Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, director, White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, Presidential Palace, Bogota, Colombia, February 23, 2000
PRESS
CONFERENCE
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
Bogotá, February 23,
2000
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
Let me, if I may, tell you just very briefly that I had the enormous honor
and opportunity to have lunch with President Pastrana. The meeting included
most of the senior officials of his government that have to confront this
drug issue: PLANTE for development, the Minister of Defense, the Minister
of Justice, Police, Armed Forces, the official who will try and coordinate
Plan Colombia, the Vice President who made a very able intervention on
human rights. We were joined by our own Ambassador Curt Kamman and other
officials from my own delegation.
The purpose of the lunch was
to learn how we can, we the United States, can more effectively support
Plan Colombia. I had an opportunity to testify to both the U.S. Senate
and the U.S. House. It's our own view as we look at the problem of drug
confronting Colombia that we must understand it in a regional context.
We must not walk away from Perú or Bolivia after achieving such
great success in the last three years.
When we look at Colombia,
which is the center of gravity in drug production now, we have to take
into account the entire 7.5 billion dollars and the five components of
Plan Colombia. Clearly, there must be an element of police and military
confrontation with these criminal organizations. There has to be continued
focus on the enormously successful eradication program of the Colombian
National Police. But, in addition, we understand that President Pastrana
and his officials simply must address the peace process, the continued
development of democratic institutions and the reduction of violence throughout
the country. And so the 1.6 billion dollar U.S. element of this Plan Colombia
must be seen in the context of a larger whole.
I was also able to underscore
that the 1.6 billion dollars does include an enormously enhanced amount
of support for alternative economic development for continued development
of the judicial system and prison reform and indeed for the added security
for human rights.
Let me if I may end these
short comments and I would be glad to respond to your own interests.
CARLOS BARRAGAN (R@dionet)
Several U.S. congressmen asked the U.S. government for sincerity and honesty
that the aid to Colombia wouldn't be used to increase Colombia's internal
conflict. Does your government promise Colombia, its Congress and its
people that it will not increase the conflict?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
Well, I think any discussion of strategy and policy in Colombia must simply
remain in the hands of Colombian officials. This is a democracy, it has
sovereignty, there should be no U.S. notion of our intention on strategy.
Our purpose has been to examine Plan Colombia and to find ways that are
appropriate in accordance with our own laws to support a confrontation
with this huge menace of drug production in this country. I think that
is our purpose.
TIM JOHNSON (Miami Herald)
Repeating a question from last night, Human Rights Watch came up with
a report this morning in Washington in which they talk about three separate
brigades with links -- with what they sustain are links to paramilitaries.
You said last night that you have full faith in the leadership of the
Armed Forces, that it's the brigades that have to be watched. This report
would indicate that it's more than brigades, there is a division commander
who also apparently has links and that seven of those are indicated in
this report as having links with graduates of the School of the Americas.
Would you address again the issue of how you see the need for oversight
of human rights abuses here and whether there is currently a problem,
whether it is being addressed sufficiently?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
Well, I think there is a huge human rights problem in this country. Gigantic
proportions, I mean, this is 520 metric tons of cocaine, it's probably
eight metric tons of heroin. The production of those drugs is ruining
the environment causing distorted economic growth in Colombia, causing
huge levels of violence and corruption directed at democratic institutions
and fueling some of the most dangerous international criminals that the
world has ever seen. I think the senior leadership, the democratic leadership
of this country is committed to enforcing the rule of law.
My own judgement from watching
this country as a friend, with a sympathetic view is that the police and
the armed forces now have the enormous confidence of the people of Colombia,
higher than the Catholic Church, higher than teachers. It is clear to
me from watching what they do, not what they say, that they, the armed
forces, are making an effort to conform to the rule of law. Complaints
against the armed forces have dwindled to near zero. I don't know of this
report today out of Washington. But I would say, as a friend of Colombia,
there is a simple answer: there has to be transparency in government institutions.
Human rights organizations should be allowed to go look at the situation
and report their findings. International news media should have full access,
if there is wrongdoing alleged it should be investigated
CAROLINA GONZALEZ (Dallas
Morning News)
How is the joint work with Perú y Bolivia going to operate? Will
this be the base for a hemispheric strategy against drugs?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
Well, of course, I think all of us are enormously proud of what Perú
and Bolivia accomplished in such a short period of time. To be honest
it's almost a miracle. It took Thailand fifteen years to almost eliminate
the production of opium. Now, the Peruvians have reduced it by more than
sixty percent in four years. They have also brought enormously increased
levels of peace throughout Perú, to include the Apurina and the
Vallaga Valleys. The Bolivians have had a national dialogue to discuss
the drug issue. And now, fortunately, very limited levels of violence
have reduced cocaine production by more than fifty-five percent in little
more than two years. It's our own strongly held viewpoint that we must
continue to sustain the Peruvian and Bolivian effort. And I think that
there's a lot to be learned from studying their example. At the same time
we have to recognize that Colombia is so different, for Colombia is facing
as many as twenty-five thousand heavily armed narco-terrorist organizations
(sic). This is a special challenge.
KARL PENHAUL (Reuters)
General McCaffrey, do you anticipate any backlash against U.S. citizens
living in Colombia by rebel groups as a result of U.S. aid and what measures
are you putting in place to protect them. And secondly, how many internal
refugees do you anticipate will be created by the campaign into the south?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
Well, it seems to me that you need to understand the level of suffering
that Colombia is now undergoing. The attention of the world has been carefully
fixed on Kosovo and Bosnia, but here we are three hours' flight from Miami.
These thirty-six million people are our friends, historically, economically,
and politically. Half a million Colombians have fled the nation in the
last few years. Foreign investment is dropping because of the violence
generated by drug money. I'm not sure how many internal refugees there
are but I believe somewhere between seven hundred thousand and a million
people have been driven away from their homes in the last ten years.
At the heart and soul of this
problem is the hundreds of millions of dollars that come from these illegal
drugs. Putumayo will be a great place for the international press to watch.
Twenty percent of the land area is under coca cultivation. It's a violation
of international law and Colombian law. It's causing enormous damage to
Colombia and her neighbors. The Colombians have a coherent plan to do
something about it. There are maybe twenty thousand families living in
the area. Maybe there are sixteen thousand coca leaf pickers. I think
the planning is there to begin coherent alternative economic development
and to provide support for those, in the majority of cases single men,
who will be displaced by the elimination of these illegal crops. This
should be a modest cause compared to the damage done by cocaine and heroin.
I bet it works in the next two to five years. We all hope so.
ERIKA FONTALVO (Canal Caracol)
General good afternoon. Today a U.N. agency revealed its annual report
on drug issues. They once again call for the co-responsibility of all
the nations affected by drug trafficking and especially they ask the world's
financial institutions for sincerity and transparency on the financial
"paradises". What programs is the U.S. implementing to eradicate
financial "paradises" like the Bahamas and fifty other countries
that permit money laundering from Colombia and the United States?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
I would say, the greatest vulnerability to international crime is the
movement of these billion of dollars. You can hide a few million dollars,
you can ship a few hundred million dollars physically. But we are talking
about billions of dollars. And a lot of this money comes out of Western
Europe and the United States and it causes enormous damage in the world.
Some of the bribes we hear being offered are almost beyond belief: sixty
million-dollar bribes offered a senior official of government in the hemisphere.
But it also results in unneeded apartment houses, it drives honest retail
business out of existence and it finally contaminates international banking.
We have come a long way in a short period of time. The most important
thing we did was in 1995, the Buenos Aires meeting of the hemisphere's
finance ministers. And so we are now trying to construct modern legislation
throughout the hemisphere to deal with the problem. We are seeing this
happen in Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Argentina, and other places. We
cannot confront money laundering, no one nation can confront money laundering.
The United States itself has made great progress. It is my own judgement
that our banking system is largely free now of drug corruption. But, at
the same time, we have to understand the huge amounts of money laundering
that go on in New York, in Los Angeles, on the southwest border and other
U.S. locations. We see the same problem in Panama City, in Bogotá,
in foreign markets. But we have, in the United States, no shortage of
lawyers and we have some extremely clever new capabilities with computers.
I think in the coming years you are going to see enormous levels of seizures
of drug related property and money. I think we are also very optimistic
about the new drug kingpin law, just passed this year in the United States.
We'll have to be very careful as we implement this new law. But we'll
ask our international partners to tell us who in the United States is
supporting criminal drug related operations in your country and then we'll
freeze their assets. So I think there issome good news.
NESTOR PANGUTA (Cadena Super)
Mr. McCaffrey, good afternoon. How unconditional is the U.S. support and
that of your office for the Colombian peace process, which precisely is
actually being conducted with with a guerrilla group that is said to have
links with drug trafficking?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY
Of course the peace process is widely important for Colombia. The huge
outpouring of emotion from millions of Colombians tells everyone they
have had enough suffering. Kidnappings, the worst of all possible crimes,
destruction of the oil industry, murder rates, which are incredibly high,
Colombian people want the violence to stop. President Pastrana and his
government will have absolute support from all, I hope, their international
partners, and certainly the United States. We are aware that drug money
fuels the FARC, the ELN and the AUC. It fuels international drug criminal
organizations. And finally, the rising rates of drug addiction in Colombia
contribute directly to violence in this beautiful country. It is our own
view that confronting the drug industry contributes to peace. I think
the other message quite clearly is we intend to stand permanently with
Colombian democracy. The message is clear, it is more effective to talk
rather than fight.
Thanks for the chance to talk
to you.
As of March 13, 2000, this
document is also available at http://www.usia.gov/regional/ar/colombia/mac2.htm
