COLOMBIA COLLAPSING FROM AMERICAN 'AID'

My son and I recently returned from visiting family in Bogota,
Colombia.

Since Colombia has the highest kidnapping rate in the world, friends
worried about our safety. Militaries or their proxies on both sides of
the Colombian civil war condone kidnapping for ransom as a way to
raise funds for their armed struggle.

On this visit, I encountered a disturbing new twist on this practice.
Kidnappers took a young child and left their ransom note. Their
demand? Food for 15 days!

Internal refugees from the civil war in the Colombian countryside are
escaping to the cities daily by the thousands. With the national
economy collapsing, those in the middle and upper classes who can
afford it are fleeing to live abroad. Rural peoples are taking their
place in the cities have no work, and there is little food.

I listened to the U.S. ambassador to Colombia speak to the World
Affairs Council in San Antonio last year. His justification for the
investment of $1.5 billion in U.S. military aid followed this logic:
Destruction of the coca-growing and refining infrastructure in
Colombia would raise the price of cocaine on the streets of the United
States, making it more difficult for people to buy and thereby
decreasing its use.

From the U.S. perspective, cutting the supply in Colombia is more a
priority than cutting the demand at home. Yet daily, this strategy
appears more and more self-defeating. U.S. policy is adding fuel to
the fire of instability in the Colombian countryside and in the cities.

Colombia is quickly becoming a casualty in the U.S. war on drugs. The
$1.5 billion military aid package meant to destroy the coca-growing
and cocaine-production capacity is actually fueling a mass exodus from
the countryside and the country.

The Colombian military, its right-wing paramilitaries, cocaine
manufacturers and the guerillas are destabilizing the rural
population, undermining the social fabric of the cities and bringing
the country to the brink of collapse.

The United States should use its billions to decrease demand for
cocaine in this country through education and by offering treatment to
people addicted to cocaine.

Our national experience during Prohibition suggests that as long as
there is demand for a product, suppliers will be found. Our present
policy has not affected the availability or price of cocaine on the
street, but it is destabilizing an entire nation.

Our war on drugs is a war on the poor of Colombia.