Plan Colombia / Plan Uribe

From a foreign correspondent:

“The memory of the American public is short or maybe they never pay any attention to begin with. I guess I paid attention because I was there, during the Plan Colombia to Plan Uribe transition. And now the plan is evolving again.

“Five or six years ago, our Puppet in Colombia (my amigo Marino likes to call them Muppets, I like that better), Uribe, and Bush came up with a plan to rip the US off for Sixteen Billion US Dollars. It was as simple a scheme as any, and starts with a story.

“So much is justified by the simple phrase DRUG WAR. Pigs murdering citizens, where the public might rise up against murder are quickly averted by invoking, Drug war, or IT WAS DRUG RELATED. Every kind of crime or government thievery can be easily put to rest just by saying DRUG WAR. The stories are endless and after a while become muddled in the public memory, if and when such a memory exists. PLAN COLOMBIA is just another story of the crimes of government. But I remember it well.

“It seems that Colombia was on the verge of stamping out the scourge of drugs once and for all, at least that is what the Scourge George told Congress. They just needed a few bucks, for a bucket of paraquat poison, some planes, some helos, a few guns, and some money to train their boys to kill. This was the big SURGE and they needed our help. Couldn`t Congress find 16 Billion to assist?? Just a drop in the bucket (not the one with the paraquat) compared to all the previous billions since Nixxxon devised the criminal drug war back in `72.

“They were gonna call it PLAN COLOMBIA, and any congressperson who didn`t buy into the story would be labeled soft on drugs. Congress didn`t give a shit anyway, they were too busy filling their own pockets, fucking their secretaries and their constituents, and blowing the pages (and you thought they weren`t talented). So to show their mettle they voted for PLAN COLOMBIA. And the money began to flow. First down payment, 4 Billion. The Uribe gang had some talents of their own, setting a world record for speed in theft, the 4 Billion disappeared, zap! just like that. By the time the fat-assed bureaucrats go to Bogota to audit the spending, it was ‘spent’.

“Speaking with a Colombian journalist at a diplomatic circle jerk, a junior embassy flunkie said, ‘Î don`t know why they bother to send the money to Bogota, they should just send it to the Uribe gang`s Swiss bank accounts.’ Well, he got transferred to Siberia or Butte, wherever they send diplomats who get caught telling the truth. But the cat was out of the bag, and almost before it started PLAN COLOMBIA was shitcanned.

“Uribe came up to Washington and unashamedly told Congress of a new plan, which sounded very much like the old plan, but Congress went along as if nothing had happened. The new plan, baldfacedly called PLAN URIBE, gave Congress another chance to show they were on the right side in the WAR ON DRUGS. They funded PLAN URIBE with the rest of the PLAN COLOMBIA money, 12 Billion, and PLAN COLOMBIA was never mentioned again.

“The PLAN URIBE money is all spent and gone now.

“A new plan is underway to transfer not only money but jobs and trade to the URIBE gang, this one called the COLOMBIAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT, and it promises to be as successful as PLAN URIBE.

“Did PLAN COLOMBIA/URIBE stop any drugs? Ask your favorite dealer down the street if he ever heard of PLAN COLOMBIA/URIBE and how much it affected his business. Will the COLUMBIAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT stimulate US jobs and industry? It won’t even pretend.

Yours truly,
Marion Delgado”