MARYKNOLL Global Concerns
Search

Privacy
Legal
 Contact Us
Link to Us
How to Make Us
Your Homepage
Copyright © 2003
Colombia
March 28, 2002
Urgent Action as Colombia Debate Intensifies

Global ConcernsThe following alert is from the Latin America Working Group, (202)546-7010.

The Bush administration has proposed a bill to remove all restrictions on U.S. military aid to Colombia, including language that limits U.S. assistance to counter-drug efforts, imposes human rights standards on the Colombian military, and limits the number of U.S. military personnel allowed in the country.

The bill will be a large counter-terrorism supplemental that asks for more money for global and domestic counter-terrorism efforts. But it will include this language expanding Colombia military aid.
The administration is offering this bill now because they think they have support in the Congress for a change in Colombia policy. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) is circulating a letter to the president for members of Congress to sign saying that they DO NOT WANT an expansion of military aid to Colombia. We need to get a lot of signatures in this letter in order to show the administration that they do not have a green light from Congress to expand military aid and turn a blind eye to human rights violations.
Action on McGovern Letter:
Please call your representative and ask him or her to sign on to the letter on Colombian military aid circulated by Rep. McGovern’s office. The congressional switchboard number is 202-255-3231; or go to the House website for your member’s email address.

Action on the Bill:
We also need broad work on the bill. The bill that Bush is proposing will go first to the appropriations committees in the House and Senate and then to the full House and Senate. The debate on this bill is our chance to have a say on whether or not the U.S. broadens military aid to Colombia. Members DO LISTEN to what their constituents think. Call both senators and your representative.
Find your representative and senators email addresses at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov

Talking Points For Your Call/Email:
• Increased military aid is not the solution
• Broadening military aid in Colombia could have a drastic effect on the country’s already dire humanitarian situation. The 40-year armed conflict in Colombia has left almost 400,000 civilians dead. Many members of Congress have good intentions, and want to support an end to violence in Colombia. But adding more military aid is not the way to do it.

1. The Colombian military still maintains close ties with paramilitary groups, who are on the U.S. terrorist list and who commit upwards of 70 percent of civilian killings in Colombia. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Washington Office on Latin America put out a report in February that shows that the military continues to aid and abet paramilitary groups, providing them with intelligence information and equipment and refusing to protect civilians from paramilitary massacres. Given the high level of cooperation between the military and the paras, it is likely that U.S. assistance could go to officers and units who work with the paramilitaries. And as the paramilitaries’ strength increases, attacks on civilians will also increase. Sending more military aid to Colombia is not going to help protect civilians.

2. Furthermore, it could pull the U.S. into the quagmire of a 40-year civil war. Colombia is the size of 53 El Salvadors, and the amount of money necessary to defeat the FARC militarily will be tremendous. There are other ways that the U.S. can help protect civilians from violence that do not involve getting pulled into this quagmire.

3. U.S. support for a negotiated peace process with the FARC and the ELN, and real pressure on the Colombian government to break ties with the paramilitaries, will go much further at protecting civilians than increased military aid will. Violent actions on the part of the FARC have a tremendous human cost, but supporting a military that collaborates with the paramilitaries has a huge human cost as well. We can address both sides of the issue by supporting peace negotiations, judicial reform, and real development assistance for Colombia’s farmers, which will help them switch from illegal to legal crop production and will reduce the drug revenue available to the FARC and the paramilitaries. But we’re going to have to work hard to convince our members of Congress. Please call your member of Congress immediately and express your concern over the proposal for more military aid, an expansion of aid to counterinsurgency, and an elimination of the human rights restrictions on aid.
Background on the new legislation
Since the collapse of the peace talks between the FARC and the government on February 20, there have been calls in Congress and the Bush administration for an increase in military assistance for Colombia’s war against the FARC. In his March 6 congressional testimony, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the "new situation" in Colombia meant that the Bush administration would have to "readjust" its policies to help the Andean nation defeat "terrorists and narco-traffickers." Currently U.S. military aid is limited to counter-drug operations, but an end to this restriction would allow the U.S. money, training, and equipment to be used directly against the three armed groups on the U.S. terrorist list -- the FARC, the ELN and the AUC paramilitaries. The Colombian military often works in collaboration with paramilitary forces and is in negotiations with the ELN, so the strong likelihood is that U.S. assistance would be used most often against the FARC.