Speech by Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-North Carolina), March 15, 2000

Speech by Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-North Carolina), March 15, 2000
COLOMBIA AID PACKAGE (House of Representatives - March 15, 2000)

[Page: H1000]

(Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the soothsayer warned Caesar to `beware of the Ides of March.' Caesar did not listen and Caesar perished.

Today, on this Ides of March, I bring my colleagues fair warning. If we do not pass the Colombia aid package soon, our friends in Colombia could suffer the same fate as Caesar and our own children could be next.

Mr. Speaker, in fiscal year 1999, Federal agents intercepted nearly 2,800 pounds of heroin and 280,000 pounds of cocaine coming into the United States. And of these amounts, DEA estimates that 80 percent of the coke and 75 percent of the heroin originated in Colombia .

These are staggering figures indeed, but they only represent the seizures. I can assure my colleagues that much more is making it to our streets and to our young people.

Without U.S. help in fighting the drug war, the Colombian Government has little chance of ending the violence and stopping the flow of drugs. With the illegal drug trade providing the insurgents with over $600 million a year in drug money, it is likely that the duly-elected Government of Colombia will fall without our immediate help. Failing to act will stay with our children forever.

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