From: Colombia Action Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 16:15:46 -0500 To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: [CAN] Urgent Action: Protest US Military Aid to Colombia My Groups <http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups> | actioncolombia Main Page <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/actioncolombia> Colombia Action Network ~ www.actioncolombia.org <http://www.actioncolombia.org> ~ [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Please circulate * Please circulate * Please circulate * Please circulate * Contents: 1. Urgent Action Alert 2. The Bush Proposal 3. What's happening in the House 4. What's happening in the Senate URGENT ACTION ALERT * URGENT ACTION ALERT * URGENT ACTION ALERT Now is an urgent time for us to mobilize and take action to stop US military aid to Colombia. We agreed at our founding conference that our main efforts must be to stop US military and economic intervention in Colombia, including military aid and the aerial fumigation of Colombian land. In the coming weeks, the House and Senate will consider the Bush Administration proposal for renewed aid, called the Andean Counterdrug Initiative. This year, the aid requested by the Bush administration for Colombia and the Andean region comes up in the Congress as part of two of the regular annual appropriations bills (main budget bills which designate money to different areas, such as foreign operations, agriculture, and energy). The bulk of the aid is included in the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill; the rest will be in the defense appropriations bill, which has not yet started moving in congress. The Foreign Ops Appropriations bill started on June 27th in the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, where the first draft of the bill was marked up or debated and voted on. The debate during the markup showed that there is increasing support for cutting military aid and putting a moratorium on fumigation. Below, there is more specific information about what's in the Bush proposals and what's happening (and when) in Congress. At the last meeting of the CAN Steering Committee, we developed the following concrete proposal for joint actions. Please consider the possibilities in your area, and get back to us as soon as possible about what you're planning. (We will help spread the word about all local events.) 1. RIGHT NOW: In the next two weeks, everyone should be calling senators and representatives, as well as sending in all the petitions, postcards and letters you've gathered, telling your congresspeople to vote against U.S. aid to Colombia. Many congresspeople are in their home districts right now, and this is an important time to meet with them in-person, especially if you have or want to have a pro-active working relationship around Colombia. This is also a good time for Letters to the Editor of your local newspaper. If you're committee has an e-mail list or a phone-tree, now is the time to activate those lists, and get your supporters to call! (Minneapolis is doing a call-in day on Tuesday, July 10th.) Be sure to include specific information about the issues, and the numbers they need to call. 2. WEEK OF ACTION, JULY 13-20: At our conference, we decided this would be a national week of coordinated actions, and this is more important than ever! Not only is July 20th Colombian independence day, but this will be the key week for votes in the House, and the start of the debate in the Senate, around US aid to Colombia. Actions are already being planned in San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere. Different committees may need to organize different kinds of actions� a vigil at a church in a Colombian neighborhood, dropping banners over a highway at rush hour, a rally at the Colombian consulate, civil disobedience at the offices of your congresspeople, or maybe a picket line at a federal building or post office. Anything you can do to make this issue seen by the public, covered by the media, and addressed by your politicians is a good thing! 3. REPORT BACKS FROM THE CONFERENCES IN EL SALVADOR AND COLOMBIA: There are big conferences being organized in Colombia and El Salvador the weekend after our actions. If someone from your area is going, you can organize a community report back to build up interest in your solidarity work. CAN activists from around the country are going, so you can also invite someone from out of town to come and describe the conference work to your committee and at public events. These kind of first-hand accounts are very good to share with your local congresspeople, so be sure to plan a visit to their offices, or invite them to public events. 4. NATIONAL PROTEST IN DC, SEPTEMBER 29, 2001: The CAN, along with many other groups, is working to organize a massive protest against US military and economic intervention in Latin America. No to Plan Colombia and Not to the FTAA are the two main demands of the protest, which is being coordinated with the September 30 protests of the IMF meeting happening in DC that week. Buses are being organized from across the country and tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands!) of people will be there. Now is the time for your committee to decide if you can be there, and how many people you can bring with you. There will be solidarity protests happening the same day in Colombia, El Salvador, and throughout the hemisphere. The Bush Proposal: Background. In late March, the Bush Administration announced its plans to continue a military counter-drug strategy in the Andes with its proposed "Andean Regional Initiative"(ARI). This initiative requests military and social and economic aid for Colombia and its neighbors: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, and Panama. Most of this aid will come through the regular foreign operations appropriations bill, but additional aid will come through the defense appropriations bill. Together, the aid totals about $1 billion in military and police assistance and economic and social aid to the Andean region for 2002 (this is on top of the $1.3 billion two-year package approved last year). The administration intends to send a massive $363.04 million in training, spare parts and equipment for Colombia's military and police forces. The administration is selling the ACI package as "balanced," with 50% of the money going to regional security forces and 50% for social and economic development. However, the request for Colombia is still 71% military. The package also includes sharp increases in military aid for all of Colombia's neighbors. The one positive element, a result of all of the criticism last year, is an increase in alternative development assistance (crop substitution programs) to a number of countries in the region. For a full analysis of the package by the Center for International Policy, see http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/2002request.htm. This action alert was written with information from the Latin America Working Group. For more information, please see their website at http://www.lawg.org. Update and Urgent Action: House >From the subcommittee, the bill goes now to the full Appropriations Committee on July 10 and then to the House floor around July 17th. On both these dates, there are likely to be amendments offered to the bill which would cut US military aid to Colombia and put a brake on fumigation. Please contact your representative before July 10 if they are on the Appropriations Committee to tell them to vote YES on amendments to cut Colombian military aid and YES on amendments to stop or place a moratorium on fumigation until serious alternative development programs are ready. If you get an indication of how a member will vote, please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a report. Thank your members who supported these amendments in the markup! On June 27th, Rep. Rothman (D-NJ) offered an amendment to place a moratorium on fumigation and Reps. Pelosi (D-CA), Lowey (D-NY) and Jackson (D-IL) spoke in favor; Rep. Kingston (R-GA) expressed concerns as well. Rep. Pelosi offered an amendment to cut $100 million from military aid to Colombia and spend it instead on international tuberculosis programs. Reps. Wicker (R-MS), Lowey, and Obey (D-WI) spoke in favor. All of these members should be thanked by their constituents. While these amendments were withdrawn and not brought to a vote, they served to bring attention to how controversial Colombia policy has become. Because of the strong debate on these issues in subcommittee, it is likely that other amendments will be offered by these members and others when the bill goes to the full Appropriations Committee and the House floor. House Appropriations Committee members: Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL) Henry Bonilla (R-TX) F. Allen Boyd (D-FL) Sonny Callahan (R-AL) James Clyburn (D-SC) Robert "Bud" E. Jr. Cramer (D-AL) Randy Cunningham (R-CA) Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) Tom DeLay (R-TX) Norman Dicks (D-WA) John Doolittle (R-CA) Chet Edwards (D-TX) Jo Ann H. Emerson (R-MO) Sam Farr (D-CA) Chaka Fattah (D-PA) Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) Virgil H. Goode (D-VA) Kay Granger (R-TX) Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) David Hobson (R-OH) Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) Ernest, Jr. Istook (R-OK) Jesse Jackson (D-IL) Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) Partick J. Kennedy (D-RI) Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-MI) Jack Kingston (R-GA) Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI) Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) Ray LaHood (R-IL) Tom Latham (R-IA) Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) Carrie Meek (D-FL) Dan Miller (R-FL) Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) James P. Moran (D-VA) John P. Murtha (D-PA) George R. Nethercutt (R-WA) Anne M. Northup (R-KY) David R. Obey (D-WI) John W. Olver (D-MA) Ed Pastor (D-AZ) Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) John E. Peterson (R-PA) David E.Price (D-NC) Ralph Regula (R-OH) Harold Rogers (R-KY) Steven R. Rothman (D-NJ) Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) Jose Serrano (D-NY) Joe Skeen (R-NM) John E. Sununu (R-NH) John E. Sweeney (R-NY) Charles H. Taylor (R-NC) Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN) David Vitter (R-LA) James T. Walsh (R-NY) Zach Wamp (R-TN) Roger Wicker (R-MS) Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) If you are not sure who your representative is, click here. http://www.house.gov/writerep/ Update and Urgent Action: Senate The Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee will consider the foreign operations appropriations bill during the third week of July. Members of the subcommittee and the full appropriations committee should hear from constituents. Please contact both your senators, doing so before July 15 if they are on the appropriations committee, and tell them your opinion on US military aid to Colombia and the fumigation policy. Senate Appropriations Committee Members: Democrats: Robert Byrd (WV) Daniel Inouye (HI) Ernest Hollings (SC) Patrick Leahy (VT) Tom Harkin (IA) Barbara Mikulski (MD) Harry Reid (NV) Herb Kohl (WI) Patty Murray (WA) Byron Dorgan (ND) Dianne Feinstein (CA) Richard Durbin (IL) Republicans: Ted Stevens (AK) Thad Cochran (MS) Arlen Specter (PA) Pete Domenici (NM) Christopher Bond (MO) Mitch McConnell (KY) Conrad Burns (MT) Richard Shelby (AL) Judd Gregg (NH) Robert Bennett (UT) Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO) Larry Craig (ID) Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) Jon Kyl (AZ) It is crucial to voice our opinions on current US policy in Colombia and the Andean region at each stage in the process. Please spread the word and contact your senators and representatives as soon as possible! To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! 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