Colombia
Coming Home To Roost
America’s role in war crimes in Colombia decades ago may shed light on how far the Trump administration could go to subvert U.S. and international laws pertaining to the use of military force against civilians at home.
A Minefield Ahead
After more than six decades of conflict, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro pledged to achieve “total peace” in the country. But shifts in the nature of armed conflict, the proliferation of criminal gangs and the absence of meaningful reforms have impeded his goal.
In Latin America, Backers of Leftist Dictatorships Look the Other Way
There is a sector of the Western left eternally enamored of flags, slogans and ceaseless homages to dead leaders that is every bit as illiberal as the caustic right and whose support seems to have less to do with any kind of coherent humanitarian policy outlook and more to do with facile anti-Americanism and an impulse for dictator worship, as if defending the abusive practices of security forces in Venezuela is better than defending them in Colombia, or defending the extractive policies of a left-wing government in Bolivia is somehow more appropriate than defending the same policies when done by the right-wing government of Brazil.