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Colombia's Top Cop Laments Drug War
Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jun 2000
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2000 Associated Press
COLOMBIA'S TOP COP LAMENTS DRUG WAR
BOGOTA, Colombia - The words were surprising, coming from the
hard-nosed general who has for years been Washington's trusted point
man in the war on drugs in Colombia.
Even more so, as legislation advances in the U.S. Congress to give
this Andean nation about $1 billion more in counternarcotics funds,
most of it for military training and hardware.
During a two-hour interview Wednesday with The Associated Press,
national police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said international
counter-drug efforts should focus as much on stemming drug abuse in
the United States and Europe as destroying drug laboratories and crops
in Colombia.
Just such an effort to divert funds to domestic drug treatment
programs was rejected by the Senate on Wednesday.
``We'd rather see drug consumption drop than get any of this aid,''
said Serrano, 57, who turns in his badge Friday after 5 1/2 years
heading one of the world's most embattled police forces.
``If consumption were seriously reduced,'' he added, ``this country
could go back to what it once was, a place that grew coffee, where
people worked hard and sweated for a paycheck.''
Instead, Colombia is a nation with a deepening guerrilla conflict,
spiraling drug production, and whose wealthy are taking their families
and money abroad.
In a wood-paneled office in the intelligence headquarters he calls his
``little CIA,'' the man U.S. officials herald as one of the drug war's
greatest heroes reflected frankly on that struggle's
limitations.
Serrano showed a sensitive, contemplative side rarely seen during a
career that brought him fame, national devotion -- and little
semblance of a normal life.
``I haven't been out to a movie theater in 10 years,'' said Serrano,
joking and looking relaxed in a smart gray suit -- a switch from his
usual green uniform.
Serrano even acknowledged a curiosity about the cocaine he's dedicated
his life to eliminating. ``I've thought why don't I snort some myself,
if it makes you feel so great?''
The general is stepping down just as Washington embarks on a new --
some say perilous -- phase in efforts to stem the flow of drugs from
this nation that produces 90 percent of the world's cocaine and a
growing share of its heroin.
The U.S. funds would finance a Colombian military push into rebel-held
southern jungles, paving the way for stepped-up efforts to fumigate
drug crops and destroy laboratories.
Serrano, who initiated aerial crop destruction as chief of the police
anti-narcotics division in the early 1990s, says he welcomes the U.S.
aid package because it will send a tough message to drug
traffickers.
But he cautions that the U.S. assistance may serve only to drive
traffickers to neighboring countries.
While faithfully implementing the U.S-inspired fumigation policy,
Serrano sees his main accomplishments elsewhere.
Serrano purged the police of more than 11,000 corrupt officers and in
1995 dismantled the Cali cocaine cartel, which had corrupted
Colombia's political class to the core.
While failing to dent the outflow of cocaine and heroin, the Cali
cartel's downfall sent drug mafiosos underground, and splintered the
trade into smaller less violent gangs.
In October, Serrano came through again, arresting 30 suspected members
of a major cocaine gang wanted by U.S. authorities. Serrano said he
was up all night before Operation Millennium, nervously watching
television in bed, concerned his men would fail to capture key
``narcos'' already named in news releases drafted in Washington.
The general readily credits the CIA and U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration for intelligence, training and money critical to many
successful operations. DEA and CIA agents were usually by his side in
the most high-profile arrests, he said.
Serrano's critics say he put the U.S. counterdrug agenda above
Colombia's critical need for more street cops and a push to combat the
world's highest kidnapping rate. He admits that rural Colombia has
become more lawless.
Politics may well be in Serrano's future, but he says all he wants now
is a long vacation.
``I want to take a bit of a break from drug-trafficking, deaths and so
much pressure. I don't want to abuse my good luck,'' he said.
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