HOUSE VOTE SAVES COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG FUNDS

WASHINGTON -- After sometimes-heated debate Tuesday over U.S. aid to
Colombia next year, the Republican-controlled House fought back
repeated efforts by Democrats to scale back funding.

Through several amendments, opponents had sought to shift money from
the Andean anti-drug initiative to health programs.

The big question centered on the amount of money U.S. taxpayers
should be shelling out to Colombia's armed forces.

The Bush administration is proposing $676-million in counternarcotics
funds to the region, mostly for Colombia. Last year, Congress
approved $1.3-billion to help launch Plan Colombia, an ambitious
internationally funded aid package to stabilize the war-ravaged
country.

Colombia is the world's largest supplier of cocaine and,
increasingly, heroin. With coca cultivation showing no signs of
abating despite an aggressive U.S.-sponsored aerial eradication
program, and with the peace process between Bogota and Marxist rebels
going nowhere, American drug policy has come under growing attack.

On Tuesday, familiar arguments broke mostly along party lines.
Republicans say that without the right backing, Latin America's
oldest democracy could topple. Democrats revive the ghosts of Vietnam
and El Salvador, warning that U.S. aid was helping to draw the United
States into Colombia's civil war.

"A military solution is a dead-end solution," said Rep. John W.
Olver, D-Mass. "It is really time to try something else."

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., argued that the United States owed it to
Colombia to help because American drug consumers were largely
responsible for its woes.

Republicans accused Democrats of retreating in the drug war.
Democrats argued that they would be willing to back additional
funding for Colombia's armed forces if they vowed to cut ties to
right wing paramilitary groups, largely responsible for the scores of
massacres in the Andean nation.

"To show we do care about human rights, Congress should not be an
apologist for bad behavior," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who
sponsored an amendment that would have reduced military aid to
Colombia by $100-million. "We should not look the other way."

In approving the $1.3-billion aid package last year, Congress
required that the military meet certain human rights conditions.
Former President Bill Clinton, however, routinely waived the
requirements.

Amendments offered by Democrats would have directed funds toward
fighting AIDS and tuberculosis and to child survival efforts.

But Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who steered the Republican strategy,
said that the Andean anti-drug initiative already struck a balance
between the various interests. Rep. McGovern's proposal to cut
funding, he said, "short-changes development in Latin America."

The defeat of the amendments was a victory for the Bush
administration. Any reductions below what the president wanted, the
White House had said, "would undermine the effort to develop healthy,
licit economies and strong democratic governments in the Andes."

The foreign operations budget next year totals $15.2-billion. The
bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 passed 381-46 late Tuesday.