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BOGOTA: The war on drugs is being lost. Despite more than one billion dollars in aid from the United States to fight the drug-trafficking industry, hundreds of tons of Colombian cocaine still make it to US streets.
Marxist rebels profiting from the narco-trade are stronger and richer than ever. And Colombia’s merciless 38-year-old war is raging after peace talks collapsed in February.
But with Colombia likely to elect anti-rebel champion Alvaro Uribe in the May 26 presidential election and Washington taking a tougher line against “terrorist” groups after the Sept 11 attacks, the strategy against drugs is being redrawn.
The question now is: will Uribe be the right man for Washington’s new, wider war on cocaine in Colombia?
The United States, in the past wary of crossing the line into anti-rebel assistance, has asked Congress to allow Bogota to use aid from the anti-drug “Plan Colombia” — such as radars and helicopters — against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or “FARC”.
Washington calls the rebel army “terrorists”.
Uribe, a right-wing former regional governor riding a huge wave of popularity on pledges to crack down on rebels, is counting on more military aid to better equip the ill-prepared army and wants a resumption of US interdiction of planes flying cocaine out of Colombia, the world’s top producer.
But closer military ties with Washington will also mean closer scrutiny of human rights and more accountability.
COCAINE PRODUCTION: The United States, the world’s largest consumer of cocaine, has been financing a programme to spray thousands of acres (hectares) of coca plantations controlled by FARC rebels in Colombia’s steamy southern jungles. Coca is the raw material for cocaine.
But aerial eradication by US-trained Colombian police has yet to produce cocaine shortages or higher prices in American cities. The area of Colombia planted with coca grew by 24.7 per cent in 2001 to 419,000 acres (169,800 hectares). CIA figures for 2000 showed final cocaine output at 580 tons.
Although the aid includes delivery of 16 Black Hawk helicopters and sophisticated radar systems, it cannot be used under US law to fight the 17,000-member FARC, a rebel army Washington says makes hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money every year.
For example, if the FARC attack a town near a military base stocked with donated helicopters, the Colombian military are not allowed to use the US aircraft to repel the attack.
By allowing its aid to be used against rebels, Washington takes a step closer to involvement in Colombia’s messy war, where the line between counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency has blurred.
The Sept 11 attacks, which killed some 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, has made such a move politically acceptable.
The Bush administration, citing a need to “re-adjust our policies,” wants to give Bogota 98 million dollars to train Colombian troops to defend a key oil pipeline that rebels repeatedly bomb.
In March, the United States for the first time indicted three FARC rebels on drug-trafficking charges.
SHIFT IN US POLICY: The aid would be a dramatic shift from the policies of the Clinton administration and of outgoing President Andres Pastrana, who spent three years talking peace with the FARC.
Under Pastrana, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, Plan Colombia’s aim was to eradicate drug crops to weaken the FARC economically and force them to agree to peace. No-nonsense Uribe believes a stronger military should attack drugs and rebels alike if Colombia is ever to see peace.—Reuters
