Juliana Barbassa

Mauricio Cárdenas, co-author of the controversial Plan Colombia that guarantees $1.3 billion in U.S. aid to the South American country, returned to his alma mater as a part of the Colombia in Context conference to discuss the plan, and spent much of his energy defending it.

"The plan is an effort to make a big transformation in Colombian society, which is now affected by severe problems, like drug trafficking, corruption, crime, low growth, and high unemployment," said Cárdenas, 38, to a crowd of some 300 students, activists and faculty from UC Berkeley.

The $7.5 billion plan, conceived by the Colombian and U.S. governments in August 2000, addresses the full range of problems affecting Colombia, Cárdenas said. Also, he added, the "$1.3 billion [in U.S. aid] is just for two years. Colombia's problems will not be solved in such a short period of time. You need resources for at least five." Critics say that because so much of the aid money - about $1 billion - is going to counternarcotics activities mostly by way of the military, it will only escalate the violence.

This debate, Cárdenas said, is fueled by the "many misconceptions, misperceptions, and misunderstandings about Plan Colombia." While acknowledging that the war on drugs plays a major role in the plan, he said that "there is not one strategy that will solve all problems, given the complexity of the situation."

Plan Colombia, he said, "is structured around four basic strategies: the first is economic and social reform. It is absolutely a priority to get the economy growing again. And what has caused economic recession in Colombia?" he asked. "Essentially, the fiscal mismanagement of the 1990s has diminished private investment. So the first strategy of Plan Colombia is economic stabilization, and fiscal adjustment."

Alongside the economic reforms, he said, "We have to start negotiating with the insurgents, and that is already in process." Cárdenas has met several times with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to explain the details and the scope of the plan, and to discuss other aspects of government policy. According to Cardenas, the FARC "say they like the social part [of the plan]. And they can't say that they oppose fighting drugs."

Fighting drug traffic, however, remains an essential element in setting Colombia back on the path of prosperity and development, he said. The majority of Plan Colombia's funding - $4 billion dollars - will be used in the fight against drug production and distribution. "It is fundamental for making peace possible," he said. Military training and materials to fight narcotraffic is also where most of American aid will be used. That, countered others at the Colombia in Context conference, is precisely the problem with it.

But Cárdenas said that even the plan's counternarcotics strategy is not purely military. "We have to provide the peasants in the areas where the coca and the poppy are being grown with alternatives. It is not just bringing them new seeds, so they can change their coca leaves or their poppy seed crops for corn; we have to bring them infrastructure, roads, health, education, electricity, and institutions, like justice and an improved local government."

Many of Plan Colombia's critics who attended the one-day conference said that the money being sent as military aid to Colombia would be better spent reducing the demand for drugs in the United States. Cárdenas agreed, though only in part. "I think that the most effective way of solving the drug problem in Colombia is by reducing or eliminating demand, especially here in this country. But I disagree with those that say that nothing should be done in Colombia, because what Colombia cannot afford is to wait for 10 or 20 more years of unrest, conflict and tension, [which] are generated by the drug problem."

Cárdenas pointed out that it is futile to attempt to solve other problems Colombia is facing without tackling the drug traffic. "It is very important to put that in context," he said. "The drug business is funding the Colombian conflict. It is funding both the insurgents and the paramilitary; it is exacerbating the conflict. We have to fight the production and distribution of drugs as a prerequisite for the solution of the armed conflict in Colombia."

Cárdenas, who is moving to the Boston area to be a visiting scholar at Harvard, said he expects to return to Colombia later this year. He feels that as a Colombian, it is his responsibility to try to end the violence that has displaced more than 1 million people. "I have to serve my country, " he said. "This means I can't turn my back and walk away."

Juliana Barbassa is a first-year M.A. student in Latin American Studies.