2008 Woodie Awards
Narcotics policy in Colombia breeds militant violence
John Tuzcu
Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: Editorials
While many of us took a break from school and study, President Bush was hard at work touring Central and South America, shaking hands and praising those on board with the Washington consensus, the U.S. agenda that most people in the region reject.
Bush's stay in Colombia was especially emblematic of the administration's scramble to shore up influence in a continent that is increasingly moving left, where anti-capitalist sentiments are winning hearts and minds and threatening U.S. hegemony.
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is easily Bush's closest ally in South America. Despite serious questions arising about his government's links with mass-murder, corruption and cocaine trafficking via its connection to right-wing paramilitaries, not a peep came out of Bush.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a union organizer. More than 750 have been killed since 2000 and the count increases with many more detained, kidnapped and disappeared. Almost all of these murders ensue with impunity. Out of the more than 2,000 assassinations of unionists since 1991, only a few people have ever been charged and arrested. Despite ongoing human rights violations and well-documented collusion between paramilitaries and the Colombian military, the United States continues funneling in massive financial and technical support under Plan Colombia, a $4.7 billion dollar package supposedly to revitalize Colombian democracy.
Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. money outside of the Middle East and has received more than $3.7 billion since 2000, 80 percent of which is going toward blackhawk helicopters, combat training and other military expenditure. Deeming it a success, Bush has expanded.
Plan Colombia has been futile in halting the drug trade and its aggressive "barrel of the gun" approach is highly destructive. Much of the plan is focused around aerial fumigation campaigns carried out by U.S. contracted pilots with U.S. provided apache helicopters to eliminate coca fields. These daily chemical missions not only kill coca but also destroy wildlife, poison crops and harm humans. For one hectare of coca to be eliminated, 22 hectares undergo fumigation.
In 2006, 800 tons of cocaine was produced, no different then seven years ago. According to the United Nations, coca cultivation actually rose 8 percent despite increased coca eradication efforts. Seventy percent of the fumigated fields are replanted because farmers aren't offered an alternative to coca. Instead of attacking corruption and drug traffickers, the U.S. plan focuses entirely on coca farmers, the most removed from the cause. Instead of working on education, the United States continues down the path of violence.
When Bush met with Uribe, instead of earnestly trying to re-imagine Plan Colombia in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability, the two came up with the same retrograde policies of militarism and aggression. This approach sums up Bush's worldview of blasting away any problems with guns and tanks, regardless of the people there. Maybe your spring break was less destructive.
Bush's stay in Colombia was especially emblematic of the administration's scramble to shore up influence in a continent that is increasingly moving left, where anti-capitalist sentiments are winning hearts and minds and threatening U.S. hegemony.
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is easily Bush's closest ally in South America. Despite serious questions arising about his government's links with mass-murder, corruption and cocaine trafficking via its connection to right-wing paramilitaries, not a peep came out of Bush.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a union organizer. More than 750 have been killed since 2000 and the count increases with many more detained, kidnapped and disappeared. Almost all of these murders ensue with impunity. Out of the more than 2,000 assassinations of unionists since 1991, only a few people have ever been charged and arrested. Despite ongoing human rights violations and well-documented collusion between paramilitaries and the Colombian military, the United States continues funneling in massive financial and technical support under Plan Colombia, a $4.7 billion dollar package supposedly to revitalize Colombian democracy.
Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. money outside of the Middle East and has received more than $3.7 billion since 2000, 80 percent of which is going toward blackhawk helicopters, combat training and other military expenditure. Deeming it a success, Bush has expanded.
Plan Colombia has been futile in halting the drug trade and its aggressive "barrel of the gun" approach is highly destructive. Much of the plan is focused around aerial fumigation campaigns carried out by U.S. contracted pilots with U.S. provided apache helicopters to eliminate coca fields. These daily chemical missions not only kill coca but also destroy wildlife, poison crops and harm humans. For one hectare of coca to be eliminated, 22 hectares undergo fumigation.
In 2006, 800 tons of cocaine was produced, no different then seven years ago. According to the United Nations, coca cultivation actually rose 8 percent despite increased coca eradication efforts. Seventy percent of the fumigated fields are replanted because farmers aren't offered an alternative to coca. Instead of attacking corruption and drug traffickers, the U.S. plan focuses entirely on coca farmers, the most removed from the cause. Instead of working on education, the United States continues down the path of violence.
When Bush met with Uribe, instead of earnestly trying to re-imagine Plan Colombia in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability, the two came up with the same retrograde policies of militarism and aggression. This approach sums up Bush's worldview of blasting away any problems with guns and tanks, regardless of the people there. Maybe your spring break was less destructive.
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