Adam Isacson, director of programs at the Center for International Policy, discusses the history of Plan Columbia, the terrible humanitarian situation there, the murderous criminality of the government, right-wing paramilitary death squads and FARC guerrillas alike, the FARC’s choice in the mid-nineties to go ahead and align themselves with cocaine traffickers, Joe Biden’s role in pushing military aid through the U.S. Senate, the economic illiteracy behind the coca spraying projects in Latin America, his belief that Biden has at least learned a bit from his mistakes and has begun to back off from his earlier enthusiasm for military aid, the blowback from 20th century American-sponsored fascism represented in the election of leftists across Latin America, accusations about President Uribe’s history with the cocaine trade and organization of death squads and the pressure on congress from greedy helicopter manufacturers and union members to continue the foreign drug wars.
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