ACTION: Call your representative to urge a YES VOTE on any amendment to cut military assistance to Colombia. Representative Jim McGovern will offer an amendment to cut military aid to Colombia. Make your phone call anytime from now until June 28th. Let us know how your member plans to vote!
Click here for a sample script.

BACKGROUND: The five-year policy that has poured billions of U.S. dollars into drug crop fumigation and military aid is expiring this year, and Congress will soon vote on whether or not to continue military aid in 2006. This is our chance to influence the course of Colombia policy. We need to show Congress that it’s time to cut military aid to Colombia.

The foreign operations budget this year is under pressure due to the enormous expenditures of the Iraq war, and we have a better chance than usual this year at cutting military aid. Support for cutting military aid will show the Administration and Congress that the public does not support ineffective, inhumane drug crop spraying or support for a military whose human rights record has worsened since U.S. aid began in 2000.

The vote is expected in the House of Representatives on June 28th or 29th when the foreign operations appropriations bill reaches the floor. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) will offer an amendment to the bill that will cut military aid to Colombia. Only a handful of world affairs are debated when the foreign operations bill comes up each year, and it is significant that Colombia is one of them. Through continuous opposition to Plan Colombia, we have achieved our goal of making Colombia policy a controversial issue in Congress!

Visit www.peaceincolombia.org for more background information.

Click here for talking points

Click here for Rethinking Plan Colombia background materials, which may be useful with your member of Congress or the press.

MORE ACTION: If you’re up for more action suggestions, here’s a plan for 5 days of action. The materials for these activities will be up on www.peaceincolombia.org shortly.

June 20-24: Five days of action for five years of failed Plan Colombia

Monday, June 20: Fax and Movie
Watch a flash-movie that shows the effects of US involvement in Colombia. Send a faxed message to your representative asking him/her to cut military aid to Colombia. Send the movie link to friends!

Tuesday, June 21: Media Day
Make the realities of US involvement in Colombia public! Use our sample letter to the editor and send to your local paper.

Wednesday, June 22: Phone a Friend
Talk to two friends about the importance of opposing “Plan Colombia II” and then help them contact Congress during the call-in day on Thursday. By getting the word out, we can triple the impact of Thursday’s call-in day!

Thursday, June 23: CALL-IN DAY
Call your representative to tell him/her to vote YES on amendments that cut US military aid to Colombia, or that transfer military assistance to social aid. Remember, congressional offices are sensitive to calls (more so than emails) from constituents, which makes this action very important! Click here for a sample script and talking points.

Friday, June 24: Solidarity Actions
Show solidarity with the Colombian people by lighting a candle for peace, chalking your sidewalk, or sharing your knowledge and experience of Colombia with your church and community. Take pictures and spread the word!

And, GET FREE ‘PEACE COFFEE’ that supports an end to violence in Colombia! The first 100 people to report back to us on the actions that they took during the week will receive a free sample of fair trade coffee produced by the Nasa in Cauca, Colombia.

Here’s a sample script for the call – modify it to personalize your message.

I am a constituent calling about Colombia legislation on the upcoming foreign operations appropriations bill. I would like Representative ________ to support a new policy toward Colombia, and I urge him/her to vote YES on the McGovern amendment to cut military aid to Colombia. Plan Colombia is supposed to end this year, and given its failures, I believe it should be replaced by a policy that works. Drug crop fumigation in Colombia has not helped lessen the price or availability of drugs on U.S. streets, and direct human rights violations by the Colombian military have increased since U.S. aid began in 2000. We need a major shift away from fumigation and military aid, and toward alternative development programs and aid to displaced families. I would like Representative _______ to vote to change this policy, and to prioritize social assistance instead of military aid.

Talking points for your call to Congress:

• I believe that peace and stability in Colombia are possible, and that the U.S. should play a role, but they will not come through more military aid and fumigation.
• Plan Colombia was passed by Congress in 2000 as a five-year policy with the goals of reducing drug availability on U.S. streets and reducing violence in Colombia. It has failed miserably. Why should the U.S. continue this policy?
• 2004 saw the largest aerial spray campaign ever in Colombia. Despite the record effort, the amount of coca produced in Colombia last year did not budge an inch-- it actually went up slightly! After five years and billions of dollars, the number of hectares planted in coca in Colombia and the price and availability of cocaine on our streets remains almost the same. Fumigation has wreaked havoc on rural Colombian communities, destroying farm families' food crops, usually without providing alternatives. The policy has made NO progress. We need a new approach.
• I'm extremely concerned about violence against innocent civilians in Colombia by all armed actors. The United Nations has found that direct human rights violations by the Colombian military have increased in recent years; I don't believe that the United States should give more money to a military with a poor human rights record. Colombia is no closer to peace with brutal armed groups like the FARC than it was when Plan Colombia began.
• WE WANT a policy that supports the justice sector by protects human rights defenders, peace workers, and labor leaders; that values the perspectives of religious, peace, and indigenous communities; and that helps rural communities develop sustainable livelihoods free from violence.
• WE WANT a policy that combines social assistance in Colombia with drug treatment and prevention programs at home, not more failed attempts at drug crop fumigation.
• In February, 8 civilians, including three children, were massacred in two incidents in the peace community of San José de Apartadó. The community holds the Colombian military responsible. A serious investigation is needed.
• WE WANT our government to take a stronger stance on human rights. I ask that you instruct the State Department not to certify that Colombia has met the human rights conditions necessary to receive U.S. aid. A full and transparent investigation should be conducted to ensure that the perpetrators of the San José massacre, and other massacres, are brought to justice, and the Colombian military must break its links with abusive paramilitary forces.
• A proposal for a new U.S.-Colombia policy, "Blueprint for a New Colombia Policy," is available at the website of the Latin America Working Group, http://www.lawg.org/docs/Blueprint.pdf. Over thirty human rights, church, union and grassroots groups contributed to the Blueprint. It's our way of saying to Congress, "there is an alternative!"