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U.S. and Colombia Can Bring Order to Caribbean Chaos

U.S. and Colombia Can Bring Order to Caribbean Chaos

For many Americans, the Caribbean Sea conjures up visions of gorgeous beaches, friendly resorts and sparkling turquoise waters. Unfortunately, this has become a very difficult summer in the region, showing why the U.S. needs to devote more attention to its closest neighbors. From Cuba and Haiti in the north to Venezuela in the south and Nicaragua in the west, red danger flags are flying.

I know this part of the world well, having been born in south Florida and then serving as commander of U.S. Southern Command for three eventful years in the late 2000s. The focus then was on Colombia, which was under threat from the virulent insurgency of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia. This Marxist terrorist organization, closely aligned with the drug cartels, nearly caused the government to collapse.

With assistance from the Plan Colombia, a U.S. program providing hundreds of millions annually in developmental, diplomatic and military aid, Colombia brought the rebels to the negotiating table, and a settlement was reached in 2016.

While all is not perfect — there are dissident FARC terrorists and other guerrillas, plus criminal gangs — Colombia is in a vastly better place than at any point in the last half century. Instead of being an “importer” of security from the U.S., Colombia can now participate in efforts beyond its borders. For this, it can build on its two-decade partnership with Washington.

How could they cooperate to the benefit of stability in the nations around the Caribbean basin?

Start with Venezuela. More than six million Venezuelan refugees are outside its borders, a response to poverty, lack of jobs, medical disasters including Covid-19, and repression from the dictatorship of the hapless president, Nicolas Maduro. Nearly two million have fled into Colombia, which is struggling to deal with crisis. 

As Colombian President Ivan Duque told me at a Council on Foreign Relations virtual event I moderated last week, “We have received far less help with this refugee population than any other country in a similar situation.” 

According to Duque, Syrian refugees are funded by the international community at roughly $2,000 per person, and Sudanese at $1,800 — but Colombia has received only $300 for each Venezuelan inside its territory.

In addition, he said he has intelligence linking the Maduro government to a car bombing at a military base in the Colombian border city of Cucuta a month ago, as well as an attack on his presidential helicopter. “It is time to formally charge the Maduro regime as state sponsors of terrorism,” he said, a proposition that is gaining traction in Washington. The long Venezuela-Colombia land border, as well as the Caribbean waters off their shores, are rife with tension.

Refugees are also fleeing Cuba and Haiti following economic turmoil, Covid outbreaks, lack of vaccines and political instability. In Haiti, there has been a breakdown of civil authority since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July. The Cuban regime has responded to widespread protests with hundreds of retaliatory arrests. Some 10,000 migrants from the two islands have arrived on the north shore of Colombia in the small town of Necocli, many of whom want further passage to Central America and on to the U.S.

Finally, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has begun arresting opposition leaders (22 thus far) and potential presidential challengers (seven in total), charging them with treason. This is part of an effort to rig the Nov. 7 election, which would give Ortega a fourth successive term and effectively snuff out any vestige of democracy.

All of this instability is exacerbated by the usual challenges around the Caribbean: narcotics trafficking, gang activity, human smuggling and the coming height of hurricane season. The U.S. is understandably distracted with other global events: managing a military withdrawal from Afghanistan, its emerging great-power competition with China, a resurgence of Covid at home, and other difficulties. But a handful of relatively low-cost actions could help.

Building a strategic plan for the southern Caribbean in tandem with Colombia should be at the top of the list, and Duque said he is hopeful of working with Washington on the challenges. President Joe Biden’s State Department could start by backing Duque’s suggestion to declare the Maduro regime a state sponsor of terrorism. (Currently, only Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria hold that distinction.)

Second, the U.S. can help bring political and diplomatic leadership regionally through the offices of the Organization of American States. This should include new sanctions against antidemocratic regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. (The Biden team, to its credit, has started punishing the Cuban leadership.) At a minimum, the OAS could approach the Venezuelan refugee situation as a collective financial burden, much as the European Union does in Syria, providing significant support to the vast camps there.

Then there is the drug trade: The U.S. can attack the supply side (supporting reduction of coca growth in the Andean ridge); transit and passage (maritime and air interdictions in the Caribbean); and, above all, work harder to control the demand side in the U.S., the market that drives the traffic.

Finally, Washington can to align its efforts in bilateral relationships with other major actors in the hemisphere, notably Mexico (which, unfortunately, still supports Cuba); Canada; and Brazil, a Latin American powerhouse, albeit one that is in internal turmoil over the handling of the Covid crisis.

In our discussion, Duque emphasized his willingness to collaborate with the U.S. “There are no silver bullets,” he said. “But we always stand ready to work with Washington on the challenges of the region.” The Biden administration would do well to take up his offer.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also chair of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation and vice chairman of Global Affairs at the Carlyle Group. His latest book is "2034: A Novel of the Next World War."

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