WASHINGTON, DC --
U.S. Representative Jan
Schakowsky (D-IL) yesterday joined Democrats in supporting the McGovern
Amendment to the Foreign Operations FY06 Appropriations bill, which would have
reduced military aid for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative to Colombia by $100
million. Past funding of the Andean Initiative has failed in reducing the
amount of narcotics produced in Colombia, and has done nothing to stop the
countries gross human rights violations.
The full text of Schakowsky’s
statement is below”
“Mr. Chairman, I thank the
gentleman for yielding me this time and for his leadership on this important
issue.
I rise in strong support of the
McGovern-McCollum-Moore amendment to cut $100 million from the Andean
counterdrug initiative account, which, by the way, still leaves $634.5 million
in the account. I am not against helping create a more peaceful nation for the
people of Colombia, and of course we want to reduce the flow of drugs to this
country and the use of them by Americans, but I do not support throwing good
money after bad in the quagmire that is our Colombia policy.
I wanted to read from an article
today in the L.A. Times written by Sonni Efron, the headline being ``Drug War
Fails to Dent U.S. Supply.''
‘The Bush administration and
congressional allies are gearing up to renew a plan for drug eradication in
Latin America despite some grim news. The $5.4 billion spent on the plan since
2000 has made no dent in the availability of cocaine on American streets, and
prices are at all-time lows. United Nations figures released this month show
that coca cultivation in the Andean region increased by 2 percent in 2004 as
declines in Colombia were swamped by massive increases in Peru and Bolivia. And
the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said last week that the antidrug
effort has had 'no effect' on the price or purity of drugs in the United States.
The findings have fueled skepticism in Congress where conservative groups have
joined efforts to lobby against continued funding.’
Let me underscore that:
‘Conservative groups have joined efforts to lobby against continued funding. The
National Taxpayers Union calls the antidrug program a 'boondoggle’.’ That is
from The L.A. Times.
And the policy of fumigation is
not only ineffective, but it is inhumane. The majority of small farm families
whose crops are sprayed do not receive assistance to transition to food crops
from either the Colombian or the U.S. Governments. They are given no incentive
to change their behavior, no alternative to make a living that will help them
survive.
There are areas in Colombia
where massive spraying is occurring and little or no development aid is
provided. Even legal crops in those areas are killed. They are subsistence
crops, and there is nothing given to replace that loss for those families. This
is inhumane and it is also remarkably ineffective. Sixty-two percent of the coca
fields detected by the U.N. in Colombia in 2004 were new; evidence that
fumigation, in the absence of alternatives, is not moving farmers away from
planting coca.
If we want a long-term and
effective plan, it has to be a new one. It is not enough to send a report to our
constituents each year and detail how much we are spending to go fight drugs.
And it is not a real success when we reduce coca in one country while
cultivation soars in another. We need to show them results, and this plan has
provided none.
So if you truly care, you are
going to support the McGovern-McCollum-Moore amendment and send a message that
we need a new approach.”
►
Click here to read the L.A. Times Story |