DATE=10/19/1999
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=COLOMBIA'S PROBLEMS
NUMBER=6-11521
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: The editorial pages of U-S newspapers have
been taking a close look at two long-standing, related
problems in Colombia - guerrilla warfare and drug
trafficking.
We get a sampling of recent editorial comments about
Colombia's problems, and the efforts of Andres
Pastrana, the relatively new president in Bogota, to
solve them from ______________ in today's U-S Opinion
roundup.
TEXT: The situation in Colombia has not changed much
during the past few months, although 31 suspected
cocaine traffickers were arrested last week by
Colombian police, aided by U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency officers. An ongoing insurgency by leftist
guerrilla groups, violence by rightist paramilitary
forces, debilitating poverty for many of the people,
and the relentless production and export of cocaine
and heroin continue to plague Colombia.
President Pastrana was in Houston this week, talking
to the Inter American Press Association convention
about his efforts to deal with these problems. He was
accompanied by a delegation of Colombian petroleum
executives seeking help from Texas oil producers for
the nation's petroleum industry.
The Chicago Tribune says like it or not, the White
House must get more involved in the deteroriating
situation in Colombia.
VOICE: How does one solve a conflict that's nearly 40
years old and involves two guerrilla armies,
several murderous paramilitary units, an
official army accused of human rights atrocities
and, lately, a sputtering economy in which the
only growth sector seems to be narcotrafficking?
Yet Colombia is far too important for the United
States to ignore. Indeed, by virtue of the
sizes of its land mass, its population and
economy alone it demands attention. But its
proximity to the U-S and its role as the largest
supplier of cocaine and heroin to American users
makes that demand even more insistent. Add to
that the possibility that the Colombian strife
might spill over into neighboring Venezuela and
Panama, and ignoring Colombia becomes a luxury
this nation cannot afford.
TEXT: An editorial from The Chicago Tribune.
The Colorado Springs Gazette is also watching events
in Colombia with apprehension. It is especially
concerned with the growing involvement of U-S military
advisers, which the paper sees as somewhat akin to the
beginning of American involvement in Vietnam.
VOICE: Though a lot of Americans likely aren't
following the current political crisis in
Colombia, it might interest them to know the
extent to which the U-S war on drugs has
strengthened the most violent and ruthless
elements in that troubled land - - and given
combatants every reason to continue their
warlike ways. Unless some way is found to
mitigate(or even eliminate) the disruptive
effects of the way the war on drugs has been
carried out in Colombia, sending more U-S money
and aid is likely only to increase the killing
and the suffering....
The United States pressured the Colombian
government ... to intensify the military aspects
of the war on drugs ... which has given growers
and distributors an incentive to turn both to
left-wing guerrilla forces and right-wing
paramilitary opponents of the guerrillas for
protection. That has given both the guerrillas
and the paramilitaries more money, better
weapons and more support, escalating violence
and reducing any incentive to seek peace.
TEXT: The view of the Colorado Springs Gazette. The
Washington Post points out that not all the news from
Colombia is bad, and it cheers last week's arrest of
31 cocaine traffickers.
VOICE: Their capture is certainly a triumph of
collaboration between Colombian and American law
enforcement officials. Colombia's police chief
has pledged that the suspects will be extradited
to America, a fate that the country's
traffickers have successfully avoided since
1991. [However] ... three decades of hunting
down drug traffickers has done little to curb
drug abuse in America, and there is little
reason to suspect that the latest "success" will
prove different. Drugs reach consumers by too
many routes, courtesy of too many shifting
alliances of criminals, for even spectacular
police successes to disrupt supply much.
TEXT: Focusing on this week's visit of President
Andres Pastrana to Houston, The Houston Chronicle
comments on what it calls "the chaotic situation in
Colombia:"
VOICE: ... for all the immediacy and seriousness of
the situation, Americans in general pay too
little attention to it and the option we have to
be part of the solution....[Mr.] Pastrana has
made economic reforms and assistance a
cornerstone of the economic solution his
administration sees as a critical step in
combating all of Colombia's problems. ...
Policy-makers wrestle at this very moment with
the complicated questions. Does the United
States simply stand by as the situation with
drug cartels and left-wing guerrillas, etc.,
descends into deeper chaos? Do we risk being
drawn into another Vietnam-style conflict that
aligns us with right-wing elements that have too
little regard for human rights and basic
liberties, such as freedom of the press? Or do
we find a middle way to help Colombia reform
itself? And all at what price?.
TEXT: On that somewhat apprehensive note from The
Houston Chronicle, we conclude this sampling of
editorial comment on the situation in Colombia.
NEB/ANG/gm
19-Oct-1999 17:18 PM EDT (19-Oct-1999 2118 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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