Speech by Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Illinois), July 15, 2004

Mr. WELLER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to speak, and I rise today in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) to put a cap on U.S. military and contract personnel assistance assigned to our friend, the Republic of Colombia.

Mr. Chairman, this is a bad amendment. It ties the hands of the President, our Commander in Chief, from making military and counterterrorism decisions. Specifically, this bill makes no exceptions to the cap, greatly limiting Presidential action. This can be a serious problem, should the President, Republican or Democrat, ever need to deploy U.S. personnel to safeguard American citizens or security, since the amendment would force all U.S. assistance under foreign operations to be cut off. This would mean that development programs, counternarcotics initiatives and U.S. security could be severely damaged under this amendment.

The increased pace of implementation for programs we support being undertaken by the Uribe administration in Colombia offers an opportunity for real progress towards our goals, but current cap levels hurt our efficiency, prevent full implementation of our programs.

Draft legislation to raise the military cap to 800 and the civilian cap to 600 was included in the fiscal year 2005 DOD authorization bill, as it was recognized it is necessary to increase the cap to ensure continued success in Colombia.

I think it is important to recognize that the Republic of Colombia is Latin America's oldest long-standing democracy, and it is important to recognize that Plan Colombia is working.

Let us take a closer look at the success in Colombia in fighting drugs in partnership with our friend, President Uribe. Coca cultivation has declined by 21 percent in Colombia and over 33 percent in the last 2 years. The Colombia coca crop has been reduced to 127,000 hectares from 169,000 hectares 2 years ago. Potential production has been reduced by 20 percent for export quality cocaine, and potential pure heroin production has been reduced by 10 percent just this past year in 2003.

Ladies and gentlemen, the elected government of Colombia is restoring basic protections to every Colombian community, because Plan Colombia is working. Police presence has been extended in all 158 municipalities in Colombia that had no police before, and 87 Colombian citizens have been extradited to the United States on narcotics-related charges. A government presence in all of Colombia's 1,098 municipalities has been established for the first time in the country's history.

Again, Plan Colombia is working, and Plan Colombia is a key component of our fight against terrorism.

We must also remember the strong link between terrorism and drug trafficking. The funds from drug sales are often funding worldwide terrorist activities. Specifically in Colombia, desertions among narcotrafficking terrorist groups are up 80 percent, and child soldiers are increasingly being voluntarily repatriated.

In 2003, nearly 7,000 narcoterrorists were captured. Colombia's murder rate has dropped by 20 percent. Terrorist incidents have dropped by 49 percent. Terrorism cases in Colombia were down 48 percent in 2003; and in a July, 2003, poll, 65 percent of Colombians say they felt more secure in July of 2003 than they did one year before in July of 2002, which happened to be one month before President Uribe took office.

Again, Plan Colombia is working.

Finally, on the human rights front, kidnappings are down by 26 percent in 2003. Homicides reached their lowest level since 1987. Of 2,500 human rights allegations in Colombia over the past year, there have been no allegations of human right abuses filed against U.S.-trained units and only 2 percent against the Colombian military, compared with 40 or 50 percent just 7 years ago.

Again, Plan Colombia is working. Our partnership with President Uribe is working. It is strong. The eradication of narcotics and regional security is a priority. I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.

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