{"id":21998,"date":"2025-10-23T09:09:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=21998"},"modified":"2025-10-30T09:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:51:16","slug":"the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/23\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sordid History of U.S. “Aid” to Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Also posted on Zero Hedge<\/a>, Counterpunch, Eurasia Review<\/a>,<\/p>\n

The Instituto Rothbard<\/strong><\/a> in Brazil created this awesome image for their Portuguese translation of this article. Thanks!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE SORDID HISTORY OF U.S. \u201cAID\u201d TO COLOMBIA<\/a><\/h2>\n

By James Bovard\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

President Trump is rattling his saber against Colombian President Gustavo Petro to punish him for accusing the U.S. government of murdering Venezuelan fishermen.\u00a0 Trump has boasted of the killings by the U.S. military but claims all the targets were drug smugglers. Trump has threatened to suspend all U.S. government handouts for the Colombian government.\u00a0 Trump \u00a0warned that Petro that he “better close up” cocaine production \u00a0“or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”<\/p>\n

Tapping his own psychiatric expertise, Trump proclaimed that Colombia has \u201cthe worst president they\u2019ve ever had – a lunatic with serious mental problems.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is anyone in the Trump White House aware of the long history of U.S. failure in that part of the world? In 1989, President George H.W. Bush warned Colombian drug dealers that they were \u201cno match for an angry America.\u201d But Colombia remains the world\u2019s largest cocaine producer despite billions of dollars of U.S. government anti-drug aid to the Colombian government.<\/p>\n

The Clinton administration made Colombia its top target in its international war on drugs. Clinton drug warriors deluged the Colombian government with U.S. tax dollars to deluge Colombia with toxic spray. \u00a0The New York Times reported that U.S.-financed\u00a0 planes repeatedly sprayed pesticides onto schoolchildren, making many of them ill.<\/strong>\u00a0 Colombian environmental minister Juan Mayr publicly declared in 1999 that the crop spraying program has been a failure and warned, “We can’t permanently fumigate the country.”<\/p>\n

As I wrote in the American Spectator in 1999: \u00a0\u00a0 \u201cColombia has received almost a billion dollars of anti-narcotics aid since 1990. Coca production is skyrocketing–doubling since 1996 and, according to the General Accounting Office, expected to increase another 50 percent in the next two years. Colombia now supplies roughly three-quarters of the heroin and almost all the cocaine consumed in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clinton administration responded to the failure of its drug war by championing a far more destructive solution<\/strong>. As I noted in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Clinton officials \u201cintensely pressured the Colombian government to allow a much more toxic chemical (tebuthiuron, known as SPIKE 20) to be dumped\u00a0 across the land, which would permit the planes to fly at much higher altitudes, Kosovo-style. Environmentalists warned that SPIKE 20 could poison ground water and permanently ruin the land for agriculture. Even as the Clinton administration decreed clean-air standards severely curtailing Americans\u2019 exposure to chemicals that pose little or no health threat, it sought to deluge a foreign land with a toxic chemical in a way that would be forbidden in the United States.\u201d Dow Chemical, the product\u2019s inventor, protested strongly that SPIKE 20 was not safe for use in the Andes and surrounding areas. Didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Colombia at that time was wracked by a civil war \u2013 a fight between a corrupt government and corrupt leftist guerillas. The Dallas Morning News noted reports that “tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are going into covert operations across southern Colombia employing, among others, U.S. Special Forces, former Green Berets, Gulf War veterans and even a few figures from covert CIA-backed operations in Central America during the 1980’s.”<\/p>\n

Like Trump\u2019s attacks on Venezuelan boats, Clinton\u2019s aid for Colombia was lawless.<\/strong> Congress in 1996 prohibited any U.S. foreign aid to military organizations with a penchant for atrocities. The Colombian army had a poor human rights record but almost nobody in Congress gave a damn. Democrats winked at illicit conduct by their president and Republicans didn\u2019t care about any crimes committed in the name of eradicating drugs.<\/p>\n

In a Baltimore Sun piece in June 2000, I observed, \u201cThe war on drugs is as unwinnable in Colombia as it is in the hills of Kentucky, where natives continue growing marijuana despite endless raids by police and the National Guard.\u201d I whacked the Clinton administration for \u201cbumbling into a civil war.\u201d Colombia\u2019s ambassador to the U.S. vehemently attacked my piece, claiming that the Clinton administration aid package was carefully targeted to \u201cstrengthen law<\/u> enforcement institutions and help protect human rights.\u201d Alas, U.S. aid was diverted to \u201ccarry out spying operations and smear<\/u> campaigns against Supreme Court justices,\u201d the Washington Post reported, crippling the nation\u2019s judiciary.<\/p>\n

At the same time that the Clinton administration was sacrificing the health of Colombian children in its quixotic anti-drug crusade, top U.S. antidrug officials made a mockery of the entire mission.\u00a0 Laurie Hiett, the wife of Colonel James Hiett, the top U.S. military commander in Colombia, exploited U.S. embassy diplomatic pouches to ship 15 pounds of heroin and cocaine to New York.\u00a0 She pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in narcotic profits.\u00a0 After she was caught and convicted, she received far more lenient treatment than most drug offenders \u2013 only five years in prison, \u201cthe same sentence a small-time dealer would get if he were caught with five grams of crack in his pocket,\u201d I noted in Playboy.\u00a0 Her husband \u2013 ridiculed as the \u201cCoke Colonel\u201d in the New York Post – received only six months in prison for laundering drug proceeds and concealing his wife\u2019s crimes. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, explained the double standard: “If Colonel Hiett had been Mr. Hiett, he would have been charged with conspiracy to traffic in more than a kilogram of heroin, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. He would possibly face life without parole\u2026 Mr. Hiett would, at a minimum, have been charged with aiding and abetting his wife’s money laundering, facing 20 years.”<\/p>\n

Most drug warriors pretended either that the Hiett case had never happened or that it didn\u2019t matter. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey shrugged off the scandal: \u201cWhat a tragedy\u2026. There are 3.6 million chronic cocaine addicts in America and every one of them produces that kind of criminality and tragedy.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when any of those 3.6 million is caught, they don’t get coddled,\u201d as I wrote in Playboy.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the 2024 presidential election did not entitle him to micromanage every acre of land in this hemisphere.\u00a0 The U.S. drug war has dismally failed in Colombia for more than a third of a century.\u00a0 There is no excuse for Trump or any other U.S. government official to burn U.S. tax dollars by perpetuating Colombian pratfalls.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Also posted on Zero Hedge, Counterpunch, Eurasia Review, The Instituto Rothbard in Brazil created this awesome image for their Portuguese translation of this article. Thanks! THE SORDID HISTORY OF U.S. \u201cAID\u201d TO COLOMBIA By James Bovard President Trump is rattling his saber against Colombian President Gustavo Petro to punish him for accusing the U.S. government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,4673,4675,4674,113,1819,4679,4676,4680,4677,4678,708],"class_list":["post-21998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clinton","tag-coaine","tag-coke-colone","tag-colombia","tag-drug-war","tag-george-h-w-bush","tag-gustavo-petro","tag-hiett","tag-juan-mayr","tag-spike-20","tag-toxic-spraying","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Sordid History of U.S. "Aid" to Colombia - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trump is threatening the Colombian government but U.S. anti-drug policies in Colombia have been a disaster for more than 35 years\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/23\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Sordid History of U.S. "Aid" to Colombia - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump is threatening the Colombian government but U.S. anti-drug policies in Colombia have been a disaster for more than 35 years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/23\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-23T13:09:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-30T13:51:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/JPB-Colombia-Trump-Drug-War-revised-collage.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/23\\\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/23\\\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"The Sordid History of U.S. “Aid” to Colombia\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-23T13:09:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-30T13:51:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/23\\\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1096,\"commentCount\":9,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/23\\\/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-aid-to-colombia\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/JPB-Colombia-Trump-Drug-War-revised-collage.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Clinton\",\"coaine\",\"Coke Colone\",\"Colombia\",\"drug war\",\"George H.W. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21998"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22023,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21998\/revisions\/22023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}