Spending bill to bolster Latin America
House and Senate negotiators struck a deal on Latin America aid,
trimming Plan Colombia and boosting outlays for Cuba democracy.
Posted on Tue, Dec. 18, 2007
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
Cuba democracy programs will get a big boost, and millions of dollars in
aid to Colombia will be redirected from military to social programs
under a massive government spending bill unveiled Monday by House and
Senate negotiators.
Lawmakers also restored many of the cutbacks in social programs for
Latin America proposed by the Bush administration, Democratic aides
said. The bill contains $45 million for Cuban democracy programs -- a
five-fold jump from current levels.
Passage of the big increase for Cuba would be a major victory for the
White House and its congressional allies, who are looking to step up
support for democracy activists as the country moves into a post-Fidel
Castro transition. Critics of U.S. policy on Cuba argued that the money
is unlikely to spur democratic reforms on the island.
UNCERTAIN FATE
The Latin American allocations, congressional staffers say, are included
in a $516 billion government spending bill, trimmed by Democrats from
their original proposal by $22 billion to avert a veto by President
Bush. Though the bill is likely to pass the House and Senate floors this
week, the fate is uncertain since Bush has warned he will veto spending
bills that don't include money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with
no strings attached.
Democrats said Latin America was spared many of the cuts originally
proposed by Bush for development programs. Some of that money had been
redirected to other accounts also dealing with Latin America, and some
would have been cut outright.
''Western hemisphere funds were protected at fiscal year 2007 level,''
said Federico de Jesus, a spokesman for Senate Majority leader Harry
Reid. ''Democrats stopped Bush cuts on core development funding'' and
the region was spared any pain as Democrats cut back to meet Bush's
overall budget goals.
COMPARISON TO IRAQ
Democrats have criticized the administration for focusing too much on
drug programs and trade in Latin America. An opinion piece jointly
signed by Reid and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menéndez complained
that Latin America received less than 1 percent of the $160 billion a
year the United States is spending on Iraq.
''We are not satisfied with our country spending more every year on a
foreign civil war and less on core development,'' the two legislators
wrote in the piece, released Monday.
According to the bill's text, Colombia is to receive $545.6 million
under Plan Colombia, a counterdrug trafficking program launched in 2000.
That is below the $589 million request by the administration, though
only $12 million under what Colombia received in the 2007 fiscal year.
But military and security forces will get just 56 percent of the
package, instead of the previous 70 percent.
''All we were doing was spraying coca, and we weren't investing in
economic opportunities for people,'' said one Senate Democratic staffer,
who was not authorized to be quoted by name.
Colombia will also see a bigger share of its military aid -- 30 percent
instead of the previous 25 percent -- conditioned on a State Department
certification that the country is complying with human rights
provisions, like bringing to justice military personnel accused of abuses.
Colombia already has $55 million blocked by Vermont Democrat Sen.
Patrick Leahy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Leahy
says the State Department has not explained why it certified Colombia.
Democrats say Bogotá needs to do more to bring rights violators to justice.
Congressional negotiators also appropriated $201 million for Haiti.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/348595.html
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