Colombia’s Barco Urges Drug Summit

Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas pushed the Bush Administration Friday to call a drug summit of Western Hemisphere nations, and said the burden of winning the war against narcotics rests primarily on the United States.

Barco said his nation, the world’s biggest source of cocaine, is working hard to curb drug traffic but said the narcotics, money and violence will continue to flow as long as the United States remains the world’s biggest cocaine consumer.

“The insatiable demand for drugs in this country is . . . the greatest single threat to the democracy of our hemisphere,” Barco told the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Barco, who was to meet later with U.S. drug policy chief William J. Bennett, used the forum to call for a drug summit that would include Colombia, the United States, Peru and Bolivia.

President Bush promised during last year’s campaign to call a drug summit, but has given no indication when. Bennett has angered some by saying he hopes a summit is delayed until after he draws up his national anti-drug plan, due Sept. 5.