Powell: Bush administration to support, expand Plan Colombia

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Wed Jan 17 20:29:30 PST 2001


[So much for the vaunted Powell doctrine]

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Wednesday, 17 January 2001

Bush administration to support,

expand Plan Colombia

-------------------------------

WASHINGTON -- The incoming administration of President-elect George W. Bush wholeheartedly backs US assistance to an ambitious peace, anti-drug and development plan for Colombia and would like it expanded, Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell said Wednesday.

"The new administration will support Plan Colombia," Powell told a panel of US lawmakers who are expected to unanimously recommend his confirmation to be Washington's top diplomat.

The retired general said outgoing President Bill Clinton's decision to provide 1.3 billion dollars to Colombian leader Andres Pastrana's program had been a wise one and an initiative that would be continued.

"We believe that this money ... should be used to help the Colombian government to protect its people, fight the illicit drug trade, halt the momentum of the guerrillas and ultimately bring about a peaceful and sensible resolution to the conflict," Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He added that the fight against Colombian narco-traffickers had to be complemented by an energized war on drug consumption in the United States.

In addition, Powell said he would like to see additional funds provided to Colombia's neighbors who could be at risk from spillover of similar problems.

Support for Colombia "has to be a regionalized approach," he said. "We cannot try to solve a problem in one part of Colombia just to see the problem pop up elsewhere.

"One of the things we will be doing in the new administration is to try to regionalize the approach, to get all of the nations in the area to recognize that the problem is theirs, as well as Colombia's."

At the moment only about 280 million dollars of the US Plan Colombia aid package is to be spent outside Colombia.

Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse

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