Colombia Back from the Brink: From Failed State to Exporter of Security

For most of the world, the decade of the 1990's came to a close with Europe agreeing on a single currency, the movie Titanic earning the distinction of being the most financially successful picture in history, and the world holding its breath for the predicted chaos that would supposedly be brought on by the Y2K bug.For Colombia, the 1990's were marked by mounting violence, as the government struggled to protect rural communities from ever increasing attacks by armed insurgents and drug traffickers. Some even considered the country on the verge of becoming a failed state; the economy was foundering, foreign investment had declined sharply, and security had deteriorated to the point where the majority of Colombians did not feel safe.1 In fact, they felt like hostages in their own homes. The security environment was one of constant anguish due to the terrorist bombing campaign initiated by the drug cartels and continued by Colombia's various armed Marxist insurgent groups.2Colombians, who are proudly individualistic, resolute, and courageous, began to say ?nunca mas? (never again), and their government listened and acted. Between 1999 and 2006, the first ?transformation? of the Colombian Public Forces (the Armed Forces and the National Police) took place.3 The overhaul included intense training, revised military doctrine and campaign strategies, and increased capability and capacity. International cooperation and the recognition of shared responsibility to confront this countrywide threat were crucial in generating the needed jumpstart.Every president since 1982 has attempted some sort of peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the Spanish acronym is FARC). After the 2002 election and at the end of another failed peace process with the FARC - that demilitarized an area of land the size of Switzerland, granting the FARC a safe haven as a gesture of good will during that negotiation period - the Colombian electorate clamored for the government to go on the offensive. The FARC leadership's lack of good faith, especially notable during the negotiation process between the years 1998 and 2002, led to a public loss of faith in the peace negotiations. Colombia had to adopt a new strategy to confront the conflict: first, the Colombian government developed measures to regain the strategic initiative against these insurgent groups; second, it developed options and implemented a plan to bring the conflict to a close and consolidate security across the nation; and finally, it formulated an approach to transform the forces to face future security challenges.Charting a Path to a New ColombiaIn the latter half of the 1990s, the guerrillas were capable of conducting multi-battalion size conventional set piece battles, and controlled large swaths of coca crop growing areas and drug routes, where they forced the displacement of entire towns and plundered civilians' property and assets.By the end of the 1990s, President Andres Pastrana and his administration designed a multilayer strategy to address, in a comprehensive way, the security challenges the country was confronting. Plan Colombia became an effort to strengthen the armed forces and confront the drugs trade in a way that enabled the state to enlarge its presence in an integrated manner to restore territorial control and enhance the rule of law. The U.S. partnered with Colombia in this endeavor in a way that facilitated air mobility, special operations training, intelligence capabilities, professional standards on human rights, and resources for rapid response for projects in critical areas. The support became bipartisan and sustained, and, despite limited resources, the impact became substantial.In 2002, the new Colombian administration under President Alvaro Uribe initiated a series of offensive military actions that led to the gradual, systematic, and sustained recovery of territorial control. They also launched an extensive interdiction campaign against drug trafficking, as well as economic revitalization efforts that began to rebuild the trust of Colombian citizens in their Public Forces across the country. …