http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=11626 Geov Parrish WorkingForChange 07.25.01 Under fire The War on Drugs has been a cover for U.S. military involvement in South America National media and a few pseudo-concerned Congresscreatures made a moderate amount of hullabaloo two years ago, when the Clinton Administration rammed through an alarming amount of money to help the Pentagon, and the Colombian government, fight the war on drugs by fighting leftist rebels. Since then, however, there's been virtual media silence, extending into the Bush Administration. While the White House, Congress, and its obedient stenographers yelp noisily about ballistic missiles to combat future rogue nation threats that will never exist, the Bushies, Pentagon, CIA, and various American mercenary outfits are steadily involving the U.S. in a far more ordinary--but still lethal, foolish, immoral, and stunningly expensive--war in Colombia. And that war is about to encompass not just the Amazonian hinterlands of Colombia, and not just the cities, but the entire Andean region. While plenty of commentators have noted that the Bush Administration isn't putting much time or attention into Europe or Asia, few have pointed out where that focus is going. Look south. The number of ominous developments in the region over the past few months is too great to fully recount here. The Pentagon is in Colombia ostensibly to fight the war on drugs, but U.S. aid is directed exclusively against leftist guerrillas, even though far more of the drug trade is routed through the right-wing paramilitaries. One of the preeminent paramilitary leaders, Carlos Castano, has told CNN that 70 percent of his group's income comes from drugs. The paramilitary forces receive training, weaponry, money, and (it is widely believed) on-the-ground direction from the Colombian military--which, in turn, receives training, weaponry, money, and (it is widely believed) on-the-ground direction from the U.S. armed forces and CIA. In recent months, the paramilitaries, who are responsible for the vast majority of civilian killings, disappearances, tortures, rapes, and other "human rights violations" (a sickeningly sanitized phrase) in the country, have started attacking ordinary citizens and suspected leftist sympathizers not just in the countryside, but in the cities (including Bogota), especially the universities. A few weeks ago, Congress quietly authorized a dramatic lifting of limits (probably ignored by the CIA anyway) on direct U.S. involvement in the escalating war. Now, there is no limit on the number of private soldiers that can be fielded by U.S.-based mercenary outfits in Colombia, or on the amount of arms the U.S. can give them. (One of the biggest, DynCorp., was also the company that directed the Peruvian Air Force when it shot down and killed American missionaries last spring.) In other words, rather that committing U.S. ground troops in Colombia, the Pentagon is fielding an unaccountable, invisible private army, working hand in hand with paramilitaries who have one of the worst human rights records in the world. It gets worse. Several neighboring countries in the Andes region- -Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia--are in various stages of political and economic meltdown, with guerilla movements rampant. All, like Colombia, are run by governments with close ties to the U.S. and dubious commitments to democracy. To the east, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has busied himself recently by--among other things--reorganizing OPEC so that it once again wields enormous power in the world oil market, is the world's best bet for being tabbed as America's next foreign Satanic Dictator Who Must Be Eliminated. All of these countries, not surprisingly, have extensive U.S. - based transnational business interests. Colombia not only has vast oil reserves, but 80 percent of its economic activity is controlled by transnationals. The $750 million in military assistance that Clinton and Congress promised to send "to Colombia" was actually almost entirely spent on contracts with U.S. corporations. Additional money is going to defoliate vast swaths of southern Colombia where coca might be growing, a strategy that is not only environmentally catastrophic and reeks (literally) of biological warfare, but also devastates peasants economically and sends them into the hands of guerillas. Plan Colombia, at this point, is a footnote. It's a subset of something larger, called the Andean Regional Initiative, or Andean Initiative, recently upgraded by Bush. Mata, Ecuador, an obscure Amazonian outpost reportedly undergoing a boom in restaurant, bar, and hotel construction, recently had its airport appropriated by U.S. military forces. Something's afoot. The signs are everywhere that the War on Drugs, which has been a cover for U.S. military involvement in various Andean wars for nearly two decades, is now going to be the fig leaf for a major, coordinated, regional American assault that may or may not be fought with U.S. troops, may or may not be compliant with standards of international law and the Geneva convention, and may or may not be waged with the knowledge of the American public. How 'bout that Gary Condit? www.absurd.org _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> <FONT COLOR="#000099">Small business owners... Tell us what you think! </FONT><A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/xYTolB/TM";><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Please let us stay on topic and be civil. To unsubscribe please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs -Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org OM Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
