The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans to ask Congress next week to remove all restrictions on U.S. military aid to Colombia, including those that limit assistance to counternarcotics efforts, impose human rights standards on the Colombian military and cap the number of U.S. military personnel in the country, administration and congressional sources said Thursday.
The plan, which also seeks to ward off restrictions on future aid, is included in legislation that the administration expects to submit to Congress asking for additional funds for global and domestic anti-terrorism efforts this year.
The White House put aside a similar Colombia proposal barely two weeks ago on grounds that Congress might not support a significant broadening of the U.S. military mission there to assist the government of President Andres Pastrana in its fight against leftist guerrillas. The Pentagon, backed by some officials in other departments, had proposed including Colombia in the global war on terrorism.
To the administration’s surprise, a number of key congressional figures subsequently said that they would support expanded U.S. aid in response to the changed circumstances in Colombia, where Pastrana last month abruptly ended three years of peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
A senior administration official said the new plan was developed in response to a "strong recommendation" from Congress to lay its Colombia cards on the table and allow an open debate.
"Everybody said, ‘Look, you’ve got a supplemental coming up. Do it the honest and right way, and put in (that) legislation that you’re going to do counterterrorism’ " in Colombia, the official said. "We’re not trying to slip anything by or do this in the dead of night.
"All we are trying to do is to add the word ‘counterterrorism’ to what the U.S. can do in helping Colombia," the official said.
Although the "words on the paper say it (current restrictions) should all be eliminated," he said, the administration plans to "make explicit" to Congress in some other fashion that it will continue to respect the 400-person cap on U.S. military personnel in Colombia as well as the congressional insistence that the Colombian military clean up its human rights record.
The multibillion-dollar appropriations package is now awaiting final sign-off at the Office of Management and Budget.
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