Beyond Bogota: interview with Gary Leech

[Ricardo1]

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/284132-1
http://themediaandcolombia.blogspot.ca/2009/03/garry-leech.html
http://garryleech.com/
 
 

[V_Man]

Very interesting. The start has a good summary of the history since la violencia.
One thing that never gets mentioned in the video is that the safety of most Colombians has improved. Tourism has increased, private investment has increased and so on. FARC are back at the negotiating table, living standards are improving, land reform is on the agenda, etc. I apreciate that Gary Leech knows more about Colombia than I do. However I'm not convinced US military aid to this particular country is all bad.

[A_Thomas]

 All US Military Aid is bad, when they are trying to cut back social services here among other things.

 Eisenhower warned of the Military Industrial Complex


 I found the Gary Leech very genuine with his views and I completely agree with his view on the US' involvement in Latin America = Bad News.


 As I said on another they have pushed the drug war onto the poor people in rural areas and away from the cities, this is that increased "safety" you're talking about. But didn't somebody just post something about a killing in broad daylight?


 Sounds like contract killing to me... Colombia safe? Sure, that kind of stuff doesn't phase me but I don't plan on going to Colombia anyway.


 


 



 

[V_Man]

-snip-


 I found the Gary Leech very genuine with his views and I completely agree with his view on the US' involvement in Latin America = Bad News.

-snip-

Overwhelmingly this is true. However in this case it's not so clear cut at all. Safety and propserity in Colombia for most people has improved dramatically. Also there is widespread understanding that what is required is a political solution so that the military goals are seen as only being steps along the way.

[bcc_1_2]

Our military involvement in Latin America is generally not something I like to see. I generally don't like that we are all over the place "policing" the world. My main concerns moving forward is internet based terrorism, events like September 11th (this involves securing borders and also knowing who is in our country currently), and countries that develop technology to hit us with nuclear missles. So being ahead in the technology race is my main concern so we can prevent such things. I think a wall is kinda stupid when we have all this technology, but if it moves the debate forward on handling immigration I am all for it.
The bottomline is Colombia is a big enough ally I am pro expanding trade agreements and even giving them a bit of scratch... but the best thing we can do for Colombia is to end the lucractive drug business while expanding trade to make sure there is some honest work available.
We've already had the "drug" thread but the fact of the matter is US/W Europe either has to stop doing drugs or regulate them if we want to shut down this mess we created in Latin America. I'm frankly surprised that more average people in Mexico and Colombia don't hate the US. Because our drug consumption causes them a lot of problems.