Word: colombianization
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When Americans interested in art are asked what they have heard of from South America, the answer tends to be pretty much the same: two dead Mexicans and one live Colombian. The Mexicans are, of course, Diego Rivera, a great artist by any standard, and his wife Frida Kahlo, not a great painter by any reasonable judgment, but a tough and gifted woman who, owing to her hagiographic suffering (not to mention being ardently collected by the likes of Madonna), has become Exhibit A, by now somewhere above Artemisia Gentileschi in the pantheon of feminist art-saints. The live Colombian...
...Peter Katel: Short of a top-to-bottom reassessment of the U.S. role in Colombia, which is unlikely, the outlook is for continued U.S. support for Pastrana and the peace process. That said, Washington, like many Colombian military officers, has no enthusiasm for the continued existence of "FARClandia," the Switzerland-sized chunk of territory the government turned over to the guerillas two-and-a-half years ago which the Colombian army is forbidden to enter. Many Colombians, especially urban Colombians, see that the FARC got something for free, because it hasn't let up on its insurgency despite being given...
...admitting defeat. But Powell's visit comes in the context not only of the U.S. looking askance at the safe zone, but also of strong hints that not everyone in the U.S. security establishment is persuaded by the current policy - the U.S. supports anti-narcotics efforts by the Colombian government, but not counterinsurgency efforts per se. And the difficulty, of course, is that the line between the two is often blurry when the guerrillas are financing themselves off "taxing" the drug trade in exchange for providing protection...
...former guerrilla leader recently told me that FARC still imagines taking over all of Colombia. And while that's not an official view, there's nothing to suggest the contrary. Some Colombian generals have argued publicly is that there can't be more progress on the negotiation front until FARC has been hit harder militarily and feel pressure to negotiate. Pastrana probably wouldn't disagree. There's no reason right now for the guerrillas to do anything differently. Why would they settle for less negotiating than they'd get by fighting...
...That concern usually surrounds U.S. troops in the field, and right now there aren't any; they're only doing training. The quagmire right now is more Colombian than American. Of course there's always a danger of U.S. personnel being targeted by FARC in order to send a message. But the argument on the other side is that if the U.S. keeps trying to make this distinction between anti-drug warfare and counterinsurgency, the conflict will drag on longer than if the U.S. comes out firmly saying the war should be won, and offers help. But whether...