YOUR TAX DOLLARS HARD AT WORK

A few weeks back, Beat's cover story outlined how the "war on drugs" has
created an atmosphere of suspicion among law enforcement officials and
members of the public alike.

Current drug czar Barry McCaffrey and his proposed $1.3 billion aid package
to the Columbian military are a sure sign that the battle is far from being
won; while certain factions urge legalization and a tightly regulated legal
drug market, members of both the right and left continue to buy into the
whole "enforcement and incarceration over education and treatment" myth.
Meanwhile, McCaffrey continues to spew platitudes concerning the Columbian
Military's "bold steps" in improving its human rights record, noting
repeatedly that $46 million of his proposed package will be earmarked for
human rights training and implementation, whatever the hell that actually
means.

Last week, The New York Times ran a story outlining a paramilitary massacre
performed with the apparent complicity of the Columbian military leadership
- - the same folks who are set to receive our $1.3 billion aid package - in
the peasant-populated hills of Columbia, where, according to McCaffrey,
peasants and guerrillas conspire to produce the majority of the drugs
imported to the States. Hold onto your hats, folks; this shit will rock your
world.

According to the Times, more than 300 armed paramilitary forces marched into
the tiny village of El Salado in late February 2000, took over a basketball
court in the village center, and set up a good old-fashioned execution
party. Cranking tunes and slugging booze, the troops "danced and cheered" as
they tortured and slaughtered men, women, and small children, pausing only
long enough to rape a few of the women.

When they left the town, 36 people lay dead.

Their crime?

Collaborating with enemy left-wing guerrillas who are said to populate the
area. The Times reported that "the victims, for the most part, were men, but
others ranged from a 6-year-old girl to an elderly woman". Meanwhile,
military and police units were parked just a few miles away, and they made
no effort to halt the slaughter, according to witnesses.

In the aftermath of the bloodbath, top Columbian military officials insisted
that fighting had been under way in the village between the paramilitary
troops and the guerrillas, not a series of executions. It remains doubtful,
however, that a 6-year-old girl and an elderly woman were involved in these
supposed battles.

The question, of course, is this; how can we, in clean conscience, support
the Columbian military when, at the very least, their connection with the
paramilitary groups remains under question? McCaffrey continues to insist
that the Columbian military is a freedom fighting force, struggling for the
cause of freedom against a left-wing guerrilla force dedicated to funneling
drugs into the United States at an alarming rate. What appears to be closer
to the truth, however, is the distinct possibility that the military and the
paramilitary forces are in bed together, overseeing the lion's share of drug
production and trafficking, and slaughtering with impunity anyone who gets
in their way.

Incidents like the one in El Salado last February hammer home the
contradictions at the heart of our foreign policy, particularly where it
hides beneath the ample skirts of the "war on drugs". McCaffrey, a decorated
military man, must be called to task for his support of flagrant human
rights abusers, whose misdeeds and atrocities against humankind are rewarded
with fat-ass aid packages.

Meanwhile, Democrats bow to lick the boots of these propositions, knowing
full well that they are thinly-veiled pay days for a Military hell-bent on
continued drug trafficking. And they'll rape, torture and kill to do it.
With your money.

Let your congressperson know how you feel about this.