August
2001
Page
1 of 4
Last
year, the U.S. Congress approved an unprecedented $1.3
billion for aid to Colombia. This represented the U.S.
contribution to the $7.5 billion Plan Colombia, originally
designed as a multifaceted, five-year program, aimed
at addressing the countrys many ills by promoting
peace. It was presented by President Andrés Pastrana
in late 1999 and endorsed by President Bill Clinton
in early 2000.
However, a year later, while still only in its initial
implementation stages, Plan Colombia has already engendered
heated political debate, created many negative reactions,
and produced severe ill effects on the conflict itself.
The almost exclusive anti-drug focus of U.S. aid, featuring
the eradication of coca crops by aerial fumigation of
pesticides in the southern departments, gave Plan Colombia
a whole new direction and character, essentially erasing
its original broad-based approach. Four-fifths of the
U.S. resources were allocated to the military and police,
making Colombia the Western Hemispheres prime
recipient of U.S. security assistance. Plan Colombia
sent the message to Colombians that, rather than betting
on the peace process, the United States was putting
its money on escalating the war.
The same message reverberated in Brussels and other
European capitals, where Plan Colombia quickly met with
opposition, especially to its military component and
emphasis on aerial fumigation. For this reason, Europe
has fallen far short of the $2 billion that it, along
with Canada and Japan, had been targeted to contribute.
But more significantly, Plan Colombia has divided Colombians,
contrary to its stated intention to unite them.
The plan was never consulted, discussed, or debated
within Colombia before it was presented abroad. Neither
the directly-affected local communities nor their elected
officials were brought into the decision-making process.
While the U.S. Congress has held countless hearings
and open sessions on Plan Colombia, the Colombian Congress
has yet to hold its first.
In the regional elections of October 2000, all of the
southern departments targeted by Plan Colombia elected
governors who had run on strong anti-fumigation platforms.
Upon taking office, they formed a common front to propose
their own version of Plan Colombia, based on gradual,
manual, and concerted eradication, accompanied by subsidies
and credits to enable peasant farmers to find viable
alternatives to coca.
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Photo copyright @ Hiram A. Ruiz, 2001
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