Speech by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), July 23, 2003

Speech by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), July 23, 2003

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support for the McGovern-Skelton amendment to transfer $75 million in military aid for Colombia to programs that combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases.

I have serious concerns with our policy in Colombia and, in particular, with the ongoing human rights abuses. The number of people who have disappeared or been killed has risen from 14 to 20 per day in the last 2 years. Those newly displaced by political violence increased by 412,000 in 2002, and Colombia has the second largest population of internally displaced people in the world, trailing only the Sudan. More than 1,000 people are forced to leave their homes every single day.

What are we doing to hold the Colombian government accountable for these abuses? There is no evidence to show that Colombia's military officers involved in human rights abuses are being suspended for their actions. According to Human Rights Watch, they continue to remain on active duty and in command of their troops, and Colombian Army collaboration with paramilitaries raises serious questions about whether our involvement is making any difference at all and perhaps even enabling these abuses to continue.

It deeply worries me to see our expanding involvement in Colombia. At a time when we have forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, can we really afford to become enmeshed in another large scale conflict? Of course not. Yet just recently, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said that the United States was considering transferring some military capabilities from Iraq to Colombia.

We are moving in a dangerous direction. Congress changed the law last year to allow U.S. counterdrug aid to support a ``unified campaign'' against drugs and against Colombia's guerrilla and paramilitary groups. Our mission has actually expanded. The number of U.S. military personnel on the ground in Colombia has tripled in the last 3 years, and the Colombia Government announced only a week ago that within four months it will unveil ``Plan Colombia Phase II,'' counterinsurgency aid that will help wipe out more than 35,000 insurgents.

Mr. Chairman, this is precisely the same mission the Reagan administration adopted in El Salvador 20 years ago. It did not work then; it will not

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work now. And Colombia's over fifty times larger than El Salvador. We cannot fight Colombia's war and we should not.
Instead of funding a troubling conflict that we ought not to be so heavily involved with, we should focus those resources on fighting wars that we can win with the proper resources. The United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS estimates that last year 2.4 million Africans died of AIDS-related illnesses, while nearly 30 million continue to live with the disease. Heavily affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to provide care and treatment for over a third of their populations. In the Caribbean, an estimated 440,000 people are infected with HIV/AIDS, a number that is continuing to climb.

By focusing our resources in these areas, we can make a real difference in the fight to combat these diseases. That is where we should be redoubling our efforts, not in the murky forests of Colombia. This is a modest amendment in financial terms but not in what it could achieve.

I ask my colleagues to please support the McGovern-Skelton amendment.

As of August 6, 2003, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r108:@FIELD(FLD003+h)+@FIELD(DDATE+20030723)