Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's speech at the meeting of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, September 21, 2000, "Implementing Plan Colombia: The U.S. Role." 

 

Thank you for this opportunity to speak.  And I would like to thank the

Chairman and the Ranking Member for calling this very important hearing.

Our relationship with the people of Colombia is about to fundamentally

change and I hope we know that going into this massive projection of US

force into that country.

I am especially appreciative of the opportunity to put my thoughts on the

record because more than anything else, I care about the most fundamental

aspects of human rights and how Plan Colombia will affect the human rights

climate in Colombia today and the notions about the United States that

Colombians affected most will have about us after implementation of Plan

Colombia. 

As citizens of the most powerful nation in the world, it's our duty to

ensure that this power is used responsibly and that we are not confused when

we use it.  Bobby Kennedy once said that we used to be a force for good in

the world.  I would like to hope that peoples around the world still see us

as a force for good.  However, I fear that this is far from the thoughts of

the Colombian people from whom I have heard.

Some 80% of the aid in Plan Colombia comes in the form of military weapons.

This, more properly, should be called a military aid package and this

meeting must include the military component if we are to truly grasp the

full meaning of the US Role in Implementing Plan Colombia.

Congress actually voted to fund a counter attack against an army of 20,000

guerrillas in the Amazon jungle.  We did this act alone without the support

of our European allies.  The European Union does not support our involvement

of this nature in Colombia.  And because we've voted to give approximately

one billion dollars to the Colombian military, not very many other donors

want to be associated with this kind of contribution.

So, although Plan Colombia was originally intended by President Pastrana to

be a multinational aid package, it has now morphed into a US military

operation.

About two weeks ago, the Presidents of the twelve Latin American countries

met for the first time in a historic summit in Brasilia.  Although it was

not the intended theme of the meeting, the leaders resolved their opposition

to the US aid package.  Brazil's Fernando Cardoso spoke against it,

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez spoke against it.  In Ecuador they believe that tens

of thousands of refugees are going to spill across the border from the

violence this plan is going to generate.  This is what Colombia's neighbors

think of the plan. 

Thirty-seven Colombian NGO's, including the Center for Investigations and

Popular Education and the Consortium for Human Rights and the Displaced have

signed a letter saying they would reject any aid offered to them as part of

Plan Colombia.  They are completely unwilling to be associated with this

program in any way no matter how much money they are offered. 

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Washington Office on

Latin America all denounced President Clinton's decision to waive the human

rights conditions that had been placed on the aid by Congress.   The human

rights groups had hoped that by placing such conditions on the aid, Colombia

would be forced to choose between the modern weaponry and the dirty war of

assassination they are currently engaged in.  I am extremely disappointed

that the Clinton Administration once again has taken human rights completely

off the table for discussion.  Now there is no incentive whatsoever for

Colombia to reform its military and abandon its paramilitary strategy.

I will also note for the record that the push into southern Colombia, which

has been described today, violates the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit

the forced displacement of civilian populations as a tactic of war. 

In the whole world, only the Congo has more displaced people than Colombia.

At a forum recently sponsored by my office, I have quite sadly learned that

the vast majority of those displaced persons are Afro-Latinos.  Two-thirds

are minors.  Only one in eight has access to education.  One in three has

access to health care.  These poor children suffer from the neglect of the

Colombian State and the ignorance of Washington policy makers.

My third and final point is that not only is this plan immoral, it's

impractical.  Spraying chemicals on third world farmers is not an effective

way to discourage people in the United States from using cocaine. 

We are not immune to the lure of quick cocaine cash ourselves.  As has been

made embarrassingly clear recently.

How can Colonel James Hiett, smuggling cocaine and laundering money with his

wife while overseeing anti-drug operations for the US Southern Command in

Bogota . . . how could this narco get off with five months in jail while

today there are more African Americans in prison than in college? 

So now, the US is about to implement a plan to spray chemicals on third

world subsistence farmers and attack them with helicopter gunships while the

Colombian government allows paramilitary groups to massacre them. 

One thing is for sure in this plan, it isn't about drug abuse control and

won't help my friends who are strung out on dope.

I would rather have from the CIA a truthful accounting of how crack cocaine

came to flood every black neighborhood in America and affect every black

family.  Telling the truth about the relationships between federal agencies,

US multinational banks, and elites in this country and abroad will do more

to eradicate the scourge of drugs in America than this proposed Plan

Colombia.