Colombia Peace Presence Update - Special Alert!

Colombia Peace Presence Update, July 2003

July 16, 2003:

Urgent Action! House to Debate Colombia Military Aid Next Week!

Calls and Letters Needed Immediately!

Unexpectedly, the House of Representatives has scheduled the debate on the 2004 foreign aid bill -- which contains $600 million in mostly-military aid for Colombia -- for next week, the week of July 21. It's uncertain exactly when the vote will take place, but we do know that an amendment will probably be offered to cut military aid to Colombia. The last vote in the House to cut Colombia military aid lost by only seven votes -- we are very close! Without your help, though, this amendment could lose.

At this time, when the FOR's Colombia Peace Presence team of three volunteers begins their service in the conflicted Peace Community of San José de Aparatadó in northern Colombia, it is especially critical to let our representatives know our thoughts.

ACTION: Please call or write your representative and ask him or her to support any amendment to the 2004 foreign aid bill that would cut or limit military aid to Colombia. Please contact your representative before July 22. We may issue another FOR Action alert when we know the specifics of the amendment and have a better sense of the timing of the vote-- but please start on these actions right away!

To reach your representative by phone, call the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

To find your representative's fax number or address, see http://www.house.gov/ .
If you don’t know who your representative is, see http://www.house.gov/writerep .

There are also several resources for you available on the website of the Latin America Working Group (of which FOR is a member):

For a sample letter to mail or fax to your member of Congress before July 22, see http://www.lawg.org/colletter703.htm.

For tips on making a phone call on this vote, please see http://www.lawg.org/colphone703.htm.

If you can't make your call until this weekend and need to leave a message, these tips will show you how to do that.

And don't forget -- your feedback is very important! Let us know what you're doing this week so we can update our allies in Congress. You can also request more information -- LAWG is happy to get you voting records, talking points, or other tools. Please e-mail Elanor Starmer at estarmer@lawg.org with any feedback or questions.

Background on the Foreign Aid Bill: The 2004 foreign aid bill contains almost $600 million in aid to Colombia, the vast majority of which is military aid. Starting last year, military aid to Colombia can be used for both counter-drug efforts-- mostly the aerial fumigation of drug crops-- and counterinsurgency. Because the foreign aid bill must be debated and passed each year, there have been a number of amendments to the bill since 2000 that would have cut a portion of the military aid to Colombia-- and the votes have gotten closer each year. The most recent vote on Colombia was offered this April, when President Bush included $105 million in additional military aid for Colombia in the Iraq war supplemental bill. That amendment, which would have cut out most of the Colombia aid, lost by only 7 votes.

To see how your representative voted on the amendment, see http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=106. If they are in the "aye" category, they supported cutting military aid to Colombia. If they voted well, remind them of that when you call!

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Fellowship of Reconciliation
Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
2017 Mission St. #305, San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel: 415-495-6334 Fax: 415-495-5628

©2003 Fellowship of Reconciliation