DOCSLIB.ORG

Elusive Peace in Colombia: a Conversation with Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Elusive Peace in Colombia: a Conversation with Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE ELUSIVE PEACE IN COLOMBIA: A CONVERSATION WITH AMBASSADOR JUAN CARLOS PINZÓN DISCUSSION PARTICIPANTS: ROGER F. NORIEGA, AEI JUAN CARLOS PINZÓN, COLOMBIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2016 EVENT PAGE: http://www.aei.org/events/elusive-peace-in-colombia/ TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED BY DC TRANSCRIPTION – WWW.DCTMR.COM ROGER NORIEGA: I’m Roger Noriega, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. You’re very welcome. I told the ambassador (Spanish) and it’s the truth really. They’re neighbors, the Colombian Embassy just being across the street. We welcome you all. Let me just say at the outset, if you will silence your cell phones, that will make it agreeable for all of us and less embarrassing for you in case a babysitter calls or something. I’m going to ask our distinguished guest to make some initial comments after I introduce him, and then we’ll throw it open to questions for the balance of our hour together. Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzon has been Colombia’s ambassador to the United States for 14 months. Previously he served for nearly four years as Colombia’s minister of defense, where he led the nation’s armed forces in dealing severe blows to the operations and infrastructure of the FARC, the ELN, and the BACRIM, the criminal bands operating in that country. This resulted in improved security conditions throughout the country and the lowest homicide rate in 35 years. During his tenure, the armed forces equipment and training were modernized. No less important, the welfare of the men and women in uniform and of their families has improved, and he put in place a transformation plan that will lead the Armed Forces forward for the next decades. What most people do not know is that Colombia is an exporter of expertise in the security area, having lent its expertise to 60 different countries in how to deal with criminal organizations and drug trafficking. Before serving as a defense minister, Ambassador Pinzon was the chief of staff to President Juan Manuel Santos and vice minister of defense. He’s a native of Bogota, Colombia. He holds an M.S. degree in economics from Javeriana in Bogota. He received a master’s in public policy from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He has also completed advanced studies in international relations at Johns Hopkins and in science and technology at Harvard. So, clearly, you’re prepared, well prepared for many tasks. And we welcome you here today. Ambassador, as I’ve said to you in the past, some of my most skeptical Colombian friends were rejoicing on the night of the plebiscite. Others, quite frankly, were devastated by the results, harshly criticizing the “no” campaign and the popular vote. I felt somewhere in the middle because I had reconciled myself to the fact that the plebiscite would probably approve the accords and, although I’m deeply skeptical about the FARC’s intentions, I saw the accords as an opportunity, with strong support from the United States, to hold the FARC to some concrete commitments and to demobilize thousands of guerillas in that framework, many thousands of whom were really kidnapped into the guerilla movement. In the weeks since the plebiscite, you’ve seen President Santos meet with his predecessor, President Alvaro Uribe. I’ve heard that was for the first time in six years that they’ve met. Perhaps it’s true, maybe not. He’s also met with President Andres Pastrana, one of his other predecessors, both of whom were part of the “no” campaign. Last Thursday, President Uribe, on behalf of that camp, offered a 26-page critique that raised many concerns that also presented some sort of red lines that have been regarded as rather reasonable and practical. Indeed, he adopted more practical positions on a number of critical issues. I think this may be a function of the fact that regardless of the results of the plebiscite, student marches and other mobilizations, a letter from business leaders, have made it very clear that the Colombian people are essentially committed to some sort of negotiated permanent end to the hostilities. But as a result of the voting, President Santos has had to sit down with these skeptics to hear them out, to take their concerns back to the negotiating table with the objective of improving that accord in a way that would broaden its support among the Colombian people. So maybe that narrow victory on behalf of the “no,” in the end will actually improve the process for a durable peace reflecting a national consensus. In other words, in the words of the legendary political theorists Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find that you get what you need. (Laughs.) So, ambassador, where is Colombia’s peace process today? What condition is it in? Do you feel more or less optimistic today than the night of the plebiscite, and why? AMBASSADOR JUAN CARLOS PINZON: Well, first of all, Roger, thank you very much. You know, it’s a great honor to be here, at the American Enterprise Institute, especially having this beautiful new venue that you have here. I’m very impressed. I’m very happy to be — I’m sure I’m not the first but one of the first commentators in this new venue. Second, you have been inviting me to Enterprise discussions for a year already, you know, since I arrived. And I say “yes,” and suddenly there was a big coincidence between my yes and the current juncture. So I’m happy to be here, and it’s good to have this opportunity to discuss. You always have been interested about Colombia. And one of the things I learned to appreciate the most about Washington is that we have even more friends than I knew, you know. Washington is full of friends of Colombia, and there are many reasons for that. The success from US policy perspective that has happened in Colombia is quite interesting. It has been bipartisan. It has been a long-term, sustained effort. It has resulted in the most violent country in the hemisphere — not to tell that we had at a point the two most violent cities in the world — to become now exporter of security, a country that somehow is finding a final way to peace — is in transition to peace, if I can call it. And all that no doubt with determination and commitment of the Colombian people, of our leaders, but at the same time with very important US support. US support came to Colombia to enable Colombia — to allow Colombia to be effective in its institutions, from security — that part is new and I saw with a lot of interest — with justice and with development. And that package is what we know as Plan Colombia. So I know here in Washington there’s a lot of people that feel that in one way or another, as it happened in Colombia, there’s a lot of contributors to this effort. And I see it as a positive element. To your comments and to your question, I think we are in the middle of a very interesting time in Colombia. The first thing I would say and underline is it’s interesting to see the strength of Colombian democracy. There are very few democracies in this part of the world, the world itself, that can handle such an event, such a political debate with the intensity and the commitment from all the sides and somehow be able to have that as a result. Second, I believe it’s important to see the strength of Colombian institutions. Every process that we have lived in the past years in Colombia is absolutely related to our constitutional framework, to the separation of powers. The president has expressed and proposed ideas, but those have been discussed in Congress and later on judged by our judiciary system. So I think that’s another important event. And when you think about the results, the first word President Santos used was not only he’s the president of every Colombian, but that his main objective was to keep precisely the institutional stability of the country. And immediately he opened the room for a political dialogue and a political discussion with every sector opposing to the government proposal in the plebiscite. So I think that’s another interesting feature. And the third element that I believe is now part of our political discussion is somehow opportunity, and this word has been expressed by President Santos, but by several bright experts from different sides — you know, right, left, center, international leaders, Colombian leaders. It has already come to that word, Colombia is in front of an opportunity. And this is why — because we have been moving from let’s say peacemaking with the use of legitimate force. That’s what we need for a while. You know, people can talk about long or several decades of war but I can tell you that when Colombian state and Colombian people decide that we’re going to confront the threats of crime, violence, and violation of human rights, it started really 15, 16 years ago. And since then we became very effective. We degraded, to mention the FARC, probably to 30, to 35 percent of what they were in manpower, resources, or financial capabilities. But the same happened to ELN. But the same happened to the criminal bands that inherited somehow the existence after the AUC, the so-called paramilitary.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Colombia: Current and Future Political, Economic and Security Trends
    Colombia: Current and Future Political, Economic and Security Trends By Stephen J. Randall, FRSC Fellow of the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute and Director, Institute for United States Policy Research Jillian Dowding, MA Assistant Director, Institute for United States Policy Research December 2006 Prepared for the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute 1600, 530 – 8th Avenue S.W., Calgary, AB T2P 3S8 www.cdfai.org © Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute Introduction For some analysts Colombia is seen to be at a crossroads, with the capacity to move beyond more than thirty years of internal conflict and realize its potential, especially in the economic sector. This paper outlines the current political, economic and security situation in the country and explores some of the possible scenarios for the next five to ten year period.1 The authors suggest that it is critically important to examine the ways in which the political and strategic environment has evolved over the past decade in order to understand the current situation and predict where the country will likely move in the near future. Most analysts of Colombia concur that Colombia has not realized its economic potential in the past fifty years because of the internal conflict, a conflict that has its roots in both ideological differences as well as socio-economic inequalities, but which have been greatly exacerbated since the emergence of the narcotics industry in the 1970s. That internal conflict has defeated government after government in its effort to develop a broader vision of the role that Colombia could play in inter-American relations or economically to move into the developed world.
    [Show full text]
  • IFES Faqs on Elections in Colombia
    Elections in Colombia 2018 Presidential Election Frequently Asked Questions Americas International Foundation for Electoral Systems 2011 Crystal Drive | Floor 10 | Arlington, VA 22202 | www.IFES.org May 14, 2018 Frequently Asked Questions When is Election Day? ................................................................................................................................... 1 Who are citizens voting for on Election Day? ............................................................................................... 1 When will the newly elected government take office? ................................................................................ 1 Who is eligible to vote?................................................................................................................................. 1 How many candidates are registered for the May 27 elections? ................................................................. 1 Who are the candidates? .............................................................................................................................. 1 How many registered voters are there? ....................................................................................................... 2 What is the structure of the government? ................................................................................................... 2 Are there any quotas in place? ..................................................................................................................... 3 What is the
    [Show full text]
  • Assessing the US Role in the Colombian Peace Process
    An Uncertain Peace: Assessing the U.S. Role in the Colombian Peace Process Global Policy Practicum — Colombia | Fall 2018 Authors Alexandra Curnin Mark Daniels Ashley DuPuis Michael Everett Alexa Green William Johnson Io Jones Maxwell Kanefield Bill Kosmidis Erica Ng Christina Reagan Emily Schneider Gaby Sommer Professor Charles Junius Wheelan Teaching Assistant Lucy Tantum 2 Table of Contents Important Abbreviations 3 Introduction 5 History of Colombia 7 Colombia’s Geography 11 2016 Peace Agreement 14 Colombia’s Political Landscape 21 U.S. Interests in Colombia and Structure of Recommendations 30 Recommendations | Summary Table 34 Principal Areas for Peacebuilding Rural Development | Land Reform 38 Rural Development | Infrastructure Development 45 Rural Development | Security 53 Rural Development | Political and Civic Participation 57 Rural Development | PDETs 64 Combating the Drug Trade 69 Disarmament and Socioeconomic Reintegration of the FARC 89 Political Reintegration of the FARC 95 Justice and Human Rights 102 Conclusion 115 Works Cited 116 3 Important Abbreviations ADAM: Areas de DeBartolo Alternative Municipal AFP: Alliance For Progress ARN: Agencies para la Reincorporación y la Normalización AUC: Las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia CSDI: Colombia Strategic Development Initiative DEA: Drug Enforcement Administration ELN: Ejército de Liberación Nacional EPA: Environmental Protection Agency ETCR: Espacio Territoriales de Capacitación y Reincorporación FARC-EP: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo GDP: Gross
    [Show full text]
  • Elite Bargains and Political Deals Project: Colombia Case Study
    Elite Bargains and Political Deals Project: Colombia Case Study Roddy Brett Stabilisation Unit February 2018 This report has been produced by an independent expert. The views contained within do not necessarily reflect UK government policy. Author details The author is Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor with the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and the Director of the Masters Programme in Peace and Conflict Studies and Acting Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He has acted as Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme in both Colombia and Guatemala, to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala and as Advisor on Indigenous Affairs to the Norwegian Embassy in Guatemala. Background to Elite Bargains and Political Deals Project This case study is one of a series commissioned to support the Stabilisation Unit’s (SU’s) development of an evidence base relating to elite bargains and political deals. The project explores how national and international interventions have and have not been effective in fostering and sustaining political deals and elite bargains; and whether or not these political deals and elite bargains have helped reduce violence, increased local, regional and national stability and contributed to the strengthening of the relevant political settlement. Drawing on the case studies, the SU has developed a series of summary papers that bring together the project’s key findings and will underpin the revision of the existing ‘UK Approach to Stabilisation’ (2014) paper. The project also contributes to the SU’s growing engagement and expertise in this area and provides a comprehensive analytical resource for those inside and outside government.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on the Implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia
    CHALLENGES IN COLOMBIA’S CHANGING SECURITY LANDSCAPE Notes on the Implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia: Securing a Stable and Lasting Peace by Juan Carlos Restrepo, Presidential Security Advisor to the President of Colombia, Presidential Delegate for the implementation of security guarantees in the peace agreement between the Colombian government and FARC-EP Allow me to introduce this note with a metaphor: the urban country followed a relatively normal a peace agreement is like a marriage. One development path, for some parts of Colombia the thing is the signature on the documents, and time for development stopped running while the a very different thing is the 30 or 40 years that conflict took place in the rural parts of the country, (hopefully) follow. and half a century was lost in many regards. During that period, those regions of Colombia prioritized On June 23, 2016, after more than half a century today as “most affected by the conflict” saw very of armed confrontation between the Colombian little of the government, in the form of neither government and the FARC-EP guerrilla group, the roads, schools, nor hospitals. Various armed actors— parties signed an agreement intended to end an regular and irregular forces alike—made their armed conflict that left behind a trail of blood, presence known, however. poverty, and displacement: more than two hundred thousand people killed, a population of nearly It is now June 2018, and President Juan Manuel seven million people displaced from their territories, Santos is about to leave government after serving and more than eight million victims.
    [Show full text]
  • A Path to Democratic Renewal"
    PN-ABK-494 Best available copy -- portions of annexes are illegible PA -1\LK* A-+ National Democratic Institute National Republican Institute for International Affairs for International Affairs "A PATH TO DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL" A REPORT ON THE FEBRUARY 7, 1986 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE PHILIPPINES By the INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER DELEGATION Based on a January 26 to February 19, '.986 observer mission to the Philippines by forty-four delegates from nineteen countries National Democratic Institute National Republican Institute for International Affairs for International Affairs 1717 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Suite 605 001 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Suite 615 Washington, D.C. 20036 Washington. DC. 2000-1 (202) 328-3136 Telex 5106015068NDIIA (202) 783-2280 Te'ex 510',00016INRIIA Politicaldevelopment institutes workingfordemocracy DELEGATION MEMBERS J. Brian Atwood, USA Jerry Austin, USA Manuel Ayau, Guatemala Elizabeth Bagley, USA Smith Bagley, USA Ercol Barrow, Barbados Tabib Bensoda, the Gambia Mark Braden, USA John Carbaugh, USA Glenn Cowan, USA Curtis Cutter, USA Rick Fisher, USA Larry Garber, USA Raymond Gastil, USA Antonio Gomes de Pinho, Portuga B.A. Graham, Canada Guillermo Guevara, El Salvador Robert Henderson, USA Robert Hill, Australia John Hume, Northern Ireland Patricia Keefer, USA Martin Laseter, USA Dorothy Lightborne, Jamaica John Loulis, Greece Lord George Mackie, Scotland-UK Judy Norcross, USA Patrick O'Malley, Ireland Juan Carlos Pastrana, Colombia Misael Pastrana, Colombia Howard Penniman, USA Jose Rodriguez Iturbe, Venezuela Peter Schram, USA Keith Schuette, USA Ronald Sebego, Botswana Elaine Shocas, USA David Steinberg, USA Bill Sweeney, USA Dennis Teti, USA William Tucker, USA Steven Wagner, USA Kathleena Walther, USA Edward Weidenfeld, USA Curt Wiley, USA Sue Wood, New Zealand ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The sponsors wish to thank each of the memters of the delegation for their participation in this historic mission.
    [Show full text]
  • Path to Peace with Prosperity
    #coloMBIA Our World See this report at worldfolio.co.uk Monday, April 14, 2014 COLOMBIA in the international spotlight EDITOR IN CHIEF: ALBERTO LEANDRO LLARYORA This supplement to USA TODAY was produced by United World Ltd., Suite 179, 34 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0RH – Tel: +44 20 7409 3106 – [email protected] – www.unitedworld-usa.com PHOTOS: MARCA PAIS & GOBIERNO DE CHILE PAIS MARCA PHOTOS: The Latin American nation’s next chapter of success is to build on free trade with the U.S. and the development of the Pacific Alliance olombia’s imminent and of building a community of significant for North Ameri- zón acknowledges this relation- very good club of countries and exchanges and free movement accession to OECD like-minded, economically am- can businesses and investors in ship, stating that “both the U.S. obviously Colombia wants to of capital and people. membership is a bitious regional nations into the Colombia, bringing a common government and the U.S. people be there, continuing with good The alliance’s economic significant marker wide-ranging Pacific Alliance. framework for bilateral trade are two great allies of Colombia”, practices and learning from strength is undeniable; already it of international recognition of Colombia now represents and investment, as well as the while Aurelio Iragorri, Minister those countries in order to im- ranks as the world’s eighth larg- Cthe country’s economic suc- one of Latin America’s most protection of intellectual prop- of the Interior, adds that “we prove more.” est economy and seventh larg- cess story. However, the success attractive investment oppor- erty, labor rights and the envi- have had an extraordinary re- Besides the FTA with the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Gaviria-CA-29July2015
    1 GAVIRIA TRUJILLO, César Augusto, Colombian politician and seventh Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) 1994-2004, was born 31 March 1947 in Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia. He is the son of Byron Gaviria Londoño, coffee grower, and Mélida Trujillo Trujillo. On 28 June 1978 he married Ana Milena Muñoz Gómez, economist, with whom he has one daughter and one son. Source: www.oas.org/documents/eng/biography_sg.asp Gaviria is the eldest of five brothers and three sisters in a middle-class family. He spent a year at Roosevelt High School in Fresno, California through an American Field Service exchange program and began his study of economics at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá in 1965. In 1968 he became president of the Colombian branch of AIESEC, the International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences. He graduated in 1969 and began his political career shortly thereafter. From his first entry into politics he represented the Liberal Party, following the disposition of his father (his mother came from a Conservative background). In 1970 he was elected as a city councilman in his hometown Pereira, where he held office for four years. During this time he also worked in the private sector as a general manager for Transformadores T.P.L., a company that sold and serviced transformers, and served as the Assistant Director of the National Planning Department under President Misael Pastrana Borrero. In July 1974 he was elected to the national Chamber of Representatives, representing the Department of Risaralda. As a representative, he put his economics degree to work serving on the Chamber’s Economic Affairs Committee.
    [Show full text]
  • Diplomatic History of the Panama Canal.: Correspondence Relating to the Negotiation and Application of Certain Treaties on the S
    : DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE PANAMA CANAL. 517 can only safely be solved by the free and genuinely authentic force of public opinion. The imminent gravity of tbe problem of making the nation, now honeycombed with the dissensions of partisanship, into a stable, solid entity, capable of victoriously taking care of every eventuality of the future, is ap- parent. These things counsel us to promptly remedy existing evils, but this will come too late if the reforms desired were to be introduced through the medium pro- " vided by article 210 of the constitution, which says : This constitution may be amended by a legislative act. after discussion and approbation by Congress and by this being transmitted to the Executive power and with that approval returned to the next Congress, wherein it must be debated and approved by two-thirds of the votes of both Houses." This office desires, therefore, that you will immediately proceed to make the above noble aspirations of the Executive power known to all citizens, making use of all the postal and telegrapbic facilities of the nation to this end, and that you will cooperate actively with the municipalities and see that these without delay carry out the important mission thus confided to them on this solemn occasion by the national Government, by giving their conclusion with respect to the necessity and urgency of such reforms and as to whether they desire to have them introduced by methods different from those permitted by the constitution. I request you to immediately send the results to this office by special messenger.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Letter to the President of Colombia Ivan Duque Marquez
    OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA IVAN DUQUE MARQUEZ Mr. President, The undersigned organizations and individuals—members of the Ecumenical Forum for Peace in Colombia (MEP), composed of grassroots ecclesial communities, churches, congregations, and Christian organizations who are faithful to our religious and spiritual beliefs, to the ethical principles that ground them, and to our mission as the Church of the Poor—met recently on November 15 and 16 for our eighth annual National Gathering, where we dedicated a great deal of our time to SEE the global and national reality; to ASSESS said reality through the light of the gospel and through the liberating praxis of Jesus of Nazareth and the social doctrine of the Church; and to identify the ACTION that is asked of us, which includes the duty to hold accountable those who have the responsibility to guide the destinies of the world and our country. Our Mission and work, as the Church of the Poor of Colombia, focuses on the prophetic denunciation of everything that threatens the life and dignity of creation and on the proclamation of the transformations that are required to make the Kingdom of God on Earth, which is the kingdom of life and not the kingdom of death. Mr. President: Seventy-two years ago today, on December 10, the nations of the world, which make up the United Nations, signed and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It has been seventy-two long years of struggle for humanity: for the rights and dignity of peoples and to try to eradicate poverty, inequality, violence, exclusion, and discrimination.
    [Show full text]
  • Colombia's Peace Processes: Multiple Negotiations, Multiple Actors
    LATIN AMERICAN PROGRAM SPECIAL REPORT DECEMBER 2006 Colombia’s Peace Processes: Multiple Negotiations, Multiple Actors Cynthia J. Arnson, Jaime Bermúdez, Father Darío Echeverri, David Henifin, Alfredo Rangel Suárez, León Valencia INTRODUCTION by Cynthia J. Arnson1 Efforts to bring Colombia’s long-running time, government negotiators and guerrilla internal armed conflict to an end through commanders of the smaller National political negotiations continued to face major Liberation Army (ELN) continued to meet in obstacles in 2006. In August, the government Havana, Cuba. Despite an atmosphere of of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez succeeded in goodwill and high expectations, the two sides demobilizing the last contingent of fighters of appeared to remain far apart on the actual con- the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia tent of the negotiating agenda as well as (AUC), the principal paramilitary coalition. whether or not the opening of formal talks That brought to a total of 31,671 the number would be conditioned on a cease-fire. of men and women demobilized as a result of the peace talks with the government that THE AUC PROCESS began in July 2003.2 This singular accomplish- ment was diminished throughout the year, Even before the eruption of a new political however, by disputes with paramilitary leaders scandal in late 2006 regarding paramilitary infil- over the terms of their demobilization and by tration of the Colombian Congress, and as scandals highlighting the AUC’s continued detailed in previous publications,3 the Uribe involvement in assassinations, drug-trafficking, government’s peace talks with the AUC and infiltration of government institutions, remained mired in controversy.
    [Show full text]
  • From Tragedy to Success in Colombia: the Centrality of Effectiveness in Civil-Military Relations Thomas C
    Cover Photo: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (fourth from left) and Colombian Minister of Defense Rodrigo Rivera (third from left) march with military leaders during a parade in Bogota on June 1, 2011. Photo credit: Fernando Vergara, Associated Press Authors: Thomas C. Bruneau is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Dr. Bruneau was Chairman of the Department of National Security Affairs from 1989 until 1995. He became Director of the Center for Civil Military Relations in November 2000 and continued until December 2004. He is the author of six books, editor or co-editor of a dozen books, and the author of dozens of academic articles. He specializes in various security issues including street gangs, civil-military relations, and intelligence reform. Dr. Richard B. Goetze is a retired Major General in the U.S. Air Force. He served as Vice Director of the Joint Staff, Inspec- tor General for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior positions dealing with financial planning, information resources and security. General Goetze also served in a number of command and staff positions with the Strategic Air Command commanding Squadron, Wing, and Air Division organizations. He flew 280 combat missions in Vietnam and received many decorations for valor and merit including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. In 1997, he established TRIAD Enterprises as a consultancy practice specializing in matters dealing with aviation, education, national security, and Latin America. He has taught as an adjunct professor for the Naval War College and the Naval Postgraduate School, and has made presentations on presented papers national security strategic planning and civil-military relations at international confer- ences throughout Latin America.
    [Show full text]