They Call This A Plan?

Alex Massie correctly notes:

Of course, much of Colombia’s violence is exacerbated by the United States’ lunatic and criminal drug policies, but last time I checked I didn’t see any Democratic presidential candidate calling for the abandonment of Plan Colombia.

I have a column on this very subject in the current (4/7) issue of TAC.  The drug war and wrongheaded militarisation policies in Latin America committed in the name of “drug interdiction” are two areas of U.S. policy that enjoy tremendous support in Washington.  It is telling that Democratic objections at home are focused on the free trade pact, and not on the counterproductive and dead-end intervention in Colombia’s internal conflicts.  Given the recent electoral fortunes of parties and presidents that were seen as too closely tied to Washington, an argument can be made (and I make part of it in the column) that the worst thing to do Uribe right now is to give him the free trade deal that he says he wants.  Getting the free trade deal might help him in the short term, but it will create the same kind of backlash against neoliberalism that empowered all of the populists in the countries surrounding Colombia.