Stability Operations and the Colombian Army

Colombia has been involved in an internal conflict since 1949 following the assassination of the popular liberal political leader, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. Afterward, the two radical political parties, liberals and conservatives, began a bloody struggle that grew systematically creating today's narco-terrorist organization FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)and some other smaller ones. When Alvaro Uribe Velez assumed the presidency of Colombia in 2002, he developed the Democratic Defense and Security Policy Democratic Defense and Security Policy (DDSP), which for the first time involved all of elements of national power to fight narco-terrorism. Colombian Military Forces in the last decade have achieved a high degree of success in military combat operations. The kidnappings and terrorist attacks have decreased while cocaine seizure and international investments have increased. But this success is not enough if the state as a whole does not help to develop all regions, the conflict will persist. Therefore, Military Stability Operations become very important for Colombia because the military is the element of national power that ensures state presence in every region of Colombia to include those with some actual threat by terrorist organizations to bring to Colombia long-standing peace. By implementing in other countries the proposed model for stability operations in Colombia, the U.S. and allies could reduce their military presence abroad and focus on economic support and development. Home country military and governmental agencies would be the "face" of the operations in their own countries and therefore the transition would be easier than the actual transition in Iraq.