The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

A P R I L 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 33 s complicado,” is the common Colombian reply to a foreigner’s question, “why is your country so violent?” Without a doubt, the country remains both violent and complicated. Nonetheless, as 2006 came around, both President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, encouraged by recent positive signs in Colombia, have taken to holding it up as an example of what can be done in other trouble spots around the world. There may indeed be lessons to be learned from the last five years of heavy U.S. F O C U S O N L A T I N A M E R I C A C OLOMBIA I S C OMPLICATED “ E C OLOMBIANS DON ’ T FIND IT EASY TO DEFINE WHAT WENT WRONG IN THEIR COUNTRY , OR HOW A MERICA CAN HELP THEM RECTIFY IT . B Y P HILLIP M C L EAN Elizabeth Lada