Lobbyists war over billions in antidrug aid to Colombia

Boston Globe
By John Donnelly
17 October 1999
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WASHINGTON - A request to spend up to $2 billion on Colombia's drug war has become one of America's most closely watched and contentious foreign aid issues, prompting a run of Colombian generals and human rights advocates to argue their cases with the Congress.

But after the swirl of lobbyists and weeks of White House meetings, the Clinton administration may postpone the request until next year, fearful that any proposal now would siphon funds from other foreign aid programs.

If approved, the Colombian aid package would rank as the United States' third largest to any country, behind Israel and Jordan.

Many, like White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, argue that Colombia faces a drug-induced emergency and desperately needs the assistance now. Others express concern that a huge US military package would move America toward a Vietnam-like swamp. And still others, such as Representative William Delahunt of Massachusetts, believe in an assistance package, but one that addresses vast social and economic inequities that have helped fuel more than three decades of civil war in Colombia.

Congressional supporters for a hefty military aid package may still push for a decision in the coming weeks, a move backed by McCaffrey, who recently testified before Congress that the administration would request this fall a $1 billion to $2 billion-plus three-year assistance bill to fight drugs.

"This is an emergency situation," McCaffrey told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The Colombian democracy has to see a long-term commitment to them - three years minimum."

He predicted that coca production, which jumped by 50 percent from 1990 to 1998 despite more than $600 million in US antidrug assistance, again would show an increase this year.

He and others have argued that the situation is especially tenuous in Colombia because peace talks between President Andres Pastrana and two leftist guerrilla organizations are foundering, and the guerrillas control nearly 40 percent of the country.

As narcotraffickers step up production, benefiting from the latest in European equipment and a move into the dense jungle of southern Colombia, the leftist guerrillas are said by US intelligence to be reaping about $1 billion a year in skimmed-off drug profits.

Still, said two US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, raising the issue of Colombian funds now may create other problems for the administration's fight to get money for other foreign programs.

Already, the administration is having great difficulty in prying foreign assistance out of Congress. Congress cut the administration's budget for foreign operations from $14.6 billion to $12.7 billion, and another request for $1.7 billion in United Nations arrears languishes in the Senate. President Clinton will veto the foreign operations bill today or tomorrow, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said.

"It doesn't seem the right time to put the Colombian piece before Congress," said one US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official continued, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord of 1993, "It doesn't move us in the right direction, especially when we can't get money for the Wye peace plan in the foreign operations bill."

Colombia, which suffers from what President Andres Pastrana calls the "plague of drugs," has made an extraordinary lobbying effort in Washington over the last several months.

Upon the urging of senior US officials, Pastrana presented a comprehensive plan for fighting the drug war and rebuilding the country's economic foundation, totaling $7.5 billion over three years. Of that, he asked for $3.5 billion from the United States and other countries.

In Washington recently, Colombian generals have argued their case in the White House for more military equipment and training, spent hours in the offices of congressmen, and hosted American journalists over breakfast at the Colombian ambassador's residence.

They have not been the only Colombian visitors to Washington. Five human rights advocates spoke Friday at a conference on victims in their country. All argued against assistance to the Colombian military.

Augustin Jimenez, who serves on a committee for political prisoners, said human rights workers have collected evidence that paramilitary forces, working in conjunction the military, have killed many civilians.

"It would be very strange and difficult for anyone in the world to understand why the United States would support an army that is committing such atrocities against its population," Jimenez said.

Others, including Colombian Senator Francisco Rojas Birry, argued the money should be spent on social assistance programs such as crop substitution. "Even if the guerrillas surrender and all their weapons are burned, the fight will still continue," he said.

Delahunt, a former Massachusetts prosecutor who has quietly traveled twice to Colombia this year to talk with the guerrillas and Pastrana, said Friday that any solution to Colombia's problems must include a range of social programs.

"Let's get realistic. You simply cannot have a country for haves and have-nots," he said in an interview. "The infrastructure has to be extended to rural areas. They eradicated a record number of hectares of coca this year, and overall production is up 30 percent. That says it. . . . Those who think the solution is with helicopters and guns are pushing a recipe for disaster."