Under the banner of the "war on drugs," the Clinton administration has been pushing this plan for several months. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, points to the alleged expansion of cocaine cultivation in southern Colombia to justify the moves. Administration sources claim that 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States originates in Colombia.

When it approved the package in early March, the House Appropriations Committee threw in an additional $500 million on top of the initial request from the White House. The House bill also includes funds for the U.S. forces currently occupying Kosova, together with an additional $4 billion added on the spot to cover "additional military spending," including fuel and spare parts.

A big chunk of the "aid" for Colombia's military is slated to purchase 30 sophisticated Blackhawk helicopters, which cost $12.8 million each, together with 33 retooled Vietnam-era UH-1N Hueys. This equipment is designed to give the Colombian army the air mobility necessary to "push into the coca-growing regions of southern Colombia," according to the Economist.

The helicopters will carry troops from three new "anti-narcotics" battalions, which are being trained and financed by the United States. Other funds will help equip special police units. Last year Colombia received the fourth-largest allocation of U.S. military funding after the regimes in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

The rough jungle regions of southern Colombia, in the foothills of the Andes mountains, have long been a stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The FARC has waged a 40-year guerrilla insurgency against the Colombian government, fueled by the grinding economic hardship faced by peasants in Colombia, and by the brutal military repression directed against their efforts to organize. Right-wing paramilitary gangs, with strong ties to the army brass, are responsible for ongoing attacks on peasant farmers.

FARC guerrillas are widely understood to be the real target of the Colombian army's operations. Gen. Fred Woerner, a former commander of U.S. forces in Latin America, commented, "How do you push into an area dominated by these guys [the FARC] without having anything to do with them? Anyone who believes that these counter narcotics battalions will not be involved in counterinsurgency is naive."

Woerner's hesitation about deepening U.S. military involvement in Colombia is reflected by other figures in ruling-class circles. During the House debate, Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, moved an amendment that would limit the number of U.S. military personnel deployed in Colombia to 300. New York Democrat Jose Serrano added, "We're getting involved in a civil war for which we're going to pay a price."

For the Clinton administration, however, the dangers of escalating military involvement in Colombia are weighed against the deepening economic crisis and spiraling political instability that grips the country. General McCaffrey claims that the program will "strengthen democratic government, the rule of law, economic stability and human rights in that beleaguered country."

Hit by falling prices for coal, coffee, gold, and other commodities, the Colombian economy shrank by 3.5 percent last year. Industrial production plunged by 11.2 percent compared to a year ago last January, producing a dramatic rise in unemployment.

Faced with this crisis, Colombia's capitalist rulers have deepened their subordination to the major imperialist countries and their banks and finance houses. In 1997, Colombia's foreign debt rose to $20.8 billion, or nearly 30 percent of the country's entire gross domestic product. As a condition for receiving a $2.7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the Colombian government agreed to sell off the state-owned power industry and other chunks of the national patrimony.

Over the past few months, Colombia's large and well-organized working class has begun to respond to the economic crisis and the government's course by launching a series of nationwide strike actions. These struggles, together with the ongoing insurgency in the countryside, have been met with rising terrorist actions by rightist death squads and the military.

In the situation where neither major social class in Colombian society is able to chart a clear road forward, mounting economic and social crisis is fueling permanent instability, social breakdown, and violence. In an effort to stiffen the backbone of their clients in Colombia's ruling class, the U.S. government is now moving in with its massive military aid package.

Andy Buchanan is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Paterson, New Jersey.  
 
 
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