From: Latin America Working Group - LAWG
 

Update on Senate Vote. On Wednesday October 24, the Senate debated the  foreign operations appropriations bill, which contains military and economic funding for Colombia and the Andean region.  The outcome of the debate and vote was positive in many ways.

Alternative Development: Senators Feingold (D-WI) and Wellstone (D-MN) offered an amendment to ensure that alternative development programs are in place before fumigation can start in coca-growing areas of Colombia.  This amendment will help address the lack of coordination between fumigation-- which began soon after the Colombia aid package was passed last year-- and alternative development programs, which have yet to get off the ground.  If fully implemented, the amendment help shift the emphasis of US policy from fumigation to alternative development, and will help to ensure that families that have signed pacts receive assistance for alternative development.

In a strong show of support for this reasonable approach, the amendment was accepted by Republican and Democratic leadership and was written into the bill without a vote.  As a compromise to allow the amendment in without debate, USAID was given a six-month 'grace period' to improve the implementation of the alternative development programs before the amendment would apply.

The bill also contains language that was written in by Senator Leahy (D-VT) before the Senate Appropriations Committee debate on the bill.  The language delays funds for the purchase of chemicals for aerial fumigation until studies are done on the health impact of the spraying, and until a system is in place to compensate farmers whose legal crops are fumigated.
This language, combined with the Feingold-Wellstone language, constitutes the beginning of a shift in US policy toward a more sustainable, effective means of combatting coca cultivation: alternative development and economic support to aid families in coca-growing areas.

Please thank these senators for their hard work!  Also thank Senator Kennedy (D-MA), who inserted into the record a strong speech in opposition to the current policy.

Military Aid and Human Rights.  During the debate, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) offered an amendment which would have restored the full amount of the Bush Administration's aid request for Colombia and the Andes (the Administration requested $731 million; the Senate version of the bill allotted $567 million). In opposition to the amendment, both Senator Leahy
and Senator Wellstone spoke strongly against increased funding for the package.  The senators outlined the history of human rights abuses by the Colombian military and their pervasive ties to the right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for 70% of extrajudicial killings in Colombia.  They also raised the question of effectiveness, arguing that the package had not lead to a decline in drug use or addiction in the United States or to a substantial decline in drug cultivation in Colombia. They called for increased funding for treatment and prevention programs at home as a more effective method of addressing drug abuse.  The Graham amendment was soundly defeated by a vote of 27-72, suggesting that the Senate, like the
House, is beginning to question the effectiveness of our current approach to drug supply and demand.

The final package for Colombia and the Andes included the following components:

 * $567 million for Colombia and surrounding countries, which is a large
reduction from Bushs original request.
* Human rights conditions as a requisite for aid
* Language which emphasizes the importance of alternative development
funding
* Language which delays funds for fumigation chemicals until a health study
has been done
* Language which calls for a compensation system to be in place for farmers
whose food crops are fumigated
* Language requiring alternative development programs to be organized in
consultation with affected communities and to be in place prior to fumigation.

These are all positive moves on the part of the Senate.  Nonetheless, the Senate did not change the fundamental problem with the package, which is that it supports a militarized approach to counternarcotics, including forced aerial fumigation of coca and poppy fields and large-scale funding of the Colombian military despite its ties to abusive paramilitary forces.
These issues must continue to be addressed as we gear up for the next aid debate in 2002.

ACTION.  But the debate is not over yet on this year's version of the bill.  From here, the Senate version of the bill must be reconciled with the House version in conference committee.  This will take place in the next few days, so please make calls before Wednesday, October 31!  The conference committee is made up of both House and Senate members, and it is
they who will decide what language from each version of the bill will remain in the final version.  Please contact the congressional members listed below and urge them to support the language on fumigation that was included in the Senate version.  Also urge them to keep human rights conditions in place and to limit the amount of money allotted in the package (the Senate version contains $567 million, while the House version is $676 million).  You should also voice your continued opposition to a military response to the drug problem, and your concern over the ties between the abusive paramilitaries and the US-funded Colombian armed forces.

Conference Committee for the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill:

House: Kolbe (R-AZ), Callahan (R-AL), Knollenberg (R-MI), Kingston(R-GA),
Lewis (R-CA), Wicker (R-MS), Bonilla (R-TX), Sununu (R-NH), Lowey (D-NY),
Pelosi (D-CA), Jackson (D-IL), Kilpatrick (D-MI), Rothman (D-NJ).

Senate: McConnell (R-KY), Specter (R-PA), Gregg (R-NH), Shelby (R-AL),
Bennett (R-UT), Campbell (R-CO), Bond (R-MO), Leahy (D-VT), Inouye (D-HI),
Harkin (D-IA), Mikulski (D-MD), Durbin (D-IL), Johnson (D-SD), Landrieu
(D-LA).

To contact your member of Congress, call the congressional switchboard at
202-224-3121.  If you do not know who your representative is, go to
www.house.gov/writerep.

Background on the Andean Aid Package.

In late March, the Bush Administration announced its plans to continue a military counterdrug 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 the money will come as part of the foreign operations bill, with additional funds appropriated through the defense bill.  Sold by the administration as a balanced package, with 50% of the money going to
regional security forces and 50% for social and economic development, the aid totals about $1 billion for the Andean region for 2002 (this is on top of the $1.3 billion two-year package approved last year). However, the request for Colombia is still 71% military.  The package also includes sharp increases in military aid for all of Colombia's  neighbors. Background on the Latin America Working Group and how to stay updated.  The Latin America Working Group is a national coalition of over 65 faith-based, human rights, grassroots, foreign policy and development organizations. Since 1983, the coalition has worked to promote US policies that support peace, justice, and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean.  In the interest of promoting active and informed citizen participation in the formation of US policy toward Colombia and the Andes, the LAWG runs a grassroots listserv which sends out timely e-mail alerts on US policy toward the region.  If you are not already on the listserv and would like to be, please send an e-mail with 'grassroots listserv' in the title to estarmer@lawg.org or sign up in the Colombia section of our website, www.lawg.org.

This action alert was written by the Latin America Working Group.
For more  information, please see our website at www.lawg.org or call 202/546-7010.
Intern, Amazon Alliance
1367 Connecticut Ave NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 785-3334
Fax (202) 785-3335
intern@amazonalliance.org

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The Washington Post
November 1st, 2001

Special to washingtonpost.com

Leahy Drives Shift from Militarization to Development The U.S. Senate has taken a new stand on the drug war in Colombia, approving a reduced and refocused successor to last year's Plan Colombia that emphasizes economic and social programs over guns and helicopters.

Sixteen months after overwhelmingly endorsing the more militarized approach in Colombia, the upper chamber reversed itself and voted to assure funds for other countries in the region and to put the Agency for International Development in charge of administering more than one third of all the money in the package.

The change, if preserved in a House-Senate conference committee and signed by the President, could effectively gut the military centerpiece of the plan approved last year after months of debate and consultations between U.S. and Colombian officials.

The Bush Administration introduced the new plan, known as the Andean Initiative, earlier this year. It was generally seen as the continuation of President Clinton's first phase of support for Plan Colombia, which cost $1.3 billion. The Andean Initiative had a price tag of $731 million for anti drug programs, including $399 million for Colombia.

The House approved the package earlier this year reducing it $56 million without earmarks. Last week, the Senate cut a total of $184 million from the request and earmarked funds for USAID as well as some Andean countries. Colombia's share will come from what's left.

The change in the Senate's stance was emblematic of the fact that in this critical area of foreign aid, Washington today is a very different place than it was a year ago--and not just because of what happened September 11.

In 2000, the Clinton administration was wrapping up eight years in office, while today the Bush administration still does not have all of its key players for Latin American policy confirmed.

In 2000, the Colombian embassy in Washington put most of its efforts into securing U.S. support for Plan Colombia. This time around, that government spent more energy on trade issues, assuming that military and police aid could not dwindle under a Republican White House. In 2000, there was also a national election, and being "tough on drugs" usually plays well at the ballot box.

Ironically, in those elections, Republicans won the White House but lost ground and eventually control of the Senate, dealing now a major blow to supporters of the original Plan Colombia approach. The new chairman of the key foreign operations subcommittee in the Senate Appropriations Committee became Sen. Patrick J Leahy (D-Vt.), a self-described "skeptic" on the effectiveness of fighting drugs through police and military actions and leading advocate of human rights in Congress.

Leahy told colleagues during the floor debate last week that he didn't think such an approach would have any "appreciable impact on the amount of illegal drugs coming into the United States." With the United States already providing more assistance for anti drug programs in the Andes than to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases, provide disaster relief or promote basic education worldwide, he argued it was time to change priorities.

Most of the senators who took the floor did not disagree with Leahy, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Leahy's predecessor as subcommittee chairman who had supported the Plan Colombia approach last year. McConnell will be the leading Republican negotiator from the Senate when both chambers meet next week to iron out differences.
 

Oddly enough, there have been some in Washington and Colombia who predicted support for the South American country would increase in the aftermath of September 11, and Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fl.), tried that tack.

Calling Colombia "the global testing ground for our commitment against terrorism," Graham warned of a loss of U.S. credibility if the Leahy view prevailed. But Graham's call for full funding of the White House request was squashed in a procedural vote, 72-27. "Hardly more than a year into this battle we are beginning to sound the trumpet of retreat and run up the white flag of surrender," he complained, to no avail.

Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy, who has followed Plan Colombia since its inception and been a strong supporter of non-military aid, was heartened by news of the Senate's action. If it wins final approval, he said, it would be "an enormous change in direction and a real slap on what the [Bush] administration had planned to do."
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Phillip Cryan
Fellow
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