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United States To Shift Focus of Funds for Colombia

More aid to be targeted to social, economic, human rights efforts

The United States plans to focus more of its aid to Colombia on social, economic and human rights programs, while gradually decreasing its assistance for drug eradication and interdiction programs in the Andean nation, say two State Department officials.

In their April 24 prepared congressional testimony, State's Charles Shapiro and Anne Patterson outlined U.S. support for a new phase of Colombia's efforts to fight drug trafficking that is will help bring peace and reconciliation in the country.

The new phase, issued by Colombian officials in January, is called "Strategy to Strengthen Democracy and Promote Social Development." The six-year plan, running from 2007-2013, builds on the success of the first phase of the Colombian peace strategy, called Plan Colombia, while responding to new challenges.

Plan Colombia began in 2000. With U.S. support, it has achieved "remarkable gains" for Colombia, said Shapiro, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Shapiro told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere that these gains included reversing the high rate of growth in the late 1990s of coca and opium poppy cultivation, while significantly reducing poverty and improving Colombia's justice system, security situation and economy. Plan Colombia also has helped "demobilize" right-wing paramilitary groups that have been engaged in Colombia's long-running civil war, he said.

Shapiro said the next phase of the Colombian strategy places increased emphasis on expanding Colombian government programs in remote rural areas, especially those emerging from conflict in the civil war.

Colombia's priorities include aid to vulnerable indigenous groups that have been displaced from their homes by the country's war, said Shapiro. He added that the Colombian strategy stresses economic development through sustainable growth and trade.

Shapiro said that "to ensure the secure environment" necessary for making political and economic progress, the Colombian strategy continues the fight against "terrorist groups and narcotics producers and traffickers."

He said Colombian government officials have "clearly told us that continued U.S. support to counternarcotics and counterterrorism programs remains critical and that our proposed mix of U.S. assistance reflects their needs."

However, Shapiro said, Colombia will assume a larger role in fighting narcotics and terrorism over the next few years.

PATTERSON CITES PROGRESS, HOPES FOR "REAL PEACE"

Patterson delivered the same message to the subcommittee. She said Colombia has begun to assume more responsibility for U.S.-funded counternarcotics programs, "thus allowing the U.S. to scale back its role" in the country in fighting illegal drugs.

Patterson, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said that for the first time in two generations, Colombians can "envisage the possibility of real peace," and Colombia's government seeks to make "this possibility a reality" through its new strategy for strengthening democracy.

As U.S. ambassador to Colombia from 2000 to 2003, Patterson said Colombia has changed for the better since the time she served in Bogota. For example, she said Colombia is addressing its problems related to drug trafficking "in a way that could not have been imagined just a few years ago."

Nevertheless, she added that "securing the progress Colombia has made will require sustained commitment from the United States and the international community as Colombia assumes greater responsibility for its counternarcotics effort."

Both officials urged Congress to ratify the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. That agreement, said Patterson, "will reinforce our counternarcotics strategy by generating jobs in Colombia's legitimate economy." The United States signed the agreement in November 2006.

Success in Colombia is "as important to U.S. security and welfare as any other challenge we face," said Patterson, citing Colombia's influence on regional security throughout the Western Hemisphere, and its law enforcement and military partnerships with the United States.

The prepared testimonies of Shapiro and Patterson are available on the State Department Web site.

The full text of new Colombia strategy is available on the Colombian government's Web site in Spanish.

For more information on U.S. policies in the region, see Andean Region.

Source: U.S. Department of State