COLOMBIA FIGHTS WAR WITHOUT END

Pol Gen Rosso Jose Serrano has resigned as the chief of police of Colombia,
one of the world's most violent and destructive countries. During his
six-year career as head of the police force, Gen Serrano attended or
oversaw the funerals of nearly 2,000 officers. That is close to one
policeman killed every day he was in his office. Colombia's formidable
problems of brutality seem even worse when one realises that Gen Serrano is
universally praised by Colombians as the most effective policeman in the
country's history.

As a police officer, Gen Serrano has specialised in opposing his country's
drug traffickers. In one of his first victories, he dismantled the Cali
cartel. This was arguably the biggest, most influential and most
destructive drug gang in history. But in Colombia, drug trafficking seems
to be a way of life. New drug gangs emerged. Criminals often are ready to
gamble the risk of capture or death against the unimaginable profits of drugs.

It was enough to make one weep to hear Gen Serrano announce his retirement
last week. "I have been to so many police officers' funerals I can't bear
another," he said. During six years in is office, he said, he had comforted
too many widows, signed too many letters of condolence, and awarded too
many medals of bravery to children of his dead officers.

Most of the policemen died in the country's drug wars. Gunfights,
assassinations and terrorist attacks all are common weapons of the cocaine
and heroin gangs of Colombia. But Colombia also is embroiled in a civil war
that now has lasted 36 years, with still no end in sight. Marxists are
trying to overthrow the government. If that is not enough, an almost
barbarous war is waged on the sidelines between right-wing paramilitary
groups and private armies against the leftists and their supporters.

Geographically, Colombia is in the worst possible position to fight the
predators. Nearly half of the South American nation is open to the sea-both
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Next door on one side is Panama, one of
the world's great money-laundering centres. On two sides lie the remote
mountain areas of Peru and Venezuela. Poppies and coca trees flourish, and
peasants are virtually enslaved by the rebels, guerrillas and traffickers
who make them grow the drugs, or else.

But the real enemy of Colombians who love peace-most of the nation-is
recent history. It is also a lesson for the rest of the world. The
unbelievably rich drug merchants have corrupted so much of the Colombian
power structure, that many believe the nation is inevitably doomed to
become totally controlled by the "narcocracy"-the top level of the drug lords.

Obviously, Colombia is not fully in the hands of this narcocracy. Nor are
the Marxists close to victory. So long as there are policemen like Gen
Serrano, there is hope. There is also no doubt that the vast majority of
people oppose the drug trafficking gangs and the leftist terrorists.

But Colombia could not be in the spectacular mess it is without the
connivance of a large number of corrupt officials in the government, the
military and the police. Indeed, Thais of recent generations can remember
similar threats to our country. If justice is to triumph in Colombia, the
country will have to combat the rot from within, as well as the
traffickers, smugglers and terrorists.

Colombia has asked for help from the United States, a $1.7 billion
anti-narcotics aid package that includes much military hardware. The
Clinton administration has promised the aid, but Congress is holding it up.
The Americans should provide this aid. Colombia, in the wake of Gen
Serrano's resignation, should pledge to reach down and pull itself up as well.