SVSU Professor Studying Decades-Long War in Colombia

Monday, March 03, 2008
By Ryan J. Stanton
rstanton@bc-times.com | 894-9645

On the heels of a recent trip to Pakistan, Auburn attorney James R. Johnson has entered yet another country in a state of conflict, traveling to the Republic of Colombia on Friday for an 11-day getaway.

''It's spring break,'' said Johnson, a political science instructor at Saginaw Valley State University, who is known for studying politics abroad. ''College students are going to go fry their brains in Panama City, Fla., and I'm going to go play with the folks in Colombia.''

Located in the northwestern region of South America, Colombia is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. It also finds itself in the middle of a war that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people in the last decade alone.

Johnson, who keeps a blog of his experiences on the Web site www.warrevolutionandconflict.com, said this trip has been on his ''to do'' list for some time. He's hoping to catch a frontlines glimpse of the conflict raging in Colombia, home to the Western Hemisphere's longest-running insurgency: a nearly four-decade old war.

''I have not been down there for a few years and this narco-terrorist war is simply too cool to pass on,'' he said. ''A lot of people don't realize it - they've lost 40,000 people down there in the last decade from these ongoing wars. It's just an ugly situation down there.''

The ongoing wars between the government and two rebel groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army - are well-funded and show no signs of ceasing, according to Johnson.

Johnson says Americans are going to have to realize that South America is not just becoming increasingly unstable, but also far more pro-socialist and anti-American.

Poverty in the hemisphere is ''horrific,'' he says, pointing to peasant revolts in Bolivia and the strengthening of ''Shining Path'' from a regional terrorist organization in Peru to an international terrorist ''wannabee'' group that's well-funded and vicious at times.

''All in all, South America is off the American uni-polar diplomatic radar scope, especially since 9/11,'' he says. ''And while we deflect our attention elsewhere, a once promising continent is devolving into a political quagmire.''

And that has Johnson packing up his camera, map, and mass quantities of sunscreen to head south and ''hopefully find something interesting.''