PLAN COLOMBIA

Drug War Can't Be Won

I urge Herald readers to speak out against "Plan Colombia," President
Clinton's $1.3 billion aid package to combat Colombian drug
trafficking and our escalation of the drug war in that region.

Colombia is the only regional government welcoming our aid because it
lines it's corrupt pockets - as well as the pockets of the brutal,
right-wing paramilitary allies. Plan Colombia is essentially an
undeclared war conjoined by the U.S. and Colombia against leftist
rebels, who are euphemistically dubbed "traffickers." However,
apolitical masses of poor Colombians who grow the drugs form
Colombia's drug supply base. Furthermore, leftist rebels and
right-wing paramilitaries both tax the growers, meaning that as long
as Colombia's drug war continues, those in power will reap the rewards

The U.S. has already deployed military personnel to Central America
and also seeks to break treaty agreements with Panama by putting an
unspecified and unlimited number of troops in Panama under diplomatic
immunity. Our government is once again trying to use our brothers,
sisters, fathers, sons and daughters to fight a war that cannot be
won: the war on drugs.

Even if you believe the war on drugs is worth the price of thousands
of ordinary lives, millions of refugees, millions more in prison,
trampled human rights and lost liberties, you must realize the war
will be lost.

This new escalation in the drug war will cause higher murder rates in
already-bloody Colombia, while solidifying the terrorist control that
the corrupt government, rebels and right-wing militias hold over the
Colombian people. This offensive in Colombia - which will fail because
its best hope is to force growing operations elsewhere - will only
bring death and despair to thousands of already downtrodden
Colombians. Our renewed meddling in this part of the world could once
again destabilize a region that has only recently begun to live in
peace with democracy.

MIKE KRESS, Everett