I am very disappointed by your editorial on the decertification of Colombia
("Columbia and Drugs - Withdraw trade preferences pending cooperation,"
March 14).] It sickens me to see the Colombians continually criticized for
not fighting hard enough against drugs.

Colombia has less than a seventh the population of the U.S. and more than
3,000 Colombian law enforcement officers have died trying to appease the
U.S. drug policy, 600 in this past year. Their police suffer drug war
casualties at about a hundred times the rate of U.S. police. How will we
Americans like our drug war when cellular phones, tinted car windows and
all guns are banned, armored vehicles patrol the streets, 12 police are
murdered each day, and drugs are more prevalent than ever? Don't tell
Colombians they aren't trying hard enough.

A year ago, your Mexico city correspondent stated Mexican government
corruption is so pervasive that removing it would be like cutting out a
lung. Yet Mexico is granted a "special relationship" so U.S. taxpayers can
keep pouring in billions of dollars and Mexico will take longer to default
on loans from New York banks. If Mexico ever pays back the $50 billion, it
will be with drug money.

Colombia may be synonymous with drugs to Americans, but to our neighbors to
the South, the U.S. is synonymous with might-makes-right hypocrisy.

BOB RAMSEY,
Irving