The Truth About Plan Colombia

THE WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON OUR OWN SOCIETY

Prohibition strains the Constitution and The War on Drugs has been a misguided failure. END IT.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2009/04/war-on-drugs-time-for-change.html

Time to regain control of our streets and our sanity.

A real "war on drugs" would be waged within the United States. About 70% of the value added is generated here, travels through the financial system, and back into the "San Adresitos" markets of Colombia in the form of merchandise to be reconverted to pesos. Of course, you'd have to take on Bank of America and Maytag to wage that war, and Lockheed Martin wouldn't get a piece of the action, so don't hold your breath.

I just love reading MSM analysis about places like Colombia. It's like reading "Pravda" in the Soviet Union, except for the military contractor ads.

Hi! I live in Colombia and I would like to say something about your article. First of all I would like to congratulate you for the research, excellent job.
Our land is such a small market in the world, and our history demonstrates that when our international trade grows, our economic development grows too; and that's why even when GDP growth in the last 25 years hasn't been tremendous, there's more economic development than before; because in the last 25 years we started to export different products, and we are making a systematic effort to increase our non traditional exports, in order to include campesinos into the formal economy thru different projects.
Plan Colombia has been a tremendous help to include this people in global economy, but it is not enough. One of our greater problems is that Colombia, as a middle income country, does not let us generate an enough internal dynamic in the economy that helps us include campesinos in formal economy, in a sustainable way in the long run. We need to look for other markets with higher income, that can pay campesinos??? products, including the over cost due to the logistics difficulties we face every day. We need roads and we have been working on it.
The only thing we???re asking to US government is to find the true story. In Colombia hasn???t exist a government before that has protected sindicalistas as efficiently as this one; And I think US government should read also intentions and ideologies behind opinions. We are making progress, and there is still a lot of things to do.
We are only asking for another chance, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that help us increase our GDP, as a sustainable source of income for fighting against poverty more successfully and quickly.
Colombia is making the changes it needs to do, but other countries are making them faster than we do.
There???s not excuse for becoming more and more efficient everyday, in the meantime, what are we supposed to do? What would you do has a president of Colombia, a nation competing against 150 countries to attract FDI in order to create jobs.
Globalization is the result of science, not the result of political ideologies as some people think it is.
I???m happy in Colombia, and I cannot imagine my country without US government support thru programs like Plan Colombia. I wish they can help us again.

not to mentioned the hundred of deaths this war has left, many journalist and people must overcome these best-selling books about luxurious and eccentricity of pablo's life and stop taking it as part of entertainment and shift to analyze the social impact and how hard results to make a social economic plan for the most vulnerable people of this armed conflict. This could be avoid in the past but many politicians prefered to remain silent and those who tried to denounce it were silenced by the guns of pablo. Today plan colombia is not enough, it needs to mend and be reviewed. Campesinos need support from the government but they don't get it and they have to grow cocain plants instead of any other goods because they have to raise a family. Policies needs to be improved and also the agricultural programme and include them in the future of Colombia. Landowners, paramilitary, guerrillas, poverty and lack of presence of the government is a list of issues that for many years have aggravated the life of this people. the "democratic security" that holds Uribe is just about shooting down the guerrillas and paramilitaries. Now that Obama takes the chair in the white house the southern Colombia hopes a better future but only if Uribe leans to Obama's positions.

Reading "Columbia's Failed Drug War" left me questioning the journalists (Adam Kushner's) tone. He raises questions towards Colombia and the present president and addresses the problem to Colombia, while the US is the by far number one coca consumer.If demand would decrease, logically, so would production. Since the decrese doesn't seem to be happening, and the financial crisis has made people ever more desperate for both madication and actual drugs, dealers can not only charge what they like but also be one of the very few selling movements out there at the moment.
The article presents the Colombian farmers delimma - selling coca gives them about an extra zero in profit, and moreover growing coca and then abandoning the illegal act is profitable because of the government compensation for lost revenue.
Of course Colombia should be critisized of it's illogical drug laws, but there are more important issues than preventing the production. Like controlling american demant by education.
www.anhouraday.blog.com

This article lacks any serious depth about the drug issue. Uribe has an impossible task and Mr Kushner fails to adress the most fundamental issue, Demand.

If the US tax payers truly believe that cocaine should be illegal
then it would only make sense to institute programs that reduce demand: whether its through education, rehabilitation, law enforcement or some combination there of.
As long as a poor farmer can make $5,000 a year by growing a plant, I can't see why they would stop.
i recommend reading the rolling stones article
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs

Plan Colombia has made Colombia a very safe country. As long as Americans enjoy snorting cocaine the endless supply will never be stopped. The Colombian people are very friendly toward Americans and Colombia is the United States #1 ally in South America. I have family in Colombia and have been travelling to Colombia since 1996. Every year Colombia improves. The rosey picture Colombia is painting is real. Trust me ! If the United States wants to win the cocaine war than maybe they should start putting the consumers of cocaine in jail. Nothings happens to the consumers of cocaine. How do you think the demand will drop?

Trying to eradicate the world of drugs is a waste of tax payers money

Adam, not Andrew. My apologies.

Andrew - check your facts. Bolivia does in fact have an eradication program, paid for by the U.S., that during the Morales administration has eradicated about 6,000 hectares a year. (Not enough to stop production from gradually but steadily increasing, but it's better than nothing.) Eradication is not a DEA program, but run by the U.S. Embassy's Narcotics Affairs Section, so it continues even after the DEA folks leave.

If the United States simply deny the whole plan to any Colombian government, it would be the best thing for both countries. Such a move would put the focus out of prohibition (banning) and what it really is: a market. The pyramide scheme, so succesfull in southern provinces of Nariño and Putumayo (precisely the presently more narcoticized) shows that the world financial crisis hurt the narcotrafickers also. They were initiated -and still plays- with the narcos.

One alternative is to just let the growers grow and traffickers traffic freely provided they don't commit other crimes. Let the U.S. deal with the violence caused by drug prohibition. The U.S. is the only country that has a budget to deal with this nonsense and Americans need for the violence to come home before we'll realize that prohibition is more socially damaging than legalization and regulation. As long as Colombians and Mexicans suffer the violence for us, we'll never change. Of course, our govt. will use our political weight to make sure everyone else tows the line.

The drug war seems like a waste of time, money, and resources but what is alternative? I am against fumigating because it not only destroys legal crops but the chemicals uses in the process may have negative long term affects on the campesinos who come in contact with the chemicals. All is not lost because Colombia has seen a drastic turnaround from its violent past and is fast becoming one of the most popular travel destinations in all of South America, especially in Medellin where the tranformation has been unbelievable! To learn more about Medellin, Colombia's transformation visit http://www.medellintraveler.com Vive Colombia!