Chapter 72 Revolutionary Fire
The Guantanamo incident ended the domineering situation of the United States in the Caribbean Sea, and in this conflict, Cuba’s supreme leader, Fidel Castro, was the one who gained the most from this conflict. A rare opportunity to drive the Americans out of Cuban territory in one fell swoop. Proved that he is still the most determined revolutionaries in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Guantanamo incident made Castro re-emerge as the banner of the revolutionary movement in the Caribbean. And those Colombian left-wing armed groups that participated in the Guantanamo operation lost a lot of people in this operation, but what they gained was the hearts of thousands of poor people in Colombia.
When the time entered 1986, the extreme left-wing armed organizations in Colombia began to launch a massive attack on the Colombian government forces and right-wing military organizations. And those impoverished farmers in Colombia also rose up one after another and joined this movement. The M-19 (April 19 Movement), which gained great popularity in Colombia because of the Guantanamo incident, the National Liberation Army of Colombia, the People's Liberation Army of Colombia, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia formed the United Revolutionary Front. The recruitment and sale of troops, the expansion of the army and preparations for war. In the midst of this revolutionary wave, the Colombian government army began to retreat steadily, and could only abandon the vast rural areas in western Colombia and guard the big cities.
Colombia's democratically elected president, Belisario Betancur Quartas, is feeling the pressure like never before. Quartas began to review a series of policies he had made. He felt that he trusted his ally the United States too much and ignored the objective conditions in Colombia.
Objectively speaking, Quartas is not a bad president, on the contrary, he has a very high reputation among intellectuals. After Quartas, who is a legal professional, took office, he hoped that Colombia could get rid of the chaos and disorder for many years, so Quartas has been committed to building and formulating Colombia's legal environment, eliminating corruption and centralization. corrosion. It is a pity that Quartas was born at an untimely time. During his tenure, the entire capitalist society was in crisis. The annual economic growth rate of Colombia under his governance was only 0.9%, industrial production declined, and agricultural production stagnated. Although Quartas also adopted reforms similar to those of Pinochet in Chile, opened the Colombian market to foreign investors, and carried out market-oriented reforms for state-owned companies and public utilities, it is a pity that these experiences are considered successful in the world. Colombia's land is not acclimatized, which can only make the situation worse.
In order to gain support from the United States, Quartas had to intensify his crackdown on domestic drug cartels. But Quartas was not from a poor background after all. He couldn't understand that coca was almost the only cash crop that could keep everyone alive for the poor farmers in Colombia. What he didn't understand was that those unemployed workers in Colombia couldn't find a job to make a living except selling drugs. The anti-drug campaign of Quartas and the Americans is simply trying to drive these poor people to a dead end.
The Guantanamo incident completely made Quartas see that the Americans are not invincible. The growing revolutionary movement in the country has also begun to force Quartas to re-examine his domestic policies. Quartas' term ends in August of this year.
If he does not want to be ousted early and forever nailed to the pillar of shame in Colombian history, he must do something to save the situation.
Quartas convened several important cabinet ministers of his own to gather together for several days to discuss countermeasures. Most of Quartas' cabinet is of intellectual origin, and only the Minister of Defense is of military origin. As a result, among these people, only the Minister of Defense put forward a slightly feasible suggestion. His suggestion was to divide the cooperative relationship between the Colombian drug cartel and the Colombian left-wing guerrillas.
The Minister of Defense said to Quartas: "Mr. President, in my opinion, the Medellin Group and the Cali Group are not the same as those guerrillas who fight with poison. What are the guerrillas against? It is a rich man like Escobar. But we have always hoped to reach a reconciliation with the left-wing guerrillas and wipe out drug trafficking organizations like the Medellin Group! But in the eyes of the guerrillas, our government representatives It is the interests of rich people like Escobar! And the neoliberal economic strategy you are promoting, President, is protecting the interests of these big capitalists!"
The reason why the Secretary of Defense is willing to publicly criticize President Quartas' policies at such a meeting is mainly because the term of the current government is about to expire. No matter who is elected president, he will be the Minister of Defense for the end. Besides, Quartas is not a strong person, he is good at accepting other people's opinions, which is both Quartas' strength and his shortcoming. To put it nicely, Quartas's behavior is called accepting advice, and to put it bluntly, it is indecision. Minister of Defense Juan Manuel has long seen through what kind of character this president is.
"Juan, do you have any good suggestions? Let's hear it!" Quartas and everyone in the conference room looked at Minister of Defense Juan Manuel. They wanted to know what the soldier had in mind. .
"Mr. President, do you still remember that Escobar sent representatives to communicate with us last year, hoping to use more than 10 billion US dollars to help us repay foreign debts as a condition in exchange for the president's proposal to pardon the leadership of the Medellin Group? ?” The Minister of Defense suddenly asked everyone.
"Remember, but it is impossible for us to agree to this kind of thing. If we really accept it, the country of Colombia will be discredited!" Quartas heard Juan Manuel's remarks and had doubts. Did he take some advantage from drug dealers and come here to be a lobbyist for Escobar? So Quartas' tone was extremely bad.
"No, Mr. President, I think you have misunderstood me! The reason I bring this up is to show you that compared with those far-left guerrilla forces, Escobar's Medellin Group is like It's a dog waiting at our door wanting us to throw a bone! Instead of trying to get rid of the guerrillas who want to overthrow the government, we should first stabilize Escobar and get him out of the alliance with the guerrillas One thing we need to understand is that as long as Escobar leaves these guerrillas, the cocaine produced by the guerrillas will not be able to be sold to the United States, and their source of income will be cut off!"
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