With Congress getting ready to go out of session before the November elections, there have been some important votes on both Cuba and Colombia. Below, you will find the second-to-last chapter in this year's Congressional season.

Some Legislative Progress on the Cuban Embargo

This fall brought another round in Congress' efforts to end the most senseless parts of the embargo against Cuba. Again, the bipartisan coalition which has opposed restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba won a series of victories, despite heavy-handed pressure from the White House and Republican leadership to quash these amendments.

On September 21 in the House of Representatives, Rep. Jim Davis (D-FL) introduced an amendment to the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill to end funding for enforcement of harsh new travel restrictions on Cuban Americans going to visit family in Cuba. It passed by a vote of 225-174. The current restrictions:

• Limit Cuban-American visits to family members in Cuba to once every three years for only 14 days per visit, and
• Limit visits to only immediate family members, and make no exceptions for family emergencies or a death in the family!

The Davis amendment, if it is signed into law, overturns those restrictions.

On September 22, two more amendments passed by voice votes: 

1. Ending restrictions on financing for agricultural and medical sales to Cuba, offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). This amendment, if it becomes law, would eliminate the need for sales to Cuba to be cash only. It would be good for both Cuba and American farmers.
2. Ending restrictions on educational exchanges to Cuba, offered by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). It is significant that the pro-embargo representatives did not ask for a roll call on either of these amendments; it means they knew that they were going to lose — and preferred to lose without recording the votes.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) offered an amendment to end funding for the entire embargo, which lost on a vote of 188-225, a very respectable showing of support for ending the embargo in the face of such a divisive political atmosphere. During the debate, Mr. Rangel told the chamber roughly: 'They told us after we normalized relations with Korea to get over it. They told us after normalizing relations with Vietnam to get over it. Now I would suggest that the time has come to normalize relations with Cuba and people who can't accept that need to get over it'. The House votes come on the heels of a victory in a Senate subcommittee. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) offered an amendment to the Senate version of the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill to end the travel ban generally, the same amendment that passed the full Senate and House last year. The amendment was adopted handily. This sets the stage for the conference committee struggle, where we have seen our wins snatched away undemocratically in years past. The passage of these important amendments proves that the will of the Congress and the American people is for an end to the senseless restrictions on interactions with Cuba. ACTION:  Look over the vote tally for the House's Davis amendment and for the Rangel amendment. Or you can find them on the Latin America Working Group Web site. Then, thank or admonish your representative. If they voted the right way, they need to hear praise; and if they voted the wrong way, they need to hear your thoughts. Tell them that ending the travel ban for all Americans is a priority for you.

On Expanding the U.S. Military Presence in Colombia

While many eyes in Congress have spent the year focused on the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration has worked below the radar screen to engineer increased U.S. military involvement in other parts of the world. Colombia is no exception, receiving more than half a billion dollars-primarily in the form of military aid-this year, with another massive package on the way for 2005. The administration also took the unprecedented step of asking Congress to nearly double the number of U.S. troops and U.S.-based private military contractors allowed in Colombia. While President Bush may have hoped for quick approval for this expansion from a distracted Congress, concerned individuals and groups around the country once again ensured that Colombia was one of the most hotly debated foreign policy topics in Congress, and have kept the focus on the fundamentals — the civilians who are caught in the crossfire of the armed conflict, and the impact of U.S. military aid on prospects for peace in the troubled country.  

Grassroots advocates worked through the summer to organize resistance to the expansion of U.S. military presence in war-torn Colombia. Members of Congress responded to the call, with Representative Gene Taylor (D-MS) offering an amendment to the 2005 Defense Authorization Bill that rejected the Bush Administration's request. The amendment won approval in the House Armed Services Committee and went unchallenged when the bill reached the House floor. A similar amendment offered by Senator Byrd (D-WV) lost by a narrow margin in the Senate.

Advocates' attention is now trained on the joint House-Senate conference committee, which will reconcile the two versions of the bill later this fall. If the Senate version prevails, U.S. troop and contractor levels will rise, so grassroots lobbying efforts have focused on convincing conference committee members to adopt the House language. Since the issue will likely be postponed until after the election-to avoid political fallout from sensitive base closures included in the same bill-advocates have the next month to communicate with members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and urge them to limit U.S. military presence in Colombia.

The importance of this work, and of solidarity efforts supporting Colombian civilians working for peace and justice, became all the more evident with the killing on August 5th of three Colombian union leaders-Jorge Prieto, Leonel Goyeneche and Hector Alirio Martinez-by members of the U.S.-trained 18th Brigade of the Colombian army. U.S. Special Forces trained the 18th Brigade in counterinsurgency tactics to protect from rebel attacks an oil pipeline owned by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum. The brutal killings have once again raised serious questions about U.S. support for Colombia's military, which has one of the worst human rights records of any military in the hemisphere.  Take action to limit U.S. troop presence in Colombia. If your senator or representative is on the Senate or House Armed Services Committee, we need your help!  Members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees will most likely meet in November to reconcile the two versions of the 2005 defense authorization bill. They'll decide during this time how many U.S. troops and private U.S. military contractors will be allowed on Colombian soil next year. It's up to us to convince them to accept the lower House version.

You can find out if your member of Congress is on the Armed Services Committee by going to armedservices.house.gov/about/members.html and armed-services.senate.gov/members.htm. The message to send them is: Put the brakes on U.S. military involvement in Colombia by accepting the House version of the Colombia troop cap in the final version of the 2005 Defense Authorization Bill.

— Written by the Latin America Working Group 

General Assembly On Colombia

Efforts to stamp out Colombian drug operations by destroying coca crops are ineffective. Colombian Christian sources report that in 1999, 16,000 hectares of coca were destroyed by herbicides — but the estimated area of total plantings increased to 22,000 hectares in 2000. This statistic illustrates a cruel irony of the Colombian "war on drugs" — crop destruction does not reduce the coca supply, but merely disperses coca growing into remote areas. In addition to the war's human rights abuses, this raises concerns about rainforest destruction and spread of the problem to neighboring countries. Furthermore, military aid does nothing to alleviate the problems of poverty and social injustice that encourage peasants to resort to coca growing in the first place.

The 205th General Assembly called for the demilitarization of U.S. drug war policies in foreign lands and an emphasis on drug prevention and treatment at home. The General Assembly has also called on the U.S. government to provide strong support for human rights through its international economic policies, especially foreign assistance and trade policies ("Hope for a Global Future: Toward Just and Sustainable Human Development," Minutes, 1996, p. 102). (Minutes, 2001, pp. 471-472.)  On Cuba: [C]alls by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to lift the U.S. embargo and normalize relations over the years (1969, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1990, 1993) have gone unheeded; therefore, be it ... resolved, that the General Assembly:

• Renew the call upon the United States government to initiate negotiations with the Cuban government toward the end of reestablishing full diplomatic relations.
• Renew the call on the United States government to end the economic sanctions that it has imposed on Cuba, and to respect the opinion of the world community in this matter. (Minutes, 1997, pp. 588-592)