On the Scene: Guerrillas in the Midst

THE hostage siege at the Japanese Embassy in Lima focused worldwide attention on Peru’s Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). The siege ended only when Peruvian commandos stormed the compound, killing the 14 guerrillas and liberating the 72 hostages. Meanwhile, a more ominous political development was taking place in neighboring Colombia, where, in the year in which the world observes the thirtieth anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Che Guevara, the country’s long-standing Marxist guerrilla movement has emerged as a big player in the most capitalistic of enterprises: the multibillion-dollar international drug trade.

Colombia’s guerrillas, who have been trying to overthrow the government since Guevara’s time, continue to espouse Marxist ideology, but most Colombians no longer take the rhetoric seriously. Today, these “revolutionaries” rely on their connection with the drug trade to fill the money gap left by the demise of their former financial backer, the Soviet Union.

RC

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Ron Chepesiuk

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THE hostage siege at the Japanese Embassy in Lima focused worldwide attention on Peru’s Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). The siege ended only when Peruvian commandos stormed the compound, killing the 14 guerrillas and liberating the 72 hostages. Meanwhile, a more ominous political development was taking place in neighboring Colombia, where, in the year in which the world observes the thirtieth anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Che Guevara, the country’s long-standing Marxist guerrilla movement has emerged as a big player in the most capitalistic of enterprises: the multibillion-dollar international drug trade.

Colombia’s guerrillas, who have been trying to overthrow the government since Guevara’s time, continue to espouse Marxist ideology, but most Colombians no longer take the rhetoric seriously. Today, these “revolutionaries” rely on their connection with the drug trade to fill the money gap left by the demise of their former financial backer, the Soviet Union.