Restructuring U.S. aid to Colombia
The President of Colombia's Congress, Juan Fernando Cristo, was in Washington, DC two weeks ago to promote the idea of a "Plan Colombia II" to lawmakers. This proposed restructuring of aid that would move away from funding security forces, and instead would focus on providing for conflict victims, promoting rural development, ensuring human rights and repairing the justice system. He appeared at WOLA's forum, "Perspectives on Colombia’s Peace Process and Opportunities for U.S. Engagement," which can be viewed here. Colombian newspaper El Espectador reported on Senator Cristo’s visit and the increasing debate in Washington about how aid should be restructured in Colombia, should a peace agreement be reached. Some key quotes from Cristo highlighted in the article:
It is fundamental that once we sign the peace agreement, we have a defined strategy for how the Colombian state, with the cooperation of the international community, will socially, militarily, and territorially deal with the zones where conflict has traditionally existed and where there are illegal activities like coca cultivation.
It is important that the United States, just as it contributed with Plan Colombia by strengthening the military superiority of the State against the against subversion, also commit politically and economically to the Colombian people to be able to have success in the post-conflict era.
We achieved positive results [in Plan Colombia], and that’s why we think it’s necessary to continue to strengthen American cooperation, now not for war, but for peace.
According to WOLA's Adam Isacson, while USAID has begun to rethink its funding in the country, other U.S. government agencies do not yet appear to have begun any deep thinking about how to shift assistance. El Espectador noted that because the State Department will send Congress its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2015 in just a few weeks, redirecting aid for a post-conflict Colombia will more likely happen in 2016. Given that Colombia is the United States’ main security partner in the region, U.S. support, financial and otherwise, will be needed for a post-conflict transition. As of right now, the U.S. provides Colombia with around $400 million in assistance, 60 percent of which is military and police aid, including anti-drug strategies like fumigation and interdiction as well as intelligence. An agreement with the FARC on drug trafficking would need to be met with reoriented budgets. As Isacson noted, a move away from investing in the costly drug war will free up assets to support any agreements reached in the peace accord. The article highlights two issues on drug policy where analysts say the United States would need to be more flexible to support a peace accord: the extradition of FARC members and aerial fumigation, which the U.S. has supported for years with little success, and which could likely be done away with in an agreement. To read the article in its entirety in Spanish, read here. CIP intern Sebastian Belloni provided the translations for this blog