Lacto-Terrorism: FARC Bombs a Dairy
By Aaron Mannes
Last week a FARC truck bomb carrying 660 lbs of explosives destroyed most of a dairy owned by the Swiss food multi-national Nestle in the southern state of Caqueta, one person was injured. Earlier in the week, also in Caqueta, a pair of cold-storage tanks owned by a Nestle supplier were destroyed in a FARC attack.
Recent FARC bomb attacks against the police in the port city of Buenventura and a convoy of soldiers near the border with Ecuador have evident rationales. In Buenventura the FARC was apparently retaliating for a counter-narcotics operation. The attack against the convoy was an effort to protect core FARC territory. But bombing dairies?
Coca-Cola and Nestle, and other multinationals operating in Colombia have been accused of using violence against labor organizers. There have been high levels of violence against union organizers in Colombia, although as the overall security situation has improved this violence has declined as well. In the past Colombian terrorists have extorted multinationals, although Nestle's spokesman insists that the FARC has made no recent demands for payment.
What is likely is that, as the FARC is losing control of territory, it is attempting to secure its strongholds. By attacking legitimate businesses it undermines the local economy, frequently forcing the poor to turn to growing coca or otherwise working in the illegal drug trade. The same tactic is being used in Afghanistan, where impoverished farmers are forced by the Taliban to grow opium poppies. Both the Taliban and the FARC may not need more drugs to export. But forcing people into the illicit economy also detaches them from the lawful government places them under the political auspices of the terrorists.
Cross-posted to TerrorProfiles.
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