A Call for New U.S.-Colombia Policy
McGovern-Schakowsky-Payne-Honda Dear Colleague Letter on U.S. Aid to Colombia
Current List of Co-Signers on this Letter
- Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) - Original co-signer
- Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) - Original co-signer
- Representative Donald Payne (D-NJ) - Original co-signer
- Representative Mike Honda (D-CA) - Original co-signer
- Representative Hank Johnson, Jr. (D-GA)
- Representative Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
- Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI)
- Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
- Representative Bob Filner (D-CA)
- Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL)
- Representative George Miller (D-CA)
- Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
- Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- Representative José Serrano (D-NY)
Text of the Letter
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 "C" Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary of State Clinton,
The FY 2011 budget will contain the twelfth year of a
major aid package to Colombia—an aid package originally slated to phase
out after six years. We believe there remains strong bipartisan
support for generous levels of continued assistance to Colombia. We
also believe that this is the right moment to take stock and
reconfigure both aid and diplomacy to that nation.
As you determine the future of U.S. policy towards Colombia
and the assistance package to support that policy, some troubling
trends on human rights, democracy and the humanitarian situation in
Colombia should be of concern. The 2002-2006 demobilization of
paramilitary groups has produced important gains, such as a reduction
of massacres. But remaining and newly formed groups terrorize civilian
populations, and threats, intimidation, and assassinations continue.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Colombia, "Regardless of the way they characterize themselves, the
violence generated by the illegal armed groups that have emerged since
the paramilitary demobilization cannot be considered mere criminal
behavior. Their offences . . . produce an alarming level of violence
against the civilian population."
Killings of civilians by the Colombian Army escalated from 2005-2008,
as soldiers killed civilians and then dressed them in guerrilla
clothing in order to inflate body counts. The U.N. Special Rapporteur
on Extrajudicial Executions noted that while not a matter of official
government policy, "the sheer number of cases, their geographic spread,
and the diversity of military units implicated, indicate that these
killings were carried out in a more or less systematic fashion by
significant elements within the military." We are disturbed that many
of these units were recipients of U.S. military and defense assistance.
The Colombian government has taken some steps to address this, but
justice for these abuses lags as only 16 out of 1,056 cases assigned to
the Attorney General's special unit have so far resulted in
convictions.
Despite security gains, the war continues to rage in many parts of the
countryside, with 380,000 people fleeing their homes from violence in
2008, almost 25 percent more than the year before. Violence by
guerrillas, paramilitary successor groups, the Army itself, and
fighting between these groups drives displacement. The guerrillas,
though weakened, remain a major factor of insecurity, killing
civilians, threatening local officials, laying landmines and recruiting
child soldiers. Violence by all the armed actors appears to be
escalating, and Colombian media reported thousands of Colombians
displaced in just the first half of October 2009 alone. Significant
adjustments are needed in Colombia's public security strategy,
particularly greater efforts to protect threatened populations rather
than using resources on costly offensives, and a far stronger campaign
against "new" paramilitary groups before they further consolidate
themselves.
Also of concern remains the on-going and systematic campaigns to
denigrate and endanger the work of human rights defenders, broadly
defined. In 2009, Colombian media broke the story that the
presidential intelligence agency, the Departamento Administrativo de
Seguridad (DAS), had been conducting systematic illegal surveillance of
human rights groups (both Colombian and international), journalists,
opposition politicians, Supreme Court judges, and trade unionists.
Colombia's highest officials continue to publicly denigrate human
rights defenders in ways that jeopardize their safety. These matters
were highlighted in the September 2009 statement of the U.N. Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders as she completed her mission to
Colombia. Further, a possible third term for the current president
threatens to erode Colombia's constitutional checks and balances
between the Executive Branch, the Judiciary (the Attorney General's
Office/Fiscalía, the Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Court), and
critical oversight entities such as the Inspector General (Procurador)
and the Ombudsman (Defensor).
These trends require a strong and focused diplomatic
response. President Obama's words of concern on these matters during
President Uribe's last visit were welcome. The State Department's
September 8th decision to certify Colombia met the human rights
conditions in law, however, was a step backwards, given the lack of
resolution in the DAS scandal and the slow progress in the courts on
extrajudicial killing cases. We urge you to use all available
leverage, including that provided by the human rights conditions on aid
and the pending trade agreement, to encourage greater progress toward
justice in cases of extrajudicial executions; the removal of all
incentives for extrajudicial killings; reduced violence against human
rights defenders, including trade unionists; protection of
Afro-Colombian and indigenous territorial rights; and dismantlement of
paramilitary and successor networks. The newly-signed agreement
allowing U.S. military personnel to use Colombian bases must not
diminish the State Department's willingness to use this leverage.
We strongly urge you, Madame Secretary, to stand by those
in Colombia who are valiantly struggling to improve human rights and
the rule of law. It would be immensely helpful if the State Department
and U.S. Embassy in Bogotá would expand current diplomatic
demonstrations of U.S. support for those varied forces so important to
democracy, from judges to victims of violence, from human rights groups
and unions to journalists, from leaders of displaced persons to at-risk
Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities. The U.S. should support
victims' rights to truth, justice and reparations, and further
recognize that such support requires improving Colombian prosecutors'
and victims' representatives' access to paramilitary leaders extradited
to the United States.
We further encourage you to coordinate with the Departments
of Justice and Labor to continue U.S. government support for the
efforts by Colombian prosecutors to fully investigate the more than
2,700 killings of labor union members and leaders. According to
testimony presented to Congress by the Colombian National Labor School,
it would take Colombian prosecutors another 37 years - at their current
pace - to address the backlog of uninvestigated labor homicide cases.
We believe the U.S. should consider increasing financial support for
the Fiscalia's efforts if Colombia will agree to a corresponding
increase in its commitment to addressing these unsolved murders.
These priorities must also be reflected in the FY 2011
budget request. After eleven years, it is time to scale down
assistance for Colombia's military and more systematically
"Colombianize" such programs, within both the State Department and
Defense Department budgets. We believe strongly that the United States
should continue to provide substantial assistance to Colombia's
judicial system, focused upon the goal of reducing impunity, with
special attention to extrajudicial executions, attacks and threats
against human rights defenders and trade unionists, and violence by
illegal armed groups. USAID's important human rights program should
continue. Witness and victims protection programs are a priority, as
are support programs for victims of violence. Programs targeting
Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities should be designed and
implemented in consultation with representatives of Afro-Colombian
urban and suburban communities and the community council and cabildo
leaders of the territories in question. Greater attention and support
for landmine survivors, landmine clearance and demobilized child
soldiers would be welcome. Assistance for internally displaced persons
and Colombian refugees should be elevated to a top priority of
assistance. Colombia's IDP and refugee crises are among the greatest in
the world, and the violence driving people from their homes is a
destabilizing factor in the region and the hemisphere. It is also
essential that U.S. development and humanitarian programs be clearly
civilian led and operated, and not be designed or coordinated under the
auspices of the Pentagon or SOUTHCOM.
U.S. counternarcotics programs in Colombia need to be
substantially readjusted in the FY 2011 budget. Reducing coca
production has proven to be far more difficult than forecast at the
start of Plan Colombia. Last year, as manual eradication was scaled up
and the controversial aerial spraying program phased down, U.N. Office
of Drug Control data revealed that coca production decreased in
Colombia, particularly in areas with more manual eradication. For
sustained gains, investment must be shifted from aerial spraying to
farmer-led programs with voluntary, phased-in eradication coupled with
effective community-based alternative development and rural development
programs, including a special focus on food security. Judicial
programs to dismantle trafficking networks and investigate money
laundering must be further strengthened.
Recent news reports about the increase in violence and local drug use,
as in Medellín, are especially troubling. It would be a human
catastrophe if making it more difficult to export drugs to the United
States were to result in increased drug consumption inside Colombia.
Therefore, U.S. policy and assistance need to promote and support
effective local drug treatment, expanded youth employment and
alternatives to youth and gang violence.
We cannot emphasize strongly enough that if the U.S. is serious about
reducing drug trafficking and production, it must start by greatly
expanding, improving and funding effective drug treatment and
prevention programs in our own country. We strongly encourage you to
emphasize this national security and public health priority to
President Obama, U.S. Attorney General Holder and Secretary of Health
and Human Services Sebelius.
Finally, and of great and grave importance, it is time for
U.S. policy to explore seriously the possibilities for peace in
Colombia. No one harbors illusions that this is an easy task. But the
United States can play an important role in encouraging the Colombian
government to consider steps that improve the climate for peace. Such
steps include humanitarian accords, welcoming rather than condemning
responsible civil society initiatives for peace, and accepting
intermediaries. The Colombian government now appears more open to
considering such initiatives.
Please know that we look forward to working with you,
Madame Secretary, to refocus U.S. aid and diplomacy to our Colombian
partner on our long-term common goals of reducing the harms caused by
the illegal drug trade and supporting human rights, the rule of law,
democracy and peace.
Sincerely,
Members of Congress
cc: Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
Eric H. Holder, Attorney General, Department of Justice
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Hilda L. Solis, Secretary of Labor
Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
General James L. Jones, Jr., National Security Advisor
Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management and Budget
R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy
Frank Mora, Latin America Advisor, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Dan Restrepo, Latin America Advisor, National Security Council
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