Plan Colombia and Beyond

Though the meeting was positive, it was marked throughout by an air of frustration. Our frustration wasn’t aimed at the USAID officials, most of whom are top-notch public servants trying to do a difficult job under very challenging circumstances. In fact, they no doubt share our dismay at a theme that kept coming up: the chronic lack of resources available to carry out these critically important programs, and the likelihood that no increases will be forthcoming.

We had a long “wish list”: more assistance to groups and government agencies fighting impunity; more aid to the Defensoría and Procuraduría, especially in conflictive regions, as well as the human-rights unit of the Fiscalía; funding for agencies responsible for identifying and seizing demobilized paramilitaries’ stolen land and assets; more focus on gender, race, and economic, social and cultural rights; and many others.

You can guess the response our “wish-list” items received. There’s no money. Resources are tight. We have to make do with what we have.

There's no money, even though for every dollar USAID gets, four go to military and police programs, from fumigation to “Plan Patriota,” most of which are yielding few if any results.

There's no money, even though the “Andean Counterdrug Initiative” (ACI) account – which provides USAID with all the money it gets for work in Colombia, and within which money can be moved around without an act of Congress – gives USAID only about $135 million, while military and police efforts get 2 ½ times as much (about $340 million).

There's no money, even though just a ten percent cut in what the ACI spends on fumigation, or in what it spends to maintain aircraft given to Colombia in past years, could free up enough funding to double the size of USAID’s democracy program in Colombia, more than fulfilling the items on our wish list.

Yesterday’s meeting was very useful for us, and we hope for USAID as well, and we hope to do it again sometime soon. CIP laments the resource scarcity that became a recurrent theme in the meeting, and which forces USAID to make such hard choices.

The frustrating part is, we know that the money is actually there, it’s being appropriated for Colombia already – but that it’s going to weapons and herbicides, not for human rights. We will continue to channel our frustration: not by complaining to USAID, but by helping those in Congress who are trying to change U.S. priorities in Colombia.