In response to years of activist pressure, Congressional Democrats have proposed amendments to the Bush administration’s annual foreign aid appropriations request for Colombia. If the Democrats have their way, overall funding will be cut by 10%, while 45% of the total package will now be devoted to economic and humanitarian assistance, the remainder to the military. Yet, the majority of aid would still be directed at Colombia’s military, regularly implicated in horrendous human rights abuses. Moreover, despite the proposed cuts, Colombia is “expected to get an additional $150 million in purely military and police assistance through a separate appropriation in the defense budget bill,” as the Houston Chronicle reported June 7. Nor do the Democratic proposals appear to include any new mechanisms for ensuring that remaining military aid is not used to commit human rights abuses. (Jake Hess for Upside Down World, June 27)
See our last post on Colombia.
Colombia to reduce aerial fumigation?
From the Miami Herald, July 30:
Senate approves Colombia aid
The US Senate passed its version of the foreign aid bill for Plan Colombia Sept. 6. The Senate approved substantially more military aid than the House version ($359.5 million vs. $289.8 million), and nearly $40 million less in non-military aid. When combined with the estimated $150 million in military aid administered directly from the Pentagon, if the Senate version prevails, then the United States will provide more than $500 million in assistance to the Colombian military and police in the coming year. (The average amount of such assistance from 2000 through 2006 was $542 million.)
Now House and Senate committee leaders will reconcile the different versions in a “conference committee” that operates behind closed doors. Several Washington-based organizations are urging the conferees to adopt the version with lesser military aid and more assistance to displaced people and to governmental human rights investigators. (FOR Colombia Program, Oct. 1)