Another congressional aide said the Clinton administration "dragooned the Pastrana government into the peace plan with the guerrillas. They want to go to Colombia, sing 'Kumbaya' with the guerrillas and put flowers in the gun barrels and make the problem go away." 

WASHINGTON TIMES
Tuesday, 5 October 1999
 

Colombia policy splits Congress U.S. official: Issue is more divisive than Central America wars 

Colombia's civil war, pitting Marxist guerillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers against the government of Colombia is spilling over into the halls of Congress.

The fight in Washington over competing White House and congressional anti-drug proposals is, by some accounts, as bitter and acrimonious as the 40-year-old civil war.

"This fight is much more partisan, and more personal, than anything between the White House and Congress in the '80s," said a State Department official who insisted on anonymity, referring to the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

At stake is perhaps $1.5 billion in U.S. aid over the next three years. Colombian President Andres Pastrana came into office in August 1998 promising peace in the civil war that has cost about 35,000 lives in the last 10 years.

Last year, Mr. Pastrana ceded to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) a Switzerland-sized chunk of the country some call "Farclandia." The guerrillas have continued to attack, protect drug production and kidnap. Last week Mr. Pastrana told the Colombian people that achieving peace would take more time.

In mid-September, the beleaguered president announced a $7 billion package of anti-drug measures, peace initiatives and social services he calls "Plan Colombia."

He has asked the international community, led by the United States, to contribute about $3 billion of the plan's cost. Some in Congress and the White House have signaled their willingness to approve about $1.5 billion.

At issue is how the money will be divided between the police and the military.

But powerful Republicans have all but rejected Mr. Pastrana's peace offerings as "appeasement."

"Support for increased military aid to Colombia should be dependent upon restoration of government access to the narco-guerrillas' 16,000-square-mile zone of impunity," said Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

Colombian government officials fear being drawn into Washington's partisan battles.

"We are seeking support for 'Plan Colombia.' We do not want to become the ham in the sandwich," said a senior Colombian government official who asked not to be named.

U.S. aid to Colombia has been rising. Most of the U.S. money has been directed to the police and its domestic drug-eradication program. Congress has appropriated almost $290 million for Colombia this year, but for the most part, it has yet to be delivered.

"The money not getting there has consequences," said a Republican aide. He said a top Colombian police officer was killed last week because of shoddy equipment.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy shows the amount of money going to interdiction has increased 47 percent since 1996. Furthermore, the total amount of money going to international anti-drug efforts in the same period has increased 120 percent.

This summer, U.S. drug police chief Barry McCaffrey proposed spending a substantial amount of money on Colombia's military. It was the Clinton administration's first sign that the U.S. drug war may be predicated on defeating Colombia's Marxist guerrillas.

Critics say this, and the 250 U.S. troops already training Colombian forces, are the first steps toward a "new Vietnam."

Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the Government Reform Committee, says he wants nothing to do with the administration's plan to fund the military. Another congressional aide said the Clinton administration "dragooned the Pastrana government into the peace plan with the guerrillas."

"They want to go to Colombia, sing 'Kumbaya' with the guerrillas and put flowers in the gun barrels and make the problem go away," he said.

Most experts believe the government cannot force the guerrillas to the negotiating table without far more military pressure.

But the insurgents, who collect between $215 million and a billion dollars a year in "taxes" from the narco-traffickers, are better funded and armed than the Colombian army or the police.

While global cocaine production is down by nearly 30 percent, according to U.S. estimates, drug cultivation in Colombia, which produces 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, doubled in the last three years.

Moreover, the farmers are growing a hybrid plant that can be harvested eight to nine times a year, compared with the older varieties that could only be harvested three or four times a year.

In the United States, the predictable battle lines over Colombia between the conservative Congress and the Clinton administration are blurring as traditional antagonists cross over.

Human rights groups find themselves supporting congressional conservatives, who say money is best spent on the Colombian police, led by Gen. Jose Serrano, a group considered by virtually all observers to be incorruptible.

"I can't believe I am saying this, but we are more in line with the Republican plan to fund the police than McCaffrey's idea to fund the army," said a Washington human rights activist. "I'm a mother. I don't want drugs in this country, but we don't trust the army. There is plenty of evidence they still have links to the paramilitaries."

But according to Clinton administration officials, Colombia is doing better and a half-dozen generals and lower-ranking officers have been purged for human rights violations. By law, U.S. money can only fund units that have been "vetted" to be free of human rights abusers.

"We can talk or fight, or fight and talk," said a senior Clinton administration official. "Historically, all the wars in that part of the world have ended with some kind of negotiated settlement. That means you have to talk."

The one exception is Peru. And some backers of a military solution consider Peru and its President Alberto Fujimori to be the model for dealing with rebels and cocaine.

By this reasoning, Mr. Pastrana's plan - to make peace with the guerrillas and then clean up the drugs - is exactly backward.

"Fujimori went after the Shining Path guerrillas and then went after the drugs," said a U.S. enforcement agent involved in drug interdiction. "He wasn't too concerned about human rights or world opinion. Fujimori started shooting down airplanes and the traffickers moved across the border into Colombia, but he dealt with the guerrillas, and drug production in Peru is down."

THE DRUG WAR: A LOSING BATTLE? Colombia is: * The world's largest coca producer with the crop doubling in size in the past three years. * The base for 80 percent of the world's cocaine-production labs. * The source of more than half of the heroin in the United States, which it exports in almost-pure form.

Source: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy
 

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