Plan Colombia and Beyond

Some members of Congress, angry that appeals by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for help in rebuilding his depleted and aging fleet of surveillance and interdiction aircraft have been ignored, plan to bypass the White House by dipping into a $72.4 billion supplemental appropriation for the war on terrorism to fund $99.4 million in military and police aid to Colombia.

An amendment to the pending emergency supplemental bill likely will be offered by Republican Reps. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Dan Burton of Indiana, a member of the House Government Reform Committee. It would pay for three DC-3 marine patrol aircraft for the Colombian navy and two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and 10 Huey II helicopters for the Colombian national police.

“Just because Hyde and Burton propose it doesn’t mean it will happen,” a colleague at another organization cautions. However, they and their allies have had some past success in getting helicopters and weapons to Colombia, at least when they have had the House Republican leadership on their side. We don’t have a sense yet whether the House Republican leadership supports this proposed amendment, which would require $99.4 million in cuts from the war effort in Iraq and other programs in the Middle East.

The Washington Times article portrays the Hyde-Burton request as focused on stopping the maritime flow of smuggled drugs near Colombia’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Unlike past proposals from Uribe via Hyde and Burton, the article makes no mention of money for new spray planes to expand herbicide fumigation.

This is surprising. Sometime this month, several sources have strongly hinted, the U.S. government will be forced to announce that Colombian coca cultivation failed to decrease in 2005, despite record levels of fumigation, for the second consecutive year. (It may have even increased.) When that happens, we expect the Bush administration to respond by arguing for even more spraying capacity. Yet no fumigation planes seem to be in Hyde and Burton’s proposal.

If they’re not calling for more spray planes, how will the House Republicans respond if the 2005 Colombia coca numbers turn out to be dismal? One possibility: we may see a renewed push to begin spraying mycoherbicides – coca-killing fungi, a terrible idea for a host of reasons – in Colombia.

H.R. 2829, the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act, which is being debated on the House floor Thursday, already includes text requiring the Drug Czar to come up with “a plan to conduct controlled scientific testing in a major drug producing nation of mycoherbicide naturally existing in the producing nation.” (See Section 106(m).) Who added this text? Rep. Burton once again, this time along with Rep. Mark Souder (R-Indiana).

We’ll be watching the supplemental funding request, the coca numbers and the possibility of a renewed push for mycoherbicides. Stay tuned.