BANANALOGIA

A New Strategy for the Challenges of Colombia and the Region
Andes 2020: A Potentially Failing Region
EXCERPTS:

"...The Andean region of Latin America, defined by the Andes mountain chain and including Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, is in peril. In the last two decades, per capita economic growth has been close to zero, meaning that the average adult in these five nations has seen no improvement over their lifetime. In particular, rural populations live in a state of extreme risk--often facing threats to their physical security, and almost uniformly enduring a lack of effective services and legitimate economic opportunity.::"

"...Democracy in the Andes is threatened by staggering inequality and poverty, weak political institutions, habitual impunity for human rights violations, corruption, marginal regard for the rule of law, and the lack of state control over its entire territory. Common characteristics of most or all Andean states include the concentration of political and economic power; exclusion of rural populations; violent conflict; and transnational security threats fueled by drugs, other illegal industries, criminals, illegal armed groups, and narcotraffickers..."
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"...it is clear that the Colombian policy elite has not fully considered the political and security dimensions of any ultimate outcome involving the reintegration of guerillas into the national fabric..."
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"...Some Colombians would like the U.S. government and its military to make a deeper, more decisive, and more direct strategic investment to end the Colombian conflict--a role the American public and Congress consistently resist..."
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The Critical Role of Elites

"...As a whole, however, elites in the Andes typically wield power through informal institutions such as political machines, powerful family firms, or the corruption of authorities. These informal instruments may make elites in these societies more powerful than in countries with stronger formal institutions that are more able to resist co-optation or personalization; accordingly, elites often resist the strengthening of formal institutions, because it would attenuate their power..."

Andes 2020: A Potentially Failing Region
Andes2020 (1.6 MB PDF)
andes2020_espanol (23K PDF)