To the Editor:

The Senate's approval of a $1 billion aid package to Colombia as part
of a war on drugs (front page, June 22) leaves us with the uneasy
feeling that there is also a class-based intent to support one side in
the civil strife in Colombia and recalls covert and overt aid to
Central American countries during the cold war.

We can only hope that our money does not foster political hostilities
in Colombia. Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio is quoted on the "essence" of
our need to "restore stability" and "combat the violent insurgents."
Can this not escalate into interference in the internal affairs of a
sovereign nation?

SIDNEY J. GLUCK, New York, June 22, 2000, The writer is a professor of
social sciences at the New School for Social Research.

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n854/a06.html and
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n867/a09.html