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Colombia: US military aid |
| Washington Office issues Action Alert
for coming vote on military aid to Colombia
[11-1-02]
The paper includes lots of helpful background
information for those who want to communicate effectively with their
legislators in Washington.
October 23, 2002
COLOMBIA MILITARY AID SET TO EXPAND WITH LITTLE
DEBATE
Written by Elanor Starmer of the Latin America Working
Group.
ISSUE: Congress is set to adjourn in mid- to late-October,
leaving most of the thirteen spending bills for 2003-including the
foreign aid bill-unpassed. Members of Congress will be in their home
districts from late October until after elections in November, and may
return for a "lame duck" session after the elections to
address unfinished business. Alternately, they may pass a
"continuing resolution," which would extend the 2002 budget
through the beginning of next year, leaving the work of hammering out a
2003 budget to the 108th Congress.
In either case, Congress will find itself with a short
time to debate and pass the thirteen spending bills for 2003. Given the
timeframe, contentious programs may be written into law with limited
debate-including a massive military aid package to the Colombian armed
forces that is part of the foreign aid bill. Congress may appropriate as
much as $731 million in aid to the Andean region, $500 million of which
is mostly military aid for Colombia. This package includes $98 million
to train and equip a brigade of the Colombian military to guard an oil
pipeline in the northeastern part of the country-an area where reports
are frequent of collusion between brutal paramilitary groups and sectors
of the Colombian armed forces, and where the indigenous U' wa and rural
farmers are caught in the crossfire.
The bill also contains language allowing U.S. military
aid and equipment to be used for counter-terrorism efforts as well as
counter-drug operations. Critics worry that the expansion of U.S.
military mission in Colombia will provoke an escalation of the war,
putting civilians at further risk and hampering prospects for a
negotiated peace process with rebel groups.
ACTION: Make Colombia an Election Issue!
Because it is possible that the Colombia debate could
suffer under the time constraints of the budget process, we need to keep
our concerns on the desks of our senators and representatives. Election
time provides us with an excellent opportunity to show members of
Congress that we are paying attention and that we have grave concerns
about the nature of U.S. involvement in Colombia. Now is your chance to
help change U.S. policy!
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Call, write, or visit your representative or
senators. Tell them why you are concerned about military aid to
Colombia, and urge them to use your tax dollars to support programs in
Colombia that will work effectively forpeace. Now is a critical moment
to be voicing these concerns: the U.S. is about to designate more aid
for a military that still collaborates with paramilitary groups, who are
on the U.S. terrorist list and commit the majority of civilian killings
in Colombia. Moreover, initiatives of the new Colombian
president-including the creation of civilian watch groups who provide
intelligence information to the army-threaten to pull more civilians
into the armed conflict. The current policy also drags the U.S. into a
military quagmire without laying the groundwork for peace. Ask your
members of Congress to commit to working for a change in policy next
year.
Go to town meetings, election events, or any
forum where candidates will be campaigning. MAKE COLOMBIA AN ELECTION
ISSUE by asking questions of the candidates. This is an
important way we can help shape the upcoming vote! Grill the candidates
on their position on U.S. military aid to Colombia, and make it clear
that you will support a candidate who is working to change the current
policy. Tell your current representative and senators that you have been
monitoring their voting record on Colombia, and will consider it when
you go to the voting booth; if they've voted to support the military aid
package in the past, ask them for a commitment to push for a change in
policy next year.
Capitol switchboard: 202/224-3121. They will connect you with your
congressional offices. To locate your member of Congress, go to www.house.gov/writerep
and enter your zip code.
TALKING POINTS:
 | Do we want to be supporting another war?
Anti-terrorism efforts are taking place worldwide, and the U.S. is
considering going to war with Iraq. Do we want to expand our
military involvement in Colombia at this moment?
|
 | Escalating the war in Colombia is not going
to help protect civilians. U.S. military aid at this point
will not be enough to end the war in Colombia. Instead, it will act
like fuel on a fire, increasing the violence against Colombian
civilians by all armed actors. Moreover, the Colombian military
continues to work closely with brutal paramilitary groups, who are
on the U.S. terrorist list and commit the majority of civilian
killings in Colombia each year. It makes no sense to send
anti-terrorism aid to a military that collaborates with a terrorist
group.
|
 | Sending military aid to Colombia brings the
U.S. into another Vietnam quagmire. This civil war has been
going on for 40 years with thousands of civilians dead. Colombia is
53 times the size of El Salvador, where U.S. counterinsurgency
efforts in the 1980s cost $6 billion and 70,000 Salvadoran civilians
lost their lives. The amount of money necessary to defeat the FARC
is incalculable. A negotiated solution is the only way out of this
conflict.
|
 | Real Solutions. U.S. support for a
negotiated peace process, and real pressure on the Colombian
government to break ties with the paramilitaries, will go much
further at protecting civilians than an escalated war will.
Alternative development programs for farmers growing drug crops can
help cut revenues to the armed groups. And support for judicial
reforms encourages the rule of law and combats corruption. |
GENERAL
ASSEMBLY POLICIES
The 213th General Assembly:
 | Calls for demilitarizing U.S. anti-drug policies in
foreign countries, in particular Colombia. |
 | Deplores the rapid growth of armed paramilitary and
guerilla groups in Colombia's countryside who support themselves
through complicity in the drug trade and exercise domination of the
people through terror. |
 | Decries the record of widespread abuse of human
rights by the Colombian military and their documented ties with
violent paramilitary groups; and declares it morally repugnant for
the U.S. and its allies to grant large amounts of aid to a military
with Colombia's grievous human rights record while waiving the
obligation of the Colombian government to meet acceptable standards
of human rights, as a condition of continued aid. |
The General Assembly directs the Stated Clerk to:
 | Write to the President of the United States and to
all members of Congress informing them of the above statement and
urging them to seek an end to human rights violations in Colombia,
to support the granting of humanitarian aid to the people of
Colombia, and to oppose future grants of military aid to Colombia. |
 | Write to the congregations of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) to: Urge their members to write to their
congressional delegations asking them for their support in seeking
an end to human rights violations in Colombia, for their support for
grants of humanitarian aid to the people of Colombia, and for their
opposition to future grants of military aid to Colombia. (Minutes,
2001, Part I, p. 471) |
For more information, contact:
Catherine Gordon, PC(U.S.A.) Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, NE
#104, Washington, DC 20002. 202-543-1126, fax 202-543-7755. Email cgordon@ctr.pcusa.org
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