Please forward to your networks.

Dear Friends,

Now is the time to make calls to your representatives and senators.
The House committe has already passed this. We need to urgently mobilize the masses and
oppose this bill.

Best,

Atossa


From: U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office
<agiffen@pop2.igc.org>

COLOMBIA INFOinBRIEF ALERT
Please Distribute and Post

FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU EL SALVADOR AND VIETNAM.
U.S. EYES REMAIN WIDE SHUT AS CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
VOTES YES FOR U.S. AID PACKAGE TO ABUSIVE ARMY
_________________________________________________________
ACT NOW MARCH 10, 2000 - MARCH 16, 2000
FINAL HOUSE VOTE ON PACKAGE: THURSDAY MARCH 16
_________________________________________________________

On Thursday, March 9, the Appropriation Committee of the House of
Representatives passed the U.S. aid package to Colombia without any
significant human rights conditionality or aid for the 1.8 million people
displaced in Colombia. On Thursday, March 16, the package will be
introduced to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

The U.S. aid package, formally introduced as an emergency supplemental to
the House of Representatives included $1.7 billion. This is $400 million
more than originally anticipated and confirms U.S. policymakers' commitment
to a disastrous approach to stemming the drug trade and ending the South
American nation's brutal armed conflict. The majority of this package is
assistance to the Colombian army, widely-recognized as the most abusive
military in the Western hemisphere. This aid will make the United States a
major actor in Colombia's counterinsurgency war.

There is still time to make a difference.

________________________________________________________
T I M E T O A C T
________________________________________________________

The proposed U.S. aid package to Colombia is moving quickly through
Congress. However, grassroots efforts and recent reports linking Colombian
military and paramilitary forces have initiated debate in Congress.

Now is the time for grassroots groups working on Colombia to affect the
package.

The package will go to the floor of the House for a vote on MARCH 16 and
then to the Senate.

_______________________________________________________
A C T I O N A C T I O N A C T I O N
_______________________________________________________

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND ASK THEM TO:

1) Oppose military aid to Colombia

2) Support positive amendments that

A. shift assistance from the military assistance to positive social
investments in Colombia
B. shift funds for military assistance to demand reduction, education and
treatment programs in the United States
C. include human rights conditionality and monitoring of security assistance

3) SPEAK-OUT! The more representatives that speak out on the floor of the
House during the debate on Thursday, March 16, the better. Please ask your
representative to share your views with the Congress during the vote.

IN ADDITION.
**Thank the following representatives for doing the right thing -- either
voting no on the package, speaking out against it, or offering positive
amendments -- during the Appropriations vote on March 9.

David R. Obey, Wisconsin
Nancy Pelosi, California
Sam Farr, California
José E. Serrano, New York
John Edward Porter, Illinois
Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
John W. Olver, Massachusetts

**Put pressure on the following representatives who were particularly
obstructive of positive amendments during the Appropriations vote on March 9.

James P. Moran, Virginia
Sonny Callahan, Alabama
Jerry Lewis, California
C.W. Bill Young, Florida, Chairman

**Continue to contact your senators to express your concerns - the package
is scheduled to be formally introduced in the Senate the week of March 20th.

__________________________________________________
H O W T O C O N T A C T
Y O U R R E P R E S E N T A T I V E
__________________________________________________

U.S. Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121
Web address for email addresses and phone #'s:
http://www.house.gov
_________________________________________________
TALKING POINTS
_________________________________________________

+ This aid package will not only pour hundreds of millions of dollars into
the most abusive military in the Western Hemisphere, but it will almost
certainly destabilize fragile peace negotiations and undermine support of a
negotiated settlement.

+To avoid getting the United States more deeply involved with
Colombia's infamous armed forces, I ask you to oppose aid to the Colombian
army due to human rights concerns, especially army links at a regional and
local level to brutal paramilitary forces.

+Instead, I urge you to support a substantial positive aid package for
Colombia, including: humanitarian relief for people displaced by violence;
crop substitution programs for small farmers to switch from coca to legal
crops; economic assistance; programs to strengthen Colombian government
investigations into human rights violations and drug trafficking; aid for
civil society efforts for human rights and peace.

+Finally, because the United States "War on Drugs" is one that must be
fought at home, I ask you to increase funding for drug treatment and
prevention programs here in our own country.

____________________________________________

END
____________________________________________

Alison Giffen
Director
U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office
Phone: 202-232-8090
Fax: 202-232-8092
Suite 200 1630 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington D.C. 20009
http://www.igc.org/colhrnet/

Atossa Soltani
Amazon Watch
20110 Rockport Way, Malibu, CA 90265
Tel 310-456-1340 Fax 310-456-0388
asoltani@igc.org www.amazonwatch.org

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