HOW TO HELP COLOMBIA

President Bush has inherited Bill Clinton's myopic $1.3 billion Plan
Colombia, targeted against the drug trade there. Let us hope that Mr. Bush
reconfigures this program.

Plan Colombia is now based on military approaches that may well make
matters much worse. It would give even more weapons to the army, linked to
drug-financed paramilitary groups. And given the corruption -- financed by
America's drug habits -- some firepower will also fall into the hands of
left-wing guerrillas. But the worst thing about the plan may be the
chemical defoliation of coca-growing land; that wreaks ecological and human
devastation.

Better for us to make it worthwhile for Colombian farmers to plant such
other crops as coffee, rubber, fruit and cotton. As it is, low commodities
prices confront many farmers with the choice between extreme poverty or
growing coca. Most peasants would quit the coca business if there were
alternatives. We should help provide them, through crop subsidies if need
be. Colombia is an agricultural paradise that could once again become a
major exporter of valuable -- and legal -- crops.