MESSAGE

Good Reasons To Give Colombia's Problems Attention

Severe economic distress, civil war, displacement of hundreds of
thousands of refugees, organized crime out of control. No, not the
Balkans or the former Soviet Union.

The all-too-familiar list of crisis-level problems is a long one that
fits much closer to home -- Colombia, to be exact. Yet for all the
immediacy and seriousness of the situation, Americans in general pay
too little attention to it and the option we have to be part of the
solution.

Colombia's President Andres Pastrana is due in Houston today to speak
at the annual assembly of the Inter American Press Association, to
address a forum at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy and to lead a delegation to explain reforms to jump
start his nation's troubled oil industry.

Pastrana, no doubt, will carry a message to the journalists from
around the hemisphere about political reforms and freedoms and how
Colombia's problems affect those things. His message to the oil
industry and other forums may be a somewhat different one, but they
are not unrelated.

Pastrana has made economic reforms and assistance a cornerstone of the
economic solution his administration sees as a critical step in
combatting all of Colombia's problems.

That Colombia risks becoming a net oil importer without the attention
and cooperation of Texas' oil patch is much more than a simple
economic statement. If Colombia cannot further modernize and expand
its economy, the prospects for other solutions are bleak, indeed.

And the results have consequences for the stability of the hemisphere
and for the United States.

Policy-makers wrestle at this very moment with the complicated
questions. Does the United States simply stand by as the situation
with drug cartels and left-wing guerrillas, etc., descends into deeper
chaos? Do we risk being drawn into another Vietnam-style conflict that
aligns us with right-wing elements that have too little regard for
human rights and basic liberties, such as freedom of the press? Or do
we find a middle way to help Colombia reform itself? And all at what
price?

There are many important reasons why Pastrana's visit and his messages
here should be of much more than just passing interest.