Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 17:34:24 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <200008312134.RAA12798@mattababy.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@mit.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
To: john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov
Subject: stop Plan Colombia

Dear Senator Kerry

Thank you for your recent letter in which you detailed your views on the
president's Plan Colombia aid package that was approved in the senate this past
June.  Unfortunately, I can't say that I think much of your attempt to
rationalise what seems little more than a party-line vote for this measure.

Your letter did not address either of the specific points that I mentioned in
my mail to you of 24 June -- your vote in favour of tabling the Wellstone
amendment which would have diverted $225 million from the Colombian military to
drug treatment programs here in the United States, and your vote against the
Gorton amendment, which would have reduced funding for military assistance to
$200 million.

Your letter made much of the final bill's provisions for vetting of Colombia's
human rights compliance, and seemed to be using this provision as a
justification for setting up the United States as an ally to a government whose
human rights record is dismal.  The full irony of this position was revealed
this past week, when President Clinton issued a Determination waiving the human
rights requirement and allowing the aid package to go forward.

I hope that you will use all means at your disposal to convince President
Clinton to reverse his order and thus to stop a transaction that will make the
people of the United States complicit in untold murders and tortures.