The Colombian military has graduated over 10,000 students from the SOA and recently a Human Rights Watch Report cited 7 grads for connections with the paramilitaries. We must speak out to stop more military aid to Colombia!

_________________________________________________________
ACT NOW MARCH 3, 2000 - MARCH 16, 2000
EYES WIDE SHUT: U.S. AID PACKAGE TO ABUSIVE ARMY
FIRST VOTE ON PACKAGE: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 9
_________________________________________________________

In January, President Clinton introduced an emergency supplemental aid package to Colombia. The Administration's $1.3 billion aid package to Colombia is a disastrous approach to stemming the drug trade and ending the South American nation's brutal armed conflict. This new aid, combined with funds already directed toward Colombia, will amount to $1.6 billion over the next two years. Over 60% 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.

________________________________________________________
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. This provides grassroots groups working on Colombia a small window of opportunity to affect the package.

The Aid package is scheduled to be introduced in an "emergency supplemental" on MONDAY, MARCH 6 in the House of Representatives. It will be voted on by the Appropriations Committee probably on THURSDAY, MARCH 9. It will then 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) Sign-on to the dear colleague letter that Reps Campbell, Schakowsky, Baldwin and Nadler are circulating. The letter asks Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young not to appropriate additional funding for the Colombian military as proposed in Clinton's supplemental request.


**Check the list of Appropriations Committee members at the end of this alert to see if any representatives in your state are on this committee and call them now. It is critical to contact these representatives this week.

**If you don't have a representative on the appropriations committee, call your representatives and encourage them to vote the right way when the bill comes to the floor. Continue to contact your senators and send them the same message.

__________________________________________________
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.

__________________________________________________
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
106TH CONGRESS
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS - MEMBERSHIP
_________________________________________________

C.W. Bill Young, Florida, Chairman

Robert Aderholt, Alabama
Henry Bonilla, Texas
Allen Boyd, Florida
Sonny Callahan, Alabama
Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, Jr., Alabama
Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California
Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
Tom DeLay, Texas
Jay Dickey, Arkansas
Norman D. Dicks, Washington
Julian C. Dixon, California
James W. Dyer, Clerk and Staff Director
Chet Edwards, Texas
Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri
Sam Farr, California
Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
Virgil H. Goode, Jr., Virginia
Kay Granger, Texas
Maurice D. Hinchey, New York
David L. Hobson, Ohio
Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland
Ernest J. Istook, Jr., Oklahoma
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Michigan
Jack Kingston, Georgia
Joe Knollenberg, Michigan
Jim Kolbe, Arizona
Tom Latham, Iowa
Jerry Lewis, California
Nita M. Lowey, New York
Carrie P. Meek, Florida
Dan Miller, Florida
Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia
James P. Moran, Virginia
John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania
George R. Nethercutt, Jr., Washington
Anne Northup, Kentucky
David R. Obey, Wisconsin
John W. Olver, Massachusetts
Ron Packard, California
Ed Pastor, Arizona
John E. Peterson, Pennsylvania
Nancy Pelosi, California
John Edward Porter, Illinois
David E. Price, North Carolina
Ralph Regula, Ohio
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Harold Rogers, Kentucky
Martin Olav Sabo, Minnesota
José E. Serrano, New York
Joe Skeen, New Mexico
John E. Sununu, New Hampshire
Charles H. Taylor, North Carolina
Todd Tiahrt, Kansas
Peter J. Visclosky, Indiana
James Walsh, New York
Zach Wamp, Tennessee
Roger F. Wicker, Mississippi
Frank R. Wolf, Virginia
____________________________________________

END
____________________________________________