The US War on Communism, Drugs, and Terrorism in Colombia by Jenny O'Connor

On Thursday 6th September the President of Colombia – Juan Manuel Santos – rejected a proposed bilateral ceasefire by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels aimed at bringing an end to Colombia’s armed conflict. He declared that he had asked operations to be intensified and stated that “there will be no ceasefire of any kind.” These comments bear reflection upon Colombia’s half century dirty war, the actors involved and the motives behind U.S. policies that have merely served to worsen the conflict.War on Narcoguerrillas?As previously stated, Plan Colombia’s original objective was the eradication of coca plantations by targeting left-wing ‘narcoguerrillas’ (FARC) who, it was explicitly claimed, were directly involved in the drug trade. Evidence of a direct link between the FARC and the illicit drug trade, however, did not emerge until the early 2000’s after Plan Colombia had been instigated. In fact, into the late 1990s, there was little evidence to suggest that the FARC’s involvement in the production and distribution of drugs extended beyond the taxation of coca cultivation in the regions it controlled. In 1997 Donnie Marshall, Chief of Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration admitted this in a DEA congressional testimony stating that “there is little to indicate the insurgent groups are trafficking in cocaine themselves, either by producing cocaine HCL and selling it to Mexican syndicates, or by establishing their own distribution networks in the United States.”12 (Full article …) [ed notes:just citing small paragraph click link for whole article...