[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 14, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2669-H2674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PLIGHT OF ECUADORAN PRISONERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jenkins). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 1997, the gentlewoman from Florida [Ms. Brown] is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight to talk about my 
recent trip to Ecuador. I met many people who have been in prison for 
years, sleeping on dirty floors and eating unsanitary foods. There is 
no hope for a trial. The problem, Mr. Speaker, is that the laws of 
these countries do not work unless there is a justice system to 
administer them.
  Let me begin by quoting from the State Department 1996 human rights 
report on Ecuador:

       The most fundamental human rights abuses stem from 
     shortcomings in the politicized and ineffective legal and 
     judicial system. People are subject to arbitrary arrest. Once 
     incarcerated, they may wait years before going to trial 
     unless they resort to paying bribes. Other human rights 
     abuses included isolated instances of killings, torments and 
     other mistreatment of prisoners by the police; poor prison 
     conditions; government failure to prosecute and punish human 
     rights abuses; discrimination against women, Afro-Ecuadorans 
     and poor people in general.

  Last month I traveled to Ecuador to visit American prisoner Jim 
Williams in the Guayaquil Penitentiary. I have a picture here of Jim 
and his wife. Jim has been in prison at this time for 9 months. When I 
traveled, I carried his wife. For the first time in 8 months, she and 
her husband saw each other.
  Jim Williams is an American. He is a businessman from Jacksonville, 
FL, and he has been held in this prison for the past 8 months.
  Several months ago, Mrs. Robin Williams, wife of Jim Williams, along 
with Charlie Williams, brother of Jim Williams, came to my office in 
Jacksonville to discuss the imprisonment of Jim Williams. They asked if 
I would travel to Ecuador to help investigate his situation.
  After I arrived in Ecuador, two factors became apparent. First is 
that the Ecuadoran judicial system, including the courts and prisons, 
is in a shambles, in a country where poverty is the norm and a 
typewriter is a luxury.
  The second is, the United States officials in Ecuador have an 
overriding role to combat drug trafficking, particularly of Colombian 
cocaine. Officials related to me that because of the United States 
pressure for drug suspects to be apprehended, there is a

[[Page H2670]]

focus by an overwhelmed local police force to bring in anyone suspected 
of drug use, drug trafficking or money laundering.
  Local police lock up persons who are associated with even suspected 
drug dealers. Hence, prisoners and prisons are overcrowded with suspect 
drug usage, drug dealers, or money laundering. They are all lumped 
together. But because of the rampant corruption and bribery, the most 
dangerous narcotics offenders and traffickers are able to buy their 
freedom.
  Within this corrupt system, there are 40 Americans in prisons. Most 
of the people in Ecuadoran prisons have never had a trial and may never 
have one. They go to a jail where there is no public phones and there 
are no public toilets. In fact, there are no toilets.
  I met one prisoner who had been in jail for 4 years on charges that 
he had a single marijuana cigarette. I want to repeat that. I met one 
prisoner who had been in jail for 4 years on charges that he had a 
single marijuana cigarette. In fact, this turtle that I got from this 
prisoner so I could remember him, is this not a waste of human talent, 
human resources? This person that carved this turtle has been in prison 
for 4 years without a trial, and he may never get one. He has never 
seen a judge.
  The country has only 6 public defenders. Let me repeat that. The 
country has only 6 public defenders for 10 million people. Most 
prisoners are hopelessly lost in a broken judicial system.
  The cost to Ecuadorans in terms of human capital is enormous. I 
witnessed children growing up in prison. This is an example of the 
children in prison with their mothers and their fathers, growing up in 
the conditions that are some of the worst in the world.
  This is a picture of some of the children who live in prisons in 
Quito with their mothers. They have nowhere else to go. I witnessed 
fathers who cannot work and who are separated from their families.
  There is another cost, the cost of an inefficient system in which 
lost cases may be lying on the floor in the courtroom and police 
reports are not filed for months. In other words, if a person is 
arrested, the judges tell me, it could take 2 or 3 months before the 
police get the information to the judicial system. So each lingering 
case represents a person and a family that might linger for years 
without knowledge of their case or their crime.

  I visited a prison with 2,500 prisoners. Only 400 have received a 
trial. Let me repeat that. I visited a prison with 2,500 prisoners. 
Only 400 have received a trial.
  Jim Williams from Jacksonville got caught in this system. He is a 
fisherman who has fished in international waters for tuna and other 
large fish. Jim Williams got caught in this system, Jim Williams from 
Jacksonville.
  Jim is not just a prisoner. He is a person. I met Jim's mother, his 
brother Charlie Williams, and his wife Robin. He has a wonderful family 
here in America who are doing everything they can to help Jim get a 
fair trial. I will not mention the word speedy trial or timely trial.
  As far as I know, there is no substantial evidence linking Jim 
Williams to any drug deals or any money laundering. Nevertheless, when 
a large Drug Enforcement Agency net went out to several countries, Jim 
Williams was in Ecuador and was arrested by local police. He has been 
in prison now for 9 months, and he and his family have been trying to 
find their way through the fragmented Ecuadoran judicial system.
  Before my visit, Jim Williams was in an overloaded court system. 
During my visit, I learned that a person suspected of a drug crime will 
face not just one trial, which is almost impossible to get, but a 
series of trials because of a harsh counternarcotics law. If suspected 
drug offenders are fortunate enough to get through the trial and are 
found innocent, their verdicts are automatically appealed to two more 
courts. They must stay in jail during these appeals because there is no 
bail for drug violations.
  Because of the extensive bribery system, simply getting a trial can 
cost a prisoner up to $30,000. Wealthy people simply buy their way out. 
But Jim Williams has insisted on proving his innocence. Unfortunately, 
those who plead innocent spend more time in the system battling the 
charges than if they had pleaded guilty to the crime and had served 
their time.
  I would like to talk about another Floridian, Sandra Chase. She is 53 
years old and has been in jail for 1\1/2\ years and still has not had a 
trial. Mrs. Chase, on her first trip out of the country, went to 
Ecuador last December. Mrs. Chase is another person arrested on this 
counternarcotics law.
  In March when I went to Ecuador is the first time she finally gave 
her statement to the police. Mrs. Chase has a circulatory disease and 
her feet are black and blue. I met her daughter, Tammi Chase from 
California, last week. She has the following to say:

       My mother is a good person who has never been in trouble. 
     Now she is in prison in Ecuador. I don't know who to turn to. 
     My mother will probably get 10 years and serve 5. I have a 
     problem with that. I want to help my mother. I've already 
     sent $20,000 to pay for a trial, and the money went nowhere. 
     I send her food and clothes which other prisoners steal from 
     her and beat her up. I am scared for her life. Why is there 
     no one to help me?

                              {time}  1900

  Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Chase remains in jail today.
  I would like to talk about another prisoner, Mr. Richard Parker. Mr. 
Parker of New York State was arrested in May 1995. He waited 15 months 
before his trial, 15 months. The judge found him innocent.
  Now I want to read that again. Mr. Parker of New York, May 1995; he 
waited 15 months before his trial. The judge found him innocent; his 
case was appealed to another court.
  They asked for an additional $20,000. The next court asked for 
$30,000. Richard refused to pay the court. They reversed the sentence, 
and he received 8 years.
  Let me tell you, Mr. Parker now has tuberculosis, and let me read a 
letter from his father:

       I visited Richard for several hours each of the four days I 
     was there. I had the occasion to see the food which was 
     distributed twice each day. Always it was a vat of weak 
     watery broth from which feather heads and yellow feet of 
     chicken stuck out. To obtain edible food prisoners had to buy 
     food which for a payoff guards allowed to be brought in and 
     which for another payoff was prepared in facilities by 
     prisoners who sold it. The cost to support Richard in this 
     environment has been several hundred dollars per month.
       Richard was allowed to take me on a tour of the prison, 
     with a guard of course. I met a man from Cuba who had 
     befriended Richard earlier but who could not afford to be 
     moved. Last year another prisoner killed him. I also met a 
     man who had only half of one arm which was still bandaged. He 
     had been disarmed by a prisoner with a machete.

  Mr. Parker now has tuberculosis and is still in prison.
  During the time that I visited Ecuador, Mr. Parker was in the 
hospital. If you are in the hospital, it costs your family $70 a day. 
So you see that poor people have no way out of the system.
  During a meeting with advisers to the Supreme Court, I listened as 
they explained the most serious need of Ecuadoran judicial system, and 
I vowed to return to the United States to find assistance. Since 
returning to Washington, I have learned of the $10 million World Bank 
loan package now approved for assistance to Ecuador's judicial system, 
and I am working to expedite the process.
  This certainly should help with reform, but there is an important 
need for the U.S. oversight. There is a need for accountability.
  Like my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I am committed to 
fight the drug flow into the United States. Let me say that I am 
committed to fighting the drug flow to the United States. I agree that 
drugs are the poison destroying our homes and our children. But we 
cannot ignore the fact that the war on drugs has helped create 
casualties in South America and allowing others to buy their way out of 
prisons. Wealthy people and the poor and innocent are suffering for 
years imprisonment; it just cannot go on, and they are being treated 
like animals.
  I pray for safety, good health and justice for Jim Williams, Sandra 
Chase, Richard Parker and thousands of other prisoners in Ecuador who 
see no end to their injustices. I hope they will soon be reunited with 
their families. They have already lingered much too long in a broken 
criminal justice system.
  Let me now yield to my colleague who has been very, very supportive,

[[Page H2671]]

who is from Georgia, who is the Representative of Jim Williams' family.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I appreciate the gentlewoman, my friend from 
Jacksonville, for yielding. I think it is very important the point that 
you are making about the war on drugs. It does have to be an 
international battle as drugs are grown in one country, manufactured in 
another, sneaked into other countries; it does take a cooperative 
effort. But as you pointed out, one of the main legs of this has to be 
good judicial systems.
  And you have already mentioned that in the prison that you visited, 
of 2,500 prisoners only 400 have been to trial and that the costs per 
trial is $30,000. Now, that is the hard costs. You and I know there is 
other costs that are under the table that cannot be reported. But it is 
a reality down there, and we know about this.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Let me say that the $30,000 is not on the 
table, it is under the table.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Well, that is just to get you a place in line, and 
sometimes, if you want to pay more, it can influence the verdict. And 
the gentlewoman has pointed out that the families back home, the 
spouses and the children who are waiting while the loved ones locked up 
in Ecuador or somewhere in South America, they do not know what is 
going to happen.
  This is an American's worst nightmare. It is bad enough being in 
jail, innocent; bad enough certainly when you are guilty, but at least 
in America you know you are going to have a fair trial. But when you 
are in a foreign country, you do not have that assurance.
  You made the statement, and I agree with you completely, that drug 
laws cannot be adequately or fairly addressed without judicial 
improvements, including training for police and judges, because we do 
not want to go and impose our will on other countries, but at the same 
hand when it affects American citizens, then we have an obligation, and 
that obligation, we want to work through diplomatic channels, and you 
certainly have done that. But at the same hand you have to have an 
urgency to you to say, you have got Americans over there, you got to 
bring them back because the next person could be someone you know.
  And I remember when I was young going to Mexico from the Texas border 
and going into Juarez, and I remember also having an opportunity to go 
to Tijuana from California, and I remember vividly as a 17-year-old and 
18-year-old my parents begging me not to go because my mama would say: 
``You don't know,'' and I am not throwing something off on the Mexican 
Government, but there would be certain law enforcement folks who could 
possibly plant something on you just to extort money out of you, and 
you are locked up in a Juarez jail somewhere, and you do not know what 
is going to happen to you.
  And so often Americans decide not to go abroad, and I think it is 
important for us in terms of our relations with other countries to have 
a good flow of tourism back and forth. But we are not going to have 
tourism when people are afraid that if they are caught doing something, 
innocent or not, then they do not know if they are going to get a fair 
trial.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Well, one of the things that is tragic about 
the system is that if a husband and wife is in the country and family 
members are picked up, fathers, in-laws, anyone suspected; so I mean 
you do not have to have proof, and you sit in prison for months, years, 
waiting on a trial, and if you do not have any money, there is no 
trial.
  And in fact you would come out better if you plead guilty, as opposed 
to pleading innocent, because you will serve more time in prison if you 
say that you are innocent. And there is something wrong with a system 
like this.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now the pictures; you have some good pictures right 
here, but you also had some smaller pictures which I know you could not 
blow them all up, but the jail itself that these Americans are in looks 
like what you would envision a jail looking like maybe 50 or 60 years 
ago. Odors, stains on the wall, dampness, puddles on the floor, cracked 
ceilings, paint chipping off, graffiti on the walls, and I think worse, 
prisoners mingling about the rapists and the murderers with the check 
bouncers.

  Ms. BROWN of Florida. As I said earlier, a person with one stick of 
marijuana or someone that has a drug problem, they are all lumped 
together.
  But let me say something about the prison because perhaps I have not 
adequately described it. There is no toilets in the prison, none 
whatsoever. So all of this filth is right there, right out in the open. 
It is hard to believe that this condition could exist to our neighbor 
and the overcrowdedness, and the fact is children are being exposed to 
these conditions and diseases that run rampant in the prison.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now in the Ecuador prison that you went in, the 
overcrowdedness, it did look to me like there were too many people. Do 
you know how many people per cell or how do they do it? How many beds?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. They do not have a cell. It is just like an 
open barn with dirt floors, and there is an upstairs.
  Can you see the picture over there with Mr. Willliams and his wife? 
Well, this is a good area. And it is like up and down under, is like a 
dungeon, and that is where most of the prisoners are. And it is a few 
steps that separate them. But the odor comes up.
  But in this prison where you have over 2,500 people, no fresh water, 
no toilets; they dig holes in the ground, and they sleep on the dirt. 
It is just hard to describe.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now in that atmosphere where Americans are being----
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Forty Americans to date.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Forty Americans are in this atmosphere. Do they have 
access to pay telephones?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. No phones. There are no phones.
  Mr. KINGSTON. No phones.
  Do their mattresses have sheets, or do you know?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. There are no mattresses.
  Mr. KINGSTON. No mattresses and no sheets.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. That is right.
  Mr. KINGSTON. So no linen.
  Do they take showers, and, if so, how often are they able to take 
showers?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. There is no water, and there is no showers. 
There is lots of diseases.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Is there a medical doctor?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. There is no medical doctor, and in fact Mr. 
Parker from New York that I talked about had to go to the hospital, and 
that would be another discussion because it is not a hospital. But the 
families, the American families, have to pay for that, and it costs $70 
a day.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now, when you find a place to sleep on the floor, do 
you have the same spot every night, or do you have to kind of push to 
find a dry warm area?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. It is if you do not have any money, you know 
your life is at risk every single moment that you are there.
  Mr. KINGSTON. How about insects and bugs? South America, Ecuador; I 
always think you and I are from Georgia and Florida. We have our share 
of mosquitoes. What is it like down there?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Well, the conditions is the worst. In fact, the 
human rights groups indicated that Ecuadoran prisons, and I am sure 
this may be true in most of the South American countries, but Ecuador, 
No. 1, is one of the worst human rights violations in the whole world.
  And you know I feel kind of responsible in the sense that it is our 
drug policy, and their system was not set up that there is misdemeanors 
and you know. So small offenses, all of them, are treated the same, and 
this is where we can help as far as providing assistance to the 
judicial system to set up misdemeanors or to set up bail for small 
offenses.
  I mean this is a travesty, a human travesty, and it is the waste of 
not just the children but the family. But it costs the system just to 
keep these people in prison.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now you keep talking about if one joint of marijuana is 
found on you, you might as well have a whole truck.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. That is right.
  Mr. KINGSTON. And these prisoners are all mixed together.
  What is the prison violence like? Is there a lot, or you know is 
there a pecking order among the inmates

[[Page H2672]]

where, you know, those who are wealthier have better facilities than 
the poor ones?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Unless you have some money you have no, no 
facilities.
  Mr. KINGSTON. So if you are an American and your family does not have 
money or if you do not have a family and you are in this situation, you 
are just stuck in a rat hole in South America.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. That is right. Most of the Americans do have 
some kind of family support, but most of the Ecuadorians are just 
locked in the system like this young man. It was just in fact the 
prisoners brought him to me. They wanted me to see this example. Here 
this young man, a young man, got caught with one stick of marijuana 
being imprisoned 4 years; not a trial, not seeing a judge, not seeing a 
public defender, just there and will be there because he has no money 
and no family.

                              {time}  1915

  So that is the case for most of the 2,500 people in this particular 
prison.
  Mr. KINGSTON. And he was Ecuadorian?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, he was.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Did he make this turtle?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. He made this turtle.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, he makes a turtle like that in jail. That 
means he has a knife, right?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Absolutely.
  Mr. KINGSTON. So how old is this kid?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Well, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman heard my 
testimony, one person, Mr. Richard Parker's father, saw the person who 
had his arm cut off with a machete. So if one has money, one can buy 
anything. So one of the things that I found out that if one is a drug 
user, it is easy to purchase in prison. I mean one can get it and one 
can get as much as one wants, and one can become an addict in prison.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, it is bizarre that in 1997 that exists 
anywhere in the world. It is further bizarre that 40 Americans would be 
in it.
  The human rights organization which the gentlewoman alluded to, have 
they reported any torture in this prison or in similar prisons?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, they have not only reported 
torture, but murder. Killings.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, have any Americans been murdered yet?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. No; no Americans to my knowledge.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the things is that I met with the other Embassy 
and asked for a status of all of the 40 Americans that are in prison. 
My staff met with five women in prison in Quito. And that is where Mrs. 
Sandra Chase from Fort Lauderdale, she has been in prison for a year 
and a half, but there were five women in this particular prison. We met 
with her and talked with her, and as I said, she has been in prison for 
a year and a half, had not even given a police report.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, let me ask the gentlewoman this. She went 
to this prison and the gentlewoman's visit was fairly well publicized. 
They knew 2 or 3 weeks in advance that the gentlewoman was coming. The 
gentlewoman was accompanied by State Department personnel and 
diplomats, I think. Beyond that, there were professionals and 
Ambassadors, political-type appointments. They knew the gentlewoman was 
coming. So did it appear when the gentlewoman was there that the 
gentlewoman was somewhat insulated from the bare truth?
  It sounds to me like the gentlewoman saw things that they would 
ordinarily want to hide from a visitor such as herself. Did my 
colleague get the impression things were being hidden beyond this, or 
did she think that she saw all, and they did not care if she did or did 
not?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. They did not care. In fact, when I talked to 
the police and the judges and the public elected officials, one of the 
things that was said to me was that we need help. We need help, and 
help is not just financial; judges to come over and help them set up 
guidelines, workshops, expertise, training to train more judges.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a system that is drowning. I went to one of the 
judge's offices, and it was amazing, papers piled up to the top of the 
ceiling. No computers, no fax machines. Old typewriters.
  So it is an antiquated system that cannot comply.
  Mr. KINGSTON. So, Mr. Speaker, they were not telling the gentlewoman, 
get out, Yankee go home, mind your own business; they were saying, 
Congresswoman, we are glad to have you here.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. There was none of that, Mr. Speaker. There was 
none of that. It was a real understanding that we have a problem and we 
need help with this problem. There was an acknowledgment that bribery, 
the system, that the system was antiquated, the system was not working, 
and they just really needed assistance. I hope that we can give them 
that assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, we do a lot of stuff all over the world, but I think we 
need to start at home, and South America is our neighbor. We need to do 
something about it. We are all against drugs and drugs coming into our 
country, but, clearly, our laws have affected their system.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, let me ask the gentlewoman one more time 
for the Record. What was the name of the prison and what was the city 
that it was in in Ecuador?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I visited two prisons, one in Guayaquil and one 
in Quito. The first one that I visited, 2,500 people in prison, 400 had 
received a trial. The other prison that my staff visited was a women's 
facility in Quito, and that is where the five American women were 
located. I met with about 10 Americans in Guayaquil, and I talked with 
them. They were husband and wife, and I talked with them about the 
various cases. And one of the things I have asked our State Department 
is to look into the status of each one of these cases and give us a 
report back on it and let us know what stages these are in.
  Now, their justice system has several stages. One is the arrest 
stage, probably the beginning and the end. But then the next stage 
should be some kind of a statement as to what one has been tried for. 
Then, one has one judge that decides whether one is guilty or innocent. 
And if one is found innocent, it automatically goes to like a Supreme 
Court, which is three judges; and then they rule on it. During this 
entire period that could take up to 4 years, you are in prison. There 
is no bail.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, so that could take 3 or 4 years. Does one 
ever get to a stage where one has a trial by jury?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. There is no jury whatsoever.
  Mr. KINGSTON. At any stage?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at any stage there is no jury 
system whatsoever. There is no bail, and there is no misdemeanor.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, would it be fair to say that these prison 
systems are revenue-raisers, that often it is a matter of buy your 
freedom rather than have it heard in a trial?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think it is revenue-raising for 
the bribery and that system, but it certainly does not look like it is 
revenue-raising for the country. But those people that are working in 
that system, for example, Sandra Chase, they paid $20,000. Where did 
that money go to? Richard Parker paid $10,000. Where did that money go 
to? He was found innocent. However, he was asked to pay another 
$30,000. The family refused. He was found guilty and given 8 years in 
these conditions that we just talked about. He has contracted 
tuberculosis.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, when an American overseas gets 
tuberculosis in a foreign jail, is there any kind of intervening rule 
in diplomacy that says we can give them medical treatment?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Well, I did learn of something today that may 
be helpful to us. I met with the second person in charge of our 
operation there, the State Department, Mr. Curt Struble. He indicated 
to me that there is a treaty to date, as we speak, over in the Senate 
waiting for ratification. What that treaty would do is that the 
Americans over there could be transferred to American prisons in the 
United States once we expedite the treaty, and that is a ray of hope.

[[Page H2673]]

  Mr. Speaker, a lot of times we take this great country for granted.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, that is true. We do that on lots of fronts 
and a lot of people.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, that is right. I knew when I came 
home, I was just glad to be home and glad to be an American citizen. At 
this point I would not recommend going to some of those South American 
countries, including Ecuador, until we can straighten out this system.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am glad that the gentlewoman has gone, 
and I am also glad that she has shared her information with other 
Members of Congress, because we as Members of Congress need to know 
what is going on, particularly when American citizens are involved. In 
this case we have a joint constituent; but if it is an American, it is 
everybody's constituent.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me mention one other thing. I 
have an amendment that I think was ruled in order on the bill that is 
coming up, and I guess it is going to come up in the foreign bill.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, it may be postponed, as I understand it 
now, until maybe in June.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. June, okay. Well, I hope my amendment will 
still be in order.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I do not know for sure, but I do know that 
it has been postponed.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me say about my amendment, it 
has been ruled in order, and it does a couple of things. One, it gives 
language to the President when he reports to the Congress on the status 
of drug trafficking. And we also want to know when he reports to the 
judiciary reform, we need to know how that is also working, and also 
appropriate case management that separates misdemeanor from serious 
offenses and eliminate corruption. In other words, we want to know what 
they are doing as far as doing away with briberies and other things 
that is really embedded in these systems.
  Also, there is another aspect: Can Americans and other foreign 
individuals operate businesses in these countries? According to 
generally accepted business and human rights provisions, without the 
fear of arbitrary arrest, without criminal evidence, and without legal 
representation or a trial.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, that is a sensible approach to better 
international relations, and I think a positive step, because if one is 
operating a business there, one needs to know. I had a case in Savannah 
of two young women who were aspiring actresses and they got a contract 
to go to South Korea to do a film, and when they got there, the 
manuscript of the film was switched to a pornographic movie.
  Now, they said: This is not the manuscript we have signed a contract 
on. And they said: It might not be the manuscript, but it is the movie 
that you signed a contract on; and if you break it, in Korea, it is a 
criminal offense. Or a civil offense is treated like a criminal 
offense, and so these two young ladies would be put in jail.
  We were able to get the State Department involved and our office 
intervened. We got them actually out of the country in a very spirited 
chase like out of a movie itself, but got them home. But it is just 
ridiculous. Here we have two idealistic young women in their early 
twenties going overseas, the manuscript gets swapped, and they had the 
good sense to say no.
  But Mr. Speaker, the next group or the group before them may have 
said: Well, I guess we are stuck, we are going to have to do this. And 
that is what the film company was hoping on. And these girls somewhat 
called their bluff but at a great personal risk. I think Americans need 
to know these dangers before we go overseas, particularly in business 
settings.
  I think if one is a tourist and one stays in kind of the middle of 
the road, they are probably okay, but if they are trying to do 
something a little bit different, then they can get in trouble.
  In fact, it is interesting, I had another friend whose wife is a 
legal resident. But she is a British national, lives in Savannah. She 
is a British national born in Hong Kong and she is Asian. She has lived 
in Savannah, taught school for 20 years. She goes to Korea on vacation. 
She is leaving and they will not let her leave because she is Asian, 
and they decide that she has a counterfeit American passport to get 
into the country and they will not let her out.

                              {time}  1930

  Fortunately, our State Department intervened and they were able to 
get her out. But again, some of these laws are crazy. Americans can 
very, very innocently fall into a situation where before you know it 
they are in jail, they are in some crazy prison, like the ones you have 
visited, or they are tied up in court, their career is on the line, 
there are monetary problems, family problems, and so forth.
  What the gentlewoman is trying to do with her amendment is say, let 
us take the uncertainty out of foreign commerce. If we can do that, 
foreign relations will improve.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Absolutely. I want to thank the gentleman for 
his help and leadership on this matter, also. It is just such a vicious 
cycle as far as the whole criminal justice system in Ecuador. It is 
very unfair, particularly to the Ecuadorans. We are talking about the 
16 Americans, but it is harsh on the Ecuadorans who have no money, so 
they just sit in prison.
  Mr. KINGSTON. And make turtles. I thank the gentlewoman for inviting 
me to join her tonight, and I appreciate everything she is doing.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I thank the gentleman very much.
  Mr. Speaker, as I come to the close of this special order, I just 
want to think about these children that I met. The children are 
innocent. In many cases the families, the male or female, could be 
innocent, but this system does not distinguish the innocent from the 
guilty, or the misdemeanors from the major. So we have the 
responsibility to do what we can to make the system better.
  As Americans, we may be thinking tonight, well, what does that have 
to do with me? Do Members know, this is a global world. We used to 
think the world was big, but the ship is very small. We are all in the 
ship together. We are going to sink and swim together, so I am going to 
do all I can, working with my colleagues, to make things better for the 
children here on this side of the border, and the children that live in 
the Third Congressional District of Florida.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record a letter to me from James 
Gordon Williams.
  The letter referred to is as follows:

                            Penitenciaria, Guayaquil, Ecuador,

                                            Thursday, May 8, 1997.
     Hon. William Clinton,
     President of the United States of America, Washington, DC.
       Dear President Clinton: I am writing from my cell in the 
     penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Writing the President of 
     the United States was never something I imagined that I would 
     do, but then again neither was spending eight months in a 
     South American jail. I am charged with money laundering for a 
     Colombian that I did business with for a number of years. 
     This man, Jose Castrillon is the target of an FBI 
     investigation in the US. I am an innocent man. If Mr. 
     Castrillon was involved in drug trade, I never saw any 
     evidence of it during the years that I did business with him. 
     The charges against me in Ecuador are based on lies and 
     fabrications by the Ecuadorian National Police. My case would 
     be thrown out of any real court of law in the world. My 
     arrest along with seventeen other persons was documented as 
     the number one accomplishment in the United States Department 
     of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law 
     Enforcement Affairs, in their International Narcotics Control 
     Strategy Report, dated March 1997. In this publication, it 
     states that with the help of the US Government, the 
     Ecuadorian National Police dismantled a band of narcotics 
     traffickers led by Castrillon. The persons mentioned in this 
     report are workers, accountants, maids, fishermen, lawyers 
     and businessmen. No evidence of drugs has been related to any 
     of these persons in Ecuador. This US State Department report 
     also contains lies and fabrications.
       I would like to relate several facts that have been 
     primarily obvious to me by this experience.
       1) Judges, Policemen and Politicians in Latin America can 
     not live on the salaries that they are paid. Corruption is a 
     way of life within these institutions. It has been this way 
     for many years. This knowledge is sine qua non for doing 
     business in Latin America. If drug trafficking and money 
     laundering is a form of corruption in one of these countries 
     then look first to the above institutions for the real 
     culprits. If funds are given to these institutions to fight 
     corruption it would be analogous to giving Al Capone funds to 
     help fight corruption in the US seventy years ago.
       2) The US Agencies that are responsible for US drug 
     enforcement in Latin America seem

[[Page H2674]]

     to have become more concerned with funding than enforcement. 
     At least some of the reports produced by these Agencies are 
     erroneous and misleading.
       3) The pressure that is being applied to Latin American 
     Countries by Certification does not hinder drug traffickers 
     who have no interest in that country's real economy, but it 
     definitely creates strong anti American feelings and distrust 
     among the citizens of these Countries.
       4) The ``War on Drugs'' is not a winnable war as it is 
     being fought today. Billions of US tax dollars are being 
     squandered. In Latin America, thousands of innocent persons 
     are being killed, tortured and illegally detained by corrupt 
     forces that are supported by the US. Meanwhile, drugs 
     continue to flow at an ever increasing rate. The suffrage 
     from drug use in the US is a result of the addicts lack of 
     education. If we can not blame the addict then we must blame 
     our society. The torture and killing of innocent persons in 
     Latin America is also the result of ignorance, but not of 
     these tortured citizens nor of their society.
       I have lost my business, and my life's savings because of 
     mistakes made by Ecuadorian and US Law Enforcement Agencies. 
     Congresswoman Corrine Brown recently made a trip to visit me 
     in Ecuador. She is doing her best to help me get a fair and 
     expedient trial in Ecuador. The stigma associated with the 
     words ``drugs'' and ``Colombian'' scared other US 
     representatives away from my case. Congresswoman Brown was 
     able to see first hand some the results of police brutality 
     and injustice in Ecuador. I beg of you, for the sake of 
     tortured souls in Latin America and for the integrity of our 
     Great Nation, please reconsider your policies on the ``War on 
     Drugs''.
           Respectfully,
                                                James G. Williams.

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my distinguished 
colleague from Florida, Congresswoman Corrine Brown, in expressing 
concern for the human rights situation in Latin America and the 
Caribbean. I congratulate Congresswoman Brown for her leadership in 
requesting time so that we can have the opportunity to address these 
issues.
  As my colleagues know, my commitment to human rights around the world 
has often focused on the Americas, whether by pushing for 
declassification of our own Government's documents with regards to 
Guatemala and Honduras, or inquiring into our own end-use monitoring 
capabilities with regards to Mexico, or even monitoring human rights 
conditions in the Brazilian Amazon and its link to our contributions to 
the World Bank. So I welcome this opportunity to remind all of my 
colleagues that our human rights task in the Americas, while headed 
more or less in the right direction, is far from over.
  Indeed, we have much work ahead of us. We must remain ever vigilant 
to ensure that the fragile peace that was won in Guatemala, El 
Salvador, and Nicaragua does not revert to the tempest of human rights 
violations. We must lend Mexico a helping hand to prevent that 
government from heading down the slippery slope of increasing human 
rights violations and to reinforce attempts at institutional reform. We 
must strengthen the resolve of Hondurans who are prosecuting those who 
tormented their society through illegality. We must support efforts in 
Haiti to ensure accountability in its newly trained police forces. And 
whether we are dealing with Chile or Venezuela, Brazil or Peru, we must 
unequivocally support all efforts to obtain justice for the countless 
victims and survivors of some of our neighbor's darkest periods of 
their history. Justice is a human right and as such is the birthright 
of every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth. We must not 
forget that human rights are not luxuries or privileges. They are 
birthrights which I am proud to support.
  I would also like to take this opportunity to salute those courageous 
men and women who strive to make the respect for human rights a part of 
the everyday reality of their communities and their nations. These 
human rights defenders unfortunately are under attack in many areas of 
the Americas. But it is these same people who are our early warning 
systems in times of trouble. They are the ones on the front lines who 
can tell us whether or not a situation will worsen. The Colombian human 
rights defenders have been warning us--and dying while they do so--and 
we have all witnessed in horror as the paramilitaries in that nation 
have committed massacre after massacre, often in a preannounced 
fashion.
  Mexican defenders have warned us of the deterioration in basic 
respects and we have witnessed attack upon attack, while the defenders 
themselves are subjected to death threats, harassment, and even 
deportation. In Peru, defenders have received funeral wreaths from the 
same type of cowardly anonymous thugs who torment defenders elsewhere 
and in Honduras, not even the children are spared of attacks because of 
the work their parents do to protect those in need. Clearly this 
pattern of attacks against defenders must be reversed and we must do 
all we can to highlight the importance of defenders and our support for 
what they do. Our Nation must use all of its available resources and 
occasions to voice support of their courageous work. Indeed it is 
ironic that those who become involved in protecting the rights of 
others themselves become subject to attack and having their rights 
violated.
  Finally, we must not forget our role in this equation. We are members 
of the most powerful Government on this Earth. Every wink, every nod, 
every transfer of money and every piece of military hardware we send is 
interpreted as supporting one policy or another. Our silence is equally 
scrutinized so that when we remain silent in the face of human rights 
violations, those who commit them think that our Government does not 
care what happens. We can use this power for good or for ill and an 
important step is assuming our responsibility for our actions and 
becoming aware that our intentions must often be followed by our deeds 
and our words lest what we do or what we fail to do be misinterpreted. 
By siding with human rights and with its defenders, we assume this 
responsibility and face this challenge and ensure that the next 
generations will inherit a better world than what we inherited.

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