Speech by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Missouri), March 30, 2000

Speech by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Missouri), March 30, 2000
Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Chairman, I think that this amendment is an important one because it helps point out the fact that the strategic thought on the fight against drugs is being directed in the wrong place.

[TIME: 1230]

What should happen and should, of course, come from the Colombian military and their government is to put a stop to the traffic, the drug traffic coming across the Andes by air as the Peruvians stopped, and through the three, and only three, mountain passes through the Andes. Instead, we might find ourselves enmeshed in a civil war, going after one-third of the guerillas who, of course, are being supported by the drug trafficking.

The proposed strategy is a 6-year strategy; that should not be. It should be one where you shoot down the airplanes as they fly over the Andes and stop up the three passes and then should we look at assisting in going after the guerillas if that be our policy. Let us go the first things first.

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