I was in Bogotá Colombia and the Department of Putumayo in January of 2002. I
had joined a delegation from Witness for Peace, and we were there to talk with
and (mostly) listen to Colombians about the effects of Plan Colombia. Colombia
had been calling to me for nearly six years; now here I was in the forests of
the Amazon Basin surrounded by wild rivers and shocking diversity. We happened
on a corpse stretched out near the banks of the Rio Putumayo south of Mocoa our
second day in the Basin, later it was revealed that two other bodies had been
found near by, all victims of pare-military assassins. It was the enormous
violence of the place that had called to me and now I was there to bear witness!

By 96, the Central American Wars had been over for the better part of that
decade. I had just returned to Salinas after driving an aid shipment to
Nicaragua and was pleased to learn that the CIA-Contra, Crack debacle was back
in the news! Most of us in the Coalition (Coalition for Nicaragua) had given up
hope for justice in this matter long ago, but there it was in the San Jose
Mercury News! Gary Webb had done such a fine job of resurrecting and presenting
it that the second addition was yanked and he was soon out of work. In spite of
Gary’s setback, I was ecstatic! I could see all kinds of connections: The Black
Community, Sandinistas, perhaps even reparations! I joined the NAACP, and was
asked to be Political Action Chair for the Salinas Branch. I remained at this
post for four years, doing research, writing editorials, educating myself and
helping educating my community about our nations violent drug war. The lesson
almost always included cocaine.

Cocaine has three lovers, money, corruption, and violence. If you follow them
home you will likely find yourself in one of two places, Inner-City America or
Colombia. It was cocaine’s violent side that first made me one of her Johns and
while South Central LA had plenty of cocaine and violence to satisfy the most
avid fiend, it was Colombia that whispered, got ya to me. I needed to know why
the United States would sponsor a nation that could openly engage in state
violence against its own people. The following are excerpts from a letter I
wrote in April of 02, it’s a concise telling of the Colombia odyssey. Please
read on.

Colombia; what can I say about this amazing land and its courageous people that
you don't already know? I’m sure you know for example that Colombia is about the
size of Texas and California combined, and that it rests in the north west
corner of South America and joins hands with Central America via Panama. I’m
sure you know that Panama once was a part of Colombia, and that the outstretched
hand of Colombia once cradled Costa Rica in its palm. You may not know that
Colombia is a feudal system and has probably been such since the European
invasion five hundred years ago. It’s hard to say what glue holds civil society
together, but its definitely not feudal rule.

You might know that Colombia is home to about forty million people, and that
about two million are internal refugees fleeing the violence that grips their
country. But you probably didn't know that Colombia endures twenty five thousand
homicides a year, and that union leaders, human rights workers,
environmentalists, and indigenous people are often marked for death. And you may
not know that many Afro-Colombians, who have lived peacefully in remote parts of
the Department of Choco since their forbearers arrived one hundred and fifty
years ago, fleeing slavery, are now internal refugees fleeing genocide. It seems
the precious earth they settled has been monetized. There's talk of building a
dry canal (container ports and rail corridors) across Choco joining the
Caribbean with the Pacific. It’s a part of Plan Puebla Panama, which I’m sure
you have never heard of. Plan Puebla Panama is a proposal in the grand global
economic scheme that would build freight transportation systems across the
isthmus of Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, and perhaps Panama. Can we allow these
people to be murdered and extorted in the name of global economics?

You should know that Colombia is involved in a thirty-eight year old civil war.
And you undoubtedly know that Colombia is the world’s largest supplier of
cocaine. The civil war is a very complex equation, and as we say in the drug
treatment business, there is no problem so terrible that a drug can’t make it
worse! You may as well know that this dysfunctional, feudalistic, warring nation
is strung out on coke, or perhaps more correctly coca dollars. Few things
corrupt like loose money and Colombia is awash in loose money.

Its fairly well understood that up to nine eleven, the stated purpose of US
military involvement in Colombia was the pursuit of US drug policy. We were
there to train the Colombian military in drug crop eradication and the
interdiction of drug shipments. We would supply the trainers, equipment and
intelligence. They would supply the personnel. This of course was not our
purpose at all. Our true purpose was more like building dry canals, oil wells,
maquilas and creating new global markets to quench the thirst of neoliberalism.
Never mind that the Colombian military has an abysmal human rights record, and
frequently uses paramilitary death squads like the infamous AUC to handle their
dirty work. There are no armed acronyms in Colombia worthy of praise. Policy,
greed, and poverty created steam behind the wheels of violence.

As one who has recently traveled to Colombia and visited the department of
Putumayo, where the coca fields are as plentiful and lush as vineyards in
Monterey Co., and as a substance abuse counselor who worked in Soledad Prison
for three years, I believe I have a unique perspective. The sum of that
perspective is this; US drug policy as it has expressed itself domestically and
internationally is a colossal failure! It has done greater harm then the drugs
it claims to protect us from. Dysfunctional nations are easy targets for
exploitation, and uninformed minds are fertile ground for disinformation.

My point of departure on issues facing Colombia is and shall remain US drug
policy. Let’s not forget that up until nine eleven drug policy was our lone
excuse for US military aid to Colombia. In fact, Colombia is now the third
largest recipient of US military aid, followed by Egypt and Israel. US drug
policy is a blatant example of coercive, authoritarian and hierarchical control.
It facilitates state terror here and abroad. It is a well-known fact that source
eradication and domestic criminalization (current US drug policy) are the two
most expensive and least effective methods for dealing with the drug question. I
hope you consider its legitimacy. Does it need to be challenged? Let’s dare to
dialog on harm reduction! Please tell all who will listen that the only
acceptable role for the US in Colombia is that of peacemaker!

That’s how I saw the Big Picture in 2002, and not much has changed, other than
Colombia’s ranking on the list relative to US military aid and the now popular
use of the term narco-terrorist. But I have seriously digressed. What I really
want to talk about is US drug policy and Plan Colombia.

I make the statement in my Colombia letter; US drug policy, as it has expressed
itself domestically and internationally, is a colossal failure! It has done
greater harm than the drugs it claims to protect us from. Now, this statement is
indefensible if it can be demonstrated that current US drug policy will
ultimately bring fourth a greater good. This has not been demonstrated, and to
my knowledge no one is even attempting to do so. All we have to judge the policy
by is what we see on the ground. So lets go there.

The corner stone of US drug policy in Colombia is coca crop eradication. Since
2000 the US has invested four billion dollars to that end. And yet, news
articles dated April 17, 2006 are declaring a 21% coca crop increase in
Colombia. We in the human rights/environmental corner pointed out the flaws in
this policy six years ago, noting a law that even the US government could not
violate, namely the law of supply and demand! The supply side of this law is
facilitated by what is called the balloon or displacement theory. It means that
if you squeeze a balloon, the air under your fist doesn’t disappear, it goes
someplace else. Any one that can prove otherwise gets a free lunch with Paul
Wolfowitz.

The other thing about crop eradication that really bothered me is the poisoning
of the earth. If you see it on the ground, it’s hideous. Hector upon hector of
dead vegetation. If it were jest coca it would be no less a sin, but its also
legal crops, jungle, livestock, forest creatures, fishponds, streams,
campesinos, and children.

Then there’s the issue of corruption. I’m aware that the term narco-terrorist
equals FARC or ELN to many people, but if you want a true picture of what’s real
in Colombia, start with this; every body’s dirty! this is just an observation of
course. Let me qualify it. I’ve been everywhere in Central America and a lot of
places in Mexico. All these places are unique, but they do share one thing, flat
economies. Poverty looks the same everywhere I’ve been in Latin America.
Colombia is different, and while it has its share of poverty; gripping in some
cases, it also has a flash I’ve never seen before. I guess its what Reagan
expected from trickle down economics. In the Hood it’s called bling. If you can
figure this out, I’ll hook you up with Freeway Ricky.

What we are witnessing of course is a coca economy. If it weren’t so violent, it
could even be admired. All that cottage industry can also be distracting. If you
are focused on the nickels, and dimes that makeup this funny economy, you will
fail to ask the embarrassing question; who is laundering the hundreds of
billions in the middle? This question was actually asked several decades ago,
and the answer was don’t go there. With political will we could go there; don’t
hold your breath.

So, what’s the solution? Is this problem approachable? Or are we stuck with this
failed drug policy? Of course there’s a solution; people are approaching this
problem with increasing impact every day. What we are stuck with is a lot of
work! The good news is this work is well underway. The solution is demand
reduction. The trick is shifting recourses from the justice side of the equation
to the health side. Here are examples of that shift. California’s proposition
36, which diverts drug offenders away from jail into treatment, and in-prison
substance abuse programs. These are very successful marriages between justice
and health. Much more remains to be done; there is a huge need for quality
treatment and education programs. We need a national dialog on harm reduction.

And what about Colombia? To a great extent Colombians are the only ones who can
resolve Colombia’s violent struggle with itself. But we can help. The US and
other regional nations can encourage peaceful negotiations between factions, we
need to create legal commerce, and reduce the demand for cocaine. Then a
solution will be possible. In the end its our work here at home that will have
the greatest impact on peace and justice in Colombia; think globally, act
locally, has always been good advice. Or, as a wise woman told me on my first
visit to Nicaragua, the problem is not here, it is in your country.

Kurt Brux.

Three Americas.