THE US "WAR ON DRUGS" AND COLOMBIA'S INTERNAL CONFLICT

While public attention focuses on Kosovo, Iraq and East Timor, another war
is going on in our hemisphere, in Colombia. The United States is providing
funds supposedly intended for fighting the drug war, but which to a large
extent fuel a bloody internal political conflict.

For example, in the 1999 fiscal year, the United States government
allocated $173.16 million of Emergency Supplemental funding for the war
against drugs in addition to the previously budgeted $30 million. An
emergency package of roughly $600 million has been requested for next year,
the bulk of which will go to repressive measures and is used by the
Colombian police and military.

Without arguing whether it is even possible to solve the drug problem via
repression, it is worth taking a closer look at the social context where
this flow of money and military aid is being poured, and some of the
consequences it has.

Colombia is basically in a state of civil war, with two large communist
guerrilla organizations fighting both the official army and various more or
less coordinated paramilitary groups. These two guerrilla factions, the
FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the ELN, National
Liberation Army, are well-funded via various forms of extortion -- Colombia
holds the worst kidnapping record in the world today -- and from
connections with the drug trade. This conflict has led to a dramatic
problem of internal population displacements, with Colombia ranking fourth
in the world in terms of forced population displacements.

The FARC was officially born in 1964 with roots dating back to 1948 and is
thus the oldest active guerrilla movement in the world. To this day various
attempts at peace negotiations have failed to produce conclusive results.

It is no surprise that the U.S. government has taken action over the years
to fight the Colombian guerrillas, albeit always in indirect or covert
manners. The infamous School of the Americas has a long list of Colombian
graduates, many of which appear on documented cases of human-rights
violations. Quoting a 1996 Human Rights Watch report:

"Human Rights Watch has also documented the disturbing role played by the
United States in support of the Colombian military. Despite Colombia's
disastrous human-rights record, a U.S. Defense Department and Central
Intelligence Agency team worked with Colombian military officers on the
1991 intelligence reorganization that resulted in the creation of killer
networks that identified and killed civilians suspected of supporting
guerrillas."

One of the "cleanest" ways which the U.S. government has of helping the
Colombian military -- which in most cases ends up directly helping the
various paramilitary groups -- is through the "drug war" effort. Any
foreign aid provided to fight drugs is usually accepted well by the general
public, which seldom questions where the aid goes and how it is used. It is
thus important to raise awareness about these practices, since over the
years it has become clear that not only this aid is not solving the drug
problem, but it is instead fueling the fire of a bloody civil war.

This is a complex conflict with no angels, where both the guerrilla groups
and the paramilitary are responsible for crimes and human-rights violations
of all sorts. But a negotiated solution which protects civilians will
remain impossible as long as the radical factions of the Colombian military
and their paramilitary partners are supported with escalating budgets and
technology. This militaristic approach will not only give wings to their
brutality, it will equally justify the guerrilla's arguments for not
committing to a negotiation process and maintaining a hard military line.

So, what can common citizens do? An immediate option is to express concern
to elected officials with specific requests such as: the U.S. drug policy
should consider alternatives other than repression and military aid.
Further, no military aid should be given to countries with appalling
human-rights records, and the School of the Americas should be closed.

It is disheartening to hear the U.S. government claim to the world that it
defends democracy and human rights -- isn't that why Yugoslavia was bombed
into oblivion? -- while at the same time it knowingly fuels brutal internal
conflicts. If only a fraction of the money spent on expensive military aid
went to help efforts from the democratic and non-violent sectors of
society, far more good would be accomplished and the lives of many could
perhaps be spared.

Some useful Internet resources on this topic include:

• Colombia Support Network: http://www.igc.org/csn

• Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org

• Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org

The State Department narcotics budget can be viewed at:
http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/fy2000_budget/latin_america.html.