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  Uribe Commits to War Against Drugs
Posted by CN Staff on May 28, 2002 at 07:08:43 PT
By Jared Kotler, Associated Press Writer  
Source: Associated Press 

justice President-elect Alvaro Uribe said the U.S.-backed fight against the drugs that stream across Colombia's borders will be crucial to his plans to end the long-running civil war that kills thousands of people every year.

A day after his landslide election on a law-and-order platform, Uribe said Monday that the drug war is "essential" because Colombia's leftist rebels and their rivals, the right-wing paramilitaries, finance their fight with the proceeds from drug trafficking.


"Colombia has to defeat drugs," the Harvard-educated former state governor told a news conference. "If not, we will not create conditions to negotiate peace. As long as the violent groups are financed we will remain far from obtaining final accords."

Uribe, 49, won 53 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff and securing a firm mandate to enact his plans to hammer the rebels in battle and force them into peace talks. His closest contender, former Interior Minister Horacio Serpa, received 31.7 percent.

Uribe's promises to increase the size of the military and take a hard line against the 38-year insurgency resonated with voters fed up with the long-simmering war, which kills about 3,000 people a year, many of them civilians.

On Monday, he appealed for more U.S. aid to stop cocaine and heroin from leaving Colombia and to prevent arms shipments from being smuggled to its outlawed guerrilla and paramilitary groups. The United States has provided $1.7 billion in mostly military aid over the past two years to help Colombia battle drugs.

The Bush administration has asked Congress to ease restrictions on that aid so that the government can use it to fight the insurgents. The administration has also requested $98 million to train Colombian troops to guard a key oil pipeline that is regularly targeted by rebels.

President Andres Pastrana, whose term ends in August, vastly improved Colombia's relations with the United States, obtaining the drug-fighting aid. Uribe said Monday he would keep Colombia's ambassador to Washington, Luis Moreno, in place, saying he has been key in solidifying U.S. ties.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said the United States looks forward to working with Uribe "to advance our shared goals of eliminating the scourges of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, improving human rights conditions and ensuring a prosperous future for all Colombia."

Colombia produces most of the world's cocaine and 70 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States.

The willingness of the United States to provide more military aid may depend on whether Uribe's planned crackdown on guerrillas would also extend to a right-wing paramilitary group that has massacred suspected rebel collaborators.

Uribe said he will combat all armed groups, but also said he was open to the possibility of peace talks with the paramilitaries — something his predecessors have refused to do.

Uribe plans to ask for U.N. help in contacting the guerrillas and probing their willingness to resume peace negotiations in return for a cessation of hostilities and a halt to terrorism.

But observers said the main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, will reject such overtures.

"Those terms have never been acceptable to the FARC in the past and will not be in the future," said Bruce Bagley, a Colombia expert at the University of Miami. "I expect a major escalation of violence."

Uribe's ambitious agenda goes beyond the crackdown on guerrillas and drugs. He plans a referendum to nearly halve the size of Congress and reduce corruption. He also promised to create jobs, build roads, overhaul education and trim a bloated public pension system.

But bureaucrats, Congress and angry state workers could stand in his way — as could Colombians' traditional aversion to higher taxes.

"He's got a Herculean task before him," Bagley said. "It's going to be extremely difficult to fulfill even part of what he aspires to do during his four years of the presidency."

Colombia has been unable to use credits from the International Monetary Fund for social programs, and Uribe appealed Monday for greater flexibility from the international financial agency. "In Colombia's circumstances of poverty, we need to increase social investment," he said.

Source: Associated Press
Author: Jared Kotler, Associated Press Writer
Published: Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press

Related Articles & Web Site:

Colombia Drug War News
http://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm

Colombian President-Elect Softens Tone on Rebels
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12969.shtml

Colombia Elects A Hard-Liner on Fighting Rebels
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12964.shtml

Hard-Liner Elected in Colombia With a Mandate
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12961.shtml


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Comment #5 posted by qqqq on May 28, 2002 at 22:23:07 PT
......wise investing.....
"Let's see,..what stock should I buy that will reflect favorably on the coming carnage in Columbia, ....Dyncorp? .......who makes roundup again....?....."

.....SirReal...the smart money,,will be in any major stocks that are held by Senators wives,children,or kinfolk. And stocks held by Cheneys' family will also be quite promising...But if you,or anyone else can afford to invest in stocks,,keep a close eye on them,,because I think that alot of corporations are gonna go Enron soon....Now that the Enron scam,,,one of the grandest robberies in history,,has apparently been put on the back burner,and trivialized by a strangely silent media,,,,Enron style scams and shams are going to become more and more common..............Here's a stock that is a sure bet:..Hair drug testing companies,,especially the one that just got FDA approval!...I'd be very interested to see the activity in this particular stock in the last 6 months......yup ,,hair testing,,,that's what my broker Fourdee,Fourkue,& Stoneham recommends!


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Comment #4 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on May 28, 2002 at 17:39:09 PT
Steal this Uribe test
>>A day after his landslide election on a law-and-order platform, Uribe said Monday that the drug war is "essential" because Colombia's leftist rebels and their rivals, the right-wing paramilitaries, finance their fight with the proceeds from drug trafficking.<<

Essential, because they make massive amounts of money selling the drugs in the US, where it is illegal, and thus profitable. So, really, Uribe seems to have no other choice than to say "drugs bad, drug war essential", because it's the only way he's going to get enough U$ aid to hope to keep the situation at the semi-standoff it's been at for a while. Without that aid, he's a sitting duck.

Remember, all these drugs are legal for personal consumption in Columbia. They know their police have better things to do. So he can't legalize it any more - he has to fight until the consumers of the coca crop legalize as well.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 28, 2002 at 08:29:27 PT
Sir Real - Monsanto
That's about right.

There's plenty good money to be made

Supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,

Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,

They drop it on the Viet Cong.

This is a parody of Fixin' To Die Rag
http://www.countryjoe.com/afghan_fixins.htm


[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by SirReal on May 28, 2002 at 08:13:48 PT
Rrrrriiiight
So they think they will curb Americas apetite for cocaine?

The only thing he will succeed in is getting his presidential paycheck, a golden parachute for himself and his family and drive the coca producers to another country and kill the remaining ones.

Now there's a policy that could be admired.

Let's see,..what stock should I buy that will reflect favorably on the coming carnage in Columbia,....Dyncorp?.......who makes roundup again....?.....

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by Dark Star on May 28, 2002 at 08:07:21 PT
How to Avoid Falling in the Cesspool
Go ahead and read Narconews.com, and if you believe even a fraction of it is true, you begin to understand just a bit of what a cesspool the situation in Colombia represents.

An Amerikan front in Colombia will make Afghanistan look like a walk in the park. Prepare to merely hand your paycheck over to the Feds.

If the new El Presidente really wants to cut off the cash flow to the insurgents, there is only one method: Legalize it!

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