Colombia’s Fight Is Ours Too

Colombian terrorists sent a clear message to Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday just as he was being inaugurated as president of Colombia. Guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, lobbed rockets at the presidential palace and in downtown areas that killed 19 civilians. The unmistakable message: “Here we are. Come and get us.”

Immediately after his landslide electoral victory, Uribe sought United Nations support in negotiating a peaceful resolution to Colombia’s seemingly interminable violence, despite evidence that former President Andres Pastrana’s three-year “peace offensive” had accomplished nothing.

But Uribe clearly stated that he would meet violence with violence if serious negotiations were rejected by the guerrillas. With the bombs of Bogota, the battle is openly joined.

U.S. policy toward Latin America during the Bush administration is likely to be thought of as before and after Uribe’s inauguration. Despite the American president’s pledge to take Latin America more seriously than his predecessor, he has not done so. But just as Sept. 11 quickly focused his mind, so Aug. 7 will do the same for this hemisphere.

Why should the United States become involved in Colombia’s civil war? Because Colombia is a large country strategically located between Central America and the rest of South America. Chaos there affects the region as a whole. Some 90% of the cocaine that reaches the U.S. comes from or through Colombia. Above all, we are already involved up to our armpits. As they say, follow the money.

For decades, Americans have had a serious drug habit. Washington has made that habit illegal, and thus for those who service our demand the profits are enormous. Some Colombians, from cartel chiefs to peasants in the fields growing coca, have benefited in differing degrees from this trade. But almost all Colombians have suffered the consequences: widespread murder, kidnapping, displaced people, unemployment, massive corruption and the destruction of already shaky democratic institutions.

The only real, long-overdue response to this situation is some form of drug legalization to remove the massive profits. But since Washington politicians don’t seem to have the wisdom or courage to do that, and doing so would require substantial readjustments worldwide, we must now settle for confronting the symptoms.

Polls indicate that a majority of Colombians would like U.S. troops to come in and take care of the guerrillas. These frustrated and desperate Colombians seriously underestimate the problem. But the vast majority of U.S. leaders are equally simplistic or dishonest in their appraisals. They have heretofore refused to see that the drug war and the civil war in Colombia are hopelessly intertwined and that we cannot dump more than $1 billion of military aid in two years exclusively into fighting drugs, as we have tried to do. That is futile and counterproductive.

Washington must support Uribe in his plan to double the size of the Colombian army to deal decisively with guerrillas. And a greater emphasis must be placed on infiltrating their forces and killing their leaders.

But that is the relatively easy part. We must also support Uribe in carrying out a far more comprehensive, integrated plan that will deal with a wide range of political and social issues, from strengthening the justice system to weeding out pervasive corruption. This aspect must be taken very seriously and funded--unlike the broad, unfunded proposals in former President Pastrana’s Plan Colombia.

Washington has taken a few steps in the right direction. Some military aid can now be used against guerrillas or right-wing paramilitaries. The instability in Colombia is increasingly seen as part of a regional problem. There is some support for economic policies that will benefit Andean countries, from the Andean Trade Preference Act to restructuring foreign debt. There is some hope that recent FARC terrorism will get the even more naive or dishonest European Union to face realities in Colombia.

The terrorist bombs were a message to Americans as much as Colombians. Washington politicians and democratic leaders worldwide must finally face the realities of the terrorist challenge to Colombia’s democratic government and institutions.

The problem will assuredly get worse, in Colombia and the entire region, if we do not respond seriously and maintain our support.