USA feeds war in Colombia

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EMERGENCY CALL-IN DAYS MARCH 19-21

MAJOR SHIFT IN US POLICY TOWARD COLOMBIA PROPOSED!!!

What we have feared is now becoming reality.  We must all participate in
a major, national response against the Bush administration's new
proposal to lift restrictions on US aid to Colombia and allow for
US-sponsored counter-insurgency in Colombia (details and talking points
below).

ACTION

Tuesday, March 19 — Thursday, March 21 have been designated EMERGENCY
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS by the Colombia Mobilization.  Every single
Senator and Representative must be flooded with calls and faxes saying:
NO to Bush's proposal to lift restrictions and YES to the McGovern Dear
Colleague letter (talking points below).

1. Send this alert to everyone you know.

2. Call your Senators and Representative on Tuesday (or as soon as you
receive this).  Even if your Senators/Reps are strong on this issue,
they need your support right now!

3. Have all your friends and family call on Wednesday.

4. Make sure all their friends and family call on Thursday.

5. Anything else you can think of! e.g. take some cell phones to the
local grocery store or mall, set up a table, and ask people walking by
to make calls or sign letters that you can then fax in. e.g. Can your
church, civic association, or town council pass an emergency resolution
against this and send it in?

Congressional switchboard:  202-224-3121.  Find out your Reps
http://www.house.gov/writerep and Senators http://www.senate.gov

BACKGROUND

The Bush administration plans to ask Congress sometime the week of March
18 to remove restrictions on US military aid to Colombia.  This would
mean:  no more constraints that military aid must only be used for
counter-narcotics, no more human rights conditions for the Colombian
military, and no more limits on the number of US military personnel
allowed in the country.  This proposal would allow US money and
intelligence to be used for counter-insurgency.  See Friday's Washington
Post article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29575-2002Mar14.html

This language will be included in a larger bill that the administration
expects to submit to Congress next week asking for additional funds for
global and domestic anti-terrorism efforts.  This bill will go first to
the appropriations committees in the House and Senate and then to the
full House and Senate.

TALKING POINTS

Many members of Congress have good intentions, and want to support an
end to violence in Colombia.  But adding more military aid is not the
way to do it.  Tell your Senators and Representative that you and
members of your community are against US military involvement in
Colombia and are particularly opposed to this expansion.

1. Representative Jim McGovern will be circulating a Dear Colleague
letter against the new Bush proposal to lift restrictions.  Ask your
Representative to sign on to that Dear Colleague ASAP.

2. Sending more military aid to Colombia is not going to help protect
civilians.  The Colombian military still maintains close ties with
paramilitary groups, who are on the US terrorist list and who commit
upwards of 70% of civilian killings in Colombia.  Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International, and the Washington Office on Latin America
released a report in February proving the human rights situation in
Colombia is EVEN WORSE than a year ago
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/colombia_hrfactsheet.html

3. Sending military aid to Colombia brings the US into another Vietnam
quagmire.  Colombia is the size of 53 El Salvadors, and the amount of
money necessary to defeat the FARC militarily will be tremendous, and
perhaps incalculable.  This civil war has been going on for over
40-years and a political solution is the only way out.

4. Real solutions.  US support for a negotiated peace process with the
FARC and the ELN, and real pressure on the Colombian government to break
ties with the paramilitaries, will go much further at protecting
civilians than increased military aid will.  Violent actions on the part
of the FARC have a tremendous human cost, but supporting a military that
collaborates with the paramilitaries has a huge human cost as well.


*** GET READY!!!  The Colombia Mobilization starts in one month and is
obviously more important than ever!  This is our best chance to really
show Washington that we oppose continued and increased military aid to
Colombia.

Source:  http://www.colombiamobilization.org/article.php?id=48

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