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LAWG Colombia Update: August 13, 2001
Urgent Action as Colombia Aid Moves to Senate: Call Senators Now!
In September after Labor Day, the Senate will take up the foreign aid appropriations bill, the annual budget bill which includes the funding for Colombia and the Andean region. Senator Wellstone (D-MN) will offer an amendment to cut aid to the Colombian military. Other amendments to add more specific human rights conditions, to halt or place a moratorium on fumigation, and to prevent an expansion of US support from counter narcotics to counterinsurgency may also be offered. It is important to urge your senators to support these amendments. While members of the House of Representatives have serious concerns with the Colombia package, with the exception of a few senators, the Senate has largely brushed aside criticisms of the Colombia package based on human rights, environmental or effectiveness issues. Therefore it is particularly important to urge senators who do have concerns to speak out in the Senate debate. Update on Recent Legislative Action.On July 24, the House debated and voted on the foreign operations appropriations bill. On July 26th, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on the first draft of their version of the bill. The House debate showed a growing unrest within the Congress over US drug policy in the Andes; members of Congress addressed issues such as paramilitary ties with the Colombian armed forces, the impact of fumigation, and private military contractors in their speeches on a number of amendments. Please see below for a recap of the House debate.
The Senate appropriations committee did include some helpful provisions in their version of the bill. They reduced the amount provided to Colombia and surrounding countries to $567 million; included human rights conditions; emphasized the importance of alternative development funding; and encouraged a mechanism for compensation for farmers whose legal crops are fumigated or who suffer health damages due to US-sponsored aerial fumigation efforts. Nonetheless, the Senate Appropriations Committee did not change the fundamental problem with the package: it supports a militarized approach to counter narcotics, including forced aerial fumigation of coca and poppy fields and large-scale funding of the Colombian military despite its ties to abusive paramilitary forces. Urge your senators to support provisions which would cut military aid to Colombia, and which would halt or put a moratorium on fumigation. Also urge them to vote against any amendments to add more money or equipment to the package-unlike in the House, it is possible we may have to fight back negative amendments. Ask your senators to speak out during the Senate debate regarding their concerns about the Colombian military's links to paramilitary forces, which commit 70% of the most serious human rights violations in Colombia today. Also ask them to raise concerns about the impact of aerial fumigation on small farmers, and the failure of the administration to date to deliver the social and economic assistance, particularly the alternative development programs, which were included in last year's aid package. Finally, they may wish to express their concerns about how this package is leading to increased involvement by the United States in Colombia's decades-old civil war. Now is a good time to schedule a meeting with your Senators if they are visiting your home state during the congressional recess. You can also call their Washington, DC offices and speak with their foreign policy staff. If you speak to your Senators or their staff and have an idea of how they stand on the issue, please e-mail estarmer@lawg.org with your feedback. This will help us to better plan for the Senate debate in September. Update on the House vote:Thanks to all of your hard work, there was an excellent debate on Colombia on the House floor. Many representatives spoke strongly in favor of a change in policy and voiced concerns about fumigation, human rights violations, the lack of implementation of social aid, and escalating US military involvement in the region.
Reps. McGovern (D-MA), Hoekstra (R-MI), Pelosi (D-CA), Morella (R-MD), and Jackson-Lee (D-TX) offered an amendment cutting aid to the Colombian military and adding those funds to international programs to fight tuberculosis and support maternal and child health. They questioned the direction of current US drug policy, spoke in favor of human rights, and called on the Colombian military to sever ties with illegal paramilitary groups. They also called for increased treatment and prevention in the US. Although the amendment was defeated 179-249, the debate in the House was extremely positive. Rep. Conyers also offered an amendment to stop fumigation, and the debate on this issue provided the first serious questioning of this policy in the US Congress. Representatives on both sides of the issue agreed that effective alternative development programs were crucial to any plan to eradicate coca; those who spoke in favor of the amendment voiced strong concerns over the impact of fumigation on the communities and environment in southern Colombia. This amendment was eventually withdrawn without a vote, but the debate signaled a growing consensus in Congress that alternative development should be a priority. In addition, Rep. Conyers offered an amendment to maintain the limit on US troops and civilian contractors in Colombia to a total of 800, a cap which the administration had sought to remove. This amendment was accepted by voice vote in a victory for this issue. Background on the Andean Aid Package.In late March, the Bush Administration announced its plans to continue a military counter-drug strategy in the Andes with its proposed "Andean Regional Initiative"(ARI). This initiative requests military and social and economic aid for Colombia and its neighbors: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, and Panama. Most of this aid will come through the regular foreign operations appropriations bill, but additional aid will come through the defense appropriations bill. Together, the aid totals about $1 billion in military and police assistance and economic and social aid to the Andean region for 2002 (this is on top of the $1.3 billion two-year package approved last year). The administration proposed to send a massive $363.04 million in training, spare parts and equipment for Colombia's military and police forces (please note that the amounts in the administration's proposal have been trimmed by the House and Senate, so that the final total will be somewhat less).
The administration is selling the ARI package as "balanced," with 50% of the money going to regional security forces and 50% for social and economic development. However, the request for Colombia is still 71% military. The package also includes sharp increases in military aid for all of Colombia's neighbors. The one positive element, a result of all of the criticism last year, is an increase in alternative development assistance (crop substitution programs) to a number of countries in the region.