Colombia: It's not about drugs, it's about revolution

By Zanny Begg

From GREEN LEFT WEEKLY

E-mail: glw@greenleft.org.au. Web: http://www.greenleft.org.au
- Number 374, 1 September 1999 -

For the US government, Colombia has become a "narco-Nam": an explosive mix of revolutionary politics and cocaine. In what the US likes to regard as its "backyard", guerillas, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), have liberated over 40% of the country. Gaining widespread popular support, they are waging a war against the pro-imperialist government of President Andres Pastrana.

Because of government corruption, Colombia has become the largest producer of cocaine in the world, producing 80% of the world's market. It also supplies much of the heroin imported into the US.

To attack the revolution, US officials have labelled the FARC "drug terrorists". Under cover of a "war against drugs", the US is pumping money into the government's war against the FARC.

The "war on drugs" hit an embarrassing snag when Louise Ann Hiett, wife of Colonel James Hiett, commander of the 200-strong US military mission supposedly fighting the drug war, was arrested for smuggling cocaine in diplomatic mail. Investigators have widened their inquiry to include at least six personnel at the embassy.

There is mounting evidence to implicate both the US and Colombian armies in the drug trade. Although the FARC controls large areas where coca is grown, a representative, Olga Lucia Marin, explains, "The FARC as a revolutionary organisation, because of our principles and ethics, has no links whatsoever with drug trafficking".

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) the US spent US $289 million last year in "anti-drug" aid to Colombia. Declassified documents revealed that US $1.6 million of this went on combat helicopters and training infantry and naval units. Sections of the US ruling elite are agitating for US military intervention in Colombia. A top DEA official commented in early August, "This is a war we can afford to lose even less then Vietnam".

The US is playing a double game. Undersecretary of state Thomas Pickering, on returning from Colombia in early August, denounced deployment of US troops as a "crazy idea". Simultaneously, 1000 US marines arrived in Colombia for a "training exercise".

The US government is watching the situation very carefully -- ready to escalate involvement, under the guise of an anti-drug war, if that seems necessary to stop the FARC's advances. The people of Colombia need support from around the world against the US threat. All rights reserved, Green Left Weekly. Redistribution permitted with this notice attached. Redistribution for profit prohibited.