Pubdate: Sun, 30 Apr 2000
Source: New York Sunday Times Magazine (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Column: WORD & IMAGE By Max Frankel
Author: Max Frankel

THE CALL OF THE ANDES

The Escalating War Abroad Will Only Divert Attention From The Question At 
Home: Are Attacks On The Supply Of Drugs More Effective Than Major Efforts 
To Reduce Demand?

A new media-op in the perpetual drug war.

This is a media alert for editors and television producers who thought they 
could safely ignore all news outside the United States: the permanent drug 
war is going military -- and abroad. The White House and Congress, having 
failed with massive domestic police actions to reduce the quantity or 
quality of illegal drugs on our streets, are mounting a major pursuit of 
coca growers in Colombia.

Lay news junkies may also be interested, but they can take their time; this 
story promises to be around for years. Alert media, however, will want to 
prepare to field Spanish-speaking correspondents, duly covered by kidnap 
insurance, to follow the action across the photogenic terrain of the Andes.

It would be unwise to expect trustworthy information from Washington, where 
success in this war is still defined by the bag count -- the amount of 
cocaine captured or the number of coca plants destroyed. The experience of 
decades proves that any such good result in one venue merely pushes the 
farming, processing or trafficking of drugs to another. Indeed, it was the 
great assault on coca plantations in Peru and Bolivia a decade ago that led 
to the cultivation of even richer strains in Colombia. That country, two 
and a half times the size of France, now supplies 80 percent of the cocaine 
consumed in the United States and equal amounts for the rest of the world.

Nor can much reliable information be expected from Colombian journalists. 
Though intrepid, they are the targets of murderous assaults by the 
competing factions of Colombia's drug-fueled civil war. In the past six 
months, five reporters have been killed and scores threatened, kidnapped or 
forced into exile. The newest refugee is Francisco Santos, the news editor 
of El Tiempo, the country's leading paper, who left in despair last month 
before a credible death threat could be carried out.

The terrorism of left- and right-wing guerrillas -- and the efforts of the 
army and the police to pursue them -- have resulted in the deaths of 
thousands of Colombians each year. All the paramilitary gangs are well 
armed; some tax the coca growers whom they protect, others profit from 
kidnappings and extortions. The turf battles in coca regions caused 350,000 
people to abandon their homes last year. The violence and Colombia's bitter 
economic depression combined to cause another 350,000 to leave the country 
altogether.

Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House drug commander, says the explosion 
in Colombia's cocaine production is "clearly a huge drug emergency." But 
Congress has taken its time acting on a $1.3 billion aid package, which 
will send the drug hunters 60 helicopters, assorted weapons and several 
hundred American military instructors.

A major cause of delay was the need to apportion the aid among rival units 
of the Colombian Army and national police. Another was the search for a 
compromise between lobbyists for two helicopters -- the Sikorsky UH-60L 
Blackhawk, made by United Technologies in Connecticut, and the cheaper but 
slower Huey, made by Textron's Bell division in Texas. As Tim Golden 
reported in The Times last month, both companies began as far back as 1996 
to demonstrate their alarm about developments in Colombia and their 
readiness to contribute to the drug war there and to political campaigns at 
home.

A further delay, after the House finally acted, was prompted by Senate 
leaders who thought the aid was attached to too many pork barrel projects. 
In the meantime, Roberto Suro learned for The Washington Post that coca 
production was resurgent in Peru because of the loss of American radar 
flights in the Andes region. Our base for reconnaissance planes in Panama 
was closed. A substitute field in Ecuador can operate only in daytime. Even 
if that field was refurbished with money in the pending aid package, all of 
the Air Force's big Awacs radar planes have now been irretrievably 
committed to surveillance over Kosovo, North Korea and Iraq.

The confusion at the American end of the war is more than matched by that 
in Colombia. President Andrés Pastrana has promised to wage a vigorous 
campaign against the drug lords, but some of his closest political 
associates (as well as their top American military adviser) have been 
enveloped by scandal. Pastrana still trusts the Colombian Army, but many of 
its units have been accused of complicity in human rights violations.

A further complication is the fact that President Pastrana has begun peace 
talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (F.A.R.C.), the 
country's largest leftist insurgent force and the protector of many drug 
growers. Those negotiations have further inflamed a rival, right-wing 
guerrilla group that the State Department has called a bunch of murderous 
thugs. There is little chance of waging the drug war in Colombia without 
also becoming involved in a multilayered civil war.

Moreover, unless peace is achieved soon, the American aid seems destined to 
provoke an arms race. As Gen. Fred F. Woerner, the former commander of our 
forces in Latin America, has said: "What you can absolutely count on is 
that with the Blackhawks or the beefed-up Hueys, the bad guys are going to 
acquire surface-to-air missiles. Helicopters will be shot down. The 
question is, will we replace them?"

It is but one question among many. The pending aid package is for two 
years, the time needed to deliver all the helicopters. But General 
McCaffrey has told Congress to expect at least a five-year effort in 
Colombia. Others warn that an effective campaign will simply push the coca 
planting back into Peru or into neighboring regions of Venezuela and Brazil.

And alas, the escalating war abroad will only divert attention from the 
ultimate policy question at home: are attacks on the supply of drugs really 
more effective than major efforts to reduce demand? The cost of federal 
anti-drug programs during the Clinton years has doubled to nearly $20 
billion, but only one-fifth of that goes for treating addicts. States and 
cities have spent vastly greater sums and filled their prisons with 400,000 
violators of drug laws. But that has had no apparent effect on street 
supplies. Concerned media could dig into that conundrum without even 
worrying about kidnap insurance. 
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