"As suggested by the recent arrest of three alleged al Qaeda operatives, the expansion of cocaine trafficking through West Africa has provided the venue for an unholy alliance between South American narco-terrorists and Islamic extremists," [Jay Bergman, DEA director for the Andean region of South America] said in an interview over the weekend.It's a pithy quote, but it's wrong. This isn't an unholy alliance. This is just business. Illicit trafficking networks find and work with each other regardless of ideology, not because of it. The FARC and al Qaeda are just cogs in a supply chain that can easily be replaced by any number of groups. The cocaine runs through Venezuela not because of 21st Century Socialism promoted by Chavez but because of the 21st Century Capitalism that is the economics and corruption of illicit trafficking. I can guarantee with near certainty that if any portion of that logistics chain were to disappear tomorrow, it would be rerouted and under the control of a new group before the end of the year.
The analysis of the cause matters. An anti-US ideological alliance would mean the source of the problem is the bad guys. An economic system like the cocaine trafficking networks has its source in the user demand for a prohibited substance. Going after those who make up the trafficking networks can mitigate some of the problems, but doesn't solve the problem at its source and tends to just change the problem over time.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize the FARC, from murdering and kidnapping to landmines to recruitment of child soldiers to their criminal activities. There's no need to exaggerate the threat by claiming an ideological alliance with Al Qaeda. We've seen the FARC work with the AUC on drug trafficking over the past decade, but nobody would claim there's an alliance there. The bad guys do a pretty good job separating ideology from business. We need to understand that difference if we're going to find solutions to the problems we face.
