A good report.

I would add that the U.S. interest in Colombia is not a "War on Drugs" but a War against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- People's Army (FARC-EP), which is nothing new, but have been successful in mobilizing the most oppressed of the population; against a typical, corrupt South American U.S. puppet government that leaves the vast majority of its people to live in hellish conditions of poverty, violence and despair.

The U.S. can no longer intervene "to maintain democracy from Soviet backed aggression" (there never was) so it is now trying to "maintain 'democratic' institutions from narcotraffickers".

The role of drugs for imperialism is not a recent phenomenon. The Spanish used the coca leaf to make the natives work for days on end without food, water or sleep; while the British used opium to impoverish the Chinese on the other side of the world. Now the U.S. use cocaine to devastate the Andes while using it as a social control mechanism at home.

In the U.S. the oppressed Hispanic and Black communities no longer join organizations like the Young Lords and the Black Panthers as they did back in the 60s, because they're too busy shooting themselves with guns and needles.

However, in their "backyard" (Latin America), they have always had a lot of trouble trying to control those "little brown people" from revolting all over the place and from being too loud just in case people from other parts of the world heard them and got funny ideas like "revolution". The U.S. corporate owned mass media largely ignores Latin American radicalism.

The latest, the FARC, has indeed; become a formidable force to reckon with.

In short, it is a "War for Drugs". The most important resource that is rarely ever mentioned.

Oliver.
(Currently doing research on the subject)

With Che Guevara, Jose Marti, and Simon Bolivar.

The struggle continues...

You say:- "I would add that the U.S. interest in Colombia is not a "War on Drugs" but a War against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- People's Army (FARC-EP), which is nothing new"

Indeed but try this for size:-

====================================================
Plan Colombia's purpose is "defending the operations
of Occidental, British Petroleum and Texas Petroleum
and securing control of future Colombian fields."
====================================================
RESOURCE CENTER OF THE AMERICAS
www.americas.org

February 2001

Oil Rigged
There's something slippery about
the U.S. drug war in Colombia
--------------------------------

By Thad Dunning and Leslie Wirpsa

The public face of U.S. policy toward Colombia has long been the war on drugs. Colombia, according to widely reported CIA estimates, produces 90 percent of the U.S. cocaine supply and 65 percent of U.S. heroin imports. U.S. officials say the aim of Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion aid package
signed by President Clinton last year, is fighting "narco-guerrillas" and eradicating coca crops.

But thats just part of the agenda. Plan Colombia is also about oil.

Colombias petroleum production today rivals Kuwaits on the eve of the Gulf War. The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador than from all Persian Gulf countries combined. And,
last June, Colombia announced its largest oil discovery since the 1980s. The Colombian government and transnational oil companies are eager to secure their exploration and production activities with U.S. military might.

Some U.S. military officials harbor no illusions about their role in Colombia. Stan Goff, a former U.S. Special Forces intelligence sergeant, retired in 1996 from the unit that trains Colombian anti-narcotics battalions. Plan Colombias purpose is defending the operations of Occidental, British Petroleum and Texas Petroleum and securing control of
future Colombian fields, said Goff, quoted in October by the Bogota daily El Espectador. The main interest of the United States is oil.

Colombias two major guerrilla groups condemn foreign control of the nations petroleum even as they rely on the oil companies for ransoms and extortion payments. The guerrillas face competition from rightist death squads known as paramilitaries, many with documented links to Bogota's army
and some with alleged ties to the oil firms. In recent months, the violence has begun to spread beyond the nations
borders. To the south, the Colombian war is further destabilizing Ecuador, a country wracked for decades by political upheaval, including a military coup during an indigenous revolt a year ago. To the north, the war is
heightening tensions in Venezuela, where populist President Hugo Chavez has helped drive up world oil prices by reviving the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Critics of U.S. policy in Colombia have likened it to past interventions in Vietnam and El Salvador. But with world oil prices stuck at all-time highs, with U.S. oil consumption expected to rise 25 percent over the next two decades, and with Middle East producers increasingly unreliable,
another important comparison is the U.S. war against Iraq.

One question is whether U.S. military aid will help keep the Colombian oil flowingwhether it will enhance or erode the security of oil operations. More troubling questions surround the human cost of further militarizing a
conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Colombians and displaced almost 2 million since 1985.

Black gold
----------

Colombias known oil reserves amount to 2.6 billion barrels, far fewer than those of the worlds major oil powers. But only about 20 percent of the countrys potential oil regions have been explored, due to the violence. Desperate for more investment, President Andrs Pastranas administration
sweetened the terms a year ago, allowing foreign companies more of the profit from Colombian oil operations. As a result, the states Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (Ecopetrol) awarded a record 13 new exploration
and production contracts last year.

Colombias biggest foreign investor is BP Amoco, formed when British Petroleum merged with Chicago-based Amoco in 1998. The London-based giant controls Colombias largest oilfield, a 1.5-billion-barrel trove called Cusiana-Cupiagua in the northeastern province of Casanare (see MAP). A
444-mile pipeline called Ocensa carries BP Amoco oil to the Caribbean port of Coveas for export.

Los Angelesbased Occidental Petroleum helps operate the nations second-largest oilfield, Cano Limon, holding 1 billion barrels in Arauca, a province just north of Casanare. Occidental pumps away its share through a
485-mile duct to Coveas.

[snip 'cos imc won't post the whole thing!]

Bush's roster and the widening violence even before Plan Colombia hits stride are portents of what the United States holds in store for the region.

---

Apologies for the chopped article. Full Original at www.americas.org - click on 'Oil Rigged'.

Oil too.

But cocaine is the hidden agenda that nobody really wants to talk about; the drug industry is the largest in the world, second only to guns and bombs.

I would like to ask if anyone knows a good book to read on the Plan Colombia and maybe the history of this regions trouble. I know some but I need to know a lot more.

Thanks

Well, seeing as you've asked three times... :)

Contact  liz.atherton@freeuk.com of the Colombia Peace Association for copies of their newsletters.

Go to www.prairienet.org/clm for all the archives of the Colombian Labour Monitor

Also check into the doings of Mo Mowlam on drugs.

And to 'Oliver'- cocaine may look like the key issue but it ain't. Besides, the indigenous population of the high Andes have relied on the coca leaf for millenia to sustain them at such altitudes - why should they be penalised for (high level for the most part - don't forget how expensive a habit snorting is!) gross US behavioural excesses?

Study the US Oil cartel finances - the truth is not so hard to find or corroborate. Helps if you know someone in Bogota, fer sure!

mango

'You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.' - Mahatma Gandhi

Here's some links for info. on the Colombia War:
 http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/gaitan/gaitan.htm
 http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/drugwar.htm

On Drugs:
 http://www.narconews.com/

Mango,

Cocaine is the key issue, oil is a significant factor.
The indigenous are not being penalised, the peasants in the countryside led by the FARC is.
Some good articles here under "Colombia":
 http://www.cislac.org.au/

The above links are also good on the history of the FARC's revolutionary struggle, which began as a peasant based movement but has now gained wide popular support among other sectors of the population including trade unions and workers.

Micheal Ruppert has documented how the proceeds from international drug trafficking are channelled into the campaign coffers of the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S. More on this complicity here:
http:www.narconews.com/USDominican1.html

Drugs is part of the political economy of U.S. imperialism. Cite here for details:
 http://www.angelfire.com/id/ciadrugs/