Pubdate: Mon, 11 Mar 2002
Source: Star-Banner, The (FL)
Copyright: 2002 The Star-Banner
Contact:  http://www.starbanner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1533
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/colombia.htm (Colombia)

COLOMBIA MUST BECOME A PRIORITY

As the U.S. war on terrorism continues to unfold, the Bush administration's 
stance on the brutal war in Colombia will become clear. Will it be treated 
as a civil war, which it isn't? Or will it be viewed as a war on an unholy 
alliance of drug lords and terrorists - the new breed of narco-terrorists - 
which it has become?

Certainly, the Bush administration - or any future administration - cannot 
honestly claim to be waging an all-out war on terrorism while continuing to 
treat Colombia as a sideshow.

Our dramatic response to the events of 9/11 was expected. The threat from 
Colombia - to us - is more subtle, more insidious. The terror in our 
streets is not from armed bandits, as it is in Colombia. It is from the 
increasing flow of drugs - a process that begins in the jungles of 
Colombia, as well as in other Latin American nations.

In the last eight years more than 55,000 American citizens have died from 
drug overdoses, nearly as many as died in the Vietnam conflict. In 
Colombia, nearly 45,000 have been killed in the narco-war.

The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, released earlier this 
month, noted a decrease in opium poppy cultivation in Pakistan but said 
that it had tripled in Mexico. Production in Peru and Bolivia, the second- 
and third-biggest poppy producing nations remained stable. The report noted 
that there was "probably an increase in coca production in Colombia."

If the May 26 elections in Colombia go as expected, the new president - 
expected to be Alvaro Uribe Velez - will take office with a mandate to end 
the nearly four-decade long struggle in that South American nation. A 
national poll in Colombia late last month showed that nearly 60 percent of 
voters would choose Velez, compared to only 39 percent of the voting public 
that favored him in January.

If he is elected and if he survives - there have already been 15 reported 
attempts on his life - it is very likely that his first priority will be to 
seek more U.S. military aid, linking Colombia's continued support for U.S. 
drug policy on increased military aid from the states.

Recently, the Bush administration shelved plans to increase military aid to 
Colombia and has nixed proposals to divert resources meant to fight drugs 
to the anti-guerrilla initiative. If that policy continues, relations 
between Velez and the Bush administration will be difficult from the outset.

The Colombian military/national police force does not have the resources to 
simultaneously fight guerrillas, drug traffickers and paramilitary 
organizations, even though the rebel and paramilitary involvement in the 
drug trade makes the distinction between counterinsurgency and 
counter-narcotics tenuous at best.

The election of Velez would signal a commitment to a military defeat of the 
FARC, a group that is responsible for kidnapping more than 50 American 
citizens and murdering 10 of them in the last decade.

To this point, Washington's response has been incremental, even erratic - a 
reflection of the highly controversial nature of U.S. involvement in a 
long-running jungle insurgency which could generate a piecemeal escalation 
in the U.S. military presence in that country. This will not be enough to 
shift the tide of battle, but it could tie U.S. forces into a long-term 
engagement in Colombia.

While there are factions within the Colombian guerrilla establishment that 
continue to fight for an archaic political ideology - communism - the war 
in Colombia is, primarily, about business - drug trafficking - and its 
growing role as the financial base for international terrorism.

As the drug trade and terrorist organizations continue to work hand in 
hand, the terrorists providing military muscle in exchange for hard cash, 
they become one in the same, a clear and present danger to the United 
States from within (drugs) and without (international terrorism) - a 
growing threat that is better dealt with sooner than later.
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MAP posted-by: Ariel