CUT MILITARY PIPELINE TO COLOMBIA

THE United States should stop meddling in Colombia. Otherwise we could
have another Vietnam -- or at least another El Salvador -- on our hands.

Ironically, increased U.S. military involvement in Colombia is coming
at a time when the Colombian government seems ready to deal for peace.

Colombia's newly elected president, Andres Pastrana, could be on the
brink of ending the horrors of a decades-long dirty war among leftist
insurgents, paramilitary groups, the drug lords and the Colombian
government. He has met with guerrillas, and his pledge to end the war
was instrumental in his victory at the polls.

But the United States is on a separate track. Colombia receives more
military aid from the United States than any other country in the
hemisphere. In late June, the Clinton administration agreed to provide
six helicopters to Colombia's police, despite objections by
human-rights groups. The Pentagon has also trained special units of
the Colombian military that have slaughtered innocent people. The
Pentagon's role in the war on leftist insurgents is being justified
under the banner of fighting drugs.

In comparison to Vietnam and El Salvador, where communism was the
target, the U.S. involvement in Colombia is ostensibly to destroy drug
trafficking -- a business fueled by U.S. dollars. The United States
blames leftist insurgents for the drug trade. But the coca business
has grown so big and has embedded itself so deeply into the Colombian
economy that the left is hardly the only group to blame.

Representatives of the main insurgent group, FARC, have recently flown
to Washington in an effort to invite American officials to witness
firsthand their predicament in protecting farmers and peasants in the
areas of the coca fields. Frustrated by the way Colombia's internal
strife has been misconstrued, they have asked for economic help to
develop alternative crop programs in exchange for cutting off ties
with drug traffickers.

In Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, crop-substitution programs are improving
conditions for farmers; in Colombia, the quality of the farm lands is
being worsened by poisonous fumigation.

Washington plans to make matters worse. It is pushing a chemical
attack on Colombia's southwest region in the form of a new lethal
herbicide called tebuthiuron. Dow Chemical, its manufacturer, is
strongly opposed to using the chemical for crop eradication. The
Environmental Protection Agency warns against the disastrous effects
of tebuthiuron on farmlands. It would permanently destroy agricultural
use of the land, displace farmers, further the deforestation process
and poison the drinking water of the region.

Colombia's politics are extremely complicated. The U.S. military would
be better off staying out of this politically volatile region, to
avoid getting sucked in for a long and bloody period. Our past
mistakes should be a lesson for the future.

Adriana Lopez is a free-lance writer living in New York
City.

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"