-Caveat Lector- "The editorial pages in the Colombian press expressed unanimous contempt for the Weinig pardon, who was serving an 11-year sentence for his part in laundering $19 million for the Cali drug cartel." <http://interactive.wsj.com> April 20, 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Americas In the War on Drugs, Colombians Die, Americans Are Pardoned By Russell Crandall, an assistant professor of political science at **** Davidson College *** in North Carolina The big stir Bill Clinton's last-minute presidential pardons caused in the U.S. was nothing compared to the disbelief and indignation they sparked among Colombians. Most disturbing was the news that one Clinton pardon went to Harvey Weinig, who was serving an 11-year sentence for his part in laundering $19 million for the Cali drug cartel. The editorial pages in the Colombian press expressed unanimous contempt for the Weinig pardon. An op-ed in El Tiempo, the country's leading daily, was titled "The Morality of the Strongest." Gustavo De Greiff, a former Colombian attorney general, labeled Mr. Clinton's action "monstrous." The pardon was especially egregious in light of the Clinton administration's own severe condemnation of the Colombian government's "surrender policy" toward the Cali cartel in the mid-1990s. That policy allowed those drug kingpins who agreed to surrender a reduced prison sentence. On a trip that week to Boyaca, about three hours to the north of Bogota, I expected to discuss the country's civil conflict or economic situation, but was instead peppered with questions about the motivations behind, and the significance of, the pardon. Poor judgment aside, many Colombians saw the pardon as hard proof of what they have often alleged: The U.S. is waging a hypocritical war on drugs that places the burden of violence on Colombia. The Clinton administration badly mismanaged the U.S. antinarcotics policy over the past eight years. By intensifying the Andean component of the war on drugs during the 1990s, the administration gradually shifted the hard work and responsibilities of the effort to reduce U.S. drug use onto Colombia. Because Colombia's largest left-wing guerrilla movement relies on the revenues from the drug war to finance its own war, the U.S. policy also exacerbated Colombia's civil war. The change of administration is a good time for the U.S. executive office to reconsider the U.S. drug-war strategy in Colombia. For more than a decade the U.S. has required that successive Colombian governments demonstrate unconditional cooperation in the attack on the supply side of the cocaine business. The Colombians have implemented most requests, including the ill-conceived idea that supply could be contained by an aerial defoliation program and a search-and-destroy strategy targeted at drug laboratories in the Andean jungle. Even so, any suspicion that Colombia has not been cooperating fully in these efforts has met a harsh U.S. response. One example of this, which has particular relevance to the Weinig pardon, occurred following the election of Colombian president Ernesto Samper in 1994. After it became clear that Mr. Samper's campaign had received contributions from the Cali cartel, the U.S. government adopted a set of policies intended to push him from office. Mr. Samper earned the informal tag in Washington circles of "narco-president," and a reputation as a person who couldn't be trusted to implement the tenets of U.S. anti-drug policy despite the fact that bullets from a drug trafficker-financed assassination attempt were still lodged in his body. In 1996 Washington stripped Mr. Samper of his visa to enter the U.S., making him only the second head of state to receive this dubious distinction. In 1996-97 the U.S. government "decertified" Colombia for not "cooperating" in the fight against the Cali cartel, a diplomatic slap in the face normally reserved for rogue states such as Afghanistan and Myanmar. It's no secret that drug money has infiltrated many state institutions throughout the world and Mr. Samper's government was no exception. According to the evidence, his campaign did receive drug money. But the U.S. attack on him was widely viewed as an attack on the country and paradoxically strengthened his domestic poll numbers, as Colombians rallied in solidarity. Moreover, the decertification decision served to weaken the Colombian state at the very time when both guerrilla and paramilitary groups were gaining leverage due to increased involvement in the drug trade. The rise in armed activity in Colombia today can be traced to this period. Furthermore, despite Mr. Samper's misdeeds, there was a crackdown on the Cali cartel during his administration. In 1995 all of the cartel's kingpins were either killed or apprehended and this cost the lives of many Colombian police officers. General Rosso Jose Serrano, the commander of the Colombian National Police and one of the most highly regarded law-enforcement officials, stated that his retirement in 2000 was largely driven by the pain he suffered from attending so many funerals for his officers slain while fighting the drug war. During Mr. Clinton's visit to Colombia last August he embraced several widows of these police officers. Many Colombians took this event to signify that the U.S. had finally come to realize the tremendous cost it was transferring onto Colombian society. Yet that optimism was quickly shattered by the news of the Weinig pardon. The U.S. had, in effect, blessed a collaborator of the very same cartel that Colombians had fought so hard to destroy. Key to the Clinton policy, which Mr. Bush has inherited, is a $1.3 billion U.S. commitment to Plan Colombia, Colombian President Andres Pastrana's program to regain control of the country from the underworld. The U.S. funds that go to the military must be used, almost exclusively, to try to stop cocaine production. Yet, there are clear difficulties with the U.S. assumption that it can defeat drug use by attacking coca growers. First, even if the U. S. eventually declares victory in the war on drugs in Colombia, drug production will most likely just shift to other countries, perhaps to nations that are far less willing to cooperate. Second, the recent proliferation of synthetic drugs, produced at home, is clear evidence that U.S. demand drives supply. If controlling narcotics supplies is important to the U.S. it must pursue counternarcotics goals aggressively on its own turf. The continuation of the efforts to wipe out coca production in Colombia is turning peasants into pawns of the rebel movement, increasing the value of the product and destabilizing a fragile democracy. Rather than pouring more than $1 billion into a cynical strategy apparently designed mainly for U.S. political advantages, the Bush administration would do well to learn from the failure of the Clinton administration. Narcotics prevention begins at home. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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