Pubdate: Thu, 07 Feb 2002
Source: The Post and Courier (SC)
Copyright: 2002 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:   http://www.charleston.net/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567

NEW COMMITMENT TO COLOMBIA

The high-level U.S. delegation that traveled to Bogota this week carried a 
message that Colombians have long wanted to hear. "We are committed to help 
Colombians create a Colombia that is a peaceful, prosperous, drug-free and 
terror-free democracy," said Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

Washington has already committed $1.3 billion to eradicate cocaine and 
heroin production in the South American country but has been leery of 
involvement in Colombia's four-decade-old civil war. The facts on the 
ground, however, call for less restrictions on U.S. help to the beleaguered 
democracy.

There is no way to stem the flow of narcotics to American streets from 
Colombia's ruthless cartels, the major suppliers of illicit drugs, without 
taking on the armed groups that protect them. The left-wing Revolutionary 
Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, have financed their growing 
challenge to the constitutional government with pay-offs from the drug 
lords for guarding the areas where coca is grown and processed. The 
right-wing Self-Defense Forces of Colombia is also in the pay of the 
cartels. The Colombian army and the special police force that has been 
spearheading the fight against the drug traffickers need and deserve U.S. 
help to bring law and order back to the areas that have come under the 
control of the cartels and their private armies.

The FARC and another, smaller left-wing guerrilla group, the National 
Liberation Army (ELN), also pose a potential terrorist threat to U.S. 
interests in Colombia. Both are linked to a terrorist network that extends 
beyond Colombia. The arrest of three members of the Irish Republican Army, 
who were training FARC guerrillas in bomb-making, and the death of another 
IRA terrorist, who was killed in action with the ELN, revealed the presence 
of foreign terrorists in Colombia. There have also been reports of meetings 
between FARC guerrillas and officials of the anti-American, pro-Castro 
government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

IRA bomb experts may have played a role in the sabotaging of the Cano-Limon 
oil pipeline, which carries oil from oilfields in the east for Occidental 
Petroleum of Los Angeles and other companies. The pipeline was bombed and 
put out of action for 243 days last year. Of late, FARC guerrillas have set 
out to destroy Colombia's infrastructure and thus weaken the economy.

The U.S. plan presented to Colombia President Andres Pastrana would provide 
$98 million to equip and train the Colombian army to protect the pipeline, 
finance the rebuilding of police stations destroyed by the guerrillas and 
set up a program to combat kidnappings. Every year, thousands of ordinary 
Colombians are seized as hostages for ransom by the guerrillas.

Additional aid to Colombia, which is waging war against narcotics 
trafficking and terrorism, is justified but must not be unconditional. 
Great care must be taken to ensure that the Colombian armed forces, which 
have been accused of working with right-wing death squads, respect human 
rights. Criticism of these new initiatives by some U.S. human rights 
organizations is easily outweighed by the gratitude expressed by the 
Colombian people, who want to see an end to guerrilla warfare and the 
scourge of narcotics.
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