STATEMENT OF SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY ON THE ADMINISTRATION'S PROPOSAL FOR ASSISTANCE TO COLOMBIA

January 11, 2000

"Everyone wants to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, but we have spent billions trying to do that and the flow has gotten worse, not better. What we are seeing is a dramatic ratcheting up of a counter-insurgency policy in the name of a counter-drug policy. The Administration's purpose is to inflict enough damage to the guerrillas that they feel compelled to negotiate. That sounds appealing, but it is a costly and dangerous policy as we saw in Central America in the 1980s. Before going down that road the Administration needs to tell us what they expect to achieve, in what period of time, and what the costs and risks are. And we at least need to see a concerted effort by the Colombian Army to thwart the paramilitary groups, who are responsible for most of the atrocities against civilians, and a willingness by the Colombian Armed Forces to turn over to the civilian courts their own members who violate human rights."

[Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will have jurisdiction in handling most of the Administration's request for aid to Colombia.]