DATE=3/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT (L-ONLY)
TITLE=COLOMBIA-US AID
NUMBER=2-260075
BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-S House of Representatives will vote
soon on a one-point-seven billion dollar emergency aid
package to help fight drug trafficking in Colombia.
The money would help strengthen the Colombian Army and
support human rights and institutional reforms. But
as V-O-A's Leta Hong Fincher reports, the package is
generating controversy in Washington.
TEXT: The chairman of the House International
Relations Committee, Representative Benjamin Gilman,
urged support for the bill (Friday) in a speech
delivered to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
think tank in Washington. Mr. Gilman said Colombia
matters strategically, because it is the source of 80
percent of the cocaine and 75 percent of the heroin
consumed in the United States.
/// GILMAN ACT ///
The fate of Colombia's democratic government is
of extreme importance to our nation. The anti-
drug strategy that we're pursuing in Colombia is
straightforward. By preventing illicit drugs
from reaching our shoreline, we're protecting
our citizens from their poison and undercutting
the flow of drug money that arms and sustains
the insurgent forces that have been
destabilizing that country.
/// END ACT ///
Although Colombia has been plagued by drug-related
violence for decades, its problems are now compounded
by a severe economic crisis. Unemployment has reached
20 percent, the highest in Latin America. In
addition, Colombian President Andres Pastrana is
trying to negotiate a cease-fire with paramilitary
groups that are financially stronger now than ever
before. The Colombian ambassador to the United
States, Alberto Moreno, says that U-S aid is critical
to help create peace in his country.
/// MORENO ACT ///
Several months ago, some 10-million Colombians
took to the streets in the largest public
demonstration in our history, and their message
was clear: No more violence, no more bloodshed
and no more insecurity.
/// END ACT ///
U-S aid would include money to train anti-drug forces
in the Colombian Army and provide them with 60
helicopters. But critics of the aid package are
concerned that the United States could be dragged into
a counter-insurgency war reminiscent of Vietnam. The
bill does not commit U-S troops to Colombia's anti-
drug battle. But Roger Noriega, who is on the staff
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says the
Clinton administration has not laid out a clear
strategy for its intervention in Colombia's crisis.
/// NORIEGA ACT ///
You have to realize -- and we do -- that this is
a serious commitment, that people are going to
die. And I was in Colombia and saw the young
people who frankly are going to be among the
first to die, the young people training in these
counter-narcotics (units). So this is deadly
serious business, and it is just beginning and
it is just the down payment.
/// END ACT ///
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on
the aid package as early as next week.
(signed)
NEB/LHF/JP
10-Mar-2000 16:14 PM EDT (10-Mar-2000 2114 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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