Pubdate: Tue, 06 Aug 2002
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/colombia.htm (Colombia)

COLOMBIA'S 1ST FEMALE DEFENSE CHIEF PROMISES WAR

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 6 - Nearly 30 years ago, law student Marta Lucia
Ramirez was the cover girl of a glossy Colombian magazine, sporting a
sundress and smiling for cameras.

On Wednesday, she will be sworn in as the first female defense minister in
Colombia's history. She pledges to beat into submission the country's 30,000
Marxist rebels and rival paramilitary outlaws.

In an interview with Reuters, Ramirez, 47, said she would lead Colombia's
armed forces in a ''war without quarter'' against the outlawed fighters and
the cocaine industry that is increasingly funding their 38-year-old
guerrilla conflict.

''We are going to have a war without quarter against drug trafficking,
against the outlawed armies,'' Ramirez said.

''I don't think that the solution can be strictly military. But the solution
requires a military component ... that will be (my) responsibility.''

The Harvard-educated Ramirez was tapped by hard-line President-elect Alvaro
Uribe to orchestrate a massive military buildup that will strain the budget.

Ramirez, who speaks near fluent English, said Uribe picked her largely
because of her experience juggling government budgets. It was also her
extensive diplomatic and business contacts as foreign trade minister and,
most recently, ambassador to France, that she said got her the job.

She will direct plans to virtually double Colombia's contingent of 210,000
soldiers and police, taking back vast swaths of an anarchic Andean nation
that produces about 70 percent of the world's cocaine. She sees no division
between the drug war and the guerrilla war and promises to step up military
strikes against both.

''To end illegal narcotrafficking business in our country, we must finish
off the activity of all of the outlawed armies,'' she said. ''We want more
aerial eradication ... more interdiction ... and more efficient military
action.''

WAR ON TERROR

Since Sept. 11, U.S. President George W. Bush has quietly folded Colombia's
drug-fueled conflict into his global war on terror. Most important for
Ramirez, Washington -- which brands Colombia's outlawed armies
''terrorists'' -- is finally dropping restrictions on the more than $1.5
billion in U.S. anti-narcotics aid so Bogota can use it to fight the rebels.

''I think that what we have done with the U.S. aid so far is given (the
country) a smaller dose of antibiotics than what was needed,'' she said.
''But now that all of the additional assistance is arriving ... the
antibiotic's power will be much stronger.''

Despite the U.S. aid, Colombia's harvest of coca -- the raw ingredient in
cocaine -- has risen, and there have not yet been any cocaine shortages or
price hikes on U.S. streets.

Part of the reason, Ramirez argues, is that Colombia's military has failed
to secure lawless rural areas where coca is grown. It strikes at the rebel
positions and is quickly called away to a new battleground.

''When the military leaves, the guerrillas return to their homes and drug
trafficking, and there is this vicious cycle,'' she said. ''We are now going
to arrive with the Colombian army, secure the zone, and leave police units
there ... so that there is long-term stability.''

Departing her small estate, set on a rural patch of the Andes mountains,
Ramirez kisses her daughter goodbye and is driven along winding, rural roads
above Bogota. Her chief of security says he is preparing a report
recommending she live in the city, where the threat of a rebel ambush is
less likely.

''It used to be safe here, but I don't know anymore,'' Ramirez says, with
Bogota unfolding out her window in the valley below. Colombia's war has
claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade and made it the world's kidnapping
capital. ''I know that I'm taking over one of the most difficult jobs in the
world.''

When asked if she thought a woman could run Colombia's male-dominated state
security forces, Ramirez described the post as ''complicated, difficult,''
but one for which she considered herself ready after a long run in
government office.

''I think the military has it perfectly clear that I have a professional
trajectory, that I have credibility and respect,'' she said. ''There will
need to be a cooperative relationship (with the military), a relationship of
mutual respect, and obviously also a relationship of subordination.''
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