Editorial: America's Role In Colombia The New York Times 31 July 1999 This Month's News | CSN Home

The Clinton Administration and Congress are struggling to decide what Washington should do to help Colombia, one of Latin America's most complex and troubled nations. The country's two overwhelming problems are a growing trade in cocaine and heroin and a 35-year civil war against Marxist guerrillas. President Andrés Pastrana is well intentioned, and deserves American support.

But Washington must draw a sharp distinction between the two struggles. Helping Colombia to reduce its narcotics production is an American interest.

Getting involved in a brutal guerrilla war -- one that neither side can win -- is not.

The issues have gotten confused because both sides in the political conflict benefit from drug trafficking, in different ways. The largest guerrilla group controls much of the area where coca is grown and protects peasant growers. Some groups also raise much of their war treasury by shielding and taxing local traffickers, and may transport some drugs inside Colombia. On the other side, many top-ranking and mid-level army officials have close links to paramilitary groups, which also control drug-growing areas. Some paramilitaries are extensively involved in cocaine trafficking.

Colombia's army, which has demonstrated more interest in fighting the rebels than fighting cocaine, has in the past misused American counternarcotics aid, turning it against the guerrillas. That is why Washington must be careful about military aid, and ought not to buy the idea that an effective drug policy must include fighting the guerrillas.

As President Pastrana recognizes, only negotiations can end the war.

He has taken courageous steps to advance peace talks -- steps the rebels have largely rebuffed. They have escalated their military offensive. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug chief, is recommending that the United States give $600 million to Colombia, some of which is likely to go toward fighting the guerrillas.

The United States has already been drawn too far into the conflict. Such new aid would widen the war. Instead, Washington should give all possible support to the peace effort.

The army in the past has been ineffective, and still maintains close links to the paramilitaries, who run death squads that have massacred thousands of peasants.

Nor is military aid likely to end the drug problem.

The American-sponsored approach so far has centered on aerial spraying, but cocaine and heroin production in Colombia are soaring.

Mr. Pastrana would like to see fumigation combined with help to bring roads and electricity to coca areas, so peasants have alternatives. Bolivia and Peru have had some success with this mixed strategy, and Washington should emphasize it in Colombia. © 1999 The New York Times