U.S. Drug Czar Vows Continued Support for Colombian Anti-Drug Efforts By Scott Wilson Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, November 20, 2000; 3:16 p.m. EST
BOGOTA, Nov. 20–In his valedictory visit here, U.S. drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey said the United States would continue supporting Colombia's efforts to reduce drug production regardless of who heads the next administration. But he also warned that wresting control of the country's vast coca-producing regions from armed groups would "not be easy."
This was McCaffrey's last official visit to a country that represents perhaps his most vexing challenge. Colombia, among the world's largest producers of cocaine and heroin, is the site of a new U.S.-backed anti-drug program that has sparked a new violence here. His remarks, delivered to students and faculty of Colombian's diplomatic academy and war college, were meant to steel Colombian resolve for the $7.5 billion strategy.
"There will be no change in the long-term U.S. commitment for Plan Colombia," McCaffrey said in a morning speech at the graceful Spanish-colonial Foreign Ministry, a portrait of 19th-century liberator Simon Bolivar over his shoulder.
During his nearly five years directing U.S. drug policy, McCaffrey has been the principle advocate for the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package, which includes sophisticated transport helicopters, military advisers, and money to help the Colombian government build health clinics, roads and other public institutions in conflict zones. The strategy is designed to encourage coca farmers to turn to legal crops, thus depriving the armed groups of the money they need to finance their operations.
But human rights groups and European diplomats have warned that the package, eagerly sought by President Andres Pastrana as part of his broader peace efforts, would only exacerbate the conflict by bringing in more military support. As part of his visit here, McCaffrey met with European ambassadors hoping to dispel their lingering concerns over the plan and to encourage their countries to contribute more aid to Colombia than they have so far.
McCaffrey, who has announced he is leaving office in January, asked the Colombian government for an opportunity to make a public address during his two-day visit. While laced with warnings about the staying power of the drug trade in the Andean region, it was much like a pep talk to a suffering country. So far, Plan Colombia has provoked more violence here, particularly in the drug-producing areas, as armed groups that profit from the drug trade step up operations before U.S. anti-drug battalions swing into action next month.
In Colombian's southern drug-producing region, daily battles between insurgent guerrilla groups and their paramilitary rivals have virtually paralyzed the Vermont-sized province of Putumayo, killing hundreds of combatants and leaving many of homeless and hungry. Meanwhile, Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, abandoned peace talks with the government last week after accusing it of failing to move against rival paramilitary groups. Neither side is optimistic that the talks with begin again soon.
McCaffrey emphasized that the U.S. military package was directed against the drug trade, not the decades-old leftist insurgency. In a meeting with foreign reporters, he called the FARC, as the largest guerrilla group is known, "the principle organizing entity of cocaine production in the world." Last year, he said, Colombia produced more than half a million tons of cocaine, which generated as much as $1 billion. Much of those drugs were destined for the United States.
He said that new drug production figures, due in February, would likely show an increase in coca production in Colombia and that the FARC were beginning to establish a distribution network outside the country to increase their drug profits.
As a result of the money at stake, McCaffrey said the FARC and its paramilitary opposition, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, would not give up the drug producing regions without a stiff fight. He warned that the central challenge for Colombians was to establish security in the drug-producing regions in order to allow Plan Colombia's economic development and institution-building programs to begin, acknowledging that such an effort could not start amid the current violence.
"I don't think this is going to be easy, but all of these components must be put into motion at the same time," McCaffrey said. "The FARC [and paramilitary groups] are going to do things to keep the drugs. When we do something that doesn't work they will ignore it. When we do something that does they will do something to stop it. And it will be brutal."