Call your representative! Stop Aid to Colombia!

Update

There is a 50-50 chance of a floor vote in the House of Representatives on the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Request, currrently at $1.7 billion for Colombia and Andean countries. This includes a portion called "Push into Southern Colombia" of approximately $500 million to buy 30 Blackhawk helicopters, train two additional Army brigades, and help the "civilians displaced by the push into southern Colombia"!!

A closed rule (no amendments) more likely than an open rule (many amendments) given that the Rules Committee follows the Speaker's lead and he wants as few amendments as possible on the Colombia package. However one may move to strike a portion.

Mr. Obey will move to either postpone the approximately $500 million programmed for the Administration's "Push into Southern Colombia" or to strike it altogether.

Amnesty International USA supports either version of the Obey Amendment as the current Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Request has NO human rights language or conditionality that is credible.

All Representatives should be contacted and asked to support the Obey amendment on the Colombian portion of the Clinton Colombia aid package. Call (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak to your Representative.

Talking Points

Congress has not had time to carefully consider this package which has profound implications for both the US and Colombia as it embarks both on a several year commitment. All sides of the Colombia debate have voiced strong reservations about this package and the Administration has not answered these concerns.

All Representatives should understand that this package will more than likely result in a human rights and humanitarian catastrophe. There is already a human rights emergency in Colombia: in 1999, 3,000 civilians killed or "disappeared" for politically-motivated reasons; approximately 300,000 internally displaced by the violence. This package will only exacerbate this.

The Administration's acknowledgement that they will create more displaced people is an ominous echo of free fire zones and strategic hamlets of Vietnam and the model villages of Guatemala. This package appears to be classic counterinsurgnecy, a deepening involvement in the Colombian dirty war.

The main perpetrators of these atrocities are paramilitary groups which work closely with the Colombian Army, one of the main beneficiaries of this aid. President Clinton is playing death squad politics with Colombia.