Speech by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon), June 28, 2005

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden).

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment. I believe it would undermine the efforts to eradicate production and trafficking of cocaine in Colombia which is the primary source of narcotics entering our Nation.

We have heard some level of debate today about is the amount of cocaine down coming into the United States or not? But the real issue is, how much higher would it be if we did not have this program in place?

Operations under the Andean Counterdrug Initiative have been instrumental in reducing the cultivation of coca 33 percent since 2002 and cultivation of poppies 52 percent last year.

Are those exactly the percentages and which years do you compare? The point is not the exact numbers. The point is the trend and the trend is that there is less being grown because we know we are eradicating it every year. If we are eradicating it, if we are ripping this stuff out, if we are spraying it, if we are making sure it is not growing, that is that much more is not available. That seems pretty obvious on its face.

But this program is doing more to help improve the stability of the country of Colombia and the people who live there, particularly the realm of violent crime in Colombia. Kidnappings are down 34.5 percent in 2004 and almost 61 percent through May of this year. Homicides are down. Terrorist attacks are down. Internal displacement of people, also down by more than 50 percent. Over 200 Columbian narco-traffickers have been extradited to the United States in the last 2 years, including the leader of the Cali Cartel, an important FARC commander, and an AUC commander.

The point is we are taking these narco-traffickers out of the business of trafficking in narcotics, of bringing this terrible stuff to our borders and to our people. This is a good program that has done well and we need to continue to fund it.

As of July 7, 2005 this page was also available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r109:FLD001:H05308