Attack on the Drug Kings

The assassination of a Colombian presidential candidate by gunmen apparently hired by drug lords has galvanized the Colombian government into action against an underworld that is increasingly arrogant in exercising its power.

The slain Sen. Luis Carlos Galan was the leading presidential candidate of Colombia’s ruling Liberal Party. He was targeted because his campaign included a promise to extradite suspected drug kingpins to the United States. Colombia’s drug lords fear U.S. courts because their money buys less influence here than it does at home. In angry reaction to Galan’s murder, Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas declared a state of siege throughout the country and ordered the arrest of thousands of drug suspects. He also reinstatedan old extradition treaty with the United States that had been suspended because of legal technicalities.

It remains to be seen if any of the more than 50 Colombians wanted in this country as suspected drug traffickers will be caught in the post-assassination dragnet and handed over to U.S. authorities. But the outpouring of public grief and anger at Galan’s murder is an indication that Colombians have had enough of the drug lords and are now going to wage all-out war against them.

Galan was only the latest of an appallingly large number of prominent Colombians who have been killed by hit men working for the nation’s drug cartels. The list includes a former attorney general, 11 members of the nation’s Supreme Court, dozens of lower-ranking judges, magistrates and prosecutors, journalists and hundreds of police officials and military personnel.

Murder has become so routine in Colombia that, days before Galan was killed, little notice was given outside the country to a nationwide strike by judges and magistrates demanding more protection from the government. They were reacting to the murder of an appeals court judge who ordered the arrest of a drug suspect. Equally scant attention was paid last week when Bogota police announced that their city had the highest murder rate in the world--60 killings per day, many of them the result of wars between rival drug gangs.

But now that the death of a would-be president has vividly illustrated the power of the Colombian drug lords, law-abiding people everywhere understandably want to counterattack with every weapon available. U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, for example, is talking about sending U.S. troops to assist in Barco’s crackdown, as was done three years ago in Bolivia. Spokesmen for President Bush, however, said such a step is unlikely. Their cautious reaction is wise, for the political and legal situation in Colombia is more complicated than in Bolivia.

Not only are there more drug traffickers to contend with in Colombia, but several guerrilla organizations as well. The Colombian gangsters are more sophisticated and dangerous than the Bolivians. Their cartels, centered in the cities of Medellin and Cali, are the focal points of networks that extend from the jungles and forests of Latin America to the big cities of North America. Attacking them will take more than troops and helicopters. The Colombian drug lords have shown time and again that they will be as ruthless as necessary to insure their survival. The Bush Administration must help bring them down, but only by following the lead of the Colombians, who best know what to expect from an attack on the drug kings.