Pubdate: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Copyright: 2002 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265 Author: Richard Foster COLOMBIAN DRUG WAR ESCAPES U.S. NOTICE, BUT FUELS ITS HABIT Americans know about the war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and they are at least vaguely familiar with the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East, the continuing trouble in Northern Ireland and perhaps even the attempt by Russia to put down a rebellion in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. But relatively little attention has been paid to a civil war that has been going on for 38 years in Colombia, even though it is fueled by the drug trade and the United States has a billion-dollar investment in its outcome. That war took a dramatic turn a week ago, when President Andres Pastrana sent elite government troops to recapture a Switzerland-sized tract of jungle territory in southern Colombia that he had ceded to rebels more than three years earlier as part of a bold plan - now abandoned - to energize peace negotiations. An angry Pastrana moved against the rebels two days after they hijacked a domestic airliner and kidnapped a senior Colombian senator who was a passenger on the plane. Even as he sent troops into the southern zone, Pastrana announced the government was breaking off talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish-language acronym FARC. The FARC rebels poked another stick in the eye of the government only shortly after its troops were dispatched to the south; Ingrid Betancourt, a high-profile presidential candidate and a longtime rebel critic, was taken prisoner with her campaign manager. The government quickly announced it would not negotiate for Betancourt's safe return, even though FARC hinted it might trade her and five members of Congress for captured guerrillas. The airline hijacking, Betancourt's abduction and the countless bombings, murders and other atrocities that preceded them, combine to make a tragedy of Pastrana's last weeks in office. He campaigned for the presidency in 1998 on a peace platform, and it was with a stated view to generating a good-faith dialogue with the FARC that he surrendered that tract of land later that same year. Those hopes and plans are now a shambles. New elections are scheduled for May, and Pastrana is constitutionally prohibited from seeking another term. Sending in the army was enormously popular with Colombians, who have failed to see anything good materialize out of the three-year effort to negotiate a peace with the rebels. A National Consultancy Center telephone survey taken for a TV station showed 92% of Colombians supported Pastrana's move. The same poll showed his approval rating shot up - from a miserable 20% to an only slightly better 33%. Clearly, Pastrana is among the casualties of the war. The various combatants in the Colombian war - outlawed militias with reported ties to the Colombian army, FARC, the smaller National Liberation Army and other rebel groups - finance their activities at least in part from drug sales. Colombia, in fact, accounts for nearly 80% of the world's supply of cocaine and most of the heroin sold on the East Coast of the United States. According to the Colombian armed forces, more than $500 million a year from drug sales and kidnap ransom payments is fed into the coffers of FARC and other rebel groups. The rebellion is also financed by shakedowns - called "revolutionary taxation" - of businessmen, farmers and others. The U.S. financial investment in this struggle is an anti-drug campaign called "Plan Colombia," under which $1.5 billion has been allocated to the Colombian government over two years. In the fiscal year 2003, President Bush is seeking an additional $500 million for Colombia. Almost half the $1.5 billion will pay for operations in southern Colombia; about 100 U.S. advisers will train and equip three new special anti-drug battalions of the Colombian army. U.S. money also will be used to buy transport and military helicopters, radars, bases and other items designed to strengthen the drug interdiction effort. Last week, the White House rejected, at least temporarily, Defense Department recommendations that would have formally elevated the war on drugs in Colombia to the status of the worldwide war on terrorism. Taking such a step would have set the stage for a greatly expanded U.S. role in the war against FARC, even though it has not attacked targets outside Colombia and has no known links to al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden. Attempts to restrain the flow of drugs by military means are rarely successful. In Colombia, critics charge that efforts by the U.S. to do so have only worsened the war, promoted human-rights violations and generated other ills. As long as there is a market for drugs, there will be a supply. But the White House request for another $500 million to finance the drug war next fiscal year reflects its growing determination to stamp out, or at least suppress, the drug traffic by military means. The war in Colombia, 38 years old, is likely to last many more years. (SIDEBAR) Great Decisions Lecture Series The annual Great Decisions series is presented by the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This week's topic, "Colombia and Drug Trafficking" will be presented by Robert Ricigliano, director of peace studies at UWM. The lecture takes place at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Helene Selazo Center, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. He also will speak Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Mead Public Library, 710 N. 8th St., Sheboygan, and Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Waukesha County Technical College. An interview with the speaker will be broadcast on WMVT-TV (Channel 36) at 5 p.m. on March 10. For more information about Great Decisions, call the Institute of World Affairs at UWM at (414) 227-3183 or WCTC at (262) 691-5219. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh