Wednesday morning, April 12

N. Christian Anderson III, The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, Calif., ASNE president, presiding: Mis amigos, bien venido a su casa. Ladies and gentlemen, please continue enjoying your desserts as I introduce the distinguished editors here at today’s head table.

I am joined today by two very special groups: the men and women I have called upon during the past 12 months to carry out the tasks of ASNE, and candidates who have agreed to stand for election to the board.

First, I want to ask the current officers and board members to rise and remain standing until I have introduced them all, and I beg you to hold any recognition until they have all been introduced.

Beginning on my right, are the officers of ASNE: Richard A. Oppel, Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, vice president; Tim J. McGuire, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, secretary; Diane H. McFarlin, Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, treasurer; and Peter K. Bhatia, The Oregonian, Portland, treasurer-elect. There is one director who is leaving the board this week, our past president, Edward L. Seaton, The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury.

Our other directors are Jennie Buckner of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer; Kenneth F. Bunting, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Susan C. Deans from the Denver Rocky Mountain News; Frank M. Denton from the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison; and Karla Garrett Harshaw, the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun. On my left are Edward W. Jones, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.; Linda C. Lightfoot, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.; Wanda S. Lloyd, The Greenville (S.C.) News; Robert G. McGruder, Detroit Free Press; Gregory L. Moore, The Boston Globe; Rick Rodriguez, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee; and David A. Zeeck, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. I am very proud and grateful to this group — and to both Richard Aregood of The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J., and Gilbert Bailon of The Dallas Morning News, both of whom were unable to be with us today — for their tireless work. I hope you will join me in thanking them.

Four of those previously introduced — Karla Garrett Harshaw, Ken Bunting, Wanda Lloyd, and Linda Lightfoot — are standing for re-election. I’ll ask them to rise again while I introduce the remainder of the nominees. You notice how quickly they stood up, right?

The other candidates, beginning on my far left, are Joe Distelheim of The Huntsville (Ala.) Times; Anders Gyllenhaal, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.; Paul C. Tash, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times; Earl R. Maucker, the Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Jane Amari, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson; and Pamela J. Johnson, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix. The polls close at 4 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Please remember to cast your ballots at the convention registration desk, and join me in recognizing these folks for their candidacy.

The generous gifts of our sponsors amount to more than 10 percent of ASNE’s annual budget. Convention sponsors provide critical support, and we are grateful to all of them for this week. Today, we especially thank our luncheon sponsor, USA Weekend, represented here at the front table by president, chief executive officer and editor, Marcia Bullard, and executive editor, Jack Curry. Please stand. Thank you.

It is now my pleasure to introduce our colleague, Rafael Santos, editor of El Tiempo in Bogotá, Colombia, who is the first ASNE member from Central or South America. He will introduce our speaker. Rafael.

Rafael Santos Calderón, El Tiempo, Bogotá, Colombia: Thank you, Chris. I am not quite sure how many hours this man sleeps, probably very few, for nights in Colombia, as we know them today, are still far from being quiet ones. The long list of cumbersome and sometimes surrealist situations he must face every day, and the limited resources with which an unfairly stigmatized poor country can account for, must take away many hours of sleep and tranquility from this 45-year-old man who chose the ungrateful path of politics to help the country overcome the crisis in which it is immersed. Now in the center of a political storm due to his proposal to call for a constitutional referendum to banish corruption and eradicate bad habits from our congress, President Pastrana has taken away a few hours from his busy agenda to address this distinguished audience. His words might explain better what we are as a country and what we expect from our neighbors and key allies such as the United States in bringing a solution to a problem that is common to all and has slipped through the hands of the most powerful, as well as the most vulnerable countries.

President Pastrana, born in the heart of a family devoted to politics, embodies quite well what we are as a nation, both in its richness and in its violent past. He, as a good Colombian, is a talented and enviable joke teller. From the years we shared as students and close friends at a school founded in Bogotá in the ’60s by Benedictine monks from South Dakota, he showed his leadership qualities in a captivating personality. His openness made him an easy person to reach. To be honest, I never thought that this youngster who defended himself from the rigid academic standards of our teachers with good humor and warmth would be elected president in the most turbulent times of our long, but nevertheless agitated, democratic history.

Deeply embedded in our nationality is religion. President Pastrana is a devoted Catholic and a believer of El Divino Niño, the most revered religious figure in Colombia. Perhaps his religious faith might explain how he faced with such incredible courage the seven days he was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar, the sinister drug trafficker killed by police some years later. This dramatic episode when he was running for mayor of Bogotá marked his life forever. From then on he has kept firm on his commitment to the international community not to give up in the costly and bloody struggle against drugs, solitarily endured by our country for the past 20 years.

President Pastrana graduated as a lawyer, although he has politics in his blood. His father was also president of Colombia in the ’70s. After college, he went into journalism as a television news reporter and later as an anchorman. Twice, he was awarded the prestigious King of Spain recognition. Television certainly served his political purposes. He was elected city commissioner of Bogotá, senator, and twice he ran for the presidency. After being defeated in his first campaign, he decided to publicly expose the dirty practice of drug money in politics, a position not very well understood by many at that time. He has persevered in his commitment to clean politics in a country menaced by powerful drug cartels and guerrilla movements.

As you are well aware and read about increasingly in U.S. and European papers, Colombia is undergoing a very difficult situation regarding issues such as security, social and political violence, and economic stability. I am well aware that even President Pastrana — the president and the journalist — sometimes finds it hard to give audiences a better perspective of our extremely complex reality, although he has managed to advance in these matters thanks to his aggressive diplomacy-for-peace strategy. I also know his incredible stubbornness in convincing the Colombian people that the only way out of the armed confrontation with the oldest guerrilla movement in the world, the FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is through a political negotiation amidst a repulsive war in which many innocent Colombians are killed every day. The challenges President Pastrana faces are not few, especially in a country besieged by powerful enemies such as guerrillas and hundreds of small drug cartels that keep narcotics flowing into the unquenchable markets of the United States and Europe. Only at the end of his term in office in the year 2002 shall we know if he was a better president than a journalist, or if he should never have abandoned journalism. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a warm welcome to the president of Colombia, Mr. Andrés Pastrana.

Remarks by President Andrés Pastrana Arango

Thank you, Chris. Thank you very much, too, Rafael, for your kind words introducing me to this audience. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Vice President Gore for the very kind words he said this morning regarding Colombia, and regarding President Pastrana.

My former colleagues in the media, ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to be here today to address the American Society of Newspaper Editors at your annual convention. Let me thank your president, Christian Anderson, for this generous invitation, and all of you for making me feel at home, and for easing the anxiety every politician feels standing before a large room full of journalists.

Let me also express my admiration for this Society’s long commitment to upholding the First Amendment, promoting and protecting the free flow of information, and nurturing the great responsibility that comes with an open and independent press. And in this time of unparalleled prosperity and leadership for the United States, when our world grows constantly more interconnected, those everywhere who believe in freedom are grateful for your work with The Freedom Forum, and for your continuing self-examination of how your newspapers can better cover the international arena and bring responsible and relevant news to your readers. In the Cold War, the United States was deeply concerned with the way it was seen by other nations. In the post-Cold War era, other nations are concerned about how we are viewed, politically and economically, in the United States. We Colombians welcome and invite increased interaction with the entire spectrum of your media, to exchange ideas, challenge misperceptions and widen understanding.

The last president of Colombia to speak at your convention was President Virgilio Barco in the year 1986. From this platform, President Barco made a strong plea for the United States and Latin America to do more together in the war on drugs. Here, the first steps were taken that led to the landmark 1990 drug summit attended by President Bush in Cartagena. That effort marked the beginning of the end of the Medellín drug cartel.

Today, I return here with a similar, urgent call for both our nations and the entire international community once again to do more in the fight against a new wave of drug trafficking and drug violence. I also come here to speak candidly about a dangerous problem of misinformation about my country, Colombia. As you know better than anyone, in the era of instant information, it can be difficult to distinguish impressions from truth, and the headline of one news cycle from the cycle of history. Today, I ask you, in a decisive time for my country, to reflect with me on the real Colombia — our strengths, our problems, our resolve and our prospects.

In recent months, Colombia has become what truly can be called a hot topic in the United States. Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, Charlie Gibson, and Tom Friedman have come to Bogotá plainly expecting the worst, with a preconceived idea of what our country was all about — in a phrase, violence and cocaine. Yet they each left with a powerful sense of the character and values of the Colombian people, our commitment to peace and democracy, and our unbending determination to reforming and modernizing our society for the 21st century.

What may sometimes be lost in the glare of the media moment is the historic truth that Colombia is South America’s oldest, most resilient democracy, and that we Colombians share your long tradition of a free press and open access to information. Our newspapers are a powerful, independent influence — something we politicians learn again every day. El Tiempo, the largest national daily and one of Latin America’s most highly respected newspapers, has been at the center of Colombian life for almost a century, along with its main competitor, El Espectador. Our other major cities, and Colombia has five cities with more than one million people each, have influential newspapers, and so do many smaller communities.

In reality, it is this regional diversity that defines us as a nation. I could also argue that Colombia stands as a microcosm for all Latin America. Consider, just for a moment, our geography. Central America ends at our border with Panamá. From there, to the east, stretch 1,000 miles of Caribbean coastline. At its center, the walled city of Cartagena, once the third most powerful city of the Spanish empire, is today a magnet for tourists from around the world. To the south, 600 miles along the Pacific Ocean is an area still largely undeveloped, with extraordinary potential, especially as Asia looks more and more to Latin America. We share borders with Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and with Brazil, at the very heart and soul of South America, the vast Amazon rainforest. Across our entire country, which is the size of Texas and California combined, 33 national parks shelter more plant and animal species per square mile than anywhere else on the planet.

Yet it is the Andes Mountains, more than anything else, that have shaped Colombia as it is today. Most of the Andes, like the Rockies or the Alps, are one massive chain rising above a continent. But in Colombia, and only in Colombia, the Andes literally branch out into three distinct ranges, with altitudes that reach 15,000 feet. Crossing Colombia by car is not an easy task and can take many, many days. The distance traveled in a 35-minute flight can take an eight- to 10-hour drive. No wonder Colombia was the first country in all of the Americas with a national airline.

There is a saying from the old West, “Give me men that match our mountains.” Colombia has been blessed with a people of energy, faith and enterprise. We have 67 years of uninterrupted economic growth, and a pantheon of Colombians who have made a difference in the wider world, people like scientist Manuel Patarroyo, the scientist who has done more than anyone to eradicate malaria, or Rodolfo Llinas, a worldwide recognized neurologist. There are our Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” has sold more than 30 million copies in over 40 languages; Fernando Botero, whose sculptures have lined Park Avenue and the Champs-Élysées; Juan Pablo Montoya, our CART champion, and Shakira, our amazing Spanish rock superstar.

I also take pride in reminding people that six out of every 10 fresh cut flowers imported to the United States come from Colombia, that we are your seventh largest source of crude petroleum, and will soon become the world’s third largest exporter of coal. Such is the Colombia of our history and our hopes, a Colombia which today also faces fateful choices.

The choices and the crises, are, in my view, often misreported and misunderstood. I am regularly surprised and sometimes genuinely stunned by what I read in the foreign press. When you see your country’s name continually misspelled, even in the most distinguished newspapers, you naturally worry about the rest of the reporting. And while a wire service is saying that the United States is being drawn into a guerrilla war, some editorial board here is predicting my government’s imminent collapse. A ripple can too easily be mistaken for a wave. The limelight on one event can obscure the complicated interplay of underlying events.

The problem is not one of intentions. I know the need to capture and convey drama in a headline or in a news story. Still, I ask you to imagine what it is like when El Tiempo or even TV news report a standoff between a guerrilla unit and an army platoon several miles away from Bogotá, and the headline in the United States reads: “Colombia’s capital under siege.” For us, every single casualty is a cause for national concern, but it is not a signal of national collapse.

To understand modern-day Colombia, we must look beyond the incidents and see the conditions for what they are, or in this case, what they are not. For starters, Colombia is not in the midst of a civil war, despite what is continually said in the international media. Colombians have never referred to this conflict as a civil war, for the simple reason: It is not one.

A civil war occurs in a divided nation, torn apart into armed camps of more or less the same size. Ireland, the former Yugoslavia and the Congo, these are present-day examples of civil wars. Colombia’s case is dramatically different. There are approximately 35,000 well-armed and well-financed insurgents, both guerrilla and paramilitary, operating mainly in the remote countryside. They have inflicted enormous suffering, killing innocent civilians, driving others from their homes and villages, and blocking any chance for development and progress. But the insurgents make up barely one-tenth of one percent of the total population of Colombia. Militarily, their tactics are classic guerrilla — hit and run, strike and retreat. Every time they have faced the Colombian armed forces out in the open, they have been soundly defeated. And unlike guerrilla movements in other places, they have completely failed to convince Colombians that they provide a legitimate alternative to our tested democracy.

The guerrilla roots are in the ’40s and ’50s at the very height of the Cold War. In the decades that followed, however, their support steadily decreased until today, when the guerrillas can claim little more than 3 or 4 percent of popular support. Even intellectuals and university students, once the bedrock of guerrilla sympathy, have turned against them as they wage continuous war on the civilian population.

The guerrillas’ loss of support reflects more than the end of Cold War confrontation. Colombia today is a much more modern, urban and just society than it was a half-century ago. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a civil war. Even though billions of dollars generated by drug trafficking sustain the violence, the guerrillas cannot overthrow our democracy, and no one knows this better than they do.

Yet the talk, so common here in the United States, of a Colombian government under siege and on the verge of collapse has given rise to another false assumption, namely, that Colombia is somehow another Vietnam. A quarter century after the fall of Saigon, the shadow of Vietnam understandably continues to shape public opinion and influence policy-makers. But Colombia is not Vietnam, and for many reasons. While Vietnam was a divided country, an ideological battlefield, its borders imposed by the Geneva Accords of 1954, Colombia is a unified nation with a strong national identity, where 95 percent and more of our citizens believe in democracy, in freedom of the press, and in an open economy. While Vietnam had been a colony under foreign domination for over a century, Colombia has been a free and independent nation since defeating the Spanish empire in 1819. The Vietcong enjoyed significant support, while the Colombian insurgents are almost entirely without political support or sympathy. Equally important is the fact that while Vietnam was a distant Asian country, Colombia is an integral part of this hemisphere. Colombia is your neighbor, with Bogotá roughly the same distance from New York to Los Angeles.

What must be understood is how drug trafficking and its obscene profits have changed the very nature of our conflict. My own opinion, one shared by most Colombians, is that we would already be a nation at peace were it not for the violence and corruption fueled by the illegal drug trade. No nation has suffered as severely as Colombia from the boom in the demand for illegal drugs over the last generation. Rather than fall victim to this menace, we have systematically opposed it, taken on and destroyed ruthless drug cartels from Medellín and Cali.

The cost has been high. Imagine United States Supreme Court justices murdered in their chambers, or federal judges from Miami, Los Angeles, or Chicago killed by the scores. Imagine one-fifth of your FBI and local police forces wounded or killed with their wives and children also targeted. Imagine courageous public officials — cabinet ministers and mayors, senators, governors, and presidential candidates — gunned down for giving voice to a society that refuses to back down. Imagine being given just one option, plata ó bala, a bribe or a bullet.

And I ask all of you to imagine newspaper editors, publishers and reporters shot in cold blood, their offices bombed into rubble, or exiled because they would not be intimidated, because they held on to their convictions that were worth living for, and all too tragically, all too often, worth dying for as well. Imagine this, my friends, and you get a clear idea of what Colombia has endured in this generation. Heroic men and women have paid the ultimate price, earning the lasting admiration of all Colombians, and we will never forget their sacrifice.

So we fight on. We push back the forces of violence, and then we read that Colombia is on the verge of collapse, of becoming a narcoterrorist state. Nothing is further from the truth. Indeed, after the break up of the cartels, the nature of drug trafficking has changed dramatically. Unlike the days of Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellín cartel, the drug war has shifted from the cities to the Amazon region, particularly to the south to the Putumayo. Today, a new breed of criminals operates in smaller organizations, underground and with closer ties to traffickers in other countries. Indeed, drug mafias, too, have become increasingly globalized.

There is a growing awareness in Colombia, the United States and around the world, that the threat of drug trafficking is no longer a national or a regional issue. For example, the precursor chemicals needed to process cocaine are smuggled into Colombia from abroad, while most of the tainted profits that drive the drug trade end up invested in financial markets abroad. As long as a demand exists, there will be suppliers somewhere to meet it. This is why we urgently need improvements in education and prevention, as well as more drug treatment facilities.

Colombia’s resolve to combat production and distribution has not lessened, but intensified. Last October, after months of preparation and with the help of your drug enforcement agencies, we conducted the most important worldwide drug bust in over five years. In Operation Millennium, 30 of the most powerful of the new breed of drug traffickers were arrested across Colombia and elsewhere. And we have sent those still at large the strongest message, in the clearest possible terms: Drug traffickers will never be tolerated in Colombia. We are determined to destroy them and their empires. This morning, we finished what we call Operation Millennium No. 2, in which we captured more than 46 members of the cartel that was sending the largest amount of heroin to the United States. Even the cousin of Pablo Escobar, who was the leader of this cartel, was captured this morning. We are destroying one of the largest heroin cartels in the world.

But Colombia cannot and should not continue to bear the greatest weight of this global crisis. I have taken the message of greater burden-sharing in the fight against drugs to the international community. President Clinton has committed the United States to do more in this crusade. We discussed this at our first meeting, in August of 1998, and since then we have worked closely to execute a bilateral strategy. Leaders on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats alike, have been essential in this effort.

In some quarters, I know, there is resistance to the United States’ assistance to Colombia. The most common argument is that you could become “entangled in a Vietnam-like quagmire.” I would like to make one more point about this — one that I cannot emphasize too strongly.

Implicit in the Vietnam analogy is the belief that the United States would end up committing troops to Colombia. But that is flat out impossible. Neither your public opinion nor ours would support or permit such a move, and neither your government nor ours has considered this in even the most extreme circumstances. It is simply not on the table, and as long as I am president of Colombia, this will not happen. You can quote me on that.

What Colombia has proposed, and your government endorses, is giving us the resources, the hardware and the training needed to combat the changing nature of the drug trade. This means exposing and penetrating remote jungle areas once beyond the sustained reach of our security forces. Earlier on, I spoke of our unique geographic makeup and how this has influenced our development as a nation. Well, this unique geography also plays a critical part in the war against narcotics, where often inaccessible areas have become hotbeds for cocaine production, areas we could not fully control in the past, but where our reach is now becoming increasingly stronger.

Our strategy here is twofold. In the end, we must negotiate a meaningful peace agreement with the guerrillas, but from the beginning we must root out the drug traffickers and the violence they cause our society and the damage they do to our economy. United States assistance is meant to support counter-narcotics operations, as well as alternative crop development, economic stimulation and government reforms.

Our strategy is called Plan Colombia, a comprehensive blueprint for our future. And while our goal is peace, our first order of business has to be the strengthening of our own institutions — political, judicial and military. No peace process can succeed without the institutional strength to support it. And above all, our democratic institutions must serve the people. This means guaranteeing their fundamental human rights.

Plan Colombia’s cost is estimated at $7.5 billion over the next three years. My government is pledged to provide $4 billion, while actively seeking additional support from the international community. In addition to the Clinton administration’s assistance package, we will be meeting with the European leaders at a conference this July in Spain.

I have called our efforts Diplomacy for Peace, because if we have learned anything from the recent progress in Northern Ireland, Central America and the Middle East, it is that the international community must be actively engaged in order for peace to prevail.

A Colombia at peace is in everyone’s interest. Not only will it bring an end to the violence and human rights violations, so those displaced from their homes can return to them unafraid, a Colombia at peace also depends on more effective counter-narcotics operations, in terms of both interdiction and alternative crops for subsistence farmers. That means not only less violence on our streets, but less drug trafficking on yours. Every shipment of drugs we stop in Colombia is a shipment that doesn’t reach American neighborhoods, playgrounds and schools.

In Colombia, the last year and a half has witnessed dramatic steps forward in the name of peace. Never in our history has there been such a commitment from all sectors of our society to bring a lasting end to the violence and an honorable end to the insurgency.

Only days after my election, I flew to the jungle to meet with the leaders of the FARC, the oldest and largest guerrilla group. I was the first president to do so. Since then, we have agreed to a 12-point agenda for negotiations. And only last month, government and guerrilla delegations traveled in Europe together to show the guerrillas, who have lived in almost total seclusion for decades, how the world has changed and the wide range of new social democratic models.

Last weekend we started a public hearings procedure that will give all citizens the chance to make their contributions to the peace process. At the same time, Richard Grasso, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange; Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts; Jim Kimsey, co-founder of America Online; and Joe Robert are just a few of those who have met with the guerrilla leaders, carrying a realistic message of progress and development, of the shared prosperity that can come with peace. Such exchanges go a long way to remove outdated stereotypes and suspicions. They show the guerrillas the intentions of the international community, the opportunities available to a united, peaceful Colombia, and the potent fact that guerrilla warfare has no part in a modern nation.

Perhaps more important have been the strides on the domestic front. A little over a year ago, more than 10 million Colombians, almost one-third of the entire country, and here is Francisco Santos who promotes these type of marches, marched peacefully through our streets, calling for a negotiated end to the insurgency. And just as Plan Colombia recognizes the need for strong, accountable institutions to sustain any peace agreement, we are convinced that only by engaging civil society as a whole — labor unions and business executives, teachers and health-care workers, farmers and truck drivers — only then can we meet everyone’s legitimate needs.

Equally important is the economy. Job creation, low inflation and interest rates, and sustained GDP growth all play a decisive role in strengthening our society; so does expanding trade and attracting more foreign investment — another way the international community can help. The sheer size of our economy, around $86 billion, makes Colombia one of the largest and most attractive markets for U.S. trade and investment in all the Americas. Bilateral trade with the United States exceeded $8 billion last year. There are more than 120 U.S. companies operating successfully in Colombia, most of them for many decades. Political strength and economic health are bound together. At the end of the day, Colombia cannot be a nation at peace if it is not a nation in prosperity.

Plan Colombia also includes the most ambitious and organized strategy of social reform that has ever been proposed in my country. The purpose of this reform is to create new and better opportunities for progress for the poorest Colombians.

This component of Plan Colombia includes, on the one hand, the Social Emergency Fund made up of three basic programs: Hands to Work, Subsidy for Poor Families, and Training for the Unemployed Youth. These programs are geared toward creating a better quality of life for the most needy through investment in health, education and job creation.

On the other hand, we will assign more than $2 billion for the Alternative Development and Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid programs. The first program seeks to go beyond crop substitution by promoting a comprehensive regional development strategy that will generate legal work alternatives for Colombian peasants. In matters of human rights and humanitarian aid, we intend to improve the mechanisms for the respect and protection of these rights, with attention to the victims of the armed conflict and special emphasis on displaced people.

One of the main enemies we face in making Colombia a peaceful and prosperous nation is corruption. This terrible cancer undermines the legitimacy of the government and subverts social ethics, creating a vicious cycle of mistrust and despair.

For instance, a large corruption scandal was recently uncovered in our Congress, thanks to my government’s accusations. As a result, a very serious investigation is being carried out to uncover those responsible.

However, the magnitude of this case demands a more profound response, one that ensures this will never happen again. It is necessary to make a radical reform of our political system in all branches of the government.

For that reason, last week, based on our constitution and our laws I proposed to the Colombian people a referendum in which they will vote for a change for honesty and transparency in the way of doing politics. More than 90 percent of the Colombian people have expressed their support for this initiative, which I am sure will serve as the cornerstone of the transformation of our democratic system.

In closing, I would like to extend to all of you, as leaders in American journalism, an open invitation to visit Colombia. Talking about misperceptions will do little unless you are given firsthand access. Our problems are formidable, yet our nationwide determination to overcome them is making a difference. I want nothing more than to demonstrate that our resolve and our progress are much more than words delivered from a podium.

Behind my invitation stands a big, bold and beautiful land. It is a land full of people who will welcome you into their homes and neighborhoods, villages, and schools, their soccer fields, offices, and places of worship. You will hear stories of great success and serious struggle. You will witness sorrow mixed with joy. And only then will you understand the real Colombia.

By helping us, I believe that in the truest sense you also help your own country. Only provide us with the tools, and we will do the job. I thank you for the opportunity to speak here today, and I hope for a new beginning in the way you see and report about Colombia. Thank you very much.

Anderson: President Pastrana has agreed to answer just a couple of questions. He has an appointment on Capitol Hill.

Questions from the floor

Tony W. Pederson, Houston Chronicle: Mr. President, I’m pleased to say that I will be able to accept your invitation. I’ll be in your country next month. It will be good to see you again. I’d like to ask you to comment specifically on how you view the level of cooperation between the Justice Department of the United States and law enforcement and justice officials in your country. Specifically, I believe you are on record as saying you would be willing to consider a resumption of extradition proceedings with the United States involving drug suspects. Can you comment on how the Justice Department is doing in that regard? Are there any issues that need to be addressed?

Pastrana: As you know, we have an agreement signed between the attorney’s office and the minister of justice in Colombia in exchange of evidence regarding drug trafficking and criminal reports. I think this has been very important for us. Since my inauguration, we have doubled the efforts, and we have an excellent relation with the attorney’s office, with Janet Reno. We have been working very closely in attacking this common enemy — that is narcotraffic. As I mentioned in my speech, we had the Millennium Operation, which I think is the largest operation we have done. In the last year, we captured 30 Colombians whom the United States is asking to be judged in this country. We said we are willing to once again work very closely with the United States, and for the first time in 10 years we promoted extraditing a Colombian who is going to be judged in the United States. At the same time, we need to work very hard and very rapidly. For example, we are expecting to push forward all the evidence to the Supreme Court, all the mechanisms that are needed to work on these types of extraditions, with all the people who were captured in the Millennium Operation. In Colombia you need the approval of the Supreme Court to extradite, and then the approval of the president. And we need to work very hard and very quickly because it is very difficult to get these guys in our jails, who have such an amount of money and are willing to pay bribes. The figures that people mention they are willing to pay to officials are figures that are so high you cannot imagine. They are willing to pay not only lawyers, but also bribes to leave the jails and avoid any type of judgment in the United States. So we have been working very hard, and I think for the first time the sharing of information has been very useful.

As I mentioned earlier, today we had Millennium Operation II. We captured 46 Colombians, basically concentrated in the heroin cartel. This morning, more than 1,300 policemen — with the help of the drug agency of the United States, with the help of the attorney’s office in Colombia, the Fiscalía, with 65 prosecutors — captured 46 members of this heroin cartel. The leader, as I said before, was the cousin of Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellín cartel. I have information from the police that this hits the largest exporter of heroin into this country. I think we are doing the job, but we are proposing, as you heard in my speech, we need your help and we need the help of the international community to unite all of our efforts to fight this common enemy that is narcotraffic.

Ray Sullivan, The Lima (Ohio) News: My question for you, sir, is on the issue of decriminalization. Has there been much in the way of discussion about decriminalization of drugs and what impact that might have on, not only international and national relations, but also on political and social implications in your country?

Pastrana: We are not in favor of that. In the world right now, we have the experience of the Netherlands. I think they are going backwards instead of forward, by the decriminalization of drugs. That is why I talk of Plan Colombia. For the first time, we are not only looking at the policing aspect of the problem. For the first time, we have a coherent, comprehensive plan. The only way of really getting rid of drugs in our country is investing in alternative development. Now, a farmer, a peasant, earns about $1.50 minimum salary in Colombia. We need to bring crops that will give them a way for good earnings, so they can stay on their own lands. That is why Plan Colombia proposes a lot of projects. For example, Colombia is very competitive in palm oil. We could have at least 1 million hectors of palm oil, and Colombia would be very competitive. Unfortunately for us, the best land, for example, for palm oil is located in the most violent area of Colombia, the Magdalena Medio territory.

There is one possibility, but at the same time we need to coordinate with the Europeans. They often feel it is not their problem, but I have said that if you want cocaine you need the coca plant. If you want heroin, you need the poppy plant. At the same time, if you want cocaine or heroin, you need the chemicals. Without them it is impossible to produce cocaine or heroin. Most of the chemicals and most of the precursors come from Europe, basically Germany and the Netherlands. That’s why we are saying, if you give us a hand on this, we will avoid the production of these types of drugs.

Also, in our country drugs are destroying the environment because most of the labs are located on the riversides. Colombia has around 3,000 kilometers of rivers. They are the highways for getting arms and dynamite and missiles in — and the highways for bringing drugs out — and most of the labs located on the riversides throw their chemicals into the rivers. They are the rivers that go to the rain forests. In the last years, we have cut 1 million hectors of rain forest in our country. As you know, the Amazon produces 60 percent of the oxygen of the world. That is why we say to the Europeans that we need their help. This is a global problem. Every time we go after these illicit crops, they go further and further to the south and closer and closer to the rain forest, to the Amazon. We need to call that to the attention of the whole world, and we need the help of the whole world. And I think if we could develop alternative products, the people would not be involved in this criminal organization. The peasants in Colombia don’t want to be involved with illicit crops. They want a way to earn a living, to have education and a good quality of life for their children.

Anderson: President Pastrana, we know you have a very busy schedule. We are very grateful at this time in particular that you were willing to come and be with us here at ASNE. Thank you very much.