Word: narco
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...Coca doesn't help the peasant farmer to improve his life. The coca provides profits for narco-traffickers, and the guerrilla, and the AUC. The farmer earns more with coca than other crops, but at the same time, everything costs him much, much more in coca-producing zones. Plus there's prostitution, alcohol - and there's no social fabric, no education, no health care...
...attacking the actual level of production of the coca crops, the U.S. believes that the problem of narco-trafficking will be alleviated. Their gift of arms and money to the Colombian government will certainly fuel the violence among the many insurgent groups and the official Colombian army. By training Colombian troops to fight guerrillas in a mountainous, desolate region, unfamiliar to most officials, anger and violence will simply heighten to the point of crisis. The losers in this situation are neither the U.S., the Colombian military or the guerillas; the helpless people, simply praying to survive in a land ripped...
Sitting in the Peruvian airport, listening to the avid beliefs of one, intrepid Colombian woman, I was embarrassed to admit my own nation advocated ruthless military aid as a "solution" to a much more complicated problem of poverty and political beliefs. Rather than attacking the narco-traffickers, drug lords and guerillas, the United States' policy will jeopardize the lives of thousands of already impoverished and entirely innocent people...
...which all of the major protagonists - the left-wing guerrillas of the FARC and ELN groups; the right-wing paramilitary groups; and the government's own army (which will be the prime beneficiary of the aid) - have been linked both with ugly human rights abuses and with narco-trafficking. Peace talks between the government and the guerrillas, which began after the government recognized guerrilla control over huge swaths of territory, have failed to resolve the conflict, and concerns over Colombia's expanding narcotics exports have prompted Washington to intervene on the government side...
...White House and the majority on Capitol Hill believe that without the aid, the Colombian state is in danger of collapse, which in the end would be good news only for the narco-traffickers and the Marxist tycoons who protect them. On the other hand, regional leaders have pointed out that even if "Plan Colombia" succeeds in lowering production of narcotics in that country, that would simply displace the problem across the border into Brazil, Venezuela or Peru. As long as there's a bullish market for drugs in the U.S. and grinding poverty in Latin America, there's little...