Colombia is drowning in the bloodshed of the war against cocaine and Elton Wong’s opinion piece in Thursday’s Daily was right on. The billion-dollar military-aid package the United States is sending will not help. The problem of cocaine trafficking will not be solved by military intervention because it is a complex social phenomenon, not simply the result of bad guys running amok. The United States could best address the problem by reducing its demand for cocaine and by supporting Colombia’s agricultural economy. The drug traffickers of Colombia are successful because our demand for cocaine makes its production an extremely lucrative business and because much of Colombia’s rural sector is poor and desperate. Many are political allies of the rebel groups affiliated with the drug trade because these groups, unlike the Colombian government, have helped them feed their families. More guns and helicopters may kill some guerrillas, but they won’t put food on the plates of farmers who can’t make a living within the context of a suffering economy. Even if the U.S. military intervention were to shut down the major rebel groups, it is doubtful there would be a major decline in cocaine arriving on our shores. Unless demand for cocaine is reduced, new farms and drug rings will sprout up in other areas with suffering rural economies throughout Latin America. The countries bordering Colombia such as Panama, Ecuador and Brazil, countries which have no extra money to spend, are already having to divert funds toward increasing their border security against fleeing coca farmers and rebels who will attempt to set up new farms. The plan could even completely backfire within Colombia, if any self-policing mechanisms within the drug trafficking world are destroyed. For example, the assassination of Pablo Escobar, one of Colombia’s most notorious narcotraffickers in the early 1990s, did not cause a decline in cocaine production, but allowed other producers to expand. Colombia’s cocaine production is now twice what it was in 1997. Instead of attacking the surface of the cocaine problem with violence, why not focus on its root causes: rural poverty and high U.S. demand? Imagine how much more permanent the solution could be if our billion dollars were invested in drug abuse prevention programs and Colombia’s additional 6 billion dollars were invested in its rural economy! Jennifer Barger

Plant health and protection