Speech by Rep. Mark Green (R-Wisconsin), July 13, 2000

Speech by Rep. Mark Green (R-Wisconsin), July 13, 2000

Mr. GREEN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, today I reluctantly voted against H.R. 4811, the Fiscal Year 2001 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act.

I did so for a very specific reason: this proposal contains some direct aid to the government of Colombia . In February of last year, a member of my district's Menominee Indian Nation was brutally murdered in that country. This woman, Ingrid Washinawatok, was in Colombia as part of a peaceful educational effort when she was kidnapped and killed by the Marxist terrorists of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Since Ms. Washinawatok's murder, Colombian President Andres Pastrana has said he is unwilling to extradite those responsible for her death to the United States to be tried under U.S. anti-terrorism laws. This refusal flies in the face of the cooperative relations our nations have enjoyed in the past and directly contradicts legislation I authored on the subject--legislation that passed the House last year by a unanimous vote. That measure called on the Colombian government to extradite Ms. Washinawatok's killers to the United States for trial as soon as possible.

I would also note that some months ago, I specifically asked U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey for help in this matter during a congressional hearing. He has not responded to the specific questions I posed to him.

In my opinion, if Colombia wishes to continue receiving significant U.S. aid, it must be willing to cooperate with us on key matters such as this. I hope that my vote against a foreign aid bill that otherwise has much in it to support will be seen as a modest message to Colombia . It is my further hope that withholding aid to the Colombians will push their government to reconsider the folly of their decision not to extradite the murdering terrorists who killed Ingrid Washinawatok.

I offer this statement today because this bill does contain several positive provisions that certainly deserve support. These positive measures include funding to help bring permanent peace and stability to the Middle East. In particular, this proposal would send needed aid to support those nations, like Israel, who share our democratic values and with whom we have forged loyal strategic friendship. This is funding I would have been pleased to support--unfortunately, the mitigating circumstances with regard to Colombia precluded me from doing so. While I could not vote to pass this bill in its current form, I hope my reasons and intentions are now more clear.

As of July 18, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H13JY0-21: