AID COLOMBIA

American interests at home and in South America have been increasingly
threatened by ongoing, interrelated crises in Colombia. We must protect
ourselves from the flow of Colombian heroin and cocaine, in particular, as
well as support democratic government, the rule of law, economic stability
and human rights in that beleaguered country.

The Clinton administration has proposed a two-year assistance package of
$1.6 billion.

Colombia would receive equipment like UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters,
training and technical assistance for its police and criminal justice
system funds for alternate economic development, drug interdiction, and
support for peace initiatives. Peru and Bolivia, which achieved dramatic
reductions in cocaine production, would also receive modest enhancements in
U.S. aid.

The Pastrana government has committed $4 billion dollars to "Plan Colombia"
and requested $3.5 billion in bilateral foreign assistance from the
international community.

Colombia estimates that $7.5 billion will be required over the next three
years to reverse the country's role as the hemispheric hub for drugs.

Efforts are underway to build support among potential donors in Europe and
Asia. The world has come to realize that the drug problem is multinational
and demands an international response.

A nation the size of Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas combined --Colombia is
home to 38 million citizens caught in the crossfire between 20,000
guerrillas, 6,000 paramilitary terrorists, and national democratic forces
trying to defend an elected government. The level of violence is greatly
exacerbated by drug profits, which fuel different parties to the conflict
and allow outlaw factions to purchase more weapons.

Some 35,000 Colombians were killed over the past decade in Latin America's
longest-running internal conflict.

If the United States doesn't help Colombia, even greater quantities of
cocaine and heroin are likely to be exported.

Colombia's role in the drug trade changed over the last decade.

As coca cultivation plummeted in Peru (down 66 percent since 1995) and in
Bolivia (down 55 percent since 1995), it rose in Colombia by 140 percent --
an increase compounded by the introduction of a higher-yield strain of
plant. In the past, Colombia primarily distributed Peruvian and Bolivian
cocaine. Colombia now produces 520 metric tons of cocaine a year,
two-thirds of the world's total.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Colombian drug organizations made a
strategic decision to enter the heroin business.

Opium poppies can be grown year-round in Colombia with multiple harvests.

A majority of the heroin seized on America's eastern seaboard now comes
from Colombia. After the demise of integrated cartels based in Medellin and
Cali, smaller cells began specializing in limited aspects of the drug trade.

Such groups are hard to disrupt.

Dismantling one has little impact on the others.

The increase in drug production acted like gasoline thrown on the fire of
Colombia's insurgency problems.

Guerrilla and paramilitary groups on both the left and right profit
enormously from the drug trade and organize peasants who grow illegal
substances. The drug industry swelled the war chests of the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), National Liberation Army (ELN), and the
AUC (a paramilitary group). Dollar estimates of their income from drugs run
as high as hundreds of millions annually. Drug money augments the funds
such organizations get from kidnapping, extortion and bank robbery.

The State Department documented that these groups hijack airplanes and
murder Americans as well as innocent Colombians. Serious human rights
violations committed by the outlaws include torturing and executing
prisoners, expropriating property and recruiting minors.

Colombia's economy is shrinking for the first time in three decades.

The gross national product decreased 5 percent in the first six months of
1999. Unemployment exceeds 20 percent.

Displaced people, especially in rural areas, are seeking paid jobs with
narcotraffickers and illegally armed groups. Recruits reportedly earn twice
as much as army conscripts. Nearly a million citizens lost their homes, so
Colombia has more displaced people than Kosovo. Without help from
international partners, the Colombian government will be unable to reduce
narcotrafficking or regain control of areas where illegal drugs are
flourishing.

The old drug dichotomy between source countries and consumer nations is
misleading. Drugs are used wherever they are produced.

Therefore, a global strategy is imperative against international
trafficking. Colombia is too close geographically for us to pretend we
aren't affected, and it is currently responsible for 90 percent of the
cocaine being shipped into the United States. The House of Representatives
approved aid for Colombia, and President Clinton is urging the Senate to
vote soon. Our communities are being poisoned by illegal drugs, which cost
the United States 52,000 lives and $110 billion each year.