NACLA Interview Creates
Political Furor in Colombia
While we like to think that our
work has impact, we were hardly
prepared for the uproar that our
interview with former Colombian
president Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala
had in his home country, even
before we went to press here in
New York.
Having read our Sept-Oct. 1982
issue containing some of Turbay’s
comments, a reporter for a Colom-
bian radio network asked NACLA
Associate Ramon Jimeno, who had
44
conducted the interview, for a tran-
script. The resulting radio broad-
cast to Colombia live from New
York City on January 3, touched off
a controversy that raged in the Col-
ombian press for a week.
During the three-hour interview,
Turbay had made some rather
sharp criticisms of current Presi-
dent Belisario Betancur’s foreign
and economic policy and of the
democratic opening Betancur is try-
ing to effect. He also questioned the
Betancur Administration’s ability to
preserve the country’s democratic
institutions. Reportedly planning a
come back to national politics, Tur-
bay found it politically expedient,
after the radio report broke, to deny
that the interview had ever taken
place, calling it “imaginary,” “false
representation,” or possibly pieced
together from earlier conversations.
The mainstream Colombian press,
which had originally reported
Turbay’s comments as news, then
began to question the authenticity
of the interview itself.
By now the radio station felt the
need to prove its credibility, and
broadcast, again from New York,
Jimeno’s tapes of the conversa-
tion. Jimeno and Turbay were both
connected by phone in New York
City, but in separate locations. In
this three-way interview, a flus-
tered Turbay was forced to admit
that the voice on Jimeno’s tape
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was indeed his, but said he did not
remember what his opinions had
been then and that perhaps he had
changed his mind. Jimeno verified
that he had conducted the inter-
view in Bogota, at Turbay’s own
home, and that the ex-president
had known it was being taped for
inclusion in the NACLA Report.
Happily, NACLA got a little free
and unexpected publicity out of the
incident. Cabot prize winning col-
umnist Daniel Samper Pizano, of El
Tiempo, referred to the NACLA
Report as a” prestigious specialized
magazine.” We, and Jimeno, came
out of it with our reputations intact.
Can the same be said for ex-presi-
dent Turbay?
NACLA Staffer’s Analysis
Appears in New Left Review
“If Nicaragua triumphed, El
Salvador will win” goes a popular
chant. “And Guatemala will
follow,” comes the reply. The
pace of events in Central America
and increasing strength of the
opposition can easily lead to a kind
of domino theory of the Left. We
now talk of “the revolution” in
Central America. While each
country’s political process is uni-
que, something significant is hap-
pening regionally. As each people
forges its own path to change, it is
always with one eye on neighbors
on the isthmus.
Ferreting out these regional
trends and implications is the sub-
ject of a recent piece by a member
of the NACLA Central America re-
search team. George Black’s
“Central America: Crisis in the
Backyard” is the cover story in the
September-October issue of the
British publication, New Left
Review (No. 135). Believing that
“Central America is a crisis of
imperialism potentially as
threatening as the Middle East,”
Jan/Feb 1983
Black discusses the current situa-
tion and offers informed specula-
tion on future prospects.
The article lays out the various
layers of the crisis, exploring the
interrelationship of political and
economic factors and the way in
which U.S. geopolitics have accel-
erated and regionalized the crisis.
Black discusses the loss of politi-
cal control by the ruling elites and
their incapacity to resolve intra-
class schisms or deal with econo-
mic recession. Their intransigent
model has blocked reform initia-
tives and destroyed the political
center.
Looking at revolutionary alter-
natives, the piece points up the im-
portance of Guatemala’s aborted
revolutionary process. Today’s
revolutionaries, he argues, are
profoundly responsive to the com-
plexities of national class forma-
tions and ideologies. In defining
their strategy, they build on
lessons taught by U.S. counter-
insurgency and by the successes
and failures of foquista theorists.
New geopolitics have extended
the U.S. sun belt-politically, eco-
nomically and ideologically-into
Central America. Though Wash-
ington must seek legitimacy for its
policy internationally, there is no
“doubt that it intends to prevail in
the region, says Black. Never
again will a popular movement en-
joy the international correlation of
forces that allowed the Sandinista
victory. Finally, the article con-
siders the Sandinista transition to
socialism.
A product of NACLA’s ongoing
work on Central America, “Crisis
in the Backyard” introduces
themes that will play a role in our
research in the next few years.
More specifically, we hope to pub-
lish our research findings in book
form in early 1984, concentrating
on the Central American Left.
1984 Policy Alternatives
Central America and the Carib-
bean Basin were the subjects of a
three-day conference in Atlanta,
Georgia from December 9-11. Bill-
ed as an opportunity for dialogue
between progressive regional
leaders and representatives of
groups concerned about U. S.
policy there, the conference was
called by Ramsey Clark and Mayor
Andrew Young. The two also
hoped to coalesce support within
the progressive community
toward seeking policy alternatives
for 1984 and after.
Among the attendees from the
region were Michael Manley,
former Jamaican prime minister,
Fabio Castillo of El Salvador’s
Democratic Revolutionary Front,
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor
of Nicaragua’s Barricada, as well
as leaders of the Guatemalan
revolutionary forces. Held in the
Martin Luther King Center, partici-
pants heard presentations by
Harry Belafonte, Coretta Scott
King, Roger Wilkins, Clark and
Young. Robert Armstrong and
Janet Shenk attended the con-
ference as NACLA’s represen-
tatives.
Armstrong Heads West
February will find NACLA staf-
fers on the lecture circuit again.
On February 19, Bob Armstong
begins a week’s tour in Akron,
Ohio where he will speak on the
current situation in El Salvador.
From there he heads to Fort Col-
lins, Colorado to begin five days of
speaking on the Central American
crisis in the Fort Collins, Denver
and Boulder areas. His hosts in
Akron are the Central American
Support Association and in Col-
orado, the Committee for Peace
and Justice in Latin America of
Fort Collins.
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