!Necesitamos un Acuerdo Humanitario! – The Need for a Humanitarian Agreement in Colombia

A humanitarian agreement to exchange or liberate hostages held by the FARC, as well as involving FARC members imprisoned by the Colombian government, is demonstrably the most efficient, safest and most prudent way to resolve the refugee impasse. The guerrilla force holds an estimated 800 captives under close guard, creating a very delicate situation for any military rescue attempt. For instance, in May 2003, the government launched such a rescue effort that resulted in the death of politician Guillermo Gaviria Correa and eight military detainees. The danger here is that as disgraced ex-president Fujimori turned to Peru’s military in a desperate operation to overwhelm the Tupac Amaru guerrillas who had seized the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Colombia’s president Uribe is fully capable of doing the same in Colombia. It is necessary for Uribe, whose measures have created hostility and risked confrontations both with Ecuador and Venezuela and within Colombia, to prove to the American people that Colombia is a fit partner to be in a free trade pact with this country. Therefore, he should take a positive step in the direction of peace and reconciliation rather than flirt with the idea that the government can work its will on the guerrillas through armed action.

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Evaluating Structural Adjustment: A Dissenting Opinion

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) have come under heavy scrutiny for their structural adjustment programs. These programs, which feature loans conditional upon neoliberal economic reforms, have been implemented countless times in numerous developing countries since the 1980s. Recently, these loans have been criticized for failing to provide the promised economic growth and for adversely affecting the poor. Today, it has become expedient for politicians to blame IMF and WB programs as the source of their country’s past and current economic woes; railing against the policies of the IMF and WB has become a common theme of Latin America’s resurgent populist leaders. Yet, the truth of the matter is that the IMF and WB’s structural adjustment programs are not solely to blame for the economic plight that hit many developing countries. Structural adjustment could still be a sound policy; it simply needs to be revised in light of its multiple problems.