United States Policy and the Andean Counterdrug Initiative

DISAM Journal, Summer, 2004 by Robert B. Charles

[The following are excerpts of a testimony before the House Government Reform Committee Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2004.]

Thank you for the invitation to discuss the Andean Counterdrug Initiative (ACI) and the Department of State's continued efforts in this critical region. The initiative represents a significant investment by the American people in a region that produces the vast majority of the drugs arriving in the United States.

If this initiative was targeted just at saving some of the 21,000 lives lost to these drugs last year, it would be the right thing to do. But there is more to this bipartisan, multi-year initiative than even that noble aim. It is also a bulwark against the threat of terrorism in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. In short, it is a regional hemispheric and national security program, with direct implications, for homeland security and for our well being here in the continental United States. One need only look as far as Haiti to see that drug money, and the instability that follows it, can be institutionally corrosive, to the point of breakdown. In Colombia, and elsewhere in the hemisphere, the link between drug money and terrorism is incontrovertible.

All of this reinforces the wisdom of Congress in empowering the State Department, and the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) in particular, to protect Americans and our allies in this hemisphere by strengthening the rule of law, building law enforcement and justice sector capacity, cultivating non-drug sources of income, and stopping heroin and cocaine from being produced and shipped to our shores.

In the future, as in the past, strong congressional support will be critical to fully achieving the endgame. The endgame is a hemisphere in which drug-funded terrorism, corruption of struggling democracies by drug traffickers along with drug violence and drug abuse from the streets of Bogot to the streets of Baltimore, are reduced dramatically. We are making real progress toward that end state, and the Andean Counterdrug Initiative is a major part of that palpable progress.

Let me pause here to say something unexpected. Management of these programs is also essential. Congress provides the money, but we at INL must provide the proper management for these program dollars. I have a special duty, as custodian of these dollars; to make sure they go where they are intended. Accordingly, I have ordered a top-to-bottom program review of the entire stable of INL programming, put penalties in government contracts, moved from cost-plus to performance contracts, insisted that bonus justifications match awards, imposed new performance measures, moved to multiple contracts where possible, sat with senior executives of these contracts, and begun reviewing past financial practices. All of this is good government and basic oversight. It will make sure that dollars in the ACI account go where they are intended to stop drug production and drug-funded terrorism before those menaces arrive on U.S. soil, in our towns, in our counties, in our schools.

The investment we have made is bearing fruit drug production is down, traffickers are being arrested and extradited, legitimate jobs created, and the rule of law expanded. Our security, development, and institutional assistance to the judicial and law enforcement sectors are having a positive impact. The job is only half done, but the results are coming in and we are approaching what may well be a tipping point.

Background

The strategic centerpiece of the ACI is INL programming in Colombia, the source of 90 percent of all the cocaine reaching the United States. Colombia also provides upwards to 70 percent of the heroin reaching our streets, and it also is a leading supplier of cocaine to Brazil, Europe, and points East. Besides being a producer of raw materials for cocaine and heroin, Colombia is a major manufacturer of refined drugs. And it is the world headquarters for major criminal and narco-terrorist organizations. What we do in Colombia affects us in United States, but also affects regional security and the growth of economic opportunities for those who wish to live in democracies free from drugs and terror.

ACI Program Successes

Over the past two years, long awaited ACI funds have hit the ground, and they are making a difference. With INL support, the Colombian government has eradicated both coca and heroin poppy at a pace that should begin to seriously deter future growing, even as it wipes out larger and larger percentages of the crops that currently become cocaine and heroin. The physical risks associated with this program have been great, but the strategy is proving both successful and justified. The Colombians and we have lost assets as well as personnel to the enemy. Three hostages, who are still in Colombia, though not INL employees, are a continuing reminder that we are dealing with a dangerous group of terrorists who do not respect the rules or principles of civil society.