FREE TRADE - BUSH SHOULD RETHINK U.S. AID TO COLOMBIA

A Feb. 6 Journal Sentinel headline stated, "U.S. may expand troop aid to
Colombia." 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
the massive military aid bestowed on Colombia by the United States.

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, animals and rain forest 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 budget is not anti-drug or anti-terrorist; its purpose
is to impose 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.

Bill Lange, Wauwatosa