Everybody knows that Colombia would have a more fluid relation with the United States if Senator John McCain had won the presidency last year. With the Democratic Party in control of both Congress and the White House, Colombia’s close partnership with the United States is sadly losing its shine.
Think for a minute: the Free Trade Agreement signed in 2006 is still waiting to be ratified by Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi put the FTA in her freezer at the beginning of her tenure, and there are no signs that she is taking it out of there any time soon. Also, no senior US official has explicitly come out in support of Colombia in its row with Venezuela over the base deal with the United States. As Hugo Chavez talks about war and keeps blowing bridges along the border, Democrats in Washington think the situation is not something that concerns them at all.
P. J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement last month: "We are very much aware of recent tensions along the Venezuelan-Colombia border. I certainly don't think this is about the United States. But we certainly would encourage dialogue between Venezuela and Colombia and a peaceful resolution of the situation along their border." Mr. Crowley has certainly given the word ‘ally’ a whole new meaning. At least in times of the Bush administration Colombia could count on a statement of support by the United States every time Hugo Chavez sent troops to the border.
But now, Democrats are doing something else that could prove much more dangerous: they are scrapping Plan Colombia. Check the facts: in 2007, Colombia received US$ 465 million in counternarcotics aid from the United States. For 2009, the amount was US$ 329 million, and for fiscal year 2010, which started this October, Colombia will obtain US$ 237 million. That is the lowest level of American counternarcotics aid to Colombia in the last ten years.
At the beginning of this decade, Colombia was close to becoming a failed state. The FARC were in control of over 40 percent of the territory, over 160,000 hectares of forest were cultivated with coca, and the country had the potential to produce 700 metric tons of cocaine per year. Plan Colombia changed all that. The US$ 6 billion that Colombia has received from the United States since 2000 served to put the country back on its feet and to subdue drug traffickers and terrorists. Today, the FARC are weakened and on the run, while coca cultivation is about 81,000 hectares and potential cocaine production reaches 430 tons per annum.
No doubt, in the hands of the efficient Uribe administration, the American aid has made a world of a difference. We Colombians should thank the United States for having responded to Colombia’s plight and for having taken responsibility for a problem they contributed to create. Aware that most Colombian cocaine is consumed by Americans, the US government decided to help Colombia fight its war against narcoterrorists. Certainly, that is a lot more than can be said of the European Union, which gives relatively little aid to Colombia in spite of the 4.6 million Europeans who are cocaine users (in comparison, North America has 6.8 million).
But scrapping Plan Colombia when the task is only halfway done is a terrible mistake. Although the Colombian government and its military are considerably stronger than they were ten years ago, the country’s war against narcoterrorism is far from over. The FARC are still around, and Colombia remains the world’s top producer of both coca and cocaine. Moreover, with the United States as the most important buyer of Colombian cocaine, America’s dollars continue to be the most significant source of funding for drug traffickers in Colombia. Estimates by DANE, the Colombian government’s office of statistics, put the size of Colombia’s drug industry in 2007 at 4.3 trillion pesos, or US$ 2.15 billion. The fact that in 2010 Colombia will receive from the US an amount equivalent to a mere 11% of the size of the drug economy should give Democrats pause for thought.
So, sadly for Colombia, the Democrats are in power. This means that the government in Bogota must learn to rely less on the United States, and to understand that superpowers are rarely unconditional allies. Furthermore, with so much of the American attention to the war on drugs shifting to Mexico (in 2010 that country will receive US$423 million in counternarcotics US aid!) Colombia will slowly go down in the Americans’ list of priorities. Of course, American policymakers who favor this shift do not realize that the best way to stop drug trafficking in Mexico is to attack drug production at the source, which is still inside Colombia.
Nonetheless, there is hope. There are some prominent Democrats who understand how important Plan Colombia is. One of them is Bill Clinton, who worked together with President Andrés Pastrana in the inception of the program, and who is proud of its results thus far. Let us be optimistic and think that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will listen to her husband on this. Another Democrat that Colombia can count upon is Vice President Joe Biden. Back in 2000, Mr. Biden pushed strongly for Plan Colombia in the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations. A speech by him at the time shows that after visiting Colombia, he understood the threat that FARC posed to the country and that American help was necessary. Perhaps Vice President Biden should visit Colombia soon in order to strengthen its alliance with the United States.
Another glimmer of hope comes from the possibility that the Republicans will regain control of the House of Representatives a year from now. Although the Senate and the White House will remain under control of the Democrats, that should make Washington considerably more welcoming for a pro-Colombia agenda. Until then, let us pray things do not change for the worse.
loire
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... Plan Colombia is not going away, but changing so funding is now coming from other sources. And Plan Colombia has made little change in the cocaine available on US streets. Your report is too myopic regard Plan Colombia. The trade agreement is not needed since the US has trade agreements with the Latin American countries and currently can import almost all Colombian goods almost tax free. Colombia imposes a stiff tax on US goods imported into Colombia, but it doesn't need a trade agreement to fix that, does it. Colombia would do better to fix this problem on their own. And then come to the table with a new trade agreement, if one is necessary at that time. Should we have better relations with Colombia. Certainly, and lets not limit it to just Colombia. I read somewhere that 60,000 Colombians become US citizens each year so it looks like our relations are pretty good already!!! I personally hope Republicans don't come to power soon, although I voted for McCain. They need a few more years to get their act together. Chavez is a threat to who? He is a joke, and Colombians enjoy mocking him on national TV on sunday nights. |
tomtom33
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... "Also, no senior US official has explicitly come out in support of Colombia in its row with Venezuela over the base deal with the United States." The deal speaks for itself. Vociferous US support may, in fact, be counter-productive. Unfortunately the US Dems must pander to their labor union constituency. Thus the Colombian FTA may have a tough time. Plan Colombia and the fight against narco-terrorism does not face the same obstacles. |
Adam Isacson
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... The author only looks at one funding account in his estimate of US aid to Colombia. Aid goes through many programs, some of which have increased since 2007. Aid to Colombia is edging down - how could it not, 10 years after Plan Colombia began? - but not as drastically as the author implies: from $752m in 2007 to an estimated $627m in 2010. That's still a huge commitment - and it's less unbalanced toward military force than it was in the past. Source: http://justf.org/Country?country=Colombia |
seattlesounder
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... Plan Colombia should be completely scraped. 100%! Take every cent of that money and pump it into education and drug prevention and rehab programs in the USA. If demand for the drug can be stopped, the supply will also stop. Simple economics. Right now, we are doing absolutely nothing to prevent drug use and the few education programs that exist are dated, barely funded, and having no effect. The corruption in Colombia assures that much of the money being given to them never ends up being used for its initial purpose. END PLAN COLOMBIA NOW!! |
Compatriota
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... The White House has not fogotten Colombia, I don't think they can find it on a map. They keep sending money and equipment to British Colombia? We must change the way of thinking between Latin Americans and North Americans. No matter who wins an election in the states there are still people who work for a living in the U.S. goverment, well a few. You still have the invisable wall between the two cultures. This must change in order to save jobs in Colombia and in the United States. Colombia is important because she is the mother country since the times of Spains rule. In no other country will you find the full spectrum of Post colombian culture. Until all of the people work together to solve common problems things will never change no matter who is in the White House. |
Wayne
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... US deficit in 2009 - about 1.5 trillion. That's 1,500 billion dollars. Cut the military, cut the subsidies to all big business, collect corporate taxes, blah blah blah....cut plan colombia, blah blah blah... sounds so idealistic, good thing 2012 is coming...no stress... |
Andrewmann552
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... This article is quite idiotic. If Obama is abandoning Colombia why has military funding been BOOSTED? Plus the base deals. Obama is simply a subtle player, unlike Bush. This article sounds like those of the radical right-wing in Israel also claiming Obama is some sort of anti-Semite when the US continues to protect and arm that country and go easy on the brutal occupation. What is sadder is to see these commentators basically beg for their country to become a new star on the U.S. flag. |
Paz
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... There is a saying in Colombia that best describes Plan Colombia: nada es como parece. Plan Colombia does more damage to Colombia and it's people than good. I believe we should help, that's what we Americans try to do..., but we need not do it as is laid out in the 2nd draft of Plan Colombia. The first draft makes much more sense. Nothing is as it appears........ and that especially holds true with the current proposed Plan Colombia. Oh by the way Mr.Gustavo Silva Cano, I am a life long, registered Republican who voted for Sen. McCain. I support President Obama and one of the better things he has done for Colombia and the majority of the Colombian people, is let this version of Plan Colombia sit. And yes, there will be a day when the House is Republican again, but it will make no difference. As time goes by and more and more of us Gringos see what has gone on in Colombia, the government, the military, the massacres, the Parapolitics...... and so on....., the more Plan Colombia becomes a distant memory of an idea a President had who could of been great ......, but will always be remembered first for what he could not keep in his pants. |
tomtom33
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... "Right now, we are doing absolutely nothing to prevent drug use and the few education programs that exist are dated, barely funded, and having no effect." Absolutely nothing? Is it kind of dark in there? Drug education has been hammered for years. It certainly helps, but it is not going to solve this problem. The saturation point has been reached. Believe me, Washington can waste the money faster than Colombia ever could. I guess that Puget Sound is far enough away from DC that you cannot see the waste. |
cococo
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... This is a perfect example of what annoys me about Colombia Reports! This article is an opinion yet it headlines as fact. I know it is in the perspective section, but Editor please put opinion headlines in "quotes" so that they are presented correctly. |
