Things not going better with coke… Colombia v. everybody

Following on the heels of the FARC-fetched explanations of why the Colombians launched a missile into Ecuador, the Colombian government’s only remaining overt rationale for U.S. military support seems to be evaporating. NarcoNews reports that:

… thousands of coca growers that had been occupying town centers in northern Colombia to protest the forced eradication of their crops have begun returning to their villages after three weeks of negotiations with local authorities. Their occupation of four large towns showed that Colombia’s much-demonized producers of the raw material for cocaine are willing to move to alternative, legal crops – if the government will treat them as partners rather than enemies.

Despite some whining from missionaries, about minor things like death squads, our national security depends on free trade with Colombia.

However, Haliburton and Blackwater can take heart (though it’ll mean more U.S. military casualties in Colombia)… now that the Israelis have been put out of the death squad training biz, there are other business opportunities. And, if all else fails, we’ll always have Venezuela:

Two Florida-based companies that have exported a total of at least 11 aircraft to Venezuelan buyers since 2003 are linked to four cocaine planes and what appears to be an elaborate covert intelligence operation…

Durn those Venezuelans.. they may screw the whole thing up:

The Venezuelan police have arrested a suspected drugs and weapons smuggler wanted in the United States. The US authorities have offered a five million dollar reward for the arrest of Hermágoras Gonzales Polanco, who has ties with the Colombian Guajira cartel.

He is suspected of smuggling large quantities of cocaine into the US and weapons, destined for paramilitary groups, from Europe into Colombia. Mr Gonzalez was arrested at the border with Colombia, together with 48 suspected paramilitaries.