Pubdate: Thu, 14 Mar 2002
Source: News Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2002 The News Herald
Contact:  http://www.newsherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1018

END U.S. INTERVENTION: STOP THE 'DRUG WAR.'

A number of analysts have suggested that the results of Colombia's 
parliamentary election this past weekend indicate a firm rejection of the 
two major parties and of U.S. involvement in that country's civil war. A 
closer look suggests dissatisfaction and disillusionment among voters, but 
not a clear policy signal one way or the other.

Nevertheless, the United States should be alert to the changing sentiments 
of Colombians - and reconsider the ambitious Plan Colombia initiated by the 
Clinton administration and continued under President Bush. Plan Colombia 
calls for certain kinds of U.S. military support and other aid to the 
Colombian government with the aim of reducing illegal drug traffic. We have 
opposed the plan.

The most one can draw from last weekend's election result is an indication 
of growing frustration with current conditions, which include an 
intensified civil war in the wake of recently collapsed peace efforts. The 
leftist rebel group FARC had called for an election boycott and only about 
44 percent of Colombian voters showed up at the polls. They reduced the 
Conservative Party of President Andres Pastrana to 13 seats from 17 seats 
in the 100-member Senate. The establishment opposition Liberal Party lost 
19 Senate seats, reducing its representation to 29 seats from 48 seats.

In both the 100-member Senate and the 175-member House of Representatives 
small independent parties now hold majorities. But they are split.

Thus the voters seem impatient with the two parties that have dominated 
Colombian politics since the 1950s, but split between what could be called 
far-right and far-left alternatives. This suggests that the instability 
that has characterized Colombian politics for some time is poised to become 
even more unstable.

The U.S. mission, consisting mostly of military aid and military advisers, 
was sold to Americans as a battle in the drug war, but it was recently 
expanded to include guarding a pipeline owned by Occidental Petroleum. It 
has not stemmed the flow of cocaine out of Colombia and it has not brought 
stability to that country.

In fact, a case can be made that U.S. intervention subsidizes violence on 
both sides. U.S. taxpayers' money flows to the Colombian military, and 
active drug war measures make cocaine more profitable for guerrillas and 
narcoterrorists.

The best bet would be to end U.S. intervention and end the war on drugs so 
the United States can concentrate on the struggle against terrorism.

The Colombian civil war would probably continue, but neither side would 
have as many resources for killing.

- -- Freedom Communications
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom