Excerpts from confirmation hearing of Secretary of State-Designate Colin Powell, January 17, 2001

Excerpts from confirmation hearing of Secretary of State-Designate Colin Powell, January 17, 2001

GEN. POWELL [Opening statement]: ... One country that will be uppermost in our mind is Colombia. Colombia is a country in difficulty. Their democracy is in difficulty. President-elect Bush has met with President Pastrana. Their visit was a good one, and President-elect Bush came away with a solid impression of the dedication that President Pastrana has to the key issues -- fighting the scourge of illicit drugs that are threatening Colombia's very democracy and encouraging the insurgency that attacks that democracy. So the new administration will support Plan Colombia, the plan to send in $1.3 billion of American aid to help the Colombian people deal with this emergency. And at the same time, we have to do everything we can here at home to eliminate the cause of that emergency, and that's American citizens using drugs, and we have to make sure that is an essential element of our strategy for Colombia as well.

...

SEN. DODD: You mentioned Colombia. Let me just start there, if I can, and just raise with you a couple of concerns.

I support this plan, the $1.3 billion plan. It's troublesome, and I'm worried whether or not we'll be able to sustain this over the coming years, and largely that will depend upon our ability to build strong support in the Congress and regionally as well. I presume you've seen it as well.

And I agree with you; we've seen wonderful changes in Latin America in the last 12 years, with the exception -- obvious exception of Cuba, which is still very much a dictatorship. But there are troublesome signs in the region as well, and obviously Colombia is a pivotal one.

The recent news out of Ecuador, where we've seen now incursions into their territorial sovereignty, a change of government there -- President Noboa is a very fine individual, but there was a change.

Peru poses some difficulties.

Haiti obviously has not lived up to the promise that I know you and I certainly wanted to see, particularly your involvement there in -- back in the early part of this decade.

So I wonder if you might just share a little bit with me your thoughts on the Colombian issue, if you can -- beyond your statement, which I appreciate very, very much -- on how we might do a better job of regionalizing this issue, to the extent that we involve other nations in helping us develop a plan that deals with the narco- trafficking issue, and also whether or not you believe that President Pastrana is sort of on the right track with his dual approach of dealing with the narco-traffickers while simultaneously trying to engage the groups, the counterinsurgency groups, the two particularly that are most significant, the FARC and ELN, in Colombia.

Let me start there with you, if I could.

GEN. POWELL: Well, thank you very much, Senator Dodd. First of all, let me say I agree with your earlier comments --

SEN. HELMS: Would you make it very brief, because I'm trying to get as much time to as many senators as I can.

SEN. DODD: Right.

SEN. HELMS: It's a(n) awkward situation to have two chairmen.

SEN. DODD: Okay.

SEN. HELMS: But, if you are able.

GEN. POWELL: Thank you very much, Senator Dodd, and thank you for your comments about America's promise. And I agree with you on trying to educate people on the importance of foreign policy.

With respect to Colombia, I do support President Pastrana's approach to deal with both the narcotraffickers, the counterinsurgency, and I also share your view that it has to be a regionalized approach. We can't try to solve a problem in one part of Colombia just to see the problem pop up elsewhere. So I think one of the things we'll be doing in the new administration is to try to regionalize the approach, get all of the nations in the area to recognize that the problem is theirs as well as Colombia's.

I support President Pastrana and his approach to the ELN and the FARC. And he's got a tough call coming up with respect to the FARC. And I'm anxious to get down there and have a chance to make an on- scene assessment myself.

SEN. DODD: Terrific.