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ACT NOW TO CHANGE FEDERAL DRUG POLICY |
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July 18, 2001 Background: Last year the United States contributed $1.3 billion in mostly military counternarcotics aid to Plan Colombia. Under this policy, the United States is training and arming Colombian troops to secure guerrilla-held territory in the drug-producing region of southern Colombia. Planes then fly over fields of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, spraying defoliants to destroy the illegal crops. New policy proposal: This year the Bush Administration has proposed an $882 million Andean Regional Initiative, which will continue U.S. support for Plan Colombia while expanding the policy to include Colombia's neighbors and increasing the amount of social and economic aid. Though the proposal reflects some changes compared to last year, it maintains the fundamental flaws of U.S. policy towards Colombia. Concerns about proposal: Though the Administration has tried to frame the Initiative as a balanced approach, it is heavily weighted toward military assistance. The proposal continues assistance to the Colombian military despite the risk of drawing the U.S further into Colombia's brutal civil war and the Colombian military's links to right-wing paramilitary forces that commit the majority of massacres and other human rights abuses in the country. The Initiative would also continue the anti-drug aerial spraying program (known as fumigation) that, in addition to eradicating coca crops, destroys food crops, drives families from their homes, and threatens human health and the environment. Such efforts to combat drugs at the source have proven ineffective, as they merely shift drug production to different regions and countries. Congressional outlook: The main opportunities to change the Andean Regional Initiative in Congress will be on votes regarding Colombia in the foreign aid bill. The debate in the House Appropriations Committee on July 10 showed that there is increasing skepticism in Congress about Plan Colombia and that there is increasing support for cutting military aid and suspending fumigation. The full House of Representatives will debate the Colombia aid on July 18 or 19. Rep. McGovern (D-MA) will offer a global health amendment to reduce aid to Colombia's military and transfer the funds into programs for tuberculosis prevention, child survival, and maternal health. There will most likely be other amendments to suspend aerial spraying programs. We also expect an amendment to transfer funds from supply-side counterdrug policy to domestic drug treatment and prevention. The Senate will take up this legislation in subcommittee during the third week of July and then in full committee and on the floor in the following weeks into September. Amendments to cut military aid are also expected in the Senate. Take action: Please contact your Representative and urge him or her to vote for the McGovern Global Health Amendment and for other amendments to cut military aid to Colombia and suspend aerial fumigation. Please contact him or her before July 18. Please also contact your Senators, urge them to support amendments to cut military aid to Colombia, and tell them about your concerns regarding fumigation. For information on contacting your Members of Congress, log-on to www.house.gov and www.senate.gov More info and follow-up: For more information please visit www.wola.org and www.lawg.org and www.ciponline.org If you have any questions or if you learn how your Members of Congress plan to vote, please contact Tina Hodges or Peter Clark of the Washington Office on Latin America at 202-797-2171 or thodges@wola.org |