Fanning the fires
US. foreign policy, aid to Colombia troublesome
It had all the makings of a
great story—guerrilla insur
gents, CIA coverts and roving
death squads, all in a country that
now produces 80 percent of the
cocaine smuggled into the
United States.
Chances are you haven’t
heard about it. It’s not exactly
been on everybody’s radar
screen. The most recent coverage
was last Sunday on “60 Minutes”
in a story on Colombia’s presi
dent, Andies Festrana.
of his presUfodSy'fb fight the'
drugs, corruption and turmoif
that have plagued Colombia for
more than forty years. Guerrilla
groups have been warring
against the government since
1970, and tiHT perpetually weak
state army has been^mable To
suppress them.
Ten years ago, a CIA team
went into Colombia and began
advising tap officials of the
Colombian «my how to wage a
better war a|iinst the guerrillas.
Along with the CIA came mas
sive military aid in the form of
weapons—gobs of tbeqg In 1991
alone, the Colombian army
received 10,000 M14 rifles,
37,000 hand grenades, 1$ mil
lion rounds of ammunition and
other weaponry from the United
States.
Leave it to the United States
to throw weapons and money at a
problem and then ignore the
results. Aside from my moral
qualms about tunneling multiple
tons of death into poor countries,
this situation in Colombia is
fatally flawed.
The United States continues
to send aid to the Colombian
army based on two assumptions:
1) The guerrillas are the main
drug traffickers, and 2) therefore,
helping the military fight guerril
las is the best way to fight drugs.
This is partially true. Vies, the
guerrillas are miied in die drug
trade. Two-thirds of the largest
group, the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, are involved1
in drugs.
However, according to
Human Rights Watch, the
Colombian army is just as
involved in the drug trade as the
guerrillas. So, by funding the
army, die United States is fund
ing the drug trade, a delicious
irony considering our vitriolic
“war on drugs.”
We are also inadvertently
funding death squads. Many of
the weapons sent to the army are
traded to paramilitary groups—
civilian vigilantes Under contract
with die state army. According to
Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting, a media watch group,
70 percent of the human rights
abuses (torture, murders and the
like) committed in Colombia last
year can be linked to paramilitary
.groups.
In one incident last October,
the village of El Aro was sur
rounded by a paramilitary force.
All the suspected “subversives”
were dragged into the village
square and executed, along with
* #1 other people, including three
ijphildren. A shopkeeper whose
ahop was raided for supplies was,
for reasons unknown, gagged
and tiedto a tree where he had his
eyes gouged out and his tongue
and testicles cut off before being
executed.
Before leaving, the paramili
tary forces bOrned 47 of the 68
homes, looted stores and stole
over 1,000 head of cattle, forcing
mili
f ary
groups
trade some of
these casualties to
the army for
--- - - ea*
WoSpOflo. Alluj UUl*
cials then dm* the
civilian corpses in mili
tary fatigues and claim they
were guerrillas killed in combat
This practice of trading and
dressing corpses may be foeled
1 by the armyh emphasis on body
counts as a measure of perform
i ance.
All of this information
implies that, of Ihe $123 million
c spent on Colombia last year,
'most of die money went to fund
the drug trade, civilian displace
• ment and death squads. This is
reprehensible even for a CIA
project
There is a bill currently up for
a vote in the Senate that could
increase aid to Colombia to the
biilion-dollar level.
Write to Bob Kerrey and
Chuck Hagel. Tell them to vote
down this package. Tell them to
stop throwing weapons at an
already volatile situation. Tell
them to spend the money on
finding a way to reduce demand.
As President Andres Pestrana
said on “60 Minutes,” “even if we
win in Colombia, there will
always be another country to
supply the U.S. with
drugs, as long as the
demand for them
remains.”
Detan Lonowski/DN
»i I, f
Seth Felton is senior history and engUakmajor end a Doily Nebraskan columnist