[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 97 (Monday, July 20, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NEEDED: GOOD HELICOPTERS, NOT ACADEMIC DEBATE IN COLOMBIA; EIGHT ANTI-
                     DRUG POLICE DIE IN HUEY CRASH

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 20, 1998

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, this week in northern Colombia, eight 
Colombian National Police (CNP) officers from the eilte DANTI anti-drug 
unit died following a crash of one of the U.S.-provided, Vietnam-era 
Huey helicopters. These anti-drug police officers died flying a worn 
out 35-year-plus chopper after a take down operation against a 
rightwing paramilitary cocaine lab in the Uraba region, near the border 
with Panama.
  Congress has argued that these good police officers fighting our 
fight against drugs before they reach our streets and kill our kids, 
deserve the best helicopter equipment we can provide. The House 
International Relations Committee has long argued for better and crash-
survivable helicopters. Regrettably the State Department has resisted 
these efforts.
  This aged helicopter fleet puts at risk the few good men and women of 
DANTI (only 3,000). CNP leader General Serrano doesn't have an 
unlimited number of good police officers. He no longer will have the 
courageous and dedicated service of Major Vodmar Galeano, the Chief of 
Operations for DANTI, and Captain Martin Sierra, Chief Helicopter 
Instructor Pilot, among the others killed in the most recent crash.
  Their loss diminishes our national interests, as well as that of 
Colombia, where these illicit drugs finance all sides in a raging 
narco-based war, threatening South America's oldest democracy.

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