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THE
COLOMBIA PLAN
Wealthy
drug lords, such as the late Pablo Escobar, further  compromise
and impair Colombia's governance through bribery and death threats
to law enforcement, judges, and politicians.
Plan
Colombia is a $1.3 billion counter-narcotics package that assists
the Colombian government and military in the hemisphere's War
on Drugs.
The
U.S. Congress approved the proposal in fall 2000.
Despite
efforts to control drug production and trade, Colombia continues
to be the world's top cocaine and heroin producer, with at least
80 percent flowing to the United States.
The
U.S. counter-narcotics financial aid is part of Colombia's larger
"Plan Colombia," a $7.5 billion initiative aimed at controlling
its drug trade, which largely funds a 37-year old civil war between
leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, and government security
forces. The European Union, Canada, and Britain are among other
nations providing funds for the Plan Colombia.
Advocates
of the Colombia Plan in Congress and the DEA point to the success
of similar counter-narcotic programs in neighboring Andean countries,
like Bolivia and Peru, in cutting down drug production. But critics,
like the Washington Office on Latin America, argue the U.S. should
not support the Colombian government and military, which has a
history of human rights violations. Many environmentalists also
criticize the Colombian government's use of chemical aerial sprays
in the eradication of coca plants.
Critics from several non-governmental organizations fault President
Clinton for waiving the human rights 
provisions, known as the "Leahy Laws," of the Colombia
Plan in order to free up financial aid to Colombian military units
charged with human rights violations.
While
experts disagree on the merits of Plan Colombia, few argue that
Colombia's government -- its political, judicial, and legal systems
-- is besieged by the narcotics industry.
Allocating
Funds
The
epicenter of Colombia's internal war is southern Colombia -- an
area that represents the government's biggest challenge to its
control. The largest of the left-wing insurgent groups, the FARC,
effectively governs a Switzerland-sized swath of land and relies
primarily on coca production to finance its operations.
A
large portion of the plan's money is used to upgrade the Colombian
military's hardware to combat the highly sophisticated aircraft
and transport equipment used by narco-traffickers.
About
$390.5 million will be used to supply battalions of the Colombian
military with counter-narcotics weapons and equipment - including
14 high-tech Blackhawk helicopters, 30 Huey helicopters and 15
smaller helicopters. It also provides training for soldiers deployed
in southern Colombia, where most coca is produced. Outside of
NATO, Colombia ranks second to South Korea in number of military
members trained by the U.S.
Meanwhile,
$129.4 million will be used to purchase new U.S. Customs P-3 interdiction
aircraft and radar systems to locate and track drug smugglers.
Another $115.6 million is to equip the Colombian National Police
with two Blackhawk helicopters, two Huey helicopters to assist
in the spraying of herbicides on coca plantations.
The
plan also allocated $25 million to assist refugees and small farmers
whose lives are disrupted by the civil war and the counter-narcotics
campaign.
The
U.S. State Department estimates that between 275,000 and 347,000
civilians were forced from their homes due to violence between
armed groups. Currently, the International Committee of the Red
Cross and the United Nations assist the large number of displaced
persons in southern Colombia.
A
smaller component of Plan Colombian assigns $81 million for the
development of alternative crop programs to encourage farmers
to stop coca and opium poppy production and cultivate legal crops
instead. The crop alternative programs aim to reduce drug cultivation
and to stem the displacement of small farmers.
Similar
to other U.S.-funded counter-narcotics programs in Bolivia and
Ecuador, this component also includes voluntary illicit crop eradication,
municipal planning, and rural environmental projects.
The
plan provides $122 million to strengthen Colombia's legal and
judicial systems, focusing on training the attorney general's
office, prosecutors, judges, and police on specific anti-corruption
issues. A portion of this money will establish a human rights
division within the Colombian National Police, accused more often
of breaking the law than enforcing it, as well as aid to improve
non-governmental human rights organizations.
When
it approved Plan Colombia, Congress set limits on the number of
U.S. personnel to help implement the Colombia plan: no more than
500 U.S. military personnel and no more than 300 U.S. citizen
civilian contractors.
The
U.S. has delivered three of the 16 total Blackhawk helicopters
and 33 UH-1N helicopters. Another 25 are expected during 2002.
In
Feb. 2002, a spokesperson for the U.S. Southern Command, which
oversees security in the Western hemisphere, said that approximately
250 U.S. military, 50 civilian workers, and 100 civilian military
contractors were in Colombia currently working on Plan Colombia's
initiatives. That figure does not include the number of State
Department employees, U.S. aid workers, or independent U.S. private
security contractors in the country.
-- By Liz Harper, Online NewsHour
OTHER
SECTIONS:
Part One: Anti-Narcotics Foreign Policy
Part
Two: Expanding the Front
Part Three: Drugs & The War on Terror
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