Alternative to Rambonization

Francisco Proaño Arandi

Integration: alternative to Rambonization

Francisco Proaño Arandi*

The attack carried out by the especially their longed for destiny Colombian army against a clandesti- of integration, without any tutelage ne FARC (Colombian Revolutionary foreign to the reality and the funda- Armed Forces) camp in Ecuadorian mental principles of its inhabitants. territory, in the morning of March 1, 2008, involved not only a violation Within minutes, under the fire of the sovereignty and territory of of 186-kg GBU 12 Paveway II bom- a country and also of several basic bs, launched at the encampment of principles of international law, as the irregular forces with the aid of defined in the Charters of the United the newest warfare technology –laser Nations and the OAS (Organization aided, GPS or ultra sensory– some of of American States), but also a tur- these initiatives seemed to capsize: ning point, which may be definitive, the Union of South American Na- in the contemporary historical pro- tions (UNASUR), the Bank of the cess of Latin America. South, the projects for South Ame- rican energy and territorial integra- The attack, which took place tion. Even the Andean Community in the eve of the bicentennial of In- (CAN) has felt the impact, the im- dependence (2009 for Ecuador and mediate consequence of which was 2010 for most of the other countries the rupture of diplomatic relations in the region), represented a multiple between Colombia and Ecuador. blow to the dreams of continental integration, fed during two centuries Within minutes, the world con- by the chief leaders of the struggle flict between the West and Islamic for American independence, which fundamentalism, known as the war were in full process of revival under against terrorism, suddenly appea- diverse proposals which reveal that red in the South American scene, the countries of this huge subconti- to the tone of anti-principles such nent are capable of independently as “preemptive war”, the subjec- targeting and guiding their destiny, tivity of national sovereignty and * Writer and career diplomat of the Ecuadorian Foreign Service. Current Ecuadorian Ambassador to the Repu- blic of Argentina. 20 Ecuador-Colombia disregard for the pronouncements Globalization, as the climax of of international organizations, all a centuries-long historical process, under the concept of a controversial takes shape in the new social and cul- extension of the notion of the right tural conditions set up by the techni- to legitimate defense and the preser- cal and scientific revolution, which vation of state security against the so is to say, thanks to the momentous called “new threats”, wherever they advance of high technology and the might be. A world vision that does contraction of the world down to a not recognize borders or the right of global village which implies, in the others; in sum, a Rambonization, as realm of communications, an uni- we shall explain later, of internatio- versality, as well as the instantaneous nal politics. transmission and reception of information, in real time, form anywhere What happened in that morning in the world. of March 1 merits an examination from different viewpoints: a bila- Heinz Dieterich says, “While teral one, in that which pertains to the agrarian revolution planted man the relations and common history of in the ground and industrial revolu- these two countries; a regional pers- tion concentrated him in the cities, pective, which became evident in the semiotic revolution frees him the forums of the OAS and the Rio from the limits of time and space”.1 Group; and also, a look from outside the region or the hemisphere, This historical coincidence of because of what we have called an globalization and the redeploy- abrupt and ominous insertion of our ment of transnational financial do- regional problems in the framework mination generates, for the central of a worldwide confrontation which countries which are the bedrock of is not ours to fight. expansive transnational capital, ca- pabilities such as, for example, the In the globalization era tendency to standardize or to catego- rize under a single cultural standard All of this seems to take root in, (which is dictated by the center of and take a hold of, the real symptoms world power) all human behaviors of what we call globalization, which and expressions in the planet. It rea- coincides historically over time and lly is a worldwide structure where sustains the triumphant expansion multinational companies control of financial capital and transnational global economic relations according companies worldwide. to their interests. Under this perspective, the state becomes relative and 1 Noam Chomsky and Heinz Dieterich, La aldea global, Ediciones Txalaparta, Buenos Aires, September 2001, sixth edition. AFESE 47 21 Francisco Proaño Arandi ceases to matter, except as guarantor mic fundamentalism. “The priority or manager of their activities. that the fight against drug trafficking had been since the end of the Cold The logic of this expansion is War was overshadowed by the need the logic of war, not for territories to fight a much more powerful and anymore, as it was until the mid merciless enemy” –according to Al- 20th century, but for control of the fredo Toro Hardy3. Drug trafficking international markets. The strate- was only important if it was asso- gic objectives of the players in this ciated with terrorism, but even so it war –the transnational corpora- was Islamic terrorism that mattered. tions– know no limits. The logical That implied a decrease in the atten- forefront of this war is high techno- tion given to Latin America, with a logy, and behind it, but unquestio- manifest reduction of the emphasis nably crucial, is the production of placed on Colombia”. other articles of mass consumption. According to Dieterich2, Japan and Thus we see the existence of a USA, which in the ‘70s proclaimed single power sustained by three mu- the information society, are in the tually intertwined dimensions: cultu- forefront, while Europe and the for- ral, military and economic, the latter mer USSR still placed their bets on being the beginning and end of the the production of steel and energy. other two. In the cultural domain All of this does not impede US glo- we see the imposition of archetypes balization strategists, when they see pertaining to the most trivial mass their security threatened, or need a culture, but very efficient in the ex- threat against the consolidation of pansion of markets to unimaginable the military-industrial complex, to limits. In the military we see the step into the physical, real terrain of consistent application of the doctri- war in military terms (examples: the ne of “preemptive war” and unila- intervention in Iraq and the war in teralism, ostensibly since the war in Afghanistan). Afghanistan and the intervention in Iraq. Ever since September 11, 2001, that is, as a reaction against the “The massification of informa- attack on the Twin Towers in New tional cultural archetypes throug- York, this war took the shape of a hout the world increases the value or global war on terrorism. This stru- creates added values which exceed ggle was centered on a large-scale the ratio of price to quality of mer- conflict between the West and - Isla chandise and services on a global sca-

2 Noam Chomsky and Heinz Dieterich, Op. cit. 3 Alfredo Toro Hardy, La era de las aldeas, Villegas Editores, Bogotá, 2002. 22 Ecuador-Colombia le. One prominent example of that reign soil carried out by the Colom- economic phenomenon could be one bian army would also seem to be movie, Rambo, which in the eighties an attempt to internationalize that simultaneously created two global country’s internal conflict, which cultural archetypes: it put both big remains unresolved after 60 years. muscles and fatigues in fashion. Be- But above all, given its characteris- cause of the informational effect of a tics and the reasons put forward by motion picture, worldwide demand those who carried it out, it brings for the triggers of both fashions (a the war against terrorism to the La- service and a merchandise) increased tin American scene. In other words, without any additional advertising the confrontation between the West, costs. Name brands and intellectual especially the US, and Islamic funda- property of luxury garments world- mentalism. We have gone from the wide, without major advertising reduction of the attention given by costs, can make profits upwards of the US to Colombia immediately af- a thousand percent above produc- ter 9/11, mentioned by Toro Hardy, tion costs. Cell phones are a cultural to the geometric expansion of mili- archetype used worldwide and only tary aid to this country, largely as the brands of the telephones are sub- a result of the concept of a military ject to mass advertising”.4 solution implemented by president Uribe since he took office. An expo- “Rambonization” is the culture nential increase in military aid which of the masses; “Rambonization” of has not had positive results in the international politics via the “legiti- war against drug trade. According mization” of the so-called preempti- to data provided by the UN Office ve war doctrine, which includes the on Drugs and Crime, the extent of possibility of promoting operations coca crops in Colombia remains ex- of any kind in any place, making the tremely high at 78,000 ha. sovereignty of countries a relative concept and ignoring the principles Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, specia- of international law. list in International Relations at the University of San Andres in Buenos Latin-Americanization of world Aires, compares the present situa- conflict tion to that pertaining to Cuba in the 1960s, in the middle of the Cold Suddenly, in the morning of War. “In the sixties” –he says5– the March 1, a field operation in- fo Cold War came to Latin America

4 Claudio Salomón, Expansión cultural e informativa y asimetrización económica global, Ediciones Suárez, Mar del Plata, 2008. 5 Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, La OEA y la nueva guerra, article published in the newspaper “La Nación”, Buenos Aires, March 28, 2008. AFESE 47 23 Francisco Proaño Arandi first as a result of the Cuban revo- the war against terrorism can cause lution, and of the OAS resolution other harmful effects. Tokatlian which expelled Cuba from the inter mentions several: “the fabrication” American system. “All (Latin) Ame- of new enemies in a continent with rican countries, at different times serious problems of inequity and ex- and with different intensity, suffered clusion; the construction of suppo- the consequences of this fact: natu- sed connections among agents that ral internal conflicts were interpre- resort to terror, criminal activities, ted and handled under the light of rebel forces, groups outcast from the uncompromising rivalry between society and dissidents; violation of East and West; there were deaths and international law and deployment of massive disappearances in several preventive military force as standard generations; the vision of an enemy practice. instead of a rival became the norm in politics; human rights were viola- That is, the Rambonization of ted systematically”. The doctrine of international politics in Latin Ame- national security was a result of that rica. extension of the Cold War to the Latin American stage, which “was Risky modification of traditional pa- lethal –underscores Tokatlian– and radigms contributed decisively to the demo- cratic collapse in the region”, as well Until March 1, 2008, the pres- as the ensuing economic and social sing problems of Latin America were stagnation. seen in a traditional archetypal perspective, that is to say, a regional one. “The way in which Reyes was Even if there is a deep asymmetry in killed and the subsequent diplomatic the economic potential within the re- handling of the incident convey, in a gion, the challenges continue to be symbolic way –says Tokatlian with the eradication of poverty and the regards to the events of March 1– a search for development, for which similar and alarming message: today several alternatives have been de- we run the risk of Latin-Americani- veloped. Among them, integration zing the ‘war against terrorism’”. plays an increasingly greater role. There are no religious or racial con- More than the possible prolife- flicts in the region as in other parts of ration of military and punitive ac- the world, and the causes of conflict tions like the one that took place in in the past, mostly caused by the dis- Angostura –the spot where the clan- memberment of the Spanish Empire destine FARC camp was located– in the 19th century are being resol- this sort of Latin-Americanization of ved: between Bolivia, Chile and Peru,

24 Ecuador-Colombia between Ecuador and Peru, between talism, under the motto of the war Argentina and Chile, between Brazil on terrorism, but it distorts the real and Bolivia, etc. The exception is the and deep line of conflict in the world internal conflict in Colombia. today: the diversity of interests between the countries of the first world What happened in the remote and those in the second, third and jungle of Angostura radically mo- fourth worlds. difies the outlook. It introduces the ghost of world conflict into the han- A perspective which, moreover, dling of pending affairs and threa- becomes risky at a time where the tens to thoroughly affect the entire rise of indigenous movements, a cha- spectrum of relations within the racteristic of Latin America in recent countries of the region. years, should not be seen in terms of confrontation but as an historical It brings to the Latin Ameri- opportunity that highlights what we can stage dangerous concepts, such are: multinational and multicultural as the “clash between civilizations” countries, whose recognition as such, proclaimed by Samuel P. Huntington that is, the acceptance of our diversi- of Harvard University: ty, constitutes one way of facing the challenges of globalization. “For peoples who search for their identity and reinvent their eth- It is a quite complex reality that nicity, enemies are essential, and the cannot be addressed with a simplis- most potentially dangerous enmities tic vision which excludes the “other” will happen along the lines of ruptu- and classifies conflicts from a purely re already existing among the main fundamentalist perspective, but for- civilizations of the world”. The truth ces us to probe deeply into these pro- is that culture and cultural identity, blems, and requires more than ever which in a broader sense are civili- the need to persist in the process of zing entities, are shaping the tempo integration as a means to overcome of cohesion, disintegration and con- challenges and act efficiently in the flict in the post-Cold War world”6. globalized world scene.

This perspective seems to pre- An interesting article pertaining vail in the background of the stru- to this process by Samuel Pinheiro ggle between the so-called Western Guimaraes, Foreign Vice Minister of pragmatism and Islamic fundamen- Brazil7, states:

6 Samuel P. Huntington, El choque de civilizaciones y la reconfiguración del orden mundial, Editorial Paidós, Barcelona, 1997. 7 Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes, El mundo multipolar y la integración sudamericana, in Res Diplomática (RD), Revista del Instituto del Servicio Exterior de la Nación (ISEN), Buenos Aires, August 2007. AFESE 47 25 Francisco Proaño Arandi “In the field of politics, inte- opens a dangerous rift and should gration mechanisms should stimu- lead to a deep examination of the late cooperation of South American policies which should be developed countries in forums, disputes and to consolidate the rule of law, the ba- international negotiations, promote sic principles that enlighten civilized the peaceful settlement of conflicts, coexistence, and face up to emerging without the interference of powers barbarity. It should lead us to re- outside the region, with the total and think the concept of Latin America rigorous respect for the principles of in the eve of the bicentennial of inde- non-intervention and self-rule, i.e., pendence and the celebration of the no state and even less Brazil should ideals that sustained that historical delve into the domestic problems of feat. neighboring countries or try to ex- port political models, no matter how In this sense, more than the re- much we value them for internal solve to adhere to the law, the de- use.” termination to continue the efforts for the integration of our peoples Law and integration against Rambo- and countries becomes especially nization important. Colombia included, the ideal for integration is still a driving The swift reaction of the institu- force for harmonious development, tional mechanisms for dialogue and fruitful coexistence and peace. It is conflict resolution in the hemisphere an antidote to the threats of using (OAS and the Rio Group), where the force to solve prevailing problems. If Colombian intervention was rejected the Colombian conflict is to have a and chastised, was doubtlessly posi- long-lasting solution, it must not be tive, because it curbed the possibility accomplished by force but by way of of an escalation of conflicts and res- negotiations, mutual compromises tored the adherence to the principles and a new vision of the future ushe- of international law as established red by the international community. in the charters of the UN and the OAS. It also brought to light the Latin America, which in recent understandable caution and concern years has had sustained growth, but caused by an event that, as stated at still has not overcome the tremen- the beginning of this article, could dous deficits of social exclusion and imply a serious turning point in the basic needs, eradication of poverty, treatment of international conflict disregard for human rights, etc., in the Latin American subcontinent. cannot afford the luxury of going But the reticence of the United Sta- back several light years in the road tes to agree with the other countries to development, allowing the intru-

26 Ecuador-Colombia sion of warlike measures that deeply acquired through diplomatic chan- threaten all that has been built and nels. In other words, in a multilate- that needs to be built in these critical ral framework with the concurrence years. of civil and military actors.

In the face of this, there is a There are enough dark clouds in need to enhance and use all the tools the social and economic realms that that have been developed and orga- darken the proximity of the bicen- nized in the relations between coun- tennial of political independence of tries. Not only the respect for the the peoples of the continent to allow principles of law, but the thorough war in its most perverse fashion to enforcement of the diverse mecha- expand and defame its wonderful nisms that can prevent conflicts and and boundless geography. This has assure a real peace zone for the re- just been pointed out by Felipe Gon- gion: confidence-building measures, zalez, former president of Spain, in transparency in the evaluation and his speech at the Foro Iberoamerica, exchange of information about mi- held in Rhode Island, USA. Accor- litary forces and weapons, security ding to him, “globalization has ge- protocols between armed forces, the nerated a system of connections of mechanisms for consultations and such nature that nobody will be safe political consensus, systematic mee- from the troubles that start to emer- tings between Foreign Ministers and ge in the world economy as a result Defense Secretaries under the 2+2 of internal crises in the Unites States formula, bilateral cabinet meetings, and European countries like Spain.” and mainly the many modalities of “What has been created up to this integration, in which the region has point in the 20th century,” says Gon- a vast experience, which should not zalez, “is new world disorder, with be forgotten or wasted. mounting problems in government and uncertainty of the elements In the military field, there must of world governance” (a horrible be the will to rely on initiatives such world, I would say). as the Crisis Detection Centers, which operate in the realm of the Eu- Because of all this, now more ropean Security Strategy with a goal than ever, it is essential to employ the that fully corresponds to the spirit of reasons of law and humanity to face integration that should prevail in La- the ghost of Rambonization, that is, tin America: the treatment of possi- the ghost of barbarity. ble threats or conflicts from a regional perspective, avoiding them under the principles of law and obligations

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