The situation in Colombia is reaching crisis proportions as right-wing paramilitary forces, leftist rebels, and a government under siege wage a violent battle for authority and control. Last summer the US Congress appropriated $1.3 Billion for an anti-drug military aid package referred to as Plan Colombia. The incoming Bush Administration has signaled that it will shift US anti-drug policy away from programs like Plan Colombia, and instead work to lower the demand for drugs within the US. Linda Robinson will discuss the outlook for this change in policy, and will relay her experiences with the guerrillas and Colombian Army in the jungle war zones.

Linda Robinson is currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She has been Latin America Bureau Chief for US News and World Report since 1989. In the past decade Ms. Robinson has traveled throughout the region reporting and writing over 250 articles on guerrilla conflicts, drug trafficking, immigration crises, electoral upsets, coup attempts, squatters movements, and trade accords. Prior to 1989, Ms Robinson was Senior Editor at Foreign Affairs magazine and an editor at the Wilson Quarterly. Ms. Robinson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She graduated with high honors from Swarthmore College.