Posted on 03/06/2002 5:55:40 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
The twin pillars used to justify vastly increased U.S. aid to Colombia have collapsed, yet this nation is sending more military and economic aid than ever to the world's largest cocaine-producing country.And we're doing so without a Plan B for how to end a 38-year civil war or shut down a drug trade involving tens of thousands of narco-guerrillas.
In 1999, Colombia became the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid. That funding has ballooned to about $800 million a year. The money was meant to support an ambitious peace plan and to help one of the hemisphere's oldest democracies wage war on drug-financed terrorists.
But last month, two things happened:
The peace process collapsed. Angered by a plane hijacking in which a senator was kidnapped, Colombian President Andres Pastrana called off a 3-year-old cease-fire and attacked the main guerrilla group, known by its Spanish initials as FARC.
Plan B for the peace process turns out to be: no Plan B.
Fighting is intensifying amid grim predictions the guerrillas will widen their terror war in the cities.
The drug war fizzled. Despite heavy U.S.-funded crop-dusting and counter-drug operations, Colombia's cocaine crop just keeps getting bigger.
Plan B for the drug war turns out to be: more of Plan B.
Colombia expert Russell Crandall of Davidson College in North Carolina says the drug war will go on no matter how much of a flop it is. "The bottom line for Plan Colombia is that it's a waste of money," he said.
Plan Colombia was Pastrana's ambitious $7.5 billion formula for defeating the guerrillas on military, social and economic fronts, but the only real funding it ever got was $1.3 billion from the United States, the bulk of which went for military helicopters.
Colombia's terror links
Something else happened last week. The Bush administration pulled the plug - for now - on plans to wrap Colombia into Phase 2 of the terrorism war. That would have meant even more U.S. money and troops on top of an extra $600 million already requested.
At least one analyst believes those war plans exist, given the increasingly global nature of terrorism and the links already made between Colombian guerrillas, alleged IRA bomb-makers and Paraguayan gun-runners.
"The Bush administration doesn't want to vocalize its plans or intentions to become more involved in Colombia," said Brett Schaefer, a policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C. He said the administration should "be a little more forthright" about backing Colombia's army.
U.S. military aid is now limited by law to anti-drug warfare, an effort that involves hundreds of U.S. special operations troops training counter-drug battalions. The training appears to be paying off, as the Colombian army, once notoriously disorganized and demoralized, starts retaking territory in a former guerrilla stronghold.
The Bush team, meantime, is widening its assistance at the margins, with stepped-up intelligence sharing, more spare parts and a $98 million train-and-equip proposal to help guard a key oil pipeline. But the nub of the U.S. policy dilemma - the factor that could backfire on Bush administration strategists - will be whether public support for more U.S. military involvement can be sustained as the fighting intensifies in Colombia.
Eyewatch: Cyber-narcs
Colombia's drug kingpins are part warlord-rebels, part narco-terrorists and part businessmen. Yet they're also sophisticated cyber crooks who use fancy electronic means to hide their money, mask their deals and confound their pursuers.
An international watchdog agency set up by the United Nations said last week that Colombian and Mexican gangs have colluded on sophisticated surveillance of the cops watching them, while using encryption, ship-based computers, stolen cellular phone identity codes and restricted-access Internet chat rooms to direct the movement of hundreds of tons of drugs around the world.
They and other narco-terrorists can then launder profits through more than 2,000 "virtual casinos" online or by using super-fast electronic cash transfers, the International Narcotics Control Board warned.
The Vienna-based agency said tougher bank rules and more international law-enforcement teamwork would be required.
A Terrorist Regime Waits In The Wings [re:Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)] Source: INSIGHT magazine; Published: March 25, 2002;
Author: J. Michael WallerColombian Drug War Escapes U.S. Notice, But Fuels Its Habit
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Published: March 3, 2002;
Author: Richard Foster
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