What should the US do to help Colombia?
The anti-narcotics strategy of cutting off the supply of drugs has clearly failed. It is time to attack the demand for drugs. We need to address the reasons for addiction. In many cases they are poverty, unemployment and underemployment, the failure of many schools; for others, drug abuse is encouraged by lives that are overscheduled with meaningless tasks. We need to improve and expand services to addicts. We need to consider seriously de-criminalizing drug use as proposed, for instance, by the current governor of Arizona. (18) So far the drug problem has been attacked with violence abroad and a vast expansion of the prison population at home. Instead we should address the human need for cures for addiction, or the needs that are expressed in excessive drug use.
Drug policy needs to shift from oppressing people to helping them.
There is not much we can do to stem the violence in Colombia. It is a problem with a long history that Colombians themselves must work out. But we can refrain from aggravating the problems of Colombia by giving ever more military aid to the country. Instead we can help by withdrawing all military aid.
Over the last 30 years, the government of Colombia has, at various times tried to deepen democracy and to reduce violence. In the 1970s the government organized a grassroots peasant movement (ANUC) that was powerful until beaten back by a coalition of landowners and conservative employers. (19) In the 1980s, efforts were made to encourage the guerilla movements to transform themselves into political parties that foreswore violence and, instead, participated in the electoral process. Violence on the part of the Colombian military and their paramilitary allies put an end to that.
The US government should put its money and prestige behind efforts of that sort to strengthen genuine democracy. It should support the fervent hope of the vast majority of Colombians for peace.
Drug policy needs to shift from oppressing people to helping them.
There is not much we can do to stem the violence in Colombia. It is a problem with a long history that Colombians themselves must work out. But we can refrain from aggravating the problems of Colombia by giving ever more military aid to the country. Instead we can help by withdrawing all military aid.
Over the last 30 years, the government of Colombia has, at various times tried to deepen democracy and to reduce violence. In the 1970s the government organized a grassroots peasant movement (ANUC) that was powerful until beaten back by a coalition of landowners and conservative employers. (19) In the 1980s, efforts were made to encourage the guerilla movements to transform themselves into political parties that foreswore violence and, instead, participated in the electoral process. Violence on the part of the Colombian military and their paramilitary allies put an end to that.
The US government should put its money and prestige behind efforts of that sort to strengthen genuine democracy. It should support the fervent hope of the vast majority of Colombians for peace.
