{"id":3480,"date":"2012-04-13T12:11:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T17:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=3480"},"modified":"2012-04-13T12:11:08","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T17:11:08","slug":"finally-a-latin-american-revolt-on-the-us-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/13\/finally-a-latin-american-revolt-on-the-us-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally: A Latin American Revolt on the U.S. Drug War"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend’s hemispheric summit in Colombia could spark an open revolt<\/strong> <\/a>against the U.S. drug war. It is most encouraging to see Latin American leaders finally declaring their independence against this disastrous policy.<\/p>\n

I have been barking at this particular moon for a long time. Below are a few pieces I did on the DEA’s ravages in Guatemala (1993) and in Colombia (1999 and 2000). Also included are the indignant responses from the DEA chief and from the Colombian ambassador. <\/p>\n

Washington Times <\/strong>
\n January 25, 1993, Monday, Final Edition
\nHEADLINE: Poisonous fallout from the drug war <\/strong>
\nBYLINE: James Bovard
\nDATELINE: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA <\/p>\n

BODY: GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – The Bush administration set in motion a major expansion and militarization of the U.S. drug war in Latin America. <\/p>\n

Last June, plans were disclosed to send a dozen Black Hawk military helicopters to Guatemala, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to support U.S. government efforts to destroy local farmers’ coca and marijuana crops. But, as Guatemala illustrates, U.S. anti-drug activities are wrecking the environment, terrorizing the people, and subverting the market economies that the United States loves to champion. Luckily, the Clinton administration has an excellent opportunity to end the abuses. <\/p>\n

In November 1991, a group of Guatemalan beekeepers filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), claiming that the spraying had destroyed half of their industry. Last February, the Peasant Unity Committee of Guatemala sued the DEA for damages in connection with the death of a child and extensive crop destruction caused by DEA spraying. The committee’s spokesman asserted that herbicides had contaminated local drinking water and that many residents had required hospitalization after exposure to the chemicals. Andres Giron, president of a Guatemalan human rights commission, declared in 1991 that herbicide spraying had destroyed so many farmers’ corn and bean crops that serious food shortages could result in the San Marcos region of the country. <\/p>\n

The impact of the herbicides sprayed by drug warriors on crops may not show up for several days or longer. A manager of a large farm in Central Guatemala told me that many of his shipments of yucca cane to Europe have been rejected because his plants arrive in Rotterdam and are slowly dying as a result of DEA’s drug spraying. <\/p>\n

One U.S. diplomatic official in Guatemala said the herbicide solution being sprayed – Round-Up – is not deadly: “Even if it were drunk straight, it could not kill achild.” The official asserted that Guatemalans’ complaints about the adverse impact of the spraying should be discounted because the complaints come from “illiterate Indians” and amounted to “drug war disinformation.” But, a Peace Corps volunteer, who had spent 18 months working with Guatemalan farmers, said the pilots are spraying much more toxic concentrations than the U.S. Embassy admits. U.S. Embassy denials of the adverse effects of foreign herbicide spraying carry ominous echoes of previous U.S. denials of adverse impacts – such as in Vietnam in the 1960s. (A leading Mexican paper asserted last year that the U.S. government was also spraying Paraquat – a highly toxic carcinogen – in Guatemala.) <\/p>\n

Though Round-Up, manufactured by Monsanto, is widely perceived to be one of the less toxic herbicides, Japanese medical professionals reported in 1988 that inert ingredients in Round-Up may have been responsible for nine deaths in Japan and more than 40 other illnesses since 1984. According to environmental toxicologist David Monroe, runoff from Round-Up use “poses a substantial risk to the Salmon fisheries” in the Northwest United States.” According to Susan Cooper of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, the National Park Service has banned the use of Round-Up in some areas because it poses reproductive hazards to people doing the spraying. <\/p>\n

The United States is giving $65 million a year to the Guatemalan government, including more than $1 million for the military to aid its role in the anti-drug effort. But, giving the Guatemalan army more weapons to fight marijuana growers is like giving the Mafia bazookas to combat jaywalking in New York City. <\/p>\n

Last April, the Latin American Institute at the University of New Mexico reported that “specially-trained brigades now comb regions where drug farms are concentrated to rip out the plants by hand and round up drug farmers in mass arrests.” It is likely that the Guatemalan anti-drug brigades, like many American police forces, are more interested in “body counts” – maximizing thenumber of suspects arrested – than in being fair to the accused. The specter of “mass arrests” is especially disturbing in a country where mass arrests have often been followed by “mass disappearances.” <\/p>\n

DEA agents have often behaved acted as if the drug war gives them a right to impose martial law on foreign nations. In Bolivia, DEA agents have donned black masks and gone out and destroyed newly paved roads in the jungle in order to prevent drug traffickers form utilizing them. In Mexico, Guatemala, and elsewhere, DEA agents have kidnapped those accused of drug crimes and taken them to the United States. Guatemalan farmers’ exports to the United States are routinely destroyed during Customs Service searches for illicit drugs – and the Customs Service has refused to compensate any Guatemalans for the damage. The Customs Service apparently believes that, because some Guatemalans have smuggled drugs, the U.S. government has a right to mutilate any import from Guatemala. <\/p>\n

The U.S.-financed attacks on Guatemalan farmers are especially hypocritical because U.S. agricultural policies have destroyed the profitability of other crops that Guatemalan farmers could grow. We poison their farms if they grow marijuana but, thanks to strict U.S. import quotas, refuse to allow them to sell us more than 55,972 tons of sugar per year. U.S. export subsidies have driven down the world prices for grains, poultry and other farm products, thereby making it much more difficult for Guatemalan farmers to compete in third markets against the United States. <\/p>\n

Exporting our drug war to Guatemala and other Latin American nations is Yankee Imperialism at its worst. Rather than poison Guatemalan farmers’ crops, we should open our markets to their bounty. <\/p>\n

James Bovard, the author of “The Fair Trade Fraud” (St. Martin’s Press, 1991), recently visited Guatemala. <\/p>\n

++++
\n Washington Times<\/strong>
\n February 18, 1993, Thursday, Final Edition
\nSECTION: Part G; COMMENTARY; EDITORIAL; LETTERS; Pg. G2<\/p>\n

HEADLINE: Columnist sprays tons of misinformation over your pages<\/strong>
\n BODY:
\n I read with great interest James Bovard’s Jan. 25 column, “Poisonous
\nfallout from the drug war,” concerning drug eradication efforts in Guatemala.
\nUnfortunately, the article had little basis in fact and contained many
\ninaccuracies. Let me correct the record.<\/p>\n

First, the spraying of herbicides to destroy drug-cultivation areas is
\nconducted by the government of Guatemala under a program sponsored by the
\nDepartment of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics Matters, not the U.S.
\nDrug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as indicated in Mr. Bovard’s column. In
\naddition, the spraying of herbicides in Guatemala is primarily directed at
\nopium poppy crops from which heroin is derived, not at coca and marijuana
\ncultivation areas, as described by Mr. Bovard. In 1992, aerial spraying
\neradicated 350 hectares (864.5 acres) of opium poppy in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

The herbicide Round-Up, widely used in the United States and other countries
\nfor agricultural and home-garden applications, has been studied extensively in
\nthe United States. About 25 million pounds of Round-Up are sold in the U.S.
\nannually. Adverse human health and ecological effects are virtually nonexistent
\nif applications are carried out in the manner consistent with guidelines
\napproved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the DEA. These
\nguidelines are strictly followed in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

The EPA estimates that acute oral toxicity of Round-Up to humans to be 10
\nounces per day for a 110-pound adult. The same quantity of table salt would be
\nmore toxic. In other words, the herbicide is widely used in the United States
\nand other countries without ill effect to humans, animals or the environment.<\/p>\n

In addition, the DEA is not facing lawsuits from individuals or groups in
\nGuatemala concerning the spraying program. Mr. Bovard’s assertions that
\nseveral lawsuits have been filed against the DEA, including one involving the
\ndeath of a child, are false. <\/p>\n

The DEA, along with the government of Guatemala, is actively fighting drug
\ntraffickers operating in that country. However, we certainly are not behaving
\nas if the “drug war gives us the right to impose martial law on foreign
\nnations,” as Mr. Bovard contends. The DEA and the rest of the U.S. Embassy
\nstaff in Guatemala are working in concert with the government of Guatemala, at
\nits request, in order to alleviate drug production and trafficking.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Mr. Bovard’s description of the DEA’s work in Guatemala, our
\nprimary focus is on the use of Guatemala as a transshipment area for cocaine
\nbound for the United States and on the growing influence of the Columbian drug
\ncartels operating within the country. Counter-narcotics cooperation between the
\nU.S. and Guatemalan law-enforcement officers resulted in the seizure of about
\n15.5 metric tons of cocaine last year.<\/p>\n

I suggest Mr. Bovard check his facts before setting himself up as an expert
\non a subject as important as our relationship with other countries. When he
\nfails to check even basic information, he does a great disservice to your
\nreaders.<\/p>\n

ROBERT C. BONNER<\/strong>
\n The Washington Times, February 18, 1993
\n Administrator of Drug Enforcement
\n Drug Enforcement Administration
\n U.S. Department of Justice
\n Washington<\/p>\n

++++++++++++++++++++<\/p>\n

THE BALTIMORE SUN<\/strong>
\n June 1, 2000,
\nHEADLINE: U.S. stuck in Colombia<\/strong>
\nBYLINE: James Bovard <\/p>\n

BODY:
\n THE SENATE will soon consider President Clinton’s proposed $1.6 billion
\npackage to bankroll the government of Colombia’s war against leftist guerillas. <\/p>\n

The aid windfall purports to help staunch the flow of drugs from Colombia.
\nBut there is no reason to expect further U.S. anti-drug aid to be anymore
\neffective than past aid. Even worse, there is a growing danger that the United
\nStates will be bumbling into a civil war. <\/p>\n

The Clinton administration is hitting the panic buttons on the aid package;
\none administration official whined to the Washington Post on Tuesday, “Every
\nweek we are losing ground” in the fight against drugs.<\/p>\n

While past U.S. aid has had little or no positive effect, Americans are
\nsupposed to believe that any delay in new spending means catastrophic damage.<\/p>\n

Colombia has received nearly $1 billion in anti-narcotics aid since 1990.
\nU.S. tax dollars are magnificent fertilizer: coca production is skyrocketing —
\ndoubling since 1996 and forecast to increase another 50 percent in the next two
\nyears. Colombia nowsupplies roughly three-quarters ofthe heroin and almost all
\nthecocaine consumed in the United States.<\/p>\n

Most U.S. anti-drug aid has paid for chemical warfare: blanketing
\ncoca-growing areas with herbicides from crop- duster planes and helicopter
\ngunships, a policy the Colombian minister of health strongly opposed in 1992.
\nYet after continual escalation in the amount of spraying, the amount of land in
\ncoca production is four times greater than what it was in 1994 and now exceeds
\n300 square miles.<\/p>\n

“Close enough for government work” seems to be the motto of some anti-drug
\npilots. The New York Times reported allegations on May 1 that U.S.-financed
\nplanes repeatedly sprayed pesticides onto schoolchildren in a Colombian village.
\nMany children reportedly became ill; the spraying also killed crops, chickens
\nand 25,000 fish in fish farms.<\/p>\n

The Clinton administration intensely pressured the Colombian government to
\nallow a much more toxic chemical (tebuthiuron, known as SPIKE 20) to be dumped
\nacross the land, which would permit the planes to fly at much higher altitudes,
\nKosovo-style.<\/p>\n

Environmentalists warned that SPIKE 20 could poison ground water and
\npermanently ruin the land for agriculture. Even as the Clinton administration
\ndecreed clean-air standards severely curtailing Americans’ exposure to chemicals
\nthat pose little or no health threat, it sought to deluge a foreign land with a
\ntoxic chemical in a way that would be forbidden in the United States.<\/p>\n

The United States is foisting itself deeper into a civil war that has raged
\nin Colombia for decades. There are about 200 U.S. military advisers already on
\nsite, and U.S. personnel are now actively training the Colombian military.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News recently noted reports that “tens of millions of
\ntaxpayer dollars are going into covert operations across southern Colombia
\nemploying, among others, U.S. Special Forces, former Green Berets, Gulf war
\nveterans and even a few figures from covert CIA-backed operations in Central
\nAmerica during the 1980s.” The United States is providing key intelligence to
\nthe Colombian military from U.S. intercepts of guerrilla radio messages.<\/p>\n

Increased U.S. aid will not enable the Colombian government to win a
\ndecisive victory over the guerrillas anytime soon. The Colombian military is
\nrenown for losing almost all of the major engagements it fights with the
\nguerrillas.<\/p>\n

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, recently warned that if Clinton’s
\n$1.6 billion aid plan is approved, the United States will be locked into “a
\nfive- to 10-year commitment, which will cost U.S. taxpayers in excess of $5
\nbillion.”<\/p>\n

And even if the guerrillas are defeated, it’s ludicrous to pretend that
\nColombians will no longer have an incentive to grow coca, as long as U.S. laws
\nmake that crop 20 times more profitable than any other.<\/p>\n

American-funded drug suppression efforts have resulted in a “push down, pop
\nup” effect: the harder the United States works to repress coca production in one
\narea, the more likely production is to start up in another. It is time to
\nrecognize the futility of trying to micromanage what foreign farmers grow. <\/p>\n

James Bovard is the author of “Freedom in Chains,” (St. Martin’s Press,
\n1999). This article is adapted from an essay published by the Future of Freedom
\nFoundation, a think tank in Fairfax, Va.
\n++++ <\/p>\n

The Baltimore Sun<\/strong>
\n June 17, 2000 Saturday FINAL EDITION<\/p>\n

SECTION: EDITORIAL, Pg. 9A SATURDAY MAILBOX<\/p>\n

BODY:
\n Aid to Colombia helps stop drugs<\/p>\n

James Bovard’s column “U.S. stuck in Colombia” (Opinion Commentary, June
\n1) mis-represented several important issues in the debate over U.S. assistance
\nto Colombia’s fight against narco- trafficking.<\/p>\n

First, U.S. assistance to Colombia will not go to combat guerrilla
\norganizations, but for specific anti-narcotics activities such as military
\nequipment and training for Colombia’s armed forces and police to destroy the
\ninfrastructure of illegal drug organizations.
\n And our balanced strategy will also support alternative development
\nprograms, strengthen law enforcement institutions and help protect human rights.
\n Second, the increase in cocaine and heroin production in Colombia in recent
\nyears is due in part to the success of similar U.S.-sponsored programs including
\nfumigation of coca and poppy crops in neighboring Bolivia and Peru.
\n Since 1992, Colombia has allowed the controlled aerial spraying of illicit
\ncrops with gliphosate. Its application has been monitored and strictly
\ncontrolled and no secondary effects to the population or to the environment have
\nbeen reported.
\n Third, by providing assistance to Colombia, the United States is not
\n“bumbling into a civil war.”
\n Colombia is not engaged in a civil war. Guerrilla organizations account for
\nabout 25,000 people in a nation of more than 40 million.
\n They are not waging an ideological argument with the government or Colombian
\nsociety, but are criminals who are engaged in violence, kidnapping, human rights
\nviolations and drug trafficking.
\n The vast majority of Colombians are neither guerrillas nor drug traffickers.
\nWe are, however, a nation that needs America’s help, not only to give us the
\ntools necessary to win the war against drugs we are waging in our country but to
\nreduce the demand for these drugs in your country.
\n Every shipment of illegal drugs we stop in Colombia is one that does not
\nreach Baltimore’s streets, neighborhoods and schools. Every month we delay the
\napproval of the aid package gives enormous advantage to the drug traffickers and
\ncosts both societies thousands of human lives and tremendous lost opportunities.<\/p>\n

Luis Alberto Moreno<\/p>\n

Washington<\/p>\n

The writer is Colombia’s ambassador to the United States.
\n++++++<\/p>\n

Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/strong>(Las Vegas, NV)<\/p>\n

October 8, 1999 Friday FINAL EDITION<\/p>\n

SECTION: B; Pg. 15B<\/p>\n

LENGTH: 867 words<\/p>\n

HEADLINE: Military aid only fuels Colombia’s busy coke ovens<\/p>\n

BYLINE: James Bovard
\nKnight Ridder\/Tribune News Service<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was not a good summer for the U.S. drug war in Colombia. On July 23, five
\nAmerican officers died when their high-tech spy plane went down in southern
\nColombia.
\nThe Pentagon trotted out the usual explanation: out-of-date maps. Those Andes
\nmountains grow awfully quickly. Other observers speculate that the plane was
\nshot or forced down by Marxist guerrillas.
\nThe prestige of the administration’s policy suffered another setback when the
\nwife of the commander of U.S. military anti-drug operations in Colombia was
\nindicted last month for shipping kilos of cocaine via embassy mail to contacts
\nin New York. They don’t make military wives like they used to.
\nColombia has received almost a billion dollars of anti-narcotics aid since 1990.
\nU.S. tax dollars are magnificent fertilizer: coca production is skyrocketing _
\ndoubling since 1996 and forecast to increase another 50 percent in the next two
\nyears.
\nColombia now supplies roughly three-quarters of the heroin and almost all the
\ncocaine consumed in the United States.
\nFor the Clinton administration, the obvious solution to this problem is more
\nU.S. tax dollars. On July 16, Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey proposed an emergency
\nbillion-dollar anti-drug package for the Andean nations, including $ 600 million
\nfor Colombia.
\nThe Clinton administration subsequently indicated the aid package might go even
\nhigher.
\nThe United States is foisting itself deeper into a civil war that has raged in
\nColombia for decades. There are approximately 200 U.S. military advisers already
\non site, and U.S. personnel are now actively training the Colombia military.
\nThe Dallas Morning News recently noted reports that “tens of millions of
\ntaxpayer dollars are going into covert operations across southern Colombia
\nemploying, among others, U.S. Special Forces, former Green Berets, Gulf War
\nveterans and even a few figures from covert CIA-backed operations in Central
\nAmerica during the 1980’s.”
\nThe United States is providing key intelligence to the Colombian military from
\nU.S. intercepts of guerrilla radio messages.
\nCongress in 1996 prohibited any U.S. foreign aid to military organizations with
\na penchant for atrocities. The Colombian army has a frightful human rights
\nrecord, but few in Congress seem to care about the administration’s open
\nflouting of the law.
\nMost U.S. anti-drug aid has paid for chemical warfare: blanketing coca-growing
\nareas with herbicides from crop-duster planes and helicopter gun ships. Yet
\nafter continual escalation in the amount of spraying, the amount of land in coca
\nproduction is four times greater than what it was in 1994, and now exceeds 300
\nsquare miles.
\nMany farmers raising non-coca crops have been devastated by herbicides dropped
\nindiscriminately on their fields. The Colombian minister of health strongly
\nopposed the initiation of spraying in 1992.
\nCoca farmers have responded to the attacks in part by going deeper into the
\njungles and hacking out new land for planting; environmentalists complain that
\nherbicide attacks are a major cause of deforestation.
\nColombian environmental minister Juan Mayr publicly declared last year that the
\ncrop spraying program has been a failure and warned, “We can’t permanently
\nfumigate the country.”
\nThe Clinton administration has intensely pressured the Colombian government to
\nallow a much more toxic chemical (tebuthiuron, known as SPIKE 20) to be dumped
\nacross the land, which would permit the planes to fly at much higher altitudes,
\nKosovo-style.
\nEnvironmentalists warned that SPIKE 20 could poison ground water and permanently
\nruin the land for agriculture. Even as the Clinton administration decreed clean
\nair standards strictly controlling Americans’ exposure to chemicals that pose
\nlittle or no health threat, it sought to deluge a foreign land with a toxic
\nchemical in a way that would be forbidden in the U.S.
\nIncreased U.S. aid will not enable the Colombian government to win a decisive
\nvictory over the guerrillas any time soon. The Colombian military is renown for
\nlosing almost all the major engagements it fights with the guerrillas.
\nEven if the guerrillas are defeated, it’s ludicrous to pretend that Colombians
\nwill no longer have an incentive to grow coca _ as long as U.S. laws make that
\ncrop 20 times more profitable than any other.
\nAmerican-funded drug suppression efforts have resulted in a “push down, pop up”
\neffect: The harder the U.S. works to repress coca production in one area, the
\nmore likely production is to start up in another.
\nTen years ago, President George Bush warned Colombian drug dealers that they
\nwere “no match for an angry America.”
\nIt is time to admit that, regardless of how many temper tantrums U.S.
\npoliticians throw, the laws of supply and demand will trump posturing every
\ntime. The war on drugs is as unwinnable in Colombia as it is in the hills of
\nKentucky, where natives continue growing marijuana despite endless raids by
\npolice and the National Guard.<\/p>\n

James Bovard is an independent journalist and the author of “Freedom in
\nChains” (St. Martin’s Press, 1999). This piece is adapted from a piece in the
\ncurrent American Spectator.
\n+++++++<\/p>\n

The American Spectator<\/strong><\/p>\n

October, 1999
\nHEADLINE: Roll Over Colombia<\/strong>As drug war gives way to civil war, the U.S. escalates both.<\/p>\n

BYLINE: by James Bovard.;
\n James Bovard is the author of Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the
\nDemise of the Citizen (St. Martin’s Press).<\/p>\n

This has not been a good summer for the U.S. drug war in Colombia. On July 23,
\nfive American officers died when their high-tech spy plane went down in southern
\nColombia. The Pentagon trotted out the usual explanation: out-of- date maps.
\nOther observers speculate that the plane was shot or forced down by Marxist
\nguerrillas. The Clinton administration has largely succeeded in sweeping the
\ndeaths under the rug; as Robert Novak reported in his column, there was no
\ntelevision coverage or presidential lip-biting when the bodies were returned, in
\nthe middle of the night, to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.<\/p>\n

The prestige of the administration’s policy suffered another setback when
\nLaurie Hiett, the wife of the commander of U.S. military anti-drug operations in
\nColombia, was indicted on August 4 for shipping kilos of cocaine via embassy
\nmail to contacts in New York.<\/p>\n

Colombia has received almost a billion dollars of anti-narcotics aid since
\n1990. Coca production is skyrocketing–doubling since 1996 and, according to the
\nGeneral Accounting Office, expected to increase another 50 percent in the next
\ntwo years. Colombia now supplies roughly three-quarters of the heroin and almost
\nall the cocaine consumed in the United States.<\/p>\n

For the Clinton administration, the inevitable answer to this problem is more
\nU.S. tax dollars. On July 16 Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey proposed an emergency
\nbillion-dollar anti-drug package for the Andean nations, including $600 million
\nfor Colombia. McCaffrey wants to give Colombia–already the third largest
\nrecipient of foreign aid, just after Israel and Egypt–even more than the
\nColombian government has asked for.<\/p>\n

On August 6, the House Committee on International Relations convened a
\nhearing on the Colombian crisis. Rep. Dan Burton bewailed: “There is no war on
\ndrugs being waged by this administration, unless you count the nearly $200
\nmillion General McCaffrey spends annually for…television ads and these
\nFrisbees and key chains….” Rep. Mark Souder warned that U.S. drug policy in
\nColombia “is like Vietnam…we will give (the Colombian government) just enough
\nto never quite win, to never quite succeed, and possibly fail, but we’ll never
\ngive them enough, early enough, to get the jump on those they’re fighting.”
\n(Souder apparently forgot that American presidents have made the war on coca in
\nColombia a top issue for more than a decade.) Republicans generally demanded
\nthat the Clinton administration provide far more aid, more equipment, and more
\nsupport for the Colombian government.<\/p>\n

Yet the congressmen showed little or no curiosity as to what the U.S.
\nmilitary is already doing in Colombia.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is foisting itself deeper into a civil war that has raged in
\nColombia for decades. There are approximately 200 U.S. military advisers already
\non site, and U.S. personnel are now actively training the Colombia military. A
\n950-member “anti-narcotics battalion” is supposed to take the field later this
\nyear. The Dallas Morning News recently noted reports that ” tens of millions of
\ntaxpayer dollars are going into covert operations across southern Colombia
\nemploying, among others, U.S. Special Forces, former Green Berets, Gulf War
\nveterans and even a few figures from covert CIA-backed operations in Central
\nAmerica during the 1980’s.” The U.S. is providing key intelligence to the
\nColombian military from U.S. intercepts of guerrilla radio messages.<\/p>\n

Congress in 1996 prohibited any U.S. foreign aid to military organizations
\nwith a penchant for atrocities. The Colombian army has a poor human rights
\nrecord, but few in Congress seem to care about the administration’s open
\nflouting of the law–in stark contrast to the fury that erupted in Democratic-
\ncontrolled Congresses during the 1980’s over the Reagan administration’s
\nviolations of the Boland amendments prohibiting direct U.S. aid to the
\nNicaraguan Contras. Congress is effectively letting itself be taken for a ride
\nwherever the Clinton administration wants to go, just as long as the
\nadministration’s point people sound sufficiently bellicose against drugs.<\/p>\n

Most U.S. anti-drug aid has gone to pay for chemical warfare: blanketing
\ncoca-growing areas with herbicides from crop-duster planes and helicopter gun
\nships. (Three U.S. civilian pilots of crop dusters have died in recent years,
\nshot down by guerrillas or farmers or paramilitary forces.)<\/p>\n

Yet after continual escalation in the amount of spraying, the amount of land
\nin coca production is four times greater than what it was in 1994, and now
\nexceeds 300 square miles. CIA analysts estimate that only about a quarter of the
\naerial fumigation actually kills the coca bushes.<\/p>\n

Many farmers raising non-coca crops have been devastated by herbicides
\ndropped indiscriminately on their fields. Much of the glyphosate dumped from the
\nplanes misses the target acreage, according to pesticide experts. The Colombian
\nminister of health strongly opposed the initiation of spraying in 1992. Coca
\nfarmers have responded to the attacks in part by going deeper into the jungles
\nand hacking out new land for planting; environmentalists complain that the
\nherbicide attacks are a major cause of deforestation. Colombian environmental
\nminister Juan Mayr publicly declared last year that the crop spraying program
\nhas been a failure and warned, “We can’t permanently fumigate the country.”<\/p>\n

The Clinton administration in recent years has intensely pressured the
\nColombian government to allow a much more toxic chemical to be dumped across the
\nland, which would permit the planes to fly at much higher altitudes,
\nKosovo-style. The Colombian government briefly agreed last year to allow
\ntebuthiuron (known as SPIKE 20) to be used on a test basis on coca. Dow
\nChemical, the product’s inventor, protested strongly that the product was not
\nsafe for use in the Andes and surrounding areas. Environmentalists warned that
\ndumping the product over the Colombian landscape could poison ground water and
\npermanently ruin the land for agriculture. The U.S. ambassador to Colombia,
\nCurtis Kamman, dismissed such concerns: “For a net environmental positive
\neffect, getting rid of coca is the best course for Colombia.” Even as the
\nClinton administration decreed clean air standards strictly controlling
\nAmericans’ exposure to chemicals that pose little or no health threat, it sought
\nto deluge a foreign land with a toxic chemical in a way that would be forbidden
\nin the U.S. (The Colombian government backed out of the agreement after a New
\nYork Times front-page story sparked intense controversy over the plan.)<\/p>\n

Drug Czar McCaffrey is arguing that the Colombian guerrillas (a Marxist army of
\nthugs specializing in massacres and kidnappings) are essentially a bunch of
\nillicit drug operators and thus there should be no real limits on U. S. aid to
\nthe Colombian military. But DEA chief administrator Donnie Marshall recently
\ntestified that “the DEA has not arrived at the conclusion that the FARC (Fuerzas
\nArmadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) are drug traffickers.” Unfortunately, the
\nDEA does not seem to have the same clout in the White House as the drug czar or
\nother advocates of increased U.S. military intervention. Nor does there seem to
\nbe anyone on Capitol Hill with the will or wit to challenge McCaffrey’s
\nnarco-doomsday scenario.<\/p>\n

It is doubtful that increased U.S. aid would allow the Colombian government
\nto win a decisive victory over the guerrillas any time soon. The Colombian
\nmilitary is renown for losing almost all the major engagements it fights with
\nthe guerrillas. Many farmers see the war on drugs as a war on farmers, and the
\nherbicide spraying further undercuts the legitimacy of a government that already
\nhas miserably served its people.<\/p>\n

Moreover, even if the guerrillas are defeated, it’s ludicrous to pretend that
\nColombians will no longer have an incentive to grow coca–as long as U.S. laws
\nmake that crop 20 times more profitable than any other. American-funded drug
\nsuppression efforts have resulted in a “push down, pop up” effect: The harder
\nthe U.S. works to repress coca production in one area, the more likely
\nproduction is to start up in another. Considering the failure of the U.S.
\ngovernment to eradicate marijuana growing at home, a foreign government with far
\nfewer resources cannot be expected to suppress coca growing on its huge
\nterritory. Colombians justifiably see Americans as hypocrites for demanding
\ngreat sacrifices of foreigners while prominent U.S. politicians who admit or get
\ncaught using cocaine suffer little or no consequences from the voters.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, President George Bush warned Colombian drug dealers that they
\nwere “no match for an angry America.” It is time to admit that, regardless of
\nhow many temper tantrums U.S. politicians throw, the laws of supply and demand
\nwill trump posturing every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend’s hemispheric summit in Colombia could spark an open revolt against the U.S. drug war. It is most encouraging to see Latin American leaders finally declaring their independence against this disastrous policy. I have been barking at this particular moon for a long time. 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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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