Taking Note
JAK
Whither the War in Colombia? Whither the U.S.-funded war in Colombia? In late July, a Senate committee cut $164 million from the Bush Administration's $731 million proposed Andean drug war...
...military and contract employees will continue to take part in activities at least nominally related to the Andean drug war...
...The U.S...
...Powerful herbicides will continue to rain down on the Colombian countryside, courtesy of U.S...
...Because a U.S...
...military personnel and contract employees in Colombia...
...During the July debate, many members of Congress made sure to go on record with concerns about the environmental and health implications of massive herbicide use and widespread human rights violations by Colombian security forces...
...it would also require several U.S...
...funded-war is actually being conducted "on the ground," officials don't shy from using bluster, bluff and threats as a counter force...
...Whatever the deeper reasons behind U.S...
...The bad news is that the war is already well underway and, under the current plans, will grind on: Hundreds of U.S...
...Until very recently, any U.S...
...public knew very little about the role of civilian contractors in the Andes until last April when it was reported that U.S...
...During the July congressional debates, the Washington Post described legislators as "hedg[ing] their bets against escalating U.S...
...missionary family...
...In large part this is because few U.S...
...Helicopters, paid for by the United States, will continue to arrive in Colombia, where they will be used to give the military "rapid mobility capability" against guerrillas as well as to accelerate drug plant fumigation...
...politician who showed skepticism about the ever-escalating drug war left him- or herself open to charges of being "soft on drugs" and vulnerable in the next election...
...Indeed, like gamblers or investors unwilling to put all their money on a single position, some members of Congress seem to be trying to have it all ways: calling for an unwinnable "drug war" to be stepped up in the Andean region as a whole while imposing what are likely to be all-too elastic caps and restrictions on U.S...
...In the last year or so, it has become acceptable to point out the obvious failure of the drug war, but the notion that illegal drugs can and should be stamped out "at the source" still has widespread appeal...
...In the House, Representative John Conyers put forward an amendment to cut out funding for the fumigation program-but withdrew it when it became clear that the amendment had no chance of passage...
...Embassy officials made it plain that aid to Colombia would be cut if the program didn't continue...
...drug war dollars in Colombia and other countries of the Andean region, the Bush Administration will find it possible to make haste, though more slowly than it hoped, to ever deepening military involvement there...
...But this kind of conditionality is routinely circumvented, as the Clinton Administration did by simply waiving the human rights conditions in last year's aid bill...
...officials would like to keep it this way, and the use of civilian contractors to carry out what are usually military functions has helped maintain the program's low profile...
...citizen and her infant daughter died in that incident, the contractor program was briefly in the spotlight...
...citizens have much of an idea how this policy is actually carried out in drug-producing countries like Colombia...
...involvement in Colombia-and these were explored at length in our last issue, Widening Destruction: Drug War in the Americas-its role there has been sold to the U.S...
...citizenry can persuade more of its elected representatives that they will lose elections if they continue to ignore or downplay evidence of the serious damage already wrought with U.S...
...By August, when a State Department investigation concluded that faulty procedures and poor communication between the Peruvian and U.S...
...Congress, at best, is ambivalent about this war...
...involvement...
...When a Colombian court recently ruled that the coca fumigation program must be halted pending investigation of reports that it was causing widespread environmental and social damage, for example, U.S...
...In late July, a Senate committee cut $164 million from the Bush Administration's $731 million proposed Andean drug war budget and the House voted against allowing unlimited use of U.S...
...contract pilots were working with the Peruvian military aircraft that mistakenly shot down a suspected drug plane actually carrying a U.S...
...On those rare occasions when information does begin to circulate about how the U.S...
...The good news is that these actions, if backed up by future Congressional votes, could put the brakes on George W. Bush's Rambo-like proclivities in the Andes...
...taxpayers...
...public as a key component of the "war on drugs...
...The Senate bill would make further aid to the Colombian forces contingent on human rights improvements...
...Why is this war so difficult to stop...
...agencies to certify that the herbicides present no threat to human health before funding authorized by the bill can be used to buy the chemicals...
...pilots were the cause of the shootdown, public attention was elsewhere...
...participation in Colombia...
...Unless a skeptical U.S...
Vol. 35 • September 2001 • No. 2
