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Opening Statement, Ranking Member Dan Burton
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Committee on Foreign Affairs
April 24, 2007
US-Colombia Relations

I am very pleased that the Chairman has convened this important hearing on the current status of the bi-lateral U.S. Colombia relationship and has assembled these outstanding witnesses here today.

Throughout my time here in Congress I have followed Colombia very closely, both before and after Plan Colombia was developed in 2000 and now after it has been widely implemented. The successful results of U.S. involvement in addressing the insecurity and drug growth in Colombia speak for themselves. We are looking at a major U.S./Colombia success story and those involved should be applauded for their ability to see past short term struggles to the longer term stability that is taking hold in Colombia.

Colombia is a different and much better country today because of Plan Colombia, but both our nations have benefited.

Fortunately, through Plan Colombia, we are able to see how true success stories are carried out given unwavering U.S. support provided to an ally that is dedicated to helping itself. A simple review of the facts makes it quite clear.

Since 2001:

• Kidnappings are down 76%;

• Incidents of terrorism are down 61%;

• Murders are down 40%;

• There was a 6.8% GDP growth in the last quarter of 2006;

• There is a police presence in nearly every municipality in Colombia today, which was an unheard of possibility a few years ago;

• Most of the major roads and highways to and from big cities in Colombia are now open and much safer to travel without fear of kidnapping or guerilla attacks;

• More than 2 million Colombians have been able to get out of poverty in the last four years according to the Colombian Planning Department.

These are just a few statistics in the overall success story. I simply hope to make the point that these improvements speak volumes about the new Colombia that we and our Colombian counterparts originally set out to create with Plan Colombia.

We have learned that if you reduce drugs, then violence goes down accordingly; it is a simple and obvious lesson that we must learn and utilize. Drugs and terrorism are the same enemy of the state and rule of law.

We in the U.S. Congress have turned to Colombia and the Colombian National Police (CNP) in particular to help spread this model of success to Afghanistan, where the illegal drug trade also finances violence and terror. Currently, the CNP is training the Afghan counter-narcotics police (their counter-parts) based on the successful and hard-learned lessons in Colombia.

Recently, while in Bogota, U.S. Army General Peter Pace noted that the Colombian model and experience against narco-terrorism is very relative to the challenge the world faces in Afghanistan today.

The only way we will continue to see improvements in Colombia, and continue to benefit from these improvements on a broader scale, is if we work together and build on the lessons we have learned over the past seven years. Every set back provides vital knowledge on how to move forward in a productive manner, and every small success is a huge victory for the Colombian people and the region as a whole. Together with the devoted people of Colombia we hold the power to help both our nations, and others like Afghanistan, bring an end to the destruction and devastation that we are now beginning to overcome in Colombia.

I would like to thank Chairman Engel once again for his focus on this important relationship and I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panelists.