Word: colombianizing
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...that the United States had an interest in fighting an overseas drug war, and, on the surface, that didn't seem objectionable. What I quickly gleaned, however, was radically different; U.S. intervention involved two things: money and military. Just two weeks ago, President Clinton renewed the U.S. commitment to Colombian anti-drug efforts by delivering $1.3 billion in aid for the purchase of military equipment and counter-drug training. House leaders are currently considering whether to approve an additional $99.5 million to purchase more aircraft, ammunition and other equipment for the Colombian police. And, as the woman began to explain...
...coca plant is not necessarily the choice of the campesino farmers in Colombia; contrary to the hard-lined beliefs of the U.S., farmers are often forced to change their food crops to the incredibly lucrative yield of soon-to-be cocaine. Guerilla groups have complete control over the Colombian farmland and can easily hold a gun to the head of a powerless campesino, demanding that he grow the volatile crop. Besides the violent threats of the guerillas, many campesinos have no practical option but to grow coca, for they are among the poorest people in the world. Living in makeshift...
...plight of the Colombian campesinos, their extreme poverty and social immobility, does not appear to affect the plans of the United States government. The chairs of the House Government Reform Committee and the International Relations Committee have been ardent supporters of the military-style tactics of Colombian anti-drug units, tactics that include widespread aerial fumigation of drug crops. And so, when starving children and destitute farmers see an approaching UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, they do not praise their savior. Crop dusting might destroy one batch of drugs, but it obliterates the lifestyle of ordinary people struggling to survive...
...tossing $1.3 billion at Colombia, employs almost solely military tactics. By attacking the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a guerilla group with Marxist underpinnings dwelling in central Colombia since the 1960s, the U.S. somehow believes that inexperienced Colombian troops can battle with the guerillas on the coca fields until they destroy a means of production...
...defeat of the guerillas and paramilitary groups, the U.S. demonstrates its complete neglect of human need. Even though children are tortured, 300,000 people are forced from their homes per year and there are an average of 10 political killings a day, the U.S. administration does not view the Colombian situation as a humanitarian crisis. To the U.S., the only statistic that matters is that 90 percent of cocaine in the U.S. comes from Colombia. Drugs are the name of the game; human need is a moot point...