In his analysis of the escalation of violence in Colombia and Canada's
interest in that crisis, Stephen Handelman misses the essence of the
problem (Drugs and politics are a lethal mix in Colombia, Opinion
page, Aug. 3). In asking us to contemplate a "Balkanization of
Colombia," he draws us away from the three key factors that have
transformed persistent low-intensity civil war since the late 1940s
into the nation's worst crisis of the century -- neo-liberal economic
policies, their impact on Colombian society and the associated
breakdown of the boundaries that separated legal business from the
illicit drug trade and organized crime more generally.

Violence in Colombia does not depend on ethnic or religious
hatreds.

There is no Milosevic-like figure driving the country to destruction
and most Colombians under the political rule of the government or the
guerrillas have little interest in defending either.

There is little chance that Colombia's guerrilla-government struggle
will spill over its borders.

Handelman argues that the "link between narcotics smugglers and
political groups" is at the root of the current crisis.

But that tie is merely a symptom. Beginning more than a decade ago,
U.S. policy in Colombia and in Latin America made privatizations of
business and open economies the core of its hemispheric policy.

Governments in Colombia and elsewhere rushed to sell off state
companies and make their economies accessible to foreign investment.
In the rush to the free market, lines between legal and illegal
business became blurred.

In Mexico, the brother of Mexico's last president, Raul Salinas, used
his high government contacts and legitimate businesses to become the
country's must successful drug trafficker. In Argentina, Alfredo
Yabran, who built the country's largest private courier service, used
that business to move cocaine south from the Andes for export to
Europe and the U.S.

In Colombia, neo-liberalism and privatizations have left a similar
legacy. There is no clear distinction anymore between legal and
illegal businesses. Multi-billion-dollar drug empires have not only
bought into Colombia's legal economy, but have raised the stakes a
hundredfold in corrupting politicians and in backing guerilla and
paramilitary groups.

The result has been the chaos Handelman describes.

As a wealthy nation in the hemisphere that solidly backed neo-liberal
reforms after 1986, Canada shares some of the responsibility for the
crisis gripping Colombia.

David Sheinin
Associate Professor History Department
Trent University Peterborough