Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2007
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Page: A14
Copyright: 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Mary Anastasia O'Grady
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Colombia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

The Americas

THE DEMOCRATS' COLOMBIA AGENDA

In the five years between the 2002 kidnapping of 12 state legislators 
by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the rebels' 
recent announcement that 11 of those hostages have been killed, much 
has changed for the better in Colombia. The lawmakers were taken at a 
time when the state was very weak. Their murders, on the other hand, 
appear to be a desperate act by a frustrated band of thugs who have 
failed to achieve their desired results with terror.

Colombia today is significantly more secure and economically 
healthier than it was in 2002. Yet as events in recent weeks reminded 
us, two dark clouds remain parked over the country.

The first is the ruthlessness of organized crime networks like the 
FARC, which have blossomed during the U.S. war against cocaine. 
Thanks to the policy of prohibition coupled with strong demand, the 
FARC remains a well-funded menace even though it has no popular support.

The second source of trouble -- most recently evidenced by House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement that her party will block the 
U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement -- is the unrelenting opposition 
of Congressional Democrats to anything that could be considered 
helpful to defeating terror and putting Colombia on surer economic footing.

The U.S. war on drugs, which is backed by both Republicans and 
Democrats and blames Colombia for the fact that Americans use 
cocaine, is immoral on its own. But as the guerrillas have gotten 
into the narcotics trafficking business, Democrats have added insult 
to injury by arrogantly micromanaging the war from Washington with 
advice from left-wing NGOs. Passed in 1997, the Leahy Law (named for 
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D., Vt.) mandates that any officer charged with 
"credible allegations" of human-rights violations be relieved of his 
command lest the country lose its U.S. aid to the military. It didn't 
take the rebels long to see opportunity in the law. They promptly 
began ginning up accusations against the country's finest generals. 
It didn't matter that the evidence almost always turned out to be 
suborned perjury. Careers were destroyed and the armed forces 
leadership gutted.

President Alvaro Uribe, who took office in August 2002, recognized 
what was happening and set out to rebuild the military, strengthen 
the presence of the state and end any speculation that the government 
might seek a path of appeasement in the face of violence. He has made 
great progress. The guerrillas are now back on their heels and 
kidnapping and murder rates are down substantially. Bear Stearns 
analyst Tim Kearney, who just returned from a trip to Colombia 
reports that the economy is "firing on all cylinders" due to "a 
combination of a better security environment, as well as the 
government's market-oriented reforms." He adds that, "with investment 
driving a powerful rebound, we now think that real GDP growth will 
reach 6.4% in 2007."

If Colombia's hard left was upset before with Mr. Uribe, this has 
really stirred up the nest. Their only hope is help from Washington 
so they are returning to what worked before, this time recyling tired 
old charges that the president has links to paramilitary groups and 
insisting that the government has been protecting assassins who 
target union leaders.

Democrats seem only too happy to help. They can't invoke the Leahy 
Law against civilians but blocking the FTA in the name of "human 
rights" is just as good. It satisfies the "sandalistas," who still 
dream of a Cuban revolution for all of Latin America, and it makes 
the most important Democratic Party constituent, the AFL-CIO, happy 
by knocking off any threat of new international competition.

This may be good for shoring up the Democrat's base but it is harmful 
to U.S. geopolitical interests in the Western Hemisphere and to an 
important U.S. ally and it will dash the hopes for a better life of 
millions of impoverished Colombians. Either the Democrats have very 
poor foreign policy judgment or they have sympathy for the devil.

The Democrats' interventionism also damages the U.S. image in 
Colombia because it trivializes the will of the Colombian people. Mr. 
Uribe is immensely popular and the FTA, which he has made his own 
project, has worked its way through the democratic process. Who are 
the Democrats to say that the country is not worthy of the 
partnership? And as for support for the FARC, which Sen. John Kerry 
(D., Mass.) once claimed had "legitimate complaints," Democrats might 
like to take note of the events surrounding the murder of the 
lawmakers and the public's reaction.

The news shocked the Colombian nation, perhaps because only last 
month Mr. Uribe released a leading FARC commandante, Rodrigo Granda, 
and more than 100 other prisoners of war as a sign of good faith 
toward hostage negotiations. On Thursday hundreds of thousands of 
Colombians all around the country took to the streets to protest the 
FARC's kidnapping practices.

The rebels are blaming the government for the hostage deaths, 
charging that they died in a cross fire. But the military says it had 
no operations in the area when the FARC claims the conflict occurred. 
Of course unless the rebels turn the bodies over to a neutral party 
soon, forensics may not be able to determine how they died. It 
shouldn't matter. Even the United Nations released a statement 
denouncing the loss of life and properly laying blame at the feet of 
the captors.

It is estimated that the FARC is holding thousands of hostages for 
ransom. But 45 of them have a special political value in that the 
FARC thinks they can be used as bargaining chips to win back a large 
safe haven inside the country. Mr. Uribe has refused, on the grounds 
that the last time such nonsense was allowed the guerrillas used the 
protected zone to store their weapons, strategize with Irish 
Republican Army bomb specialists, house their hostages and launch 
their vicious attacks. It was during that time that the rebels got 
the upper hand in the conflict and kidnapped the 12 legislators in Cali.

Democrats may feel they can make Colombia a playground where silly 
policies that wouldn't be tolerated in more high-profile arenas can 
be imposed. But someone ought to call them on it. This is a place 
that has already suffered far too much for the cause of American 
self-indulgence. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake