The military doctrine a Medellin court dubbed the “origin of evil” in Colombia contains the concept of “the internal enemy,” which originally referred to American slaves.
The National Security Doctrine didn’t exist until 1947 and wasn’t introduced in Colombia until 1962.
The concept of the internal enemy, however, dates back as far as 1814 when Thomas Jefferson expressed his concern about the perceived threat of the British Empire igniting a slave revolt during the War of 1812.
Thomas Jefferson
This association may also have led to the violent repression of the Civil Rights movement in America in the 1960’s.
How a US military doctrine became Colombia’s ‘origin of evil’ | Part 1: “Popeye”
From slaves to communists
In Colombia, the US military introduced the “internal enemy” concept as part of the National Security Doctrine in 1962 and promoted the violent crackdown of opposition to the authoritarian National Front.
One of the military attacks that sought to do this led to the formation of the FARC guerrilla group in 1964.
Jefferson’s concern of the British achieving victory through the armed support of enslaved African Americans was similar to John F. Kennedy’s concern of the Soviet Union winning the Cold War by “offering asylum and arms to the oppressed” in the Americas, especially after the Cuban Revolution of 1958.
When the murder of Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in April that year ignited extreme violence between liberals and conservatives, US Department of State George Marshall believed the conspiracy theory of his Colombian counterpart, Laureano Gomez, that the revolt was a communist coup.
New York Times
The CIA’s first director, Admiral Hillenkoetter, almost lost his job and President Harry Truman almost lost the 1948 elections because of Gomez’s lie, who started a trend that continues until this day.
How a US military doctrine became Colombia’s ‘origin of evil’ | Part 2: Special warfare
From communists to young people
President Ivan Duque’s claims that Venezuela was infiltrating anti-government protests in November last year, for example, was also entirely fabricated, and recreated the concept of an external enemy, Venezuela, that allegedly sought to overthrow his government by infiltrating the protests, making the participants the internal enemy.
While the protesters had no intention of overthrowing the government, Duque closed the Venezuelan border, went into siege mode and violently cracked down on the protests.
Dozens of Venezuelan migrants were deported on trumped up charges they had instigated vandalism during the largely peaceful protests.
Like his legendary predecessor, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believed the Bogota hoax and expressed his support for Duque’s violent crackdown of peaceful protests.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Colombia’s Supreme Court knew better and ordered Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo last week to apologize for the police brutality and guarantee citizens’ right to protest.
Supreme Court
Furthermore, the court ruled the government may no longer stigmatize protesters, or associate peaceful protests with the hostile activity of a military threat.
From the National Security Doctrine to the Damasco Doctrine
The military introduced the new Damasco Doctrine earlier this year to explicitly do away with the concept of the “internal enemy” that had justified the killing of any government critic a military target since the introduction of the National Security Doctrine in the 1960’s.
Colonel Pedro Javier Guevara
The administration of far-right President Ivan Duque, however, continues to use the “internal enemy” concept to violently repress opposition, Bogota social leader Henry Gomez told student newspaper 070 on Monday.
According to Gomez, the government is “resorting to that same ghost that we saw during the time of [former President] Alvaro Uribe: an internal enemy,” which laid the foundation for the American Civil War in the early 19th Century and is threatening Colombia’s peace process today, according to Gomez.
Bogota social leader Henry Gomez
According to the student newspaper, social leaders throughout Bogota have been receiving death threats from the “Aguilas Negras” after renewed protests earlier this month.