Military Aid to Colombia
The hope you expressed in your July 1 editorial, “A Hope for Colombia,” is actually a reality. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is opening an office in Colombia directed by Spanish diplomat Almudena Mazarrasa and will have a team of five experts on human rights, political science and communication. The initial budget is $1.5 million.
Diego Vargas Uribe, spokesperson for Colombia’s National Conciliation Commission, announced that all sides have been consulted and plans are being drawn up for new peace talks between the government and the rebels. FARC (Columbia Revolutionary Armed Forces) leader Manuel Marulanda Velez writes, “I reiterate the will that the FARC has always expressed to find a political solution to the social and armed conflict.”
For fiscal year 1998 the Clinton administration is asking $53.9 million in aid to Colombia that is primarily military. This aid will simply pour gasoline on the Colombian fires of war. If there is even a hint of rationality in the U.S. Congress, all military aid to Colombia will cease.
BLASE BONPANE, Director
Office of the Americas
Los Angeles
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