by Mauricio Vargas

About the author: Mauricio Vargas is the director of CMI, a national television newscast in Colombia.

After so many years of enduring a U.S. policy that focused obsessively on drug trafficking to the detriment of the other part of the bilateral agenda, Colombia is beginning to see a timid but welcome change of attitude in political and academic centers in the United States. A much desired and perhaps reachable peace process is beginning to take shape in Colombia, and the accompanying signs coming from the U.S. are encouraging.

To be fair, during the Ernesto Samper administration, 1994-1998, there were signs coming from the north that indicated a disposition to change the tone of the relationship between the two countries. However, the scandal over the disclosure of...