Destructive aid to Colombia

Thank you for publishing the Feb. 20 Associated Press article on the ties between the Colombian government and paramilitaries death squads. President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe recently announced that they are proposing a "Plan Colombia 2" -- five more years of the same bad policy!

The Bush administration is asking Congress to approve nearly $450 million in military aid to Colombia in this year's foreign aid bill. The idea of extending the current U.S. role in Colombia is truly scary. Despite worsening human rights abuses by the Colombian military, the forced displacement of more than 3 million Colombians and inhumane and utterly ineffective aerial spraying programs, the Bush administration wants more of the same. Its plan would maintain approximately the same levels of military and police aid for Colombia through 2013: $446 million a year, which represents 76 percent of the total aid package.

The one factor significantly different this year is the new Congress. Although the administration has proposed this plan, it is up to Congress to fund it each year. There will be resistance in Congress to continuing this failed policy. We need to tell Congress that we support social aid to Colombia that will alleviate the humanitarian crisis, not military aid to fuel Colombia's war.

Gail S. Phares

Witness for Peace Southeast

Raleigh