Why Support of Colombia is Crucial to the War on Drugs
A State Department official explains why Plan Colombia and the Andean Regional Initiative are even more important after the Sept. 11 attacks.

By Amb. James Mack

The attacks against the United States on Sept. 11 stunned us all. They also made it clear that the mission of the State Department is critically important now more than ever, especially on the counter-narcotics front. Very frequently, the criminal organizations involved in narcotics smuggling have links to other criminal activities and to terrorist groups. Just as we in the United States are trying to strengthen our homeland security, other nations are facing similar challenges. Deepening our law enforcement cooperation with these like-minded nations has thus become all the more urgent.

One way to combat terrorism worldwide is by helping foreign governments to strike at the very means that terrorists use to finance their activities. The methods used for moving and laundering money for general crime purposes are similar to those used to move money to support terrorist activities. The State Department has worked with the Departments of Justice and Treasury and with nations around the world to strengthen controls which could thwart the drug traffickers' attempts to launder their funds and to investigate and prosecute those who are involved in moving criminal proceeds. These same law enforcement controls would also help prevent the movement of funds by terrorist organizations.

Many of the skills and types of equipment needed to attack organized crime are applicable to combating terrorism. Much of the State Department's law enforcement assistance --- such as the equipping of forensic labs, assistance with drafting asset forfeiture and money laundering legislation, and provision of basic training in investigation techniques, maritime enforcement, and port security -- applies to both counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism.

In the Western Hemisphere, there are long historic links between terrorist groups and narcotics trafficking. The Shining Path preyed brutally upon Peru from the 1980s to the mid-1990s, largely funded by taxes on cocaine trafficking. In Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, and along the loosely controlled border region that it shares with Brazil and Argentina, members of radical Islamic groups are reported to be engaged in money laundering, intellectual property rights piracy, alien smuggling and arms trafficking.
It is well documented that designated foreign terrorist groups in Colombia, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), benefit substantially from their deep involvement in drug trafficking. Virtually all of the world's cocaine and an increasing amount of heroin now come from Colombia.

There are also strong indications that the FARC has established links with the Irish Republic Army (IRA) to increase its capability to conduct urban terrorism. In July 2001, the Colombian National Police arrested three members of the IRA who are believed to have used the demilitarized zone to train the FARC in use of explosives. We are monitoring this ongoing investigation with great concern.

Democracy is under pressure in all of the countries of the Andes. Economic development is slow and progress towards liberalization is inconsistent. Sluggish economies, in turn, produce political unrest that threatens democracy and provides ready manpower for narcotics traffickers and illegal armed groups. The drug trade has a corrupting influence that undermines democratic institutions, fuels illegal armed groups and distorts the economy, discouraging legitimate investment. All of these problems are interrelated.

In 2000, the Colombian government developed a comprehensive strategy known as Plan Colombia to address these problems in its country, and the U.S. government responded with a $1.3 billion assistance package. Plan Colombia's positive results already include the following:

o Thanks to U.S. Special Forces, three Colombian counterdrug battalions are fully trained, equipped and operational. The battalions have destroyed over 600 cocaine labs to date, while maintaining a spotless human rights record.

o Some 37,000 families have signed alternative development pacts with the government of Colombia and agreed to voluntarily eradicate 37,000 hectares (91,000 acres) of coca, although the security situation limits the delivery of the assistance that would bring about that eradication.

o Thousands of internally displaced Colombians have received assistance through health, education, and income and employment generation programs funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

o USAID has also established 18 "justice houses" (multi-agency judical centers) and is working in 31 drug-producing municipalities to extend the rule of law to previously underserved areas.

o Spray planes have treated over 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres) of coca fields from December 2000 through November 2001. The Colombian aerial spray program is aimed at large-scale "industrial" coca drug plantations and the expansion of new coca cultivation.

Every effort is made to minimize the possibility of damage to legitimate agriculture, and spraying has not been carried out in areas where alternative development agreements exist or are being developed.

Aerial spraying of illicit drug crops has been carried out on a continuing basis in various departments of Colombia for more than 10 years, without any demonstrably-related ill effects on the health of the population in these areas. Nonetheless, we felt compelled to probe assertions that the glyphosate-based herbicide was making people sick in Colombia. Embassy Bogota contracted Colombia's leading toxicologist to evaluate several hundred reports of health problems in southern Colombia, and he found those cases to be inconsistent with glyphosate exposure.

We believe Plan Colombia will result in a major disruption of the cocaine industry and traffickers will undoubtedly try to relocate as their operations in southern Colombia are disrupted. They may first try to migrate to other areas inside Colombia, then try to return to traditional growing areas in Peru and Bolivia. But if those efforts are forestalled, they may well seek to move more cultivation, processing and trafficking routes into other countries, such as Ecuador, Brazil or Venezuela.

Anticipating that spillover, the Andean Regional Initiative was developed to support the efforts of Colombia and neighboring countries plagued with drug production and trafficking and to prevent the use of illegal activity to finance terrorism, and any other criminal activity. As U.S. military and law enforcement detection and monitoring assets are shifted from transit zones in the Caribbean and Central America to homeland defense and the war against terrorism, our counternarcotics training and assistance programs in the Andean source countries become more essential.

The region's governments have taken significant measures to establish security along the borders, which will be a critical element in the success of this regional plan. Ecuador has established a Northern Border Initiative to promote better security and development in the region bordering Colombia; Brazil has launched Operation Cobra, a law enforcement effort concentrated in the Dog's Head region bordering Colombia; Panama has taken concrete steps to improve security and development in the Darien region; and Venezuelan authorities have cooperated admirably on drug interdiction, exemplified by last year's record multi-ton seizure during Operation Orinoco.

When looking at U.S. programs in the Andean region, it is important to keep in mind the situation in Colombia just a few years ago. The large drug lords and organizations had embarked on an extensive campaign of violence to bring the government to its knees, and almost succeeded. Their symbiotic relationship with illegal armed groups continues to keep the government weak. And one can imagine the threat to U.S. national security that would have been posed by a narco-trafficking state used as a springboard for international terrorist groups, and in our hemisphere. That is why Plan Colombia and the Andean Regional Initiative continue to be critical in our efforts to address the drug problem and cut funding to terrorists at the same time.

Amb. Mack is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.