U.S. aid called 'gas on fire'

According to Mr. Breyman, the U.S. aid package to Colombia, totaling $1.3 billion, has "morphed into a massive counter-insurgency campaign designed to turn the Colombian army into a first-class death machine."

He said that military aid and assistance from the U.S. includes "60 helicopters, the creation of three 950-man anti-drug battalions in the Colombian army, and daily training and intelligence sharing with U.S. military personnel. As a result of this collaboration, over two million Colombian farmers have been displaced from their land. They are forced by large companies that have taken over that land to farm the coca and opium poppy plants that are the raw materials for cocaine and heroine. There is no work available for them other than farming, and they farm the plants so they can feed their families."

He said that fighting the drug war by aerial fumigation -- the spraying of coca and poppy fields with glyphosphate (an active ingredient in weed killer) -- is not working. He also told The Evangelist that for the past 40 years, the people of Colombia have endured brutal armed conflict among the national army, leftist guerilla movements and right-wing, paramilitary death squads.

"The real issue here is that drug abuse is a demand problem, not a supply problem," he said. "Instead of dousing the Colombian countryside with this weed killer that displaces the people, contaminates the drinking water and kills the legal crops as well as the illegal ones, we need to fund domestic drug treatment programs that will reduce drug abuse in the U.S."

Mr. Breyman recently returned from a trip to Colombia with 100 other Americans. They met with a cross-section of Colombians, including religious and political leaders, labor organizers, and community activists. As a result of that visit, a political activist from Colombia will speak May 11, 7 p.m., at The First Presbyterian Church at 362 State St. in Albany.

"He has been given the assumed name of Jose Perriera to protect his identity," said Mr. Breyman, who explained that the human rights activist has been placed on a death list. "This activist was detained and tortured by the army for speaking on human rights issues, and his family was forced to flee to Spain. 'Mr. Perriera' will speak to the general public about the impact of the U.S. foreign policy in Colombia and the effects of the $1.3 billion aid package, and suggest solutions to the daily political violence in Colombia."

(Admission to the talk is free. For information, call Karl Breyman at 283-5987.)

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