U.S. Must Heed Colombia Crisis

Colombia is in trouble. Every day, on average, 10 Colombians are killed in political violence--mostly, according to the U.S. State Department, by right-wing paramilitary groups. Drug production is growing at an alarming pace, with coca cultivation having doubled from 1995 to 1998. Meanwhile, the economy has gone into a deep recession.

The mounting political and military instability poses problems for Colombia’s neighbors. Peru’s President Alberto Fujimori has blistered his Colombian counterpart, Andres Pastrana, for trying to negotiate peace with the left-wing guerrillas who control half of the country, while Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has declared his neutrality on Colombia’s conflict with the guerrillas, all but legitimizing the rebels. The violence has spilled into Ecuador, with Colombian guerrillas kidnapping Ecuadorean businessmen and Colombian paramilitary members killing politicians.

As the Latin crisis mounts so does U.S. involvement, with military aid of $289 million a year making Colombia the third-largest recipient of U.S. security aid, behind Israel and Egypt. Americans should demand that the Clinton administration and Congress explain their aims before any more dollars or arms are sent south. Already troublesome is the presence of 100 to 150 American military personnel from the Seventh Special Forces group, based in Ft. Bragg, N.C., who are helping train the Colombian military in intelligence, communications and reconnaissance. The potential for trouble was punched home last week with the arrest of the wife of the chief U.S. military representative in Colombia on cocaine charges.

Surely some bells are ringing in Washington. Listen: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama. Those are the hemispheric crisis spots of the 1970s and ‘80s that are tolling. The problems are different now, but the prospects look familiar. The United States is being drawn into another Latin struggle and stumbling toward deeper involvement.

It’s important to refine a policy that appears to have been thrown together on the run by competing interests in the administration and Congress. The issue is how to help the Colombian government regain its authority, challenged by drug lords in addition to the guerrillas and the paramilitary groups, without letting the United States be sucked into a no-win quagmire. This week’s dispatching of a high-level delegation headed by Undersecretary of State Thomas R. Pickering was a good step forward. Pickering needs to come back with a strategy that both Congress and the administration will listen to.

Almost a million Colombians have been displaced by violence. From January to April, 65,000 left the country, most bound for the United States, and many more are expected to flee. Focus U.S. attention on Colombia now to deter greater problems down the line.