Statement of Carl Leonard, assistant administrator for Latin America, U.S. Agency for International Development, September 21, 2000

Statement of Carl Leonard, assistant administrator for Latin America, U.S. Agency for International Development, September 21, 2000
Statement of
Carl H. Leonard
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator
Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean
U.S. Agency for International Development

Before the
House International Relations Committee
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
September 21, 2000

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be here to speak about the role that the U.S. Agency for International Development will play in supporting Plan Colombia.

USAID has been helping Colombia and its neighbors address a regional threat that knows no borders. We believe that President Pastrana has taken bold, significant steps in beginning to address the challenges that today face his country.

USAID's programs are intended to provide hope to the people of Colombia and the region who are caught in the middle of a national nightmare. They are desperate for the restoration of normalcy to their lives - free of violence and abuse and full of freedom and prosperity.

We are well aware of the terrible scourge of drug abuse in the United States and the continuing need to address this problem at home. In Colombia, however, the effects are also severe. Pervasive violence, increasing crime and murder thrive under the flourishing drug economy. Urban drug consumption is on the rise. And the country's precious and diverse ecosystems are being decimated as cloud forest regions are destroyed for poppy cultivation and Amazon rainforests are cleared for coca cultivation.

As part of the United States government's support of Plan Colombia, USAID will focus on the following three program areas:

1. Alternative development programs - to help farmers secure decent incomes and futures from the production and sale of licit crops;

2. Democracy, rule of law, and human rights programs - to help promote peace and support Colombian efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, the judicial process, and civil society; and

3. Support for Colombia's internally displaced persons and families - to help Colombia's most marginal population reenter the economy and social life of their country.

Alternative development

Through alternative development, USAID is assisting Colombia to undermine the illegal narcotics economy by providing farmers with legal income alternatives. Our program fits into a multifaceted approach that includes interdiction, eradication, and alternative development.

Our experience demonstrates that no single facet can be successful without the other two also being effectively applied. And Plan Colombia includes all three of these approaches.

Today, more than 120,000 hectares of coca grow in Colombia. Most of this coca is grown on large, industrial plantations with links to traffickers or insurgent groups.

Our program will concentrate on the 18,000 small family farms that cultivate approximately 40,000 hectares of coca. USAID will focus on helping this sector of small farmers get out of the coca growing business.

Supplemental appropriation funds will allow USAID to provide $52.5 million to substantially enhance our ongoing $5 million core program to help Colombians find viable and sustainable alternatives to illicit crops. Farmers, who are in need of the proper skills to sustain themselves with legal crops, will be introduced to more productive farming methods, provided with high quality seeds, and assisted in replacing their coca fields with cash and food crops such as beans, rice, coffee, cacao, and heart of palm. In addition, we will facilitate the marketing of and access to these legal products. We will also finance critically needed social and productive infrastructure.

Our goal is the voluntary eradication of coca production on roughly 30,000 hectares (about 75,000 acres) over the next five years.

Similarly, USAID is also helping with the voluntary eradication of opium poppy production on 2,500 hectares. This will be accomplished by replacing the income derived from poppies with income from such cash crops as organic coffee and tropical fruits and berries.

Our experience in Bolivia and Peru has found that alternative development works, especially when it fits into a comprehensive program that also includes interdiction, and eradication. In Bolivia, where USAID has been the principal donor supporting alternative development, coca production has decreased by 55 percent. In neighboring Peru, coca production has decreased by 67 percent in just four years. Our experiences in Bolivia and Peru demonstrate that alternative development is an essential element of an integrated counternarcotics program, and can be pursued successfully even in the context of security challenges.

Democracy and Rule of Law

USAID will provide $39.5 million, in addition to the $4 million core program now in place, to help strengthen democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in Colombia which have been under assault by insurgents, paramilitary groups, and the drug trade.

With these funds, we will strengthen human rights institutions and groups, and increase their capacity to operate within the country to document human rights abuses and monitor individual cases. It is our goal that more human rights abuses will be reported and that cases in the system will be brought to justice in a timely manner, thereby contributing to a reduction in the number of violations.

We will help the government of Colombia and local non-governmental organizations to implement an early warning system that will allow officials to react swiftly to threats against the civilian population by illegal armed groups.

USAID will help local organizations inform and educate Colombians about their legal rights and responsibilities, and options for taking preventative measures in the face of violations. And, we will reinforce the ability of the government of Colombia to help protect human rights workers and their organizations.

USAID will support efforts aimed at greater effectiveness and fairness within the Colombian judicial system. An independent and vigorous judicial system is vital to the observance of human rights, the defeat of narcotics trafficking, and the decrease of white collar and street crime. Working with the U.S. Department of Justice, we will help Colombia move from an inquisitorial to a more open, accusatorial judicial process. We will strengthen court administration and training of judges, institutionalize the public defender system, and work with NGOs and other interested groups to provide greater oversight and participation in judicial reform.

With the funds from the supplemental, we will expand our support to the highly successful "Casa de Justicia" program. Casas are neighborhood judicial centers in underserved communities. I had the opportunity recently to accompany President Clinton, Speaker Hastert, and Brady Anderson, USAID's Administrator, on a visit to one of these centers in Cartagena last month. These Casas bring together a variety of services in one location, giving residents "one stop" access to legal services. There are presently eleven Casas in existence and we plan to have 29 by the end of 2001. Over 300,000 cases have already been resolved by the Casa de Justicia system since the program was launched; when all the Casas are operational, over a million cases will be addressed.

USAID will help Colombians reduce public corruption, which, like narco trafficking, undermines the very fabric of democracy. As Colombians address issues of impunity and law enforcement, USAID will contribute to President Pastrana's anti-corruption strategy by helping to strengthen governmental and nongovernmental oversight organizations such as the Controller General, the Accountant General, and interested citizens groups.

Finally, we intend to work with nearly 100 towns and municipalities to strengthen citizen participation in local government, improve budget and program transparency, and enhance the delivery of public services. Municipal governments play a key role in connecting citizens with effective, transparent, accountable government.

Internally Displaced Persons

Assistance to displaced persons is the third major component of USAID's work within Plan Colombia. USAID will provide a total of $27.5 million to help displaced persons in Colombia. Accounts vary of the number of displaced persons inside Colombia. However, there is no doubt that hundreds of thousands of Colombians have sought refuge away from violence, threats and intimidation. Many, after receiving an initial support of housing and food for 90 days, are left on the margins of urban areas to fend for themselves. USAID, through U.S.-based NGOs and international organizations, will help municipalities and local governments promote employment for displaced persons and help them to obtain basic health care, primary education, and decent shelter.

Through USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives in the Bureau of Humanitarian Response, the Agency will apply our experience in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and other parts of the world to the problem of reintegrating child soldiers. Children as young as thirteen years old, many forcibly recruited, currently serve in the illegal armed groups. The OTI program will help remove them from armed conflict and peacefully reintegrate them back into society, through education, training, and community-based programs.

Implementation

USAID is prepared to obligate the entire $119.5 million of appropriated funds for the programs I outlined above under Plan Colombia by September 30 of this year. We are prepared to move forward immediately on assistance to displaced persons. Our activities in administration of justice and human rights will be expanded next month, and we expect to initiate activities in the prevention of corruption. Our largest single program, alternative development in coca-producing areas, will be open for competitive bidding at a bidders conference scheduled for early next month in Bogota.

Regional Support

I should also note that funding in the supplemental appropriation legislation provides for alternative and economic development in Ecuador and Bolivia.

In Ecuador, USAID will provide $8 million for local infrastructure and support to civil society along the northern border with Colombia. U.S. funding complements other funds already in place.

In Bolivia, USAID plans to use $85 million in the supplemental funds to initiate alternative development in the Yungas region; and broaden and deepen alternative development in the Chapare.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, clearly, we have a long way to go and a difficult task. We are greatly impressed by the work and commitment of President Pastrana and his team, and we are encouraged by the interest already shown by citizen groups, farmer organizations, municipalities, and others participating in these very important programs.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify, and I would be pleased to respond to any questions.

As of September 23, 2000, this document was also available online at http://www.house.gov/international_relations/wh/colombia/leonard.htm