MESSAGE FOR COLOMBIA: NO ONE IS SAFE

BUCARAMANGA, Colombia

No one was more surprised by Congress' agreement to give $1.6 billion in
military aid to Colombia than the people of Colombia. Why? Because the
money could be used only to fight drugs.

To most Colombians, drug-trafficking cannot be separated from the civil war
they currently find themselves in the midst of. "In many respects, the
guerrilla have become the narco-traffickers," says elementary school
teacher Leonel Gonzalez. "They are involved in every step, from cultivation
to production to distribution."

The $1.6 billion, he adds, can only increase violence in Colombia, the
world's principal supplier of cocaine and already, perhaps, the world's
most violent country. Most of its cocaine cultivation is on the 40 percent
of the country's land controlled by the guerrilla, so any type of military
action against drug production could not fail to involve the factions
trying to overturn the Colombian government.

All of those well-armed factions see U.S. financial and military
intervention as a threat to their economic security, and they have made it
very clear that there will be violent consequences likely to jeopardize the
delicate ongoing peace negotiations.

Three weeks ago, the largest guerrilla faction, the FARC (Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia) chained four pipe bombs to the neck of a woman
hostage and demanded some $7,500 in ransom. After a demolition expert had
disarmed three of the bombs, the FARC detonated the last one, killing both
the woman and the expert. Carlos Sampedro, an executive at Banco de Bogota,
said afterward that the $7,500 meant nothing to the FARC, which has an
estimated net worth of about $500 million. So the intended message, he
added, was clear: No one is safe.

Violence and the drug trade have been synonymous here since 1992, when
trafficker Pablo Escobar started offering $50 to anyone who would shoot a
cop. As counter-measures by the government also escalated, the war became
both too bloody and expensive for the drug cartels. So they started hiring
the guerrilla to protect their business interests. The drug money enabled
the latter to arm themselves far better.

The result: The guerrilla now dominates both the drug trade and politics.
An indication of the extent of this domination occurred a few weeks ago
when the FARC declared that any Colombian earning more than $100,000 a year
must pay a tax to the group.

Until now, the only threat to the guerrilla has been the country's
super-violent paramilitary. But the paras' success can be of little solace.
In the few areas where they have pushed back the guerrilla, they have
merely replaced it in the drug trade. At least half of the 18 Colombian
army brigades have been linked by Human Rights Watch to drug trafficking
and/or human rights abuse.

Despite the fact that Colombia, for three straight years ranked the third
most corrupt country in the world, dropped to No. 7 last year, corruption
is still rampant here. An estimated 3 percent of the country's budget
(about $750 million) was lost to corrupt public officials last year.

So why, knowing this, did Congress agree to $1.6 billion on what
realistically is the impossible mission of isolating and controlling the
drug business in Colombia? Because polls show that American voters believe
the nation's biggest problem is drug consumption. And, at least, the $1.6
billion is attacking that problem at its source.

Colombians sympathize with that concern, but believe they're not to blame
for America's vices. Stopping consumption must be done at the consuming
end, not the supplying end. As long as there is a market, there always will
be a supplier; if not Colombia, then Bolivia, Peru or Mexico.

Sadly, the $1.6 billion, if used correctly, could be a first-rate,
long-term investment. Colombia is in the middle of (and losing) a war at
the same time it is in a brutal economic recession. Its public education
and health money is being siphoned off, either to corruption or to fight
the war. Applying the U.S. aid in these areas could provide real benefit.

What is killing Colombia -- where, on average, a child is kidnapped every
other day for political or economic reasons -- is not drugs. It's violence
and corruption.

And, thanks to the strict strings attached to America's $1.6 billion aid
package, both problems are likely to become even worse. Soon, perhaps,
Colombia will have to ask for international help just to protect the basic
human rights of its citizens. But if this current relief package doesn't
produce results, future aid is likely to come with even more strings. Or it
might not come at all.

Nolan , a UCSD graduate, has lived in Colombia for more than three years.
He teaches English at the University of Bucaramanga.