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[DdC]

Change in Colombian drug war coming?

Mama Coca wants Colombia's fumigation to end
Linx:
Sign a petition to end anti-drug sprays

TOO DEADLY TO IGNORE/OIL RIGGED
The real reason we're in Colombia...

Cannabis Fuel hempcar.org

Plan Colombia and 'Maria Full of Grace'

Spraying Small Farmers/Clinton Urged to Block Aid

PLAN COLOMBIA TARGETS OIL, NOT DRUGS
James E. Garcia, PoliticoMagazine.com
The U.S. imports more oil from Latin America than from the Persian Gulf, so it makes sense that Plan Colombia is as much about oil and trade as it is about drugs.

Support for Plan Colombia

Colombia'Para-politics' Goes Bananas Michael Evans

Bush Amigo's Para Pals Liliana Segura 04/16/2007

Bush's Brush with Latin America's Drug Lords Frank Smyth 03/26/2007

War in Colombia's Oilfields Steven Dudley 08/5/2002

From San Juan Hill to Chengue Alexander Cockburn 02/12/2001



On-the-Record Briefing: Andean Regional Initiative 05/16/01; R. Rand Beers, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs ; On-the-Record Briefing: Andean Regional Initiative; Washington, DC

Plan Colombia Is Well Worth U.S. Support

Clinton's 'Plan Colombia': August 23, 2000 COLOMBIA

Disturbing Questions Concerning The Real US Agenda by Ana Carrigan

Three weeks ago, President Clinton interrupted a family holiday to announce that he would travel to Colombia on Wednesday next to meet President Andrés Pastrana. His visit, he claimed, would "underscore America's support for Colombia's efforts to seek peace, fight illicit drugs, build its economy and deepen democracy".

Clinton will promote "Plan Colombia", which many observers see as a vehicle his State Department has devised to permit the US to enter the counter-insurgency war against the FARC guerrillas under the cover of "counter-narcotics". Plan Colombia is the biggest aid package every offered to a Latin American country.

Yet it is opposed by many in Colombia who have no sympathy with the guerrillas, because they believe it will provide no exit from the quagmire of 30 years of conflict. Far from bringing peace, they believe it will drag the country deeper into bloodshed. Besides the Colombian President, Clinton will meet selected business interests but not the representatives of civil society, including church groups, trade unions and peace activists, who reject the US plan.

Ironically, with Clinton keen to enhance the image of his presidency, Plan Colombia may leave a stain on his legacy and present a poisoned chalice for his successor. It also poses a problem for his European allies who will need to unite if they are not to be dragged into the Colombian quagmire.

Plan Colombia
March 5, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail

War in the Neighborhood by John R. MacArthur

Ordinarily we aren't nervous travellers, but my wife and I were relieved last month when Colombia's President Andres Pastrana said he would hold face-to-face talks with the left-wing guerrilla leader known as Sureshot. By happy coincidence the summit was scheduled for Valentine's week, during the final leg of our two-year quest to adopt a baby girl from Latin America. The last thing we needed was a flare-up in Colombia's 37-year civil war, so we felt like sending Mr. Pastrana and Mr. Sureshot a valentine.

Only two weeks before, the lovely woman who runs the Casa de Maria adoption centre in Medellin had cheerfully urged us not to be scared off by the latest bit of terror in Colombia's second city: the car bombing on Jan. 10 of an upscale shopping center that killed one person and injured 50 others. Just rival criminal gangs, she reassured us, nothing political.



Democracy Now Gave Plan Colombia Architect A Free Pass 30/06/2005/Bogotá

Poison from the skies: Plan Colombia fumigation
How could two of the U.S.'s leading progressive journalists conduct a lengthy interview with Rand Beers without asking him a single question about his role in designing and implementing Plan Colombia?, asks "NarcoNews'" Sean Donahue in an open letter to Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, who interviewed former U.S. State Department official Rand Beers without asking a single question about his role as one of the key architects of the United States' brutal policies in Colombia.
[Sean Donahue, NarcoNews]

Failed 'Plan' in Colombia by Peter Clark August 18, 2003  

If you want to read everything The Nation has ever published on Plan Colombia, the War on Drugs and US drug policy, click here for information on how to acquire individual access to The Nation Digital Archive.

Three years ago this summer, President Clinton signed a $1.3 billion spending bill for "Plan Colombia," aimed at curbing violence in Colombia and drug abuse in the United States. Don't expect festive anniversary celebrations this summer, though, in either the barrios and rural villages of Colombia or the overburdened drug rehab centers here. The Bush Administration has invoked the ubiquitous terrorism justification to try to keep this floundering policy going, but concerns are mounting.

Al Gore/Occidental Oil Genocide

Gore's Oil Money by Ken Silverstein

Al Gore and Big Oil Genocide
For eight years, the 5,000 semi-nomadic U'wa inhabitants of northeastern Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Cocuy mountains have fought to keep Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) from sinking oil wells inside their traditional territory.

The U'wa have persisted in the face of harassment, beatings and the murder of three supporters. In 1998, the U'Wa gained international attention when they vowed to commit mass suicide if foreign oil companies were allowed into their territory The U'wa consider oil to be the blood of Mother Earth.

To draw oil from the ground is seen as the ultimate desecration of the natural order. The U'wa reserve lies at the headwaters of the critical Orinoco River basin. The U'wa people know the damage that oil extraction has done in Colombia. Oxy's Cano Limon pipeline has spilled an estimated 1,700,000 barrels of crude oil, contaminating surrounding land, lakes and rivers.

Gore's Oil Money by Ken Silverstein

Imperiled Pipeline Gets U.S. Troops in Colombia

Al Gore: The Other Oil Candidate by Bill Mesler
Special to CorpWatch August 29th, 2000
For thousands of years, the Kitanemuk Indians made their home in the Elk Hills of central California. Come February 2001, the last of the 100 burial grounds, holy places and other archaeological sites of the Kitanemuks will be obliterated by the oil drilling of Occidental Petroleum Company."

The Colombian Connection: Al Gore & Big Oil
NewsMax.com Friday, May 12, 2000
In a startling expose in the current issue of The Nation, writer Ken Silverstein uncovers the shocking tale of Gore’s historical super-close connection to the giant Occidental Petroleum company, its ongoing attempts to despoil the U’wa tribal ancestral homeland, and the shady role the Clinton administration is playing behind the scenes.

U'WA DEFENSE WORKING GROUP
For Immediate Release: June 26, 2000
Contact: Shannon Wright 415/398-4404 or 415/596-7246 or Carwil James,
510/705-8981

Occidental's Oil Project Ignites More Violence Against Peaceful Tribe In Colombia 
Gore Family Continues To Profit From Occidental Stock Despite Abuses