/** ppn.peru: 472.0 **/
** Topic: U.S. Drug Policy **
** Written  8:06 pm  Jul 14, 1993 by jkawell in cdp:ppn.peru **
From: JoAnn Kawell <jkawell>
Subject: U.S. Drug Policy

                   Copyright 1993 Inter Press Service
                           Inter Press Service
                         June  11, 1993, Friday

HEADLINE:  UNITED STATES: STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL DEFENDS DRUG POLICY
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, June 11

    A  ranking  Bill  Clinton  administration  official  today  defended
Washington's drug policy for South America amid Senate accusations  that
the program was ineffective, costly, and damaging to human rights.

    Tim  Wirth,  the  State Department counselor, testified  before  the
Senate  Foreign  Appropriations  Subcommittee  that  the  administration
opposes Senate plans to cut by almost a third Clinton's request for $150
million in counter-narcotics funding next year.

    "Such  a  cut  will  indicate to our allies in the counter-narcotics
effort  that we are lowering the priority of our cooperation  with  them
and losing interest" in the drug program, Wirth said.

    He  argued  that  continued funding for the "drug war"  declared  by
former  President George Bush was a vital part of Clinton's "opportunity
budget."

    Wirth  said that a failure to fund the anti-drug program could  make
the United States "pay a great price in increased drugs in this country,
in  weakened political leadership across these embattled countries,  and
in potentially lost democracies right in our own backyard."

    But  Senator Pat Leahy, the committee chairman, countered  that  "to
waste money on this Andean drug initiative, where it is not going to  do
one  bit  of good in the long run, and not to contribute more to Russia,
doesn't make much sense."

   Leahy cited evidence that the "drug war" in the Andes -- a particular
area  of  State  Department  concern -- had failed  to  deter  narcotics
trafficking  network  but had helped encourage human  rights  abuses  by
regional military and police forces.

    A  report  released  last month by the Washington  Office  on  Latin
America  (WOLA)  said: "U.S. support has sent a signal that  the  United
States is still willing to equip and work alongside consistently abusive
forces in the name of new national security priorities."

   The WOLA report noted a pattern of human right abuses among Colombian
authorities,  where 259 cases of alleged police homicide  were  reported
between  January 1990 and April 1991, but only 23 police were  dismissed
for involvement with the killings.

    In  Peru,  several analysts blamed massive U.S. anti-drug assistance
for   emboldening  the  Alberto  Fujimori  administration   to   disband
Parliament and impose effective martial law in 1992.

    Leahy  noted that "Fujimori himself publicly called the Andean  drug
initiative a failure."

    But  Wirth denied that Washington's program in the Andes had been  a
total failure. He cited the weakening of the Medellin cartel in Colombia
and the "significant raids" on the Cali cartel, as well as the reduction
of Bolivia's coca crop by 13 percent since 1990.

    But  Wirth  said the United States was trying to link democracy  and
human  rights to the Colombian anti-drug effort. He argued further  that
drug   cartels  themselves  were  a  significant  threat  to  democracy,
"dramatically  influencing  countries  through  the  flow  of  narcotics
money."

    Wirth is even planning to meet the Colombian Foreign Minister  later
this month at the World Human Rights Conference in Vienna to stress "the
importance of symbolically linking (U.S. drug policy) to South America."

    Wirth  hailed  Bolivia  as  an example of  successful  collaboration
between  U.S.  and local authorities to strengthen judicial  and  police
systems while combatting drug traffickers.

   "Bolivia has changed dramatically in the past 10 years," he said. "It
was  a  drug-infested,  miserable country, but now  inflation  is  down,
stability has come (to the government) and the drug programme  has  done
well."

    Wirth deemed Mexico another example of drug policy successes, noting
that  "the recent murder of Cardinal Posadas . . .has galvanized Mexican
political will to confront narco-terrorists."

    He  was  referring to the May 24 shooting that killed Roman Catholic
Cardinal  Juan  Jesus  Posadas, his driver,  and  five  others,  at  the
Guadalajara  Airport.  Investigators  believe  he  was  caught  in   the
crossfire of two drug groups.

    But  the appropriations committee, in planning to cut Clinton's drug
assistance  request to $100 million for the next fiscal year, questioned
the  national security interest behind the policy and urged the need for
conditions to be attached to counter-narcotics assistance.

    The Clinton administration has shifted away from various aspects  of
the  Bush-era  "drug war." Attorney General Janet Reno and  senior  drug
policy  official Lee Brown have both emphasized the need to act  against
drug demand within the United States rather than supply abroad.

    Wirth  described that new emphasis as "fundamental, bedrock policy."
He   added   that  Washington  would  place  "less  emphasis   on   drug
interdiction, which has been very costly and not as successful as we had
hoped."


** End of text from cdp:ppn.peru **