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| COLOMBIA IN CRISIS | |
 August 11, 1999 
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American politicians are debating whether U.S. military assistance should continue in Colombia, a country that is battling with economic instability and several insurgency groups. Elizabeth Farnsworth discusses the issue after this background report.
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ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The United States, Colombia and the war against drugs. We start with some background from Spencer Michels. SPENCER MICHELS: Last month, a U.S. Army plane carrying five U.S. soldiers crashed in a remote mountain region of Colombia. The crew, including pilot Jennifer Odom, were among the first U.S. casualties in Colombia's war on drugs. The high-tech surveillance aircraft, which the U.S. Government says flew into an uncharted mountain, went down in a drug-growing region controlled by rebel guerrillas.
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| Confronting the guerrillas | ||||||||||||||||||||
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PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: (speaking through interpreter) We 're willing to discuss, we're willing to dissent, we're willing to propose and evaluate, but above all, we are ready to build.
In addition to the deaths, Colombia's war has displaced some one million
people from their homes. Investors are
SPENCER MICHELS: But Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is worried that a military strategy could, in her words, "entangle" the U.S. in a foreign war.
REP. MARK SOUDER (D-IN): One thing we seem to be fighting here is this Vietnam phobia we have in this country of everything -- is it like Vietnam? Isn't it like Vietnam? And there are several clear things here that are not like Vietnam, in my opinion. One is, it's in our hemisphere. Colombia is two hours from Miami. This is not something that's overseas or far away. |
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| Drug policy dilemma | ||||||||||||||||||||
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SPENCER MICHELS: Representing the administration at the hearing was General Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. McCaffrey described Colombia as a problem of gigantic dimensions that is worsening over time.
SPENCER MICHELS: McCaffrey has circulated a proposal for the U.S. to invest $1 billion in Latin American counter-narcotics efforts, $600 million of it for Colombia. But he said the ultimate war has to be run by Colombian leaders, not Capitol Hill. This week three high-level U.S officials, including the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, arrived in Colombia, an indication that the country is commanding more high-level attention than ever before. |
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The
mission was part of a stepped-up campaign by the U.S. to help Colombia
and its president, Andres Pastrana, take on the world's leading growers
of illegal narcotics. Colombia supplies more than three-quarters of
the globe's cocaine and two-thirds of the heroin sold in the states.
This year, the U.S. has tripled its aid to Colombia to $289 million.
It is the third-largest recipient of American security aid behind Israel
and Egypt. Colombia's drug war is closely intertwined with its civil
war, a war that's claimed more than 30,000 lives in the last decade
alone. Among the key combatants is a 12,000-strong group of leftist
rebels, known by its Spanish acronym, FARC, 
the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. FARC has been at odds with the
government for three decades. Employing brutal tactics, they have killed
army soldiers and suspected government sympathizers. Leaders say they
will fight until their goals of nationalism and redistribution of wealth
are met. 
JOAQUIN
GOMEZ, FARC: (speaking through interpreter) We want peace without hunger
and repressive laws, without gagging the press, with the economic support
of the international community, but without them meddling in the internal
affairs of our country. 
SPENCER
MICHELS: The rebels are closely aligned with Colombian drug growers
and traffickers. The rebels protect the growers' land; in return, growers
pay an estimated $600 million a year as a sort of tax to the insurgents.
On the other side is the government led by Pastrana, a former TV journalist
and mayor of Bogotá, now in his second year as president. Pastrana,
who says his goal is a negotiated peace deal, met face-to-face with
the guerrillas earlier this year. 
SPENCER
MICHELS: Still, the FARC attacks continue. Further complicating the
picture is the presence of a second, smaller rebel group with its own
leftist agenda and right-wing paramilitary groups who are also involved
in the drug trade. This year the U.S. State Department accused the paramilitary
groups of murder and torture, and said the Colombian army collaborated
with the right-wing groups in some areas. The State Department rated
the overall human rights record of Pastrana's government as poor. 
also
fleeing. The Colombian peso is down 40 percent so far this year; overall,
the economy has contracted 6 percent in the first quarter alone; and
unemployment is at a record 20 percent. In Washington last week, the
U.S. role in Colombia was the subject of a hearing at a House Subcommittee
on Drug Policy. Committee chairman Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana,
said the Clinton administration should focus less on talking to the
FARC guerrillas, which he said will fail, and focus more on fighting
them. 
REP.
DAN BURTON (R-IL): It's unfortunate that it took the tragic deaths of
five U.S. Army personnel in Colombia to enlighten this administration
that there's a problem down there. A blind person could have seen there's
a problem. If we haven't learned anything throughout history, we ought
to learn this: Appeasement does not work. 
REP.
JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-IL): Exactly what is it that we believe this aid will
this accomplish? Is it the first in a series of blank checks for a war
that has no foreseeable endgame? What is the exit strategy? With the
continued failure of a military solution to drug production in Colombia,
why shouldn't an innovative alternative development approach be used
instead? Why not spend half or all of the money on crop substitution
or development?
BARRY
McCAFFREY, ONDCP: The peace process is faltering. It's not achieving
its purpose. There's been no gesture of goodwill on the part of the
FARC guerrillas. It's outrageous. And yet in saying that, I do not imply
that we should do anything but be entirely supportive of continuing
to engage on a negotiated - support Pastrana and his colleagues on a
negotiated end to the FARC, ELN, and paramilitary struggle against the
government.