The Colombia Support Network opposes the proposed U.S. government aid package to Colombia. We oppose all military aid, which Colombian human rights organizations with which we coordinate activities have told us will undermine the peace process and result in the death of many more innocent civilians. The proposed aid to the Colombian military allegedly to fight the drug war fails to take into account the fact that Colombia's civil war began long before drug trafficking started there and was a response to inequitable socioeconomic structures in an exclusionary society. The proposed aid will further involve the U.S. in counterinsurgency warfare in Colombia, the pitfalls of which Vietnam demonstrated years ago. We also question why if the goals is to combat drug-trafficking, funding is focused on activities in the south of Colombia, when most of the paramilitaries who are deeply involved in drug-trafficking are located in the north. We are also concerned about planned spraying of coca and poppy crops in southern Colombia, because the chemical sprays may kill other plants, including food crops, and have been shown to pose risks to the environment and human health through pollution of water supplies.
Rather than mounting a military campaign in Colombia, the U.S. government should formulate aid policies which promote structural reforms needed to bring Colombia true democracy, rather than the facade of democracy which now characterizes the country. The government could usefully focus on aid to refugees particularly women and children through funding to private charitable organizations, such as the Red Cross, or on assisting Colombian peasants in obtaining access for their products, such as palm oil, tropical fruits and vegetables, and cacao in U.S. markets. We also believe assistance to Colombia used to build farm-to-market roads may be a productive focus for U.S. aid funds. We support in principle the providing of funds to further democratization, to promote alternative crops and to end the paramilitary violence, but we would like to see the details of any concrete proposals in these areas before stating a position on them.