritime security, as well as air defense, while the last objective uses the mysterious term “stabilization”. According to what has been proposed, this Committee will start by evaluating Colombia’s weapons systems and technological equipment.
Of course, mentions to Venezuela could not be absent. This document includes that this committee must prepare a classified report specifying the relations of the groups considered terrorist with other countries, including the “regime of Nicolás Maduro”, and orders that annually during the next five years, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, in coordination with the Director of Intelligence of the State Department, will evaluate the relations of the groups considered terrorist with other countries, including the “regime of Nicolás Maduro”, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence (INR), the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), must jointly prepare a classified report detailing “malicious” activities of state actors in the Andean Region.
This should include purchases and donations of weapons and military equipment received by these states, and specifically orders to investigate, i.e., spy, to obtain information on “provision of technologies, equipment and weapons systems to the regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and its implications for the security of the countries in the Andean Region”.
It brazenly defines that for the requirements of these intelligence reports, the U.S. Secretary of State must establish a surveillance position in the Andean Region.
The new Plan Colombia
In his comments on the meeting, Biden began by proudly evoking his participation in Plan Colombia more than two decades ago, insisted on his version of the situation in Ukraine, praised Duque’s repeated condemnation of Russia when “not everyone in the hemisphere or anywhere else has done so”, announced the new status he aspires to grant Colombia, spoke on the issue of migration and refugees from Venezuela, offered more vaccines against covid 19 and closed by highlighting the relations between the two countries on security issues, while reiterating his alleged commitment to peace.
Despite the fact that later, the joint statement document spoke of “the crisis in Venezuela” and support for the “restoration of democracy as a necessary step to end the political, economic and humanitarian crisis”, neither in that statement nor Biden himself ever name Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, nor Juan Guaidó in his statement. Nor were traditionally used words such as “dictatorship”, “usurpation”, etc., or anything that would indicate that the rapprochement of his administration to the Bolivarian Government, was even mentioned in the brief meeting, despite the pressures of the Colombian media corporations.
Later, Duque gave an interview in which, among other things, he announced the launching of the “United States-Colombia Bicentennial Plan”, which he defined as an update of Plan Colombia, whose failure resulted in thousands of deaths, crimes, serious violations of human rights of the Colombian people and a sustained growth of drug trafficking.
Previously, Duque had held meetings with far-right Republican congressmen such as Marco Rubio and Democrats such as Robert Menendez, in which, hopefully, he tried to counteract the apparent decision of the Biden administration to support “progressive” governments in the region such as that of Gabriel Boric and, eventually, that of Gustavo Petro (if he wins). But in the end, his visit focused on two points: to further deepen US interference in Colombia and to insist on attacking Venezuela, for which he obviously has the express support of both senators.
More military advice, more financing for the war, more transnationals, more exploitation via near shoring, and one or another project to satisfy sectorial claims and justify USAID operations, were the balance that only augurs more war for Colombia.
Duque, again between ridicule and indignity
As if to continue demonstrating that his sense of ridicule has no limits, Duque said that “Colombia today is a country that has more capacity to supply hydrocarbons than Venezuela has”, for which, according to his own comments, he offered the US president the possibility of Colombia satisfying the current oil requirements of the United States to prevent the country of the North from resorting to Venezuela.
However, he himself clarified that Colombia currently produces only 890 thousand barrels per day and expects that in a few years it will barely surpass one million, while Venezuela’s goal is to recover its production of 3 million barrels per day gradually, reaching a production of 2 million this year.
The ridiculous offer that has already renewed the existence of memes, caricatures and mocking videos on the networks about the Colombian president also explains the desperation to pacify Arauca and why in the midst of the conflict in 2022, oil companies have entered machinery with military accompaniment to areas where communities have rejected oil exploitation.
Finally, we cannot fail to mention Duque’s stubborn determination to erase the history of Our America and rewrite it in favor of imperialism. This is evidenced in the recent celebration of the Bicentennial of the Constitution of Cúcuta and now with the alleged celebration of the “Bicentennial of the United States-Colombia relations”.
The anniversary that the Santander government intends to celebrate is due to the fact that, in March 1822, the United States of America, then presided over by James Monroe, finally recognized the independence of the “Great” Colombia -of which New Granada was a part-, a year before launching its well-known doctrine.
Far from celebrating, the Venezuelan writer Rufino Blanco Fombona wrote about it:
It is necessary to remember with insistence, above all, that the United States did not recognize us until 1822, when we were exercising self-government and sovereignty as emancipated nations -with varying military fortune- since twelve years before, that is, since 1810; that the United States neither helped us in our hour of trial, nor recognized us until, in the words of President Monroe, we were in “full possession of independence”.
Long lines have been written and continue to be written about the history of that relationship between Bolivar and Monroe, which cannot be erased by force of lies and distortions. History, the past, the present and the future, the one that is built every day, rise from the peoples, above the false stories
of the oligarchies and despite the fact that the Colombian government now proposes us to celebrate its unworthy subordination.
Source: Mision Verdad, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English