While some Colombians fret that the counter-narcotics aid will intensify their nation's war, others hope new U.S. helicopters and other assistance will boost their army's efforts to combat rebels. Barely 3 to 5 percent of Colombians support the FARC, polls show. But the FARC's surging military power has made the group contemptuous of rising anger. Nightly newscasts carry images of massacres, weeping relatives of kidnap victims, and rubble-strewn towns where rebels have showered homemade mortars indiscriminately. Our two children are told to leave the room when the news comes on.
Uprooted peasants present the most pitiful images.
Some 1.3 million of Colombia's 40 million people have been torn from their homes in the last decade. For all their brutality, leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary forces cowardly prefer to kill unarmed civilians rather than clash in direct confrontation. Even so, the magnitude of the upheaval escapes many Colombians. To cope with the crisis, urban dwellers create safe spaces in the smallest of niches. You're a professional.