RETHINK COLOMBIA

President Bush should consider carefully a letter he has received from 100
top Latin American leaders, including a couple of Nobel laureates and
numerous current and former government officials.

The 100 leaders urged Mr. Bush to "suspend and reformulate U.S. support for
the implementation of Plan Colombia," the aid package under which the
United States has provided $1.3 billion to help the Colombian government
fight narcotraffickers.

Leaders in Colombia and elsewhere fear the plan will not stop traffickers
but simply push them into neighboring countries, spreading violence instead
of curbing it.

The fears are well founded - and should be shared by Americans. Last week,
a missionary plane was mistaken for a drug plane and was shot down by a
Peruvian fighter. A Michigan woman and her infant daughter were killed.

Plan Colombia is another failed Clinton administration initiative that the
new administration should review as closely as it has Bill Clinton's
last-minute pardons.