Plan Colombia and Beyond

The most notable things about the Colombia request are those that do not appear. Funding for the so-called “airbridge denial” program – the effort to interdict suspicious aircraft, which had been given its own budget line in the 2005 and 2006 requests – has been “zeroed out” for 2007, and probably lumped together with Colombia’s existing aid. Non-military aid money does not increase, which means that no big plans are afoot to fund paramilitaries’ demobilization and reintegration. President Uribe’s mid-2005 request for $150 million in additional aid for spray planes, helicopters and boats seems to have been all but forgotten.

2. Elsewhere in the Andes, the drug war is in full retreat. Colombia’s neighbors are to see a 23% cut in their “Andean Counterdrug Initiative” aid, both military and economic, from 2005 levels:

Andean Counterdrug Initiative aid to Colombia’s neighbors (millions of $)

The Andean Counterdrug Initiative account is the main source of drug-war aid to Colombia’s neighbors. All of these countries have seen their counter-drug assistance rise steadily since the mid-1990s. It is remarkable, then, to see their aid levels decrease so rapidly.

The cut owes chiefly to the lack of money in the U.S. budget, as the federal deficit approaches 4 percent of GDP. However, some countries – including Colombia – have been saved from the ax because the Bush administration feels they are essential to the “war on terror” or other key interests. It speaks volumes that these countries’ importance to U.S. counter-narcotics efforts is not enough to save them from across-the-board cuts. The drug war – which wasn’t working anyway – is being put on the back burner.

Yesterday, Bolivia’s Evo Morales called on Washington to reconsider, saying “I want to ask publicly that the U.S. government revise its position and join together to try for zero drug trafficking.” It is not clear yet exactly which programs for Bolivia are to be cut, though eradication (which Morales opposes) and alternative development are good guesses.

Though Colombia is not increasing and the rest of the Andes is getting cut, the State Department will insist that the overall request for the Andean region remains almost unchanged. Indeed, they are seeking $721.5 million for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative in 2007, only $13 million less than what Congress appropriated for this account in 2006. But the State Department has chosen to cut aid to Colombia’s neighbors in order to make room for a $65.7 million “Critical Flight Safety Program.”

This program will pay for repairs to over 200 planes and helicopters that State’s anti-drug bureau uses for its operations, such as fumigation and transportation. It is not really aid to the Andes, since the State Department (with its contractors) owns and operates the planes. State had sought $40 million for the “Critical Flight Safety Program” in its 2006 request, but it was not popular in Congress. The Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee refused to fund it at all. (“The Committee provides no funding for the Critical Flight Safety Program,” reads its June 2005 report.) The full Congress ultimately recommended $30 million for 2006, which State plans to spend. But they want to more than double that amount in 2007, without increasing their overall request for the Andes. The result is seen in the cuts to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.

The Andean Counterdrug Initiative is not these countries’ only source of aid. However, nearly all of Colombia’s neighbors – Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela – are subject to a total cutoff in non-drug military aid because of the “American Servicemembers’ Protection Act.” This 2002 law cuts off much military and economic aid to countries that do not grant U.S. soldiers on their soil immunity from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. In all, at least twelve countries in Latin America currently have aid frozen for this reason.

3. Mexico is the latest country to have its non-drug military aid slashed by the “American Servicemembers’ Protection Act.” In 2006, Mexico was to receive $1.1 million in military-training funds through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, making it one of Latin America’s top six IMET recipients. For the first time, Mexico was also to get $2.5 million in 2006 military aid through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, which provides grants of weapons and equipment. But in October 2005, Mexico ratified the Rome Statute, making it a signatory to the International Criminal Court. So until Mexico grants immunity from the ICC to U.S. soldiers – which is hugely unlikely, given Mexican sensitivities about U.S. bullying – its IMET and FMF funds are frozen. Indeed, they are “zeroed out” in the 2007 request. Add this to a rapidly growing list of grievances currently roiling U.S.-Mexican relations.

4. The State Department isn’t even trying to get Foreign Military Financing for Guatemala this year. In its 2006 request, the State Department included $500,000 in FMF for Guatemala. This would have been the first time Guatemala had received military aid through this account since 1990, when it was cut off after Guatemalan troops killed a U.S. citizen. Congress shot down this request last year, however, citing the Guatemalan military’s lack of progress in complying with its commitments under the 1996 peace accords. This year, Guatemala does not appear in the 2007 FMF request.

5. Aid to Latin America through the three main traditional economic-aid accounts is to drop 17 percent from 2005 to 2007, from 555 million to 462 million. These economic-aid programs – Development Assistance (DA), Child Survival and Health (CSH), and Economic Support Funds (ESF) – are designed to help the poorest citizens of the poorest countries. (Colombia, for instance, is usually considered too high-income to receive DA, CSH or ESF.) But as the table below indicates, these programs are being slashed heavily as the Bush administration moves its priorities elsewhere.

Two big, new economic-aid programs do benefit four countries in the hemisphere: Haiti and Guyana are to get over $80 million in funding to fight HIV-AIDS, and Honduras and Nicaragua are receiving big multi-year economic-aid packages through the “Millennium Challenge” program, which offers assistance to poor countries that are at least minimally well-governed. However, note in the table below that Honduras and Nicaragua are to see deep cuts in their “traditional” economic aid in 2007, which will undercut much of what they gain from the new “Millennium Challenge” money.

Combined totals, DA / CSH / ESF (thousands of dollars)