AN ECONOMIC WAR

Regarding the Feb. 6 article "U.S. offers aid to guard Colombia oil pipeline":

What does this mean? Is it a war on drugs, a war on terrorism, or is it
about oil and forcing the "free trade" economic model on people already
suffering from its effects?

I just returned from a two-week visit to oil-rich Colombia with the
U.S.-based group Witness for Peace. Our mission was to evaluate the use of
massive U.S. military aid bestowed on Colombia.

Colombian church leaders, human rights activists, peace activists and union
leaders point out that the Colombian military is not at war just with the
guerrillas but with civil society itself. It supports and trains a
paramilitary that threatens and murders indigenous people and
Afro-Colombians whose ancestral lands are coveted for oil and other
economic "mega projects." The military also is fumigating crops, destroying
the food source for the people and causing people to become ill.

Union leaders who oppose the new "free trade" economic model or
"neo-liberalism" are under siege. Last year, 157 labor leaders were
assassinated.

President Bush's war imposes an economic model that exploits workers,
destroys the environment and negates national sovereignty. The
beneficiaries are the multinationals who get a bargain for their campaign
contributions.

Gail S. Phares

Witness for Peace, Southeast Region

Raleigh