Source:
San Francisco Chronicle/Houston ChronicleHouse Dems push for big shift in Colombia aid
Concern grows over drug war failures, links to death squads
Patty Reinert, John Otis, Houston Chronicle
Thursday, June 7, 2007
(06-07) 04:00 PDT Washington -- President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, in Washington today on one of his frequent trips to lobby Congress for trade and aid, will be greeted by Democrats planning a dramatic change in U.S. support for his South American nation.
This week, a House Appropriations subcommittee drafting the U.S. foreign aid budget cut Colombia's overall aid package by 10 percent, to about $530 million.
The country is expected to get an additional $150 million in purely military and police assistance through a separate appropriation in the defense budget bill.
The biggest change, however, is that the Democrats intend to alter the ratio between military and humanitarian foreign aid to Colombia.
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The shift is due in part to mounting evidence that Colombia is losing its war on drugs, and in part to growing concern on Capitol Hill that Uribe's government might be tainted by ties to paramilitary death squads.
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