La Violencia

     Mario Vinasco expresses the anguish of Colombians:
     "It is clear now that people in Colombia realize that our main problem is the guerrillas. Their promise of social justice is no more than mass kidnapping, extortion, forced indoctrination and recruitment, and destruction of our productive infrastructure. In addition to the destruction and misery the cause, they benefit from government corruption since public attention is largely focused on corruption scandals that shield their terrorist attacks, and they can still justify those attacks as targeted to the corrupt establishment.
     On the other hand, as jailed kidnapers get jubilee-sentence breaks (that also happen when the Pope visits or a Colombian saint is canonized) and the army and police forces seem incapable of containing the extortion and kidnapping campaign, either due to overwhelming human-rights lawsuits or the lack of political will in congress, or the internal inefficiency and corruption of the army, people have to align with the least bad option they are left with: defend themselves."

Ronald Hilton - 5/15/00