A DISASTER FOR COLOMBIA

On the same day that President Clinton used a White House press
conference to promote the $1.7 billion Colombian military aid package
- -- which Congress has considered as part of the fiscal year 2000
supplemental appropriations bill -- U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin,
D-Madison, took to the floor of the House to say, "No mas.''

Baldwin attacked the aid package as a misguided initiative that will
not help the peace process in Colombia. She's right.

The aid package pushed by Clinton and congressional Republicans would
spend a fortune to make everything in that Latin American country
worse. It seeks to direct U.S. money into Colombia's military, while
failing to address fundamental problems such as economic inequality,
lack of economic development and a corrupt judiciary.

Baldwin "Peace is what Colombia needs. Peace will allow democracy to
flourish; peace will permit law enforcement officials to combat the
flow of illicit drugs; and peace will create the conditions to address
the income inequalities, the problems of displaced persons and
economic development issues that will truly improve the lives of
Colombian people,'' said Baldwin.

"Unfortunately, the aid package we are considering today will not help
the peace process,'' the Madison Democrat told the House. "In fact, it
fails to address the underlying issues that are needed to promote
peace in Colombia.''

Baldwin, who visited Colombia in 1993 when she was a member of the
Wisconsin Assembly, has worked closely with the Madison-based Colombia
Support Network to educate other House members about the failure of
the Colombian military to make a serious effort to disband right-wing
paramilitary groups. And she has long questioned whether sending more
U.S. weapons to the South American country will result in a reduction
of drug trafficking, as Clinton and his aides claim.

"Unfortunately, we seem to be playing a game of public relations when
we should be pursuing peace in the region,'' says Baldwin.