180. Memorandum of Conversation1 2
PARTICIPANTS:
- President Gerald Ford
- President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen of Colombia
- Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- Felipe Lopez, Private Secretary and Son of the President
[Omitted here is material not related to drug policy.]
[Page 2]Lopez: On the drug problem. It is a worldwide problem, but because of our situation, we are the center of traffic. I made a strong statement because the New York Times blamed us.
The President: They blame me for everything else!
Lopez: A small country like us is invaded by people with and without passports, by planes, boats, etc., heavily financed from within the U.S. We don’t have the materials to fight back.
The President: How can we help?
Lopez: We could use technology and economic help. We could use helicopters to find where the planes land. We catch them all the time.
Kissinger: We gave $900,000 for that.
[Page 3]Lopez: It is too little. The tourists spend $50 million in Colombia. It has just gone up to $250 million. That is not tourists—it is bribes, etc.
We have both a Pacific coast and an Atlantic coast which makes it ideal for smugglers. If you could help us to deal with them, we would appreciate it.
The President: We will do everything we can. It is a terrible problem for us and we want to do everything possible. Do you need technical people or money, both, or what?
Kissinger: I asked Brent to look into the possibility of helicopters. We have given them elsewhere.
The President: By all means, we will look into it. Are helicopters the best way?
Lopez: Yes, to locate airfields and boats.
The President: I would suggest you mention this in your meetings with the Congress. If they know you are working so hard to solve it, it will help us to get the money to help.
Lopez: The drug operators are worldwide. You can’t deal with the problem by just dealing with it in the U.S.
The President: That is right. We have found that after the decline in drug use, but recently it has been on the rise again and with harder drugs.
Lopez: We can’t control marijuana. We try to control traffic in it, but we concentrate on cocaine and heroin.
The President: Drug users account for a high quantity of crime in the U.S. Their demands are insatiable.
[Omitted here is material not related to drug policy.]