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| ANDRES PASTRANA | |
 October 6, 1998 
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CHARLES KRAUSE: Andres Pastrana was elected Colombia's president last June, after a hard-fought campaign that turned on three central issues: The first issue -- how to end 30 years of a deadly insurgency that's left nearly half of Colombia in the hands of leftist guerrillas; the second issue -- how to reduce the power of Colombia's drug cartels, which supply 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States and have bought protection by corrupting Colombia's government; and finally, Pastrana's promise to reactivate Colombia's depressed economy. | |||||||||||||
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A platform of change. |
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The meeting was intended as another clear signal that the United States is pleased Pastrana won the election. Pastrana was inaugurated in August, succeeding Colombia's outgoing president Ernesto Samper, whose years in office were badly tarnished by allegations that he'd accepted campaign money from Colombia's drug cartels. Samper denied those charges, but the U.S. didn't believe him. It imposed economic sanctions on Colombia, after finding that Samper's government was not a reliable partner in the fight against drugs. At the heart of the U.S. anti-drug program in Colombia is aerial eradication---spraying coca and poppy fields to reduce the supply of raw cocaine and heroin. But many of the fields are located in guerrilla-controlled territory -- and the guerrillas have opposed the spraying efforts in part because they receive money from the drug traffickers. Pastrana has promised the U.S. his full cooperation on the drug issue. But he's also made clear that his first priority is to restore peace to Colombia by ending the guerrilla insurgency -- which has intensified in recent months. We interviewed Pastrana last month, shortly before he addressed the United Nations in New York. CHARLES KRAUSE: Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us. Do you share the concern of military and intelligence analysts who say that if something is not done quickly, Colombia could be overtaken by the guerrillas and the drug traffickers within three to five years? PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA, Colombia: Definitely. I don't – I don't share that point of view. We know that we've been having problems with the guerrilla movements in Colombia for the last 40 years. They have not increased as people sometimes think about. I think right now we should have – you know, the guerrilla movement's nearly 20,000 men. But at the same time, that's why they're working very hard and looking forward to achieving a peace process in the next four years. CHARLES KRAUSE: How difficult will it be for you to reach an agreement with the guerrillas? |
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The search for peace. |
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CHARLES KRAUSE: At the same time there are paramilitary groups – right wing paramilitary groups, who are said to be organized by and connected to the army. How are you going to deal with it now? PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: First of all, fighting them. We are putting a lot of pressure to the army to fight the paramilitary groups. I've said very clear that they have to go into the law, respect the law, respect the constitution, but we'll put in all our efforts to end the paramilitary groups in Colombia. I've said that there are going to be two tables of negotiations, one of the guerrilla and the other with the paramilitary, never mixed them. So my purpose at this moment is seeing the guerrilla to try to achieve piece and at the same time putting all the efforts of the army to eradicate the paramilitary groups. And when we started the process with the guerrilla, I think it is the time to start the process with the paramilitary. CHARLES KRAUSE: Now you've talked about trying to or PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: The same strategy that we've done in the last years. We will keep our eradication program, fumigation program, the eradication of – in Colombia but at the same time why don't we try for the first time a different approach to try to eradicate these illicit crops. CHARLES KRAUSE: And yet it is said that the guerrillas and the drug dealers have an alliance and that the guerrillas are not going to allow the eradication to continue and at the same time agree to a cease-fire with government. |
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| Working with guerrillas and drug dealers. |
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PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: You remember that I met with the guerrilla leaders in the middle of the jungle of Colombia and they gave me ten points. One of them was the eradication of illicit crops. CHARLES KRAUSE: Did they approve of that? PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Oh, yes, and they said to me, look, give us money, and we will eradicate the crops, or do it with the government so we're working in what I have called type – type of is not the word but it's type of like a Marshall Plan – alternative development in these areas where you have illicit crops and also guerrilla presence, so that's why we are creating a new fund to invest in what, in infrastructure, invest in agri-industry, invest in generating new employment, investing in social investment, in education, and water supply, and we hope to get nearly six hundred to eight hundred million dollars to be invested in this type of Marshall Plan. So that's why we are asking the international cooperation that if we have funds, we are going to eradicate the drug problem of Colombia. CHARLES KRAUSE: Has the United States agreed to contribute to that fund? PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Yes, yes. In our first CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you think the United States needs to do more to stop drugs entering this country? PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Definitely. The U.S. needs to do a bigger, very bigger effort to control the demand in the United States and I think that's something that the U.S. Government is starting to do – creating the consciousness that it's not only looking into the policing aspect of the problem, repression, I think that for the first time there's a lot of new investment in creating the culture of prevention and education of the young kids going into drugs, and I think that's one of the purposes of the U.S. Government. CHARLES KRAUSE: And finally, Mr. President, I have been reporting from Colombia for 20 years. I knew your father. I used to talk with him when I was in Bogota. And we were talking about exactly the same issues then as we are talking about today, the drug dealers, the drug traffickers, the guerrillas, property, the problems of security and all the rest in Colombia. What makes you think that you will be able to do what your five predecessors since then have been unable to do, which is bring peace to Colombia? |
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| A commitment to peace. |
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CHARLES KRAUSE: Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us. |
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A
former television journalist and mayor of Bogota, the new president
was born into Colombia's economic and political elite. Now 44, his father
was Colombia's president when he was a teenager. Yet Andres Pastrana
campaigned as a good-government reformer and has demonstrated since
his election that he's prepared to take risks to carry out his program.
In July, shortly after the election, Pastrana met at a jungle hideout
with the leaders of Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the FARC. It
was an unprecedented meeting that resulted in a pledge by both sides
to begin formal peace negotiations before the end of the year. While
still president-elect, he also traveled to Washington for talks with
President Clinton at White House. 
PRESIDENT
ANDRES PASTRANA: Making peace is not easy. Peace has a lot of enemies,
even inside of our country. But I think that for the first time the
FARC – for some people it's 85 percent of the guerrilla movement in
Colombia – for others it's 75 percent, is the largest group, is the
largest guerrilla movement. I met with them. And we agree that the first
90 days of my government, we will sit at the table of negotiations,
or we will find out the strategy to sit at the table of negotiations.
We are almost 50 days from that. The second step will be sitting – really,
really sitting at the table of negotiations. They will appoint their
speakers in the table of negotiations. My government would appoint also
the speakers and people are going to be in charge of managing the peace
process, so we may said that we are almost at 90 days to sit at the
negotiations with the FARC. So I think that – I'm positive – I think
that for the first time we have seen it – a will, the interest, the
insurgents, to sit in the table of negotiations. 
continue to eradicate coca crops and other crops in the rural parts
of the country. How do you propose to deal with the drug cartels, with
the manufacture and export of drugs? 
meeting with President Clinton the 3rd of August, when I was only elected
president of Colombia, proposed the development of this alternative
development of these areas through the AID. We started a new program,
a very small amount of money at this moment, but it's the will of the
government. It's so the government has shown that they want to work
with us, they gave us nearly $1/2 million for this first step, and we're
looking forward to get more money and cooperation from the United States.
PRESIDENT
ANDRES PASTRANA: I think first were the guerrillas. I think that for
the first time the meeting we had in the middle of the jungle of Colombia
showed the will of them to go into a peace process. You have more commitment
of the people of Colombia. You remember in the past elections, on October
12th, ten million Colombians vote for a mandate for peace for the new
government. The church is involved in the peace process. The labor unions
are involved in the peace process. The parties is involved in the peace
process, the private sector, so I think now, Colombia, you have a complete
new environment regarding peace, and I think everybody's willing to
do something to bring peace to my country. Second, regarding drug lords,
I think that we will put all the efforts to try to really eradicate
these problems from Colombia and from the world, but we need the international
cooperation.