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05/03/2005:

"A New Plan for Colombia"

Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If he were alive today, he would consider US policy toward Colombia insane.

Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Colombia, the region's largest recipient of US aid, where she praised Plan Colombia as "very successful." In 2000, Congress passed "Plan Colombia" with the stated purpose of reducing the supply of cocaine to the US. Five years and $4 billion later (80 percent, or $3.2 billion, of which went to Colombian military), Plan Colombia is set to expire. But the Bush Administration has already requested $600 million in the budget to continue funding it. As Rice said on her visit to Colombia, "You don't stop in midstream on something that has been very effective."

But exactly how "effective" has Plan Colombia been? Before the American people are asked to continue spending $2 million a day on aid to Colombia, they should take a closer at the Plan.

If Plan Colombia was intended to reduce the supply of cocaine, raise its cost, and therefore, cut the numbers of users, then the program has been a costly failure. After five years, the price of cocaine is lower, and the number of cocaine users is growing. According to a recent unclassified report from the National Drug Intelligence Center, "key indicators of domestic cocaine availability show stable or slightly increased availability in drug markets throughout the country."

Plan Colombia's failure to reduce the supply of cocaine to the US should not be surprising. We have years of experience and mountains of studies that should lead us to not expect otherwise. Since 1980, the US has spent nearly $45 billion on stemming the flow of illicit drugs into the country. Illicit drug prices have dropped dramatically over that period.

...the US has funded war in Colombia, exacerbating the human rights and humanitarian crisis there. In February, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights reported that, "the human rights situation continued to be critical. There was an increase in reports of extrajudicial executions attributed to members of the security forces and other public officials. High levels of torture and forced disappearances continued."

After years of US training and military build up, last year, the Colombian army launched the largest military operation in modern Colombian history, which, according to the New York Times, was designed "to make potentially oil-rich regions safe for exploration by private companies and the government-run oil company." Civilians bore the brunt of that operation as evidenced by a startling 38 percent increase in the number of Colombians forcibly displaced, from 207,607 in 2003 to 287,581 in 2004, according to the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement.
Full:zmag.org