The theory of "preventive warfare" comes under fire in Ecuadorean-Colombian border dispute

What appeared to be a carefully planned but badly executed attempt to take President George Bush’s notion of “preventive warfare” to Latin America has run up against a stumbling block: the vast majority of countries in the area refuse to accept the notion that military intrusions across national borders can be justified in view of the so-called war against terrorism.

 

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, chosen by Washington as a strategic ally and receptor of multi-million dollar aid in weapons and financial air, sent planes, helicopters and soldiers into Ecuador in a recent sensationalist manoeuvre that took the life of Raúl Reyes, the FARC guerrilla leader in charge of negotiations to exchange political hostages for militants held in Colombian jails.

 

Along with the guerrilla leader more than 20 others were killed in the attack. Uribe failed to announce his intention to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and subsequently attempted to justify the attack by describing the victims as terrorists who had escaped into the border area. However, news reports showed that the guerrillas were asleep at the time of the attack. Reports from Colombia subsequently attempted to add wood to the already blazing fire by accusing Ecuador and Venezuela—whose governments are left leaning and critical of the U.S.—of protecting the guerrillas. On the basis of information allegedly found in Reyes' computer, Venezuela was accused of giving financial aid to the FARC and there were allegations that the guerrillas were attempting deal in uranium.

 

The similarity with the Bush Administration’s attack against Iraq is clear. Following the terrorist attack against the Twin Towers, Washington declared war against terrorism (which has never been very clearly defined) and invaded Afghanistan and Iraq after unsuccessful attempts to get Europe and the United Nations to condone the action. The invasion of Iraq was justified on the theory that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a dictatorship which had weapons of mass destruction and maintained ties with terrorist groups. Neither charge has to date been verified.

 

The war against terrorism declared by Washington supposes a number of ambiguous notions. Firstly, the military action is theoretically not directed against nations but against groups which operate in diverse countries. Secondly, punitive actions are justified in view of what the United States considers to be defence of its national security. There has also been an attempt to describe various insurgent groups around the world as terrorists.

 

The FARC began as an ideologically leftist organization in the 1960’s and were confronted by rightwing “self defence” or para-military groups. Both have subsequently been accused of financing their operations with the sale of drugs. Colombia has placed the FARC in the category of “terrorists,” something which has been resisted by Ecuador, Venezuela and many other Latin American countries. The fear is that should such groups be termed “terrorists,” the possibility of strikes such as that of Colombia against Ecuador could compromise national sovereignty.

 

Correa insisted that Colombia’s action was a gross violation of its sovereignty and obtained the backing of the majority of the hemisphere’s countries. Finally, in an seven hour debate in Santo Domingo, and in spite of his strong defence of the action against Reyes, Uribe ended up signing a document in which he asks forgiveness for his action. In the final document of the heads of State meeting to peacefully resolve the issue, their was a clear rejection of one of the basic principals of preventive warfare:

 

“We reject this violation of Ecuador’s territorial integrity and reaffirm the principle that the territory of a State is inviolable and must not be infringed by military occupation or other acts of force taken by another State.”

There of course remain many questions. One of the most obvious: why did Colombia decide to take the life of the man who, according to press accounts, was in charge of the negotions to free Colombian-French citizen Ingrid Betancourt and other kidnap victims?