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.”
For more from the L.A Times, follow the link below
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-drugs28jun28,1,898329.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
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