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
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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.
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MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer