It is hardly worth mentioning. That explains why as of this writing nothing was written about in The New York Times or the Washington Post. The L.A. Times and the Houston Chronicle as well as the Voice of America thought it newsworthy. They are right. Some day the rest of the country may find it newsworthy. It will just take time. It's not just about Venezuela. That's already history (to the dismay of the administration). It's about Colombia.

The whole world knows all that the United States has done to help Colombia eliminate coca. It has not been easy. It has been especially hard for the people who live in Colombia but it is a sacrifice they have gladly made. Less than a month ago this space was devoted to describing the effects of our helping Colombia eliminate coca by spraying farm land with glyphosphate products. One of the effects was to wipe out most of the crops in the town of La Hormiga. Describing the effects, Carlos Alberto Palacios, Secretary of Human Development in that town said: "We believe people will go hungry. They've fumigated everything, fields and plantain rows and yucca and everything that people need to live on." He neglected to point out that the upside is that it will make it more difficult for the affluent in other parts of the world to enjoy the fruits of the coca plant which is the sort of selfish oversight we've come to expect from those we seek to help.

In that same space it was observed that given the enormous success enjoyed by the Bush and prior administrations in destroying Colombian coca crops, administration officials were hoping to expand their aid to Colombia by helping its armed forces protect an oil pipeline from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known as FARC. The pipeline brings oil from the northeastern part of Colombia to the coast where it can be put on ships and taken to SUVs in the United States. We have now been told by the news sources named above that we may begin doing more than that.

Republican lawmakers and Bush administration officials have concluded that guerrilla war in Colombia threatens the security of the United States. Although it has not yet formally proclaimed FARC a terrorist organization, it is only a matter of time until that conclusion is reached. In a hearing held by the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, a panel of the House International Relations Committee, Henry Hyde, chairman of the committee, called Colombia "a potential breeding ground for international terror equaled perhaps only by Afghanistan." Disagreeing with the chair, Ron Paul, a member of the House from Texas, observed that the Colombian war has been going on since the 1940s and is not the same as fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. Relating it to the attack of 9/11, he said: "I think this is really, really a stretch." It may be, but that isn't stopping the administration.

On April 11, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman urged members of the House committee to lift legal barriers that prevent Colombia from using more than $1 billion in U.S. aid to fight leftist rebels. He wants it to be permitted to use U.S.-funded combat helicopters to battle rebels, thus enabling it to regain control over territory now controlled by FARC. This request comes on top of President Bush's request a few weeks earlier for a $98-million aid package to train and equip Colombian troops to protect the 770-kilometer Cano Limon pipeline that carries Occidental Oil company's oil to the coast. The pipeline has, to Occidental's understandable distress, been bombed repeatedly by the rebels which greatly decreases Occidental's profits from the operations. Mr. Bush understands that kind of distress since he, too, was once in the oil business.

Bob Menendez, a member of the House from New Jersey, said: "We cannot fight the Colombians' battles for them." He asked Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, what the Bush administration hoped to accomplish by its expanded role in Colombia. The answer was: "[A] free democratic state in Colombia that continues to be a good friend of the United States and a good, friendly neighbor that doesn't pose a threat." The second goal, said he, is: "to eliminate the threat to our own people from terrorists and narcotics traffickers that are poisoning our population with their product and that could pose a threat from Colombia. . . . to the region and to the United States."

Messrs. Grossman and Reich probably forgot what Secretary of State Colin Powell had said when testifying in favor of permitting the Colombians to use U.S. aid to protect Occidental's pipeline and profits. Mr. Powell was asked whether permitting that use of aid would result in direct U.S. involvement in government-supported counterinsurgency activities. Mr. Powell said we had not crossed the line. He said: "I think it's a close line. I don't think it's quite into counterinsurgency to the extent that they're not using this investment and this new capability to go running into the jungles looking for the insurgents, but essentially protect a unique facility."

(For "unique" it is appropriate to substitute "Occidental").

While Mr. Powell was off in the Middle East trying to use the United States' influence to bring an end to violence, Mr. Reich and Mr. Grossman were in Washington trying to expand it in Colombia. It's too bad Mr. Powell wasn't here to straighten them out. By the time he gets back it may be too late.

Christopher R. Brauchli is a Boulder, Colorado lawyer and writes a weekly column for the Knight Ridder news service.

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