Article: State Dept. Official Warns of Perils of Not Helping Colombia

13 February 2001

Official Warns of Perils of Not Helping Colombia

Peter Romero says guerrillas might overrun part of nation

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Left-wing guerrilla forces would likely control the eastern part of Colombia if the United States and the international community did nothing to help the government of Colombian President Andres Pastrana, says U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Peter Romero.

In February 13 remarks at a forum on Colombia, Romero disputed media reports suggesting that guerrilla forces would march into Bogota if the international community abandoned the Pastrana government. A more plausible scenario, Romero said, is that the guerrillas would "nail down the eastern part of the nation as their own fiefdom" and launch attacks from there, while neither the Colombian military nor police could do much to stop them.

Speaking at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Romero said U.S. policy was "disjointed" toward the Andean nation during the tenure of Pastrana's predecessor, Ernesto Samper. Although Samper never acknowledged any ties to the illegal drug trade, the former president permitted drug-trafficking money to be funneled into his presidential campaign coffers, Romero said. As a consequence, he added, Washington was forced to pull back from "the kind of things we should have been doing" to help Colombia resolve its 37-year-old civil war, such as helping the national police, expanding alternative crop development programs, and helping to promote infrastructure development.

Romero said that Plan Colombia, which the Pastrana government developed with U.S. assistance, is a "holistic integrated approach" to ameliorating the many social and economic ills that have plagued the nation for years. Unless the United States assists Colombia, "we will face a problem" within the next couple of years "that is five times worse than it is -- and it's very troubling now," Romero said.

A major component of Plan Colombia involves helping the Colombian government fight the illegal narcotics trade, Romero said. "If we can at least cut back on the income produced by coca, that will enable the Colombian police and military to be able to defend themselves" against anti-government forces, with the goal of promoting a civilian presence in regions now occupied by rebels and narco-traffickers.

Romero said establishing civilian control will allow human rights monitors, judicial authorities, and police to be deployed in the country's most troubled regions. The police are important, he indicated, because they can protect law-abiding citizens -- including people engaged in alternative crop development -- from intimidation by illegal drug traffickers.

The United States is also providing training for three Colombian anti-narcotics battalions, Romero said, stressing that no U.S. assistance will go to units that face credible accusations of human rights abuses.

Romero also addressed the problem of paramilitary forces in Colombia, which he said are gaining wider acceptance and often pay high salaries to informers who spy on those suspected of working for the guerrilla side.

The United States, Romero said, is "putting a great deal of pressure" on the Colombian government to punish those battalion commanders who are cooperating with the paramilitaries. Paramilitaries committing human rights abuses must be punished as vigorously as guerrillas who commit similar abuses, Romero said. Colombia's Minister of Defense "has promised us" such punishment will be meted out, Romero said, "and there are beginning signs that is certainly the case."