US Plan Colombia Aid Restrictions Hold

US troops would not see combat

Marc Grossman, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, reassured members of the Senate's Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere at an Apr. 17 hearing that US troops would not see combat under the Bush proposal. "Not one of us here is talking about US troops in a combat role," he said. "The Colombians need to take the brunt of this, but we need to be there to help them." The Bush administration has no intention of exceeding the limits of 400 US military trainers and 400 civilian contractors in its support of Plan Colombia, explained Grossman. "What we seek is flexibility that would enable Colombia to use US-provided helicopters and the counter-drug brigade from Plan Colombia to fight terrorism some of the time as needed," he said. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch Thursday 4/25/02 from AP]

House indefinitely postpones consideration

On Apr. 25, the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives indefinitely postponed consideration of the proposal to lift restrictions on the military aid. Committee spokesperson Sam Stratman said the proposal was withdrawn from the agenda due to a "lack of consensus." [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/26/02 from EFE]

Opposition to proposal a focus of the Colombia Mobilization

Opposition to the proposal was a focus of the Colombia Mobilization protests held over the weekend of Apr. 19-22 in Washington. Activists are also fighting the Bush administration's request of $98 million in military aid for Colombia for 2003. [National Mobilization on Colombia Press Release 4/17/02]

Bush Asking for Additional $27 billion to expand "war on terrorism"

Meanwhile, Bush has asked Congress to approve an additional $27.1 billion in "emergency supplemental" funding for fiscal year 2002 to expand the ongoing "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan, the US, and elsewhere by providing security assistance to 19 countries, including Colombia. According to the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), the bill would channel millions of dollars in foreign aid through the Pentagon rather than the State Department, and would remove or override current restrictions on military aid to countries with notoriously poor human rights records, such as Colombia and Indonesia. LAWG is urging people to call their members of Congress to express opposition to any expansion of military aid to Colombia and any effort to lift human rights or other restrictions on such aid. [LAWG Urgent Action 4/24/02] From the Weekly News Update on the Americas (ISSN 1084-922X), published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, 212-674-9499, wnu@igc.org.