America's drug plan collapses in chaos

America's drug plan collapses in chaos

By Hugh O'Shaughnessy

15 May 2005

Washington's "war on drugs" in Colombia is collapsing in chaos and corruption, and the drug producers are winning. The so-called Plan Colombia, which has cost the US more than $3bn (£1.6bn) in the past five years, is being abandoned, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced.

Last year, the hugely expensive effort to poison coca bushes - whose leaves are the source of cocaine - by aerial spraying ended in failure. More bushes were flourishing in January this year than in January 2004.

Meanwhile, complaints have multiplied about the damage done by the chemical poisons to the health of humans, especially children, as well as to livestock, fish and the environment.

Plan Colombia was designed to eradicate narcotics, control powerful left-wing guerrillas and strengthen the position of the US military in South America. The scheme was eventually expected to cost $7.5bn.

The government of Colombia, the world's principal source of cocaine, has sent out an emergency appeal to the Bush administration for an extra $130m to supplement the $600m it expects to receive in 2006 under Plan Colombia.

The extra money, the Colombians insist, is needed for more aircraft to increase the government's capacity to spray poison on the jungle patches where coca bushes grow.

They also want more helicopters to protect the spray planes and stop any more of them being shot down by growers and guerrillas.

The appeal for emergency cash comes in the wake of the details quietly put out by the White House during the Easter holiday about last year's spraying débâcle. On 1 January 2004 US satellite pictures showed that 281,323 acres in Colombia were under coca. The target was to reduce that area by half, so nearly 340,000 acres were sprayed with poison. But in vain.

In January, the acreage of coca bushes had increased slightly to 281,694 acres. Consequently, as Congressman Bob Menendez, leader of the Democratic caucus in the US lower house and a critic of Plan Colombia, remarked last week, the international price of cocaine has stubbornly refused to rise - as it would have if the anti-drugs effort had dented its availability worldwide.

Corruption in Colombian government service is said by the Home Office in London to cost $4bn a year.

Drug profits have also corrupted US troops stationed in Colombia. This month a US Green Beret lieutenant-colonel and a sergeant were caught selling 32,900 rounds of ammunition to the right-wing death squads who are flush with drug profits.

In March, five US soldiers - supposedly training local troops in anti-guerrilla and anti-narcotics techniques - were arrested after 16 kilos of cocaine were found in the aircraft taking them from a military base in southern Colombia back to the US.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=638590

(In related news)

A bad plan in Colombia
José Miguel Vivanco and Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno

International Herald Tribune
MONDAY, MAY 16, 2005

BOGOTÁ After pouring $3 billion into Plan Colombia, the United States is about to be betrayed by one of its closest allies in the fight against drugs and terror. The Colombian government is putting the final touches on a scheme to launder the criminal records of top paramilitary commanders - including some of the country's most powerful drug lords - while allowing them to keep their wealth and maintain their control over much of the country. Should the plan be approved, it will be an enormous setback for U.S. counternarcotics and counterterror efforts, as well as for human rights in Colombia.

It was the United States, ironically, that set the stage for this scheme by requesting the extradition of these commanders. Not only has the United States deemed Colombia's paramilitaries to be a terrorist group, government prosecutors have indicted a number of paramilitary commanders for bringing tons of cocaine into the country. It was those commanders who initiated demobilization negotiations with the Colombian government, hoping to reach a deal that would allow them to avoid extradition to America.

Handled well, the negotiations could benefit both Colombia and the United States. Paramilitaries and guerrillas have been fighting for control of Colombia's resources for decades. Fueled by money from drugs and extortion, these mafia-like groups have killed thousands of civilians with impunity. The paramilitaries, in particular, are notorious for their atrocities, which include countless massacres, abductions and "disappearances."
A real demobilization, one that dismantles the criminal and financial structures of paramilitary groups and holds their members accountable for crimes, would be an important step toward peace, human rights and the rule of law. It would also be a major victory for the United States in the fight against drug trafficking.

Unfortunately, powerful political forces in Colombia have been pressing to give the paramilitaries a pass, letting them keep their wealth and power. Colombia's Congress is poised to approve a bill, backed by President Álvaro Uribe, that would allow top commanders to serve as little as two years behind bars for their crimes. These pathetically short prison terms would cover even the worst atrocities and the narco-trafficking for which they are wanted in the United States.

To get these reduced sentences, commanders would have to "accept" the charges against them. But they would not have to confess their abuses, disclose the location of their hidden bank accounts and drug processing labs or reveal the names of their arms suppliers and financial backers. They would not even have to ensure that their troops disarm fully.

After two years, commanders' records will be clean, but their criminal networks and the wealth fueling their activities will almost certainly be intact. And their already considerable political power - paramilitaries claim to control 30 percent of Colombia's Congress - will be strengthened.
The U.S. reaction to this scheme has been surprisingly weak and unclear. To Colombians it looks like the U.S. government is either divided or just not very interested in the issue.

This perception has occasionally been challenged, most notably in January, when a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers sent Uribe a letter saying that the demobilization process must effectively dismantle paramilitaries' "narco-terrorist" structures. And during her recent visit to Colombia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that she hoped the pending demobilization bill would "dismantle illegal armed groups, bring justice and reparation to victims, and punish those guilty of major crimes and atrocities."

While helpful, the secretary's remarks are not enough. To many here, they sound like rhetoric that will never translate into policy. Colombian policy makers still believe that regardless of what bill they enact, U.S. endorsement and financial support can be taken for granted.

The United States should be unequivocal in its objection to this record-laundering operation. To do otherwise would be to admit defeat in this front of the fight against drugs and terror. It would mean letting drug lords and mafias take over not only economic but also political control of a strategic ally in the region. And it would mean abandoning any hope for peace, human rights and the rule of law in Colombia.

(José Miguel Vivanco is Human Rights Watch's Americas director and Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno is the organization's Colombia researcher. )