Plan Colombia and Beyond

• Latin American voters are angry, but their rage is directed against traditional systems, not democracy.
  • Latin Americans prefer democracy and would not support a military dictatorship
• Lantos made his strongest public criticism to date of the Hugo Chávez government in Venezuela. He said he saw Venezuelan democracy at major risk – it is a “façade of democracy”
  • Within Venezuela:
    • Compromise of “democratic principles and fundamental freedoms”
    • In recent Congressional elections, all the winning candidates were “candidates subservient to Chávez, just like the old Soviet elections”, and he has “packed the Supreme Court” with sympathizers
    • The Law of Radio and Television restricts the media
  • Venezuelan foreign policy:
    • Chávez has actively campaigned in foreign elections, such as Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Nicaragua
    • He is “actively courting Iran and North Korea, and Hamas terrorists”
    • The “Caracas-Havana Axis” compromises the US’ security interests by financing terrorism and undermining counternarcotics efforts

Opening statements from other committee members:

• Barbara Lee (D-California): We cannot engage in some situations and look the other way in others. Approach should be symmetrical towards right- and left-leaning leaders.
• Gregory Meeks (D-New York): “Twin issues” of democracy and poverty; “poverty is democracy’s parasite.” We need to address poverty for there to be true democratic participation.
• Dana Rohrabacher (R-California): “China is playing a malevolent influence” in Latin America, including alliances with Chávez and Castro. A swing to the left in Latin American countries’ domestic politics is not helpful to their prospects for prosperity.

Questions of witnesses:

• Dan Burton (R-Indiana, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee chairman): Concerned that the US has invested a great deal of aid money in Colombia, but of about 40,000 FARC and ELN ex-combatants, fewer than 100 have been trained for other pursuits and many have returned to being armed and planting coca. “Time is of the essence” and the process needs to be sped up.
  • Response from Adolfo Franco (USAID): The U.S. government plans to invest $48 million in demobilization programs. The process will take an estimated $190 million.
    
    
• Burton: “Populism issue is of concern.” Venezuelan president Chávez is sending money and other commodities for electioneering in other countries. For example, in Nicaragua millions and millions of dollars through diplomatic channels for the Sandinistas.
  • Response from Paula Dobriansky (State / G): Populism in and of itself is not necessarily bad. We are responding by sending $13 million to Nicaragua for assistance to train poll workers and political parties.
  • Response from Tom Shannon (State / WHA): Voters in many nations, like Peru for example, recognize that kind of assistance for what it is. What we can do is ensure that the vote is free and fair and highlight that our interaction is with the state to ensure credibility and strengthen institutions.
    
    
• Eliot Engel (D-New York, ranking Democrat on the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee): 41% of the region’s population is in poverty. How can you justify three consecutive years in cuts to core development accounts?
  • Dobriansky: We using a “transformational diplomacy” approach, looking at countries in greater need. Overall assistance has increased from 2001 to the present from about $800 million to $1.7 billion.
    [Note: Secretary of State Rice’s “transformational diplomacy” approach has generally meant aid cuts for Latin America. The claim that development aid has more than doubled since 2001 is extremely deceptive, as this analysis (PDF) from the Latin America Working Group explains.]
    
    
• Engel: about 12 countries have refused to sign article 98 agreements exempting U.S. personnel from the International Criminal Court, and are seeing cuts to their non-drug military aid as well as Economic Support Funds (ESF). What are you doing about it?
  • Dobriansky: The sanctions do not curtail ESF to NGOs and civil society, and since a big part of our aid goes through those channels, the sanctions currently do not present a tremendous concern.
    
    
• Meeks: There are countries in the region where half of the people are poor. Democracy doesn’t make a significant change in the day-to-day lives of people who are poor. Why cut aid three years in a row?
  • Dobriansky: Much of that poverty is due to corruption and mismanaged government. We are looking to work on “accountable governments.”
  • Shannon: “We want this money to be catalytic.”
    
    
• Rohrabacher: China is buying port facilities in Panama and making oil deals with Chávez and Castro.
  • Shannon: We believe China has a legitimate interest in raw materials, not in politics. Unethical actions and our concern for them are not exclusive to China.
    
    
• Jerry Weller (R-Illinois): There is $3-17 billion in Venezuelan oil money “sloshing around.” (The congressman showed photos from the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, dated March 16 and June 5, of helicopters and rolls of fertilizer, sent by the Chávez government to the Sandinistas on the eve of presidential elections.) There are reports of 20 thousand tons of fertilizer, one-third of a typical year’s use, and three helicopters sent to the Sandinistas.
  • Shannon: “I think (voters) understand what this is.”
    
    
• Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado): Minimizing poverty “is a task greater than the imposition of democracy.” Corruption is endemic – what to do?
  • Dobriansky: Strengthening the judiciary, e.g. training judges and lawyers, exchanges, like when the Panamanian Supreme Court met with the US Supreme Court. In Colombia, program called “Culture of Lawfulness” works for a better understanding of the role of law enforcement, incorporating mothers, lawyers, educators and others. Also, helped in the transition to an accusatorial judicial system.
    
    
• Burton: Concern with Venezuela’s influence in other countries. US-trained poll workers cannot counteract Venezuelan helicopters and fertilizer in Nicaragua.
  • Chris Sabatini (Council on the Americas): we should find ways to introduce our principles and introduce other countries to the global economy, with scholarships, for example, for Latin Americans to learn English. Venezuelan donations of fertilizer are violations of international norms, and we need more international awareness.
    
    
• Meeks: is it useful to have trade capacity-building provisions on trade agreements?
  • Sabatini: useful and essential. Latin American countries do not have true market economies; we must address endemic and internal race – and geography-based distortions as part of our trade agenda.
    • infrastructure, like roads and wells: for lack of them, 40% of Peruvians not engaged in market economy
    • education, especially basic literacy and English
    • judiciary and labor rights.
      
      
• Meeks: despite Plan Colombia, certain sectors in Colombia are not seeing benefits.
  • Sabatini: Plan Colombia has been successful in demobilizing paramilitaries and lowering violence, not successful in narco reduction. We need a “second-generation Plan Colombia” that will focus on establishing justice, roads and a stronger economy.
    
    
• Burton: countries with which the United States has trade agreements should have a strong educational infrastructure so that the greatest possible number of their citizens can participate in the global economy.