Pubdate: Sun, 02 Sep 2001
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The
Financial Times Limited 2001
Contact:
letters.editor@ft.comWebsite:
http://www.ft.com/Author: James
Wilson
COLOMBIA FACES STRONG PUSH TO LEGALISE
DRUGS
A growing number of influential Colombians,
sickened by the damage that
drugs trafficking is doing to their country, are
stepping up criticism of
US-backed counter-narcotics policies and pushing for
legalisation of drugs
as a solution.
Colombia at times has been
treated like a pariah because it is the source
of most of the world's cocaine
and a growing amount of heroin. But
advocates of an end to prohibition
contend that Colombia - ravaged by some
of the world's worst violence and
insecurity - is itself the biggest
casualty of the "war on
drugs".
Global prohibition, they say, has driven the trade's huge profits
and given
drug traffickers the wealth and power to corrupt or murder anyone
who stood
in their way. Over the past two decades, hundreds of leading
politicians,
judges, police, and soldiers have died trying to confront
Colombia's
violent and wealthy drugs cartels.
Profits from drugs have
also become a vital source of financing for the
country's guerrilla and
paramilitary groups - even though the rebels of the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (Farc) say they also favour
drugs
legalisation.
Colombia's civil war has been compared to some
African conflicts that are
fuelled by the struggle to control trade in
diamonds or other valuable
natural resources.
"From the 1990s onwards,
the guerrillas and paramilitaries have grown
incredibly because of the money
coming from narco-trafficking," says
senator Viviane Morales, author of a
bill that calls for drug legalisation.
"The main ally of
narco-trafficking is prohibition."
Such arguments have gathered
force in recent weeks. Various other
parliamentarians want to ease curbs on
drugs, while some provincial
governors have also spoken up in favour of
decriminalising the drugs trade.
They say it could help to solve Colombia's
conflict by cutting away at its
financial support.
The huge state
resources now being devoted to curbing drugs trafficking
could also be used
to improve social conditions, they argue - reducing
support for the armed
insurgency.
A former UK ambassador to Colombia has also said the
country's interests
would be better served by legalisation than by an
unwinnable drugs war.
Such calls fly in the face of the tough measures
being promoted by the US
in Colombia with the co-operation of President
Andres Pastrana's
government. Under a $1.3bn (?900m) package of largely
military aid from the
US, thousands of hectares of illegal coca and poppy
crops, which produce
the raw ingredients for cocaine and heroin, are being
destroyed with aerial
spraying of herbicide.
The US insists this
aggressive campaign poses no threat to human or
environmental well-being. But
the swooping of the crop-spraying aircraft
over poor rural communities,
wiping out livelihoods, is proving
controversial and has stimulated the
current legalisation debate,
emboldening those who favour an end to
prohibition.
But the efforts of Ms Morales and others are unlikely to
succeed. They do
not enjoy backing from the government. Nor have any leading
presidential
candidates for next year's elections supported legalisation,
although Luis
Eduardo Garzon, a leftwing trade unionist candidate who trails
in polls, is
a supporter.
"I'm against legalisation and frankly it
seems useless to me to argue that
decision from Colombia," said Horacio
Serpa, the well-supported candidate
from Ms Morales' own Liberal party, in
his regular magazine column.
Even many supporters of legalisation admit a
unilateral decriminalisation
by Colombia would have little or no
effect.
However, Guillermo Gaviria, governor of powerful Antioquia
province, says
Colombia should use its "moral authority" to lead
international debate on
legalisation. "Colombia cannot go on being the victim
of the wrong,
shortsighted attitude of countries that judge us
superficially," he says.
"Our society didn't choose to be part of the
conflict."
Gustavo Socha, director of the anti-narcotics police, has
written that
legalisation of drugs "would betray the sacrifice" of the
hundreds who have
died trying to battle the cartels. But Ms Morales says: "We
cannot go on
counting the deaths of the past to justify the deaths of the
future. We
need to stop this war, quickly." For regional reports,
www.ft.com/americas