Speech by Rep. Sam Farr (D-California), June 29, 2000

Speech by Rep. Sam Farr (D-California), June 29, 2000
Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

I rise tonight on the supplemental as a former Peace Corps volunteer who lived 2 years in Colombia. I am very concerned about the issues that the chairman of the subcommittee just talked about, Plan Colombia.

[TIME: 2015]

We are sending $1.185 billion in aid to Colombia and, as the chairman said, not directly to Colombia but in many different ways.

My message tonight is that with this funding comes a message from the American people to Colombia, and that is that we want to help the good, honest people of that beautiful country to end the violence in Colombia. With the money comes our voice. Our voice joins their voice in `no mas,' `no more,' no more drugs, no more corruption in their politics, no more violence in the campo, no more kidnappings, no more insurgence by political rebels who do not want to participate in the Democratic process that their Government guarantees.

We are sending them helicopters but not troops, we are sending them professional training of their National Police and Army, but only if they assure us that they will not violate human rights and only if they assure us that they will prosecute such violators in civil court.

If they use our helicopters to assist anybody that is not fighting the drug war, if they use them to assist the paramilitary, they lose it. If they use them to assist insurgence, they lose those helicopters.

Let it be known to anyone who aids and abets Colombian insurgence or the paramilitary that they will lose any visas that they apply for or will lose any if they already have them, any member of FARC, any member of ELAN, any member of the AUC. They will also lose any deposit or investment of any illegally obtained monies. It will be impounded.

Yes, we are aiding Colombia tonight in Plan Colombia. We send them a message. We send them a message that this aid is to help them out of violence, to help them become the democracy that they can be.

We hope that it will work. If it does not, we will make sure that they do not get any more.

As of July 18, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H29JN0-B744: