Pubdate: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 Source: Daily Cardinal (WI) Copyright: 2001 The Daily Cardinal Newspaper Corporation Address: 2142 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706-1497 Feedback: http://www.cardinal.wisc.edu/feedback/ Website: http://www.cardinal.wisc.edu/ Author: Sarah Turner Colombia in the cross hairs of U.S. drug war MADISON, Wis. -- The drug war. A war waged by the U.S. government against its own citizenry. The losses we as U.S. citizens have experienced are enormous. More than one million people arrested, shackled and made prisoners of this war. The real question is how far will we let the government go? Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the political spectrum have unilaterally decided, without many debates open to the public, to escalate the drug war. Pentagon military machine officials long ago dismissed the idea that impoverished countries should have national sovereignty. In the last couple of years we have sat back and watched the U.S. government bomb the countries of Sudan, Iraq, Serbia and Afghanistan. Not content with immiserating U.S. citizens, our rulers now have their sights locked on Colombia. For the past 40 years the Colombian government has been engaged in armed battle with an entrenched guerrilla army. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of peasant farmers and sent the Colombian economy into a tailspin increasing the unemployment rate to a staggering 20 percent. Paramilitary groups are massacring and kidnapping people on an almost daily basis, and out of all the kidnappings in the world, 50 percent occur in Colombia. Almost all of the 3,706 people kidnapped last year were taken by guerrillas as a way to secure funds to fight the Colombian military. These guerrilla groups also attain wealth by persuading peasants to grow coca plants on the land. They present these poor farmers with an offer they can't refuse -- either grow coca and receive a little money for it or lose their land and possibly their life. The fact that cocaine is illegal in the United States drives the drug's profit-earning potential through the roof, making drug profiteers millions of dollars. The president of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, has made an international plea for humanitarian aid to help rebuild the Colombian economy. The Clinton administration instead approved $1.6 billion that would go directly to counter-insurgency missions and spraying toxic chemicals throughout the jungle. The same day, 26 villagers were beaten to death by right-wing paramilitary troops. Former President Bill Clinton employed a loophole in Plan Colombia in which he voluntarily decided to waive certification that the Colombian government has complied with human rights demands attached to Plan Colombia legislation. These demands set up requirements that the Colombian military show proof they are working to suppress paramilitary death squads, and that the military not engage in massacres of peasants. Amnesty International has found numerous cases in which "paramilitaries work hand in hand with the government forces." Besides the complete absurdity contained in the idea that more guns and Black Hawk choppers will bring peace to a country with a surplus of violence, the U.S. plan will also spray rain forest ecosystems with deadly chemicals. The government claims only large plots of coca plant will be sprayed, but there are several documented cases of "Cofan Indians who had their food crops, medicinal plants, fish harvesting tanks and grazing fields sprayed," according to Amnesty International. Colombia is also a security interest for multinational corporations in the region. Colombia has major ports of trade on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that are necessary for petroleum shipping. Occidental Petroleum and British Petroleum-Amoco hire private security forces directly from the ranks of paramilitary death squads. Efforts by the indigenous U'wa to stop oil drilling in their rainforests have been met with violence from corporate security forces. President Bush has scoffed at peace talk efforts with the rebel forces of Colombia, diminishing any chance for coca reduction and sustainable crop substitution programs. As a result, rebel forces of Colombia have called off peace with the Colombian government. The United States continues to use millions of our tax dollars to finance a civil war. Both Democrat and Republican administrations are exporting a failed and brutal drug war abroad. Both the geo-political interests of the U.S. military and its corporate paymasters threaten regional stability and peace. The drug war must end. If the U.S. government was genuinely concerned for the safety of its citizens, it would use our surplus money for social programs. Reducing poverty, raising the minimum wage and providing universal health care would drastically reduce the demand for cocaine. It's time to take democracy back. - --- MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer