Opening Statement, Chairman Eliot L. Engel
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
U.S. - Colombia Relations
Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 2:00 p.m.
I am pleased to welcome you to today's hearing on U.S. - Colombia relations. Congress will soon be making a number of important decisions regarding Colombia ranging from our large foreign aid package to the U.S. - Colombia Free Trade Agreement. I hope that today's hearing will allow us to gain greater insight into the situation on the ground in Colombia.
Today, a series of articles began in El Tiempo - Colombia's main daily newspaper - which looks at mass graves in Colombia. The Colombian Attorney General's Office has received 3,710 reports of mass grave sites and thus far has found only 533 bodies. The article contains gruesome details on how people were killed including the paramilitaries' practice of cutting people's bodies up while they were alive as well as after they were dead. I mention this troubling story to shed light on the severity of violence in Colombia.
As I have said before, I am aware of the impact that Plan Colombia has had in reducing homicides, kidnappings and massacres, particularly under President [Alvaro] Uribe. Kidnappings in Colombia are down by 76 percent since 2000 and homicides are down by 40 percent.
The U.S. has provided over $5 billion in assistance to Colombia since FY 2000. Now, as the Colombian government has reached out to Congress and the Bush Administration for further funding for the second phase of Plan Colombia, it is important to evaluate the results of this aid and Colombia's needs for the years ahead.
The Colombian government's proposal for the second phase of Plan Colombia - the Strategy for Strengthening Democracy and Social Development - focuses greater attention on socioeconomic aid. U.S. officials have even said that the social side needs to stand out in the next phase of Plan Colombia. I agree. Yet, the President's FY 2008 budget does not reflect these statements. The FY 2008 budget moves only $10 million from the military to the social and economic categories. Indeed, the military-police share falls only slightly from 80% of our aid package to 76% - a mere 4% change. In other words, Plan Colombia is still, for the most part, a military program.
Colombia has a number of pressing social needs which must be dealt with in the next phase of Plan Colombia. Many estimate that Colombia has the highest number of displaced persons in the world after only Sudan - up to 3 million people. This problem is particularly severe among Afro-Colombians, and I hope that President Uribe and the Bush administration can concentrate on this during the next phase of Plan Colombia.
The current scandal that has uncovered ties between paramilitaries and Colombian lawmakers is of serious concern to me. We now know that there is significant corruption within the Colombian government and that the influence of the paramilitaries has reached very high into President Uribe's government. We have no evidence that President Uribe is connected to the paramilitaries, but we will continue to monitor the progress of Colombia's judicial process.
Democracy is not always neat and tidy, and the fact that these lawmakers are being arrested shows that the rule of law is taking hold in the country. I applaud the Colombian judicial system which is pursuing corrupt officials under the most difficult of pressures. The investigators, prosecutors, and judges have exhibited a great deal of courage and deserve recognition.
The Bush Administration must put its best foot forward in verifying that all allegations of links between Colombian paramilitaries and policymakers are fully investigated and those found guilty are brought to justice.
Likewise, the shameful connections that are being brought to light between terrorist groups, such as the AUC, and US-owned Chiquita and Drummond Coal Company must be investigated and those responsible must be prosecuted. It has been alleged that Drummond has paid the AUC for protection and to kill certain labor leaders. If this is true, it would be an extremely serious violation of our laws. In the wake of 9/11, it is shocking to me that allegations of payments to terrorist groups have not been aggressively investigated and prosecuted by the Justice Department.
As Colombian paramilitary groups demobilize, I believe it is crucial that witnesses who testify against these paramilitary groups be provided with the protection that they need. Just recently, Yolanda Izquierdo came forward as a lead witness against paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso and was subsequently murdered. Now, two of the witnesses in the Drummond case believe that their lives at risk. We must do a better job in supporting the Colombian Justice Department in protecting these witnesses.
Last but certainly not least, I would like to focus on our counternarcotics efforts in Colombia which are at the heart of our assistance to the country. Throughout the United States we can see narco-trafficking's corrosive societal impact in the eyes of our drug-addicted children, in the streets of crime-ridden neighborhoods, in the families destroyed by drugs, in the schools, and in the workforce. Clearly this is a problem that we must all work together to resolve. While we have seen some progress in Colombia, I have my doubts about our overall impact. Colombian coca cultivation fell 47% from 2000 to 2005. Yet, at the same time it increased by 8% in Bolivia and by 10% in Peru. Coca production in Colombia - as is often the case - seems to have shifted into Bolivia and Peru.
But it is not enough to simply attack the drug supply. We must do much more to drive down demand at home through drug prevention, treatment and education. If we reduce demand, narcotics growers, traffickers and dealers will increasingly be driven out of the business by economics alone.
I thank my colleagues for joining me today for what I hope is the beginning of an expanded conversation on Colombia and the start of much-needed oversight on the over half billion dollars in assistance that we provide to Colombia each year. It is crucial that we think carefully about our aid to Colombia and the upcoming U.S. - Colombia free trade agreement. But we must also focus more closely on the Colombian social agenda - including the plight of Afro-Colombians and the country's displaced citizens.
I am now extremely honored to welcome one of our own colleagues, Congressman Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker of the House to today's hearing. Mr. Hastert served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2006. We look forward to hearing his testimony.
I am also pleased to welcome our esteemed government witnesses who are testifying today. Anne Patterson is Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. She previously served as Deputy Permanent Representative at the United Nations and is a former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia and El Salvador. Charles Shapiro is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs and a former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela. We are honored to have both of you here with us today.
Thank you very much. I am now pleased to call on Ranking Member Burton for his opening statement.
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