That's a pleasant image-but it has little to do with reality. In Colombia, many lives are shadowed by carnage. Journalism is a hazardous profession for Colombians. Last spring, attackers took the lives of newspaper editor Gerardo Bedoya and photographer Freddy Ahumada. Abductions, torture and grisly mutilations are common.
Punishment is rare.
The media myth is that drug traffickers are to blame for most of Colombia's murder and mayhem. Guerrilla insurgents who are guilty of atrocities also get a lot of bad press. He's a Jesuit priest who heads the Inter-Congregational Commission for Justice and Peace, a panel formed by 55 Catholic religious orders in Colombia. Irked at Colombian President Ernesto Samper's drug policies, Washington has halted some assistance to his government. But the cutoff hasn't interrupted the flow of U.S. aid to Colombia's military and police.