Article: U.S. Says People of Colombia Still Have Faith in Democracy

28 November 2000

Article: U.S. Says People of Colombia Still Have Faith in Democracy

Drug policy chief McCaffrey assesses situation in Andean country

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Despite ongoing problems with narco-traffickers, guerrilla warfare, and the high level of "common mayhem," the people of Colombia "still have not given up" their belief in democracy as a system, and continue to hope for civil order, says General Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

In remarks to the Atlantic Council of the United States on November 28, McCaffrey said the "good news" about Colombia is that recent polls show that 60-70 percent of the people there still have "enormously high confidence" in the civilian police force, the armed forces, and in democratic values.

Those same polls show that less than 10 percent of the people support anti-government guerrillas who control drug-producing areas in Colombia. On that score, McCaffrey praised Colombian President Andres Pastrana for his attempts to negotiate with the largest and the oldest of those groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). McCaffrey said the Colombian people support talks because they are "saturated and sick of the violence" that has racked the country for 40 years.

McCaffrey said the United States has "no choice" but to help Colombia overcome its massive drug production problem. The country produced 520 metric tons of cocaine last year, much of which ended up in the United States. Another significant figure, he said, is that eight metric tons of heroin were produced in Colombia in 1999, as opposed to a decade ago when the country produced virtually no heroin. McCaffrey predicted it will take about five years for a $1,300 million U.S. aid package to Colombia to produce a "dramatic" cut in drug production in that country.

McCaffrey said he hopes that the change in U.S. administrations next January will launch the beginning of a four-year partnership between the Andean region and the new team in the White House. "We ought to be pretty optimistic that at the end of the day our stand with the Colombian people will pay off," he said.

At the same time, McCaffrey painted a gloomy picture of current conditions in Colombia, saying the country's problems are "enormous and getting worse." He said most people outside Colombia have a difficult time understanding the level of violence there, which includes assassinations, extortion, bank robberies, kidnappings, the blowing up of oil pipelines, and "26,000 or so heavily armed narco-insurgents from at least three major terrorist organizations in the country, which some of us believe are fueled by drug money." McCaffrey said his figures show that each year between $500 million and $1,000 million of drug money flows into these insurgent organizations.

McCaffrey said there is no rule of law in many parts of Colombia, with Colombian police having been expelled by the heavily armed narco-insurgents.

But the United States cannot afford to abandon Colombia, McCaffrey argued. "Colombia is too close geographically for us to pretend we are not affected," he said. "It is in our national interest to support Colombia's strategy for combating illegal drugs and strengthening its democracy. Our families and communities are poisoned by the drugs produced in Colombia." Without help from its international partners, he said, the Colombian government will be unable "to reduce drug trafficking or stop the cycle of violence and chaos that the drug trade produces."