In largely unheralded good news, the Bush administration has
made great strides helping Colombia fight the double-barreled
threat of a deadly insurgency and ultra-powerful drug lords. The
bad news is that if we're not careful, these hard-fought gains --
and other U.S. interests in the region -- could slip right through
our fingers.
Start with the drug war - and some good news. Latin America is the
source of all cocaine and most of the heroin that comes to the
United States - and the price of South American drugs here is up,
while purity is down, lowering potential addictions, overdoses and
drug-related deaths.
According to the White House's Office of National Drug Control
Policy, U.S. cocaine prices rose 19 percent last year, while purity
dropped 15 percent. Even bigger gains were made on heroin: Prices
up 30 percent, purity down 22 percent.
Seven of the 20 countries designated by the U.S. government as
major drug transit/producing nations are Latin American: Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. But
Colombian drug lords/insurgent groups are responsible for 90
percent of the cocaine and 60 percent of the heroin here (worth $25
billion a year).
With progress in fighting drugs uneven in much of Latin America,
Colombia has been a singular success story.
With $4 billion in counternarcotics/terrorism training and aid
from the United States under "Plan Colombia" since 2000 (plus some
European and Japanese aid), Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is
successfully prosecuting a 20-year-old war on drugs, while also
defeating a 40-year guerilla insurgency.
The results? Under Uribe, killings are 30 percent lower,
kidnappings/terrorism dropped 50 percent, and insurgent attacks
plummeted 90 percent. In 2005, a record 200,000 hectares of
coca/poppy were eradicated, and over 130 drug lords were extradited
to the U.S. (totaling over 300 since Uribe took office).
Uribe has also taken on the insurgents, notably the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - which also traffics
drugs to help fund operations. Nearly 7,000 FARC have defected --
halving its size, significantly hindering its drug/insurgent
operations and reducing its territory.
Meanwhile, a peace agreement has gotten more than 20,000
right-wing Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC) "narco-insurgents"
to demobilize. Talks continue with the leftist National Liberation
Army (ELN), the second-largest rebel group.
Now, the bad news: Some congressional voices believe the White
House is being lulled into a false sense of security with the
success so far in Colombia. One of those members is House
International Relations Committee chairman, Henry Hyde
(R-Ill.)
Hyde sees signs the administration may not support Colombia, our
closest ally in the Andean region, by shifting its focus -- and
funding -- to the "Middle East and elsewhere" in this year's
budget. In a recent letter to a colleague, he wrote: "Now is not
the time to cut aid to Colombia."
Without sustained U.S. aid, Colombia won't be able to increase the
size/capability of its security forces, much less assume greater
responsibility for intelligence collection, coca/poppy plant
eradication or maritime interdiction.
It's not just about helping a friendly, democratically-elected
government fight drugs and an insurgency. It's about security in
this hemisphere. Colombia is a solid ally in an increasingly
left-leaning Latin America, where some actively seek to undermine
U.S. interests.
Just next door to Colombia is Venezuela's caudillo, President Hugo
Chavez, who uses Caracas' vast oil wealth to export his socialist
"Bolivarian Revolution" - including support for FARC. (He's also
funding leftist candidates throughout the region, and building up
his military.)
In Bolivia and Peru, coca cultivation has increased in recent
years, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. The December
election of Evo Morales as Bolivian president could mean an end to
coca eradication. Possibly Peru, too, if populist Ollanta Humala is
elected president there.
In light of these challenges, support for democratic,
pro-American, anti-drug/terrorist Colombia is sound U.S. policy. If
anything Washington should be boosting aid. Even with
national-security challenges at a post-Cold War high, now isn't the
time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by losing focus on
this hemisphere and diminishing our partnership with
Colombia.
Peter
Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow. His
book, "A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, WMD and Rogue States," is
just out.
First appeared in the New York Post