Reading this article does much to explain why America's war on drugs
continues to poison and distort our relationships with much of Latin
America. The second-poorest nation in Latin America, Nicaragua, doesn't
need gunboats, helicopters and trained soldiers. It needs the kind of
economic development that helps people feed themselves and increase their
standard of living.

Until we take necessary steps to take the obscene profits out of drug
trafficking, drugs from Mexico, Nicaragua and elsewhere will keep coming.

GERALD M. SUTLIFF
Walnut Creek, Calif.