U.S.-Colombian Counternarcotics Effort a Model for Afghanistan
Washington â€" Colombia’s intense counternarcotics efforts could have value for Afghanistan, says General Peter Pace, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. During a January 18-19 trip to Colombia, Pace said Afghanistan can learn from the Colombian experience in its own battle against the cultivation of illegal drugs. Pace, meeting the press in Colombia January 19, praised “the model that is present here in Colombia where the Armed Forces of the country have rid certain areas of terrorists and then, very importantly, the government has followed with projects that have brought electricity and water and jobs.”
(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington – Colombia’s intense counternarcotics efforts could have value for Afghanistan, says General Peter Pace, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
During a January 18-19 trip to Colombia, Pace said Afghanistan can learn from the Colombian experience in its own battle against the cultivation of illegal drugs.
Pace, meeting the press in Colombia January 19, praised “the model that is present here in Colombia where the Armed Forces of the country have rid certain areas of terrorists and then, very importantly, the government has followed with projects that have brought electricity and water and jobs.”
He also cited a Colombian program that allows individual who had been members of armed insurgent groups to “lay down their arms, and be supported in an education process by this government that allows them to become a productive part of society.”
“Those kinds of outreach programs by the Colombian government,” said Pace, “are a good model for President Karzai to consider as he looks at how to reduce the amount of drug trafficking in his country and provide stability and jobs for his citizens.”
Pace thanked Colombia for reaching out to help Afghanistan by sending teams of Colombian counternarcotics experts “to go sit and talk” about the issue with relevant members of the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
UNITED STATES HELPING NATIONS FIGHT DRUG TRAFFICKING
The United States has been active in efforts helping both Colombia and Afghanistan fight drug trafficking. The Colombian government in 2000 launched a U.S.-backed program called “Plan Colombia” aimed at helping the country resolve the linked problems of drug trafficking and violence. In Afghanistan, U.S. programs provide incentives to farmers to discontinue planting poppy and train farmers in ways to increase their income from legitimate crops.
Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia and now an independent business consultant in Washington, told USINFO January 23 that the Colombian and Afghan drug situations, while posing similar threats to each nation’s national security, differ in terms of terrain and other aspects of opium crop cultivation.
Frechette recounted his frustration, as U.S. envoy to Bogota from 1993 to 1997, when the U.S.-backed anti-drug effort in Colombian was stymied because of “roadblocks” created by Colombian President Ernesto Samper. Samper was accused of accepting $6 million from the Cali drug cartel for his 1994 campaign.
For a nation to succeed against drug trafficking, “job number one is to have a leader who believes in destroying illegal drugs” Frechette said, citing as a contrast Pastrana, Colombia’s president from 1998 to 2002. Pastrana “really understood” that narcotics could ruin Colombia, said Frechette. The former ambassador added that Afghanistan’s Karzai has an excellent role model to emulate in Alvaro Uribe.
President Bush, during his meeting with Uribe at the White House June 14, 2006, acknowledged that Uribe has “got a tough job in dealing with narco-terrorist groups in his country.” But Uribe, Bush said, is “committed to dealing firmly with narco-terrorism.
ENHANCING COOPERATION
Teams of Colombian anti-narcotics police officers traveled to Afghanistan in July and August of 2006 to share their drug enforcement experiences with their Afghan counterparts under the auspices of a program called Shared Responsibility.
Shared Responsibility is run by the Colombian vice president’s office; while the U.S. government is not a sponsor, it is in favor of the Colombian initiative. Program participants encourage drug-producing and drug-consuming countries to work together in battling the global drug trafficking problem.
Officials from Shared Responsibility told USINFO January 23 via e-mail that “unfortunately, Colombia is all too familiar with the deadly consequences of narco-terrorism.
“We do not want any other nation to share this same fate,” one official said. “Perhaps this is why Colombia is a good model for nations such as Afghanistan -- as victims we feel an immense responsibility to help others.”
Afghanistan, according to the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, produced an estimated 92 percent of the world’s supply of heroin in 2006, although Colombia is believed to be the main supplier of heroin to the United States. The Afghan government has been trying to convince farmers not to cultivate the opium poppy, which is used to make heroin.
A transcript of Pace’s remarks is available on the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Colombia.
More information about U.S. counter-drug efforts in Colombia and Afghanistan is available in the State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.
( USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov )
This story was released on 2007-01-26. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.