CSN Responds to 60 Minutes

I watched with great interest your report about Colombia on December 5th's 60 Minutes. However, I am very disappointed with your report for a number of reasons.

First, your report does not mention why there is a guerrilla movement in Colombia. In fact, it started many years before drug trafficking : there would be a civil war in Colombia even if there were no drug trade.

President Pastrana says his government needs the $3.5 billion from the U.S. principally for training and professionalizing the Colombian Army. He does not mention, however ,the deep structural problems in Colombian society, nor the extensive collaboration of Colombian's army with illegal right wing paramilitaries. Your report does not trace the background of the paramilitaries nor explain how they are linked to the drug trade.

The report suggests the Colombian army lacks professionalism and is weak. Yet Colombia has spent huge sums of money on its armed forces during the last 30 years while it has been involved in counter -insurgency war against the guerrillas. This suggests two things :

a) It will be very, very hard and very, very expensive to "professionalize" this army into an effective force for fighting the guerrillas and b) Focusing on funds for training and equipping armed forces will not treat the serious problems which gave rise to the guerrilla conflict to begin with, such as an extremely unequal division of wealth and an exclusionary Colombian elite, depending for its legitimacy more upon links to the U. S. and internacional business than on Colombian voters.

If the problems with the Armed Forces and with Pastrana's proposed "militarization" money are as mentioned above, the U.S. may be entering again into a Vietnam-type morass - an escalating commitment to an unpopular, abusive military of questionable legitimacy for most Colombians. Yet, your report does not mention this issue.

Andres Pastrana is undeniably a pleasant personality who speaks English very well and has a winsome smile. But that hardly justifies a supposedly serious investigator of the Colombian situation, such as you , from becoming a cheerleader for President Pastrana. You abandon any pretense of objectivity in your report when you say of Pastrana's request for $3.5 billion of U.S. aid,"I know you need it now".

What CBS should have presented was an insightful anlysis of the Colombian situation and the possible consequences of further U.S. involvement. Instead you ignored these issues almost completely and converted your report into a pitch for Pastrana's aid request. President Pastrana deserves credit for his commitment to peace talks with the guerrillas ; however his government has done far too little to combat paramilitary violence and Colombian armed forces' collaboration with the paramilitaries. His plan to further escalate the military's role will undermine development of grass-roots civilian organizations which hold the only real promise for peace in Colombia.