For years, human rights groups and legislators, notably Senator Patrick Leahy, have alleged that Colombian military units receiving American anti- drug weapons and equipment were using the aid to strafe villages and assassinate leftist politicians. In 1993 the General Accounting Office concluded that aid had indeed gone to abusive units.
The State Department repeatedly denied the reports. But Amnesty International recently released documents leaked from American military officers stationed in Colombia. They showed that in 1994 American officers confirmed that drug aid was being used to fight guerrillas, and was gong to units ranked among the worst human rights abusers. State Department officials now acknowledge they could not track the aid and depended on assurances from the Colombian military.
The Colombian abuses continue. Yet Washington is preparing to send $30 million in helicopters, boats and other equipment to the Colombian military. It will also send equipment to the Colombian police and to security forces in other countries.
Colombia is not the only abuser. The G.A.O. reported that Mexico has used American counter-narcotics helicopters to transport troops to Chiapas to fight guerrillas.
A new law, sponsored by Senator Leahy, bars aid to military units whose members are credibly accused of committing serious human rights violations, unless the recipient government is prosecuting the violators. The Administration, which acknowledges that difficulties in monitoring remain says it is negotiating conditions for new aid that will assure compliance with the Leahy law. It must stick with these conditions and enforce them with vigor.
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the nation's drug czar, has a good record on human rights issues. But on a recent visit to Peru he seemed to give his endorsement to Vladimiro Montesinos, the de facto head of Peruvian intelligence. Mr. Montesinos used to work as a lawyer for drug traffickers. American and Peruvian human rights groups accuse him of setting up death squads, and the Peruvian Congress has tried to investigate charges that he protected drug traffickers.
General McCaffrey lectured Mr. Montesinos in private, but praised the effectiveness of the intelligence unit at a meeting attended by the Peruvian. Asked by a reporter about Mr. Montesinos, General McCaffrey said he had confidence that all the Government's advisers were honest.
General McCaffrey's comments were front-page news in Peru, where they were taken as support for the popular theory that Mr. Montesinos enjoys Washington's protection. This perception has boosted his power and helped him to block the Congressional investigations. General McCaffrey lost an important opportunity to distance the American Government from Mr. Montesinos.
Recently Washington has acknowledged the poisonous effects of its intelligence relationships with abusive officers in Latin America. It must keep it counternarcotics programs from making the same mistakes.