Pubdate: Sun, 11 Feb 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
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Author: William Ratliff

COLOMBIA'S DRUG WAR MUST BE WON IN THE U.S.

Here in Colombia, the new U.S. film "Traffic" comes alive with a vengeance. 
While the movie is based on the Mexican drug trade, the corruption, 
kidnappings, terror and frustration of the U.S. war on drugs are even 
greater here.

Colombia has dozens of drug cartels, two guerrilla armies, anti-guerrilla 
paramilitaries, a sometimes inadequately controlled national army, a 
deadbeat economy, massive corruption and seriously weakened democratic 
institutions. A million people have been displaced, while thousands are 
kidnapped and killed every year by competing armed forces.

Add to that an ally, the United States, whose tragically misguided policies 
were escalated though not begun by the Clinton administration.

Events earlier this month hint at the complexities. Even as U.S.-trained 
and supported Colombian military forces swept into cocaine-producing areas 
guarded by so-called Marxist FARC guerrillas in the south, President Andres 
Pastrana was trying to resuscitate stalled peace negotiations by meeting 
the top guerrilla leader, Manuel "Sure Shot" Marulanda, in guerrilla-held 
territory farther north. The talks have been called "very productive." If 
time proves otherwise, however, Pastrana will likely become the Ehud Barak 
of South America--the reformer whose failures opened the door to more 
right-wing forces.

In a perverse way this nightmare will be good if it forces the new Bush 
foreign policy team to step outside the psychological lock-box of previous 
administrations. A comprehensive new policy on drugs in particular is 
essential immediately. It too will be imperfect but likely better than what 
we are doing now. An increasing number of Americans, including former 
Secretary of State George Shultz and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, have 
warned that the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug 
abuse itself.

The much-discussed Plan Colombia, mostly funded with about $1 billion in 
U.S. military support for drug eradication, is a well-intended idea, but it 
is dishonest and fated to fail. U.S. leaders say the aid is intended only 
to fight drugs, but drug dealing and the FARC have fused, and we are in 
fact becoming deeply involved in Colombia's decades-old armed conflict.

Washington's response to Colombia's needs and our own security interests 
must come in other ways. We cannot strike effectively at the drug problem 
abroad without taking the first steps at home. Without this, the crises 
abroad will shift location but never disappear.

Since its early years, the drug war has been a failed campaign against 
human nature and the laws of economics. When we drove the drug industry 
underground, we guaranteed astronomical illegal profits for those people 
who were willing to take whatever chances are necessary to benefit from 
supplying the product to a large U.S. market.

For decades we have largely and hypocritically blamed suppliers for the 
violence and corruption our policy created.

Our policies of interdiction and eradication stoked chaos in Colombia and 
other countries by making the drug business an explosive and highly 
profitable illegal operation. Few Americans realize how this war has 
decimated people and fledgling democratic institutions here or how current 
policies are already spreading corruption and violence in neighboring 
countries.

Informed Latin Americans have futilely voiced their concerns as loudly as 
they dare to their crusading American ally.

If the enormous profits from this massive drug industry were slashed though 
some form of "decriminalization" as part of a broader program in the U.S., 
the level of corruption and violence in Colombia, Mexico and other 
countries would become much more manageable. The clout of the drug lords 
would diminish, as would the funding of guerrillas and paramilitaries.

Major military support for drug eradication in southern Colombia, as is 
underway now, should end immediately along with certification programs. We 
should consider whether--or in what way--we want to help bolster the 
Colombian military in its fight against the guerrillas. The U.S. now 
correctly urges Pastrana to pursue his "peace offensive." However, without 
tangible progress he will be overtaken by Colombian popular frustration 
before the 2002 presidential election.

A total revamping of the United States' drug war is critical to a 
successful Bush administration policy in Latin America, though that policy 
must also include stronger support for hemispheric trade, legal reform and 
more comprehensive education and alternative crop programs. Failure to 
treat these matters with the honesty and seriousness they require will 
resound badly in many Latin American countries and become an enormous 
headache, if not an outright threat, to the U.S.

William Ratliff Is a Senior Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover 
Institution. His Latest Co-authored Book Is "Law and Economics in 
Developing Countries" (Hoover, 2000)
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