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