POLITICAL CORRUPTION: US SHOULD DO SOMETHING TO HELP COLOMBIA FIND PEACE

Colombia is a tragic, lawless nation on the brink of collapse after 37
years of warfare between leftist guerrillas, right-wing militias, armed
drug cartels and the national army. An estimated 3,500 civilians are killed
each year. Political corruption, kidnappings, assassinations and the like
are rampant. Various groups hold about 3,000 hostages, including
presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was seized by Marxists in
February.

Flamboyant Charleston artist Paul St. James has lived in several countries
and often travels to war zones. He visited Sarajevo during the Bosnian
conflict and went to central Mexico during the Zapatista rebellion. He
recently visited Colombia, where he lived 30 years ago, and faxed this
report to the Gazette.

POPAYAN - Colombia is still one of the most beautiful and wild countries I
have ever seen. What changes have occurred in the 30 years since I lived here?

First, the crooks were more honest 30 years ago. They were straight-up as
they robbed you. Now, there's fraud, deceit, trickery and lying. The
banditos are more than just the guerrillas. They are also the corporations
and manufacturers - such as those selling boxes of matches only half full.

How do the robber barons get away with it? Because the government spends
all its time and money fighting the guerrillas, and has no time to police
anything else. Profiteers come out of the woodwork when there's nobody to
keep them in check. Keep in mind that the guerrillas own 40 percent of this
country. Most Americans don't realize this. In Colombia, you must travel
from one safe haven to another, from one safe corridor to another safe
corridor. There are places in the high Andes where the front lines are only
yards apart.

When I stopped at the American Embassy in Bogota a few weeks ago, I was
told by an aide that I was the only American riding around Colombia on
buses. Everyone else flies from one safe haven to the next. I can see why,
because two of the bus lines I use have suffered holdups by guerrillas. But
how can you learn anything if you're not on the ground?

I learn a lot from bus drivers and truckers. Both showed me hotels,
restaurants and other businesses that once were thriving, but now are
closed because of the guerrillas. They told me that local farmers who used
to grow food for the hotels and restaurants now grow drugs, and get more
money for it.

Riding buses, I saw the Colombian infrastructure. Route 25 has about 160
miles that nobody should travel. I'm talking boulders as big as cars, to
say nothing of mudslides on top of old mudslides. We came to a bridge with
a six-foot hole in one lane.

Anyone who thinks American tanks given to the Colombian military could go
through that area is joking. And giving the army helicopters is just a
Band-Aid. Yes, it is possible to wipe out most of the guerrillas or drive
them back into remote areas. However, it takes only 200 of them to tie up
5,000 troops, or even 10,000, because of the logistical support to keep
soldiers in the field.

I talked to some Colombians who want to make drugs legal - not because they
like it, but because they think it would end the stalemate and stop the
guerrillas from making money from them. Others say they want the United
States to come in and wipe out the guerrillas. They think we could do it
because of success we've had in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

I don't like either plan. I think, somehow, a peace can be worked out. Have
you looked at a topo map of Colombia, in case America might fight a war
here? I can tell you, Vietnam's jungle wouldn't fill a corner of Colombia,
and the Andes are not like Afghan mountains. The tree line goes up past
12,000 feet, and it's cold as hell. And you could put any swamp you name in
the swamp on the west coast of Colombia.

The guerrillas can hit any city they want, any time they want. After the
Soviet Union and Cuba dried up, the guerrillas turned to drugs to support
their war. The war has gone on for so long that it's hard to remember the
reasons they were fighting in the first place. The Colombian government
lied and cheated the peasants in the past, and let the land barons kill
them, and nothing was done about it.

When I lived in Colombia in 1974, six Colombians out in the plains country
killed eight Indians, but the court set them free. They grew up knowing it
was all right to kill indigent people.

I'm not saying there haven't been some damn fine people in the Colombian
government. It's just that their voices have been drowned out by the gunfire.

I think America should do something to help this country. Just what, and
how much, I can't figure out.