[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 125 (Friday, September 18, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1760-E1761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WESTERN HEMISPHERE DRUG ELIMINATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 16, 1998

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4300) to 
     support enhanced drug interdiction efforts in the major 
     transit countries and support a comprehensive supply 
     eradication and crop substitution program in source 
     countries:


  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Chairman, I would like to state my 
concern with H.R. 4300, the so called Western Hemisphere Drug 
Elimination Act.
  I want to talk about a problem that already exists and which will 
only be exacerbated by Title III of this legislation. Title III 
authorizes $65 million to the U.S. Agency for International Development 
to create and develop programs to urge farmers to stop growing crops 
that may be used to create illegal drugs and replace them with other 
crops.
  Since enactment in 1991, the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) has 
provided duty-free access to the U.S. market for flower exporters in 
four Latin American countries: Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. 
For seven years it has allowed flower growers in these four countries 
to avoid tariffs normally imposed on their product. These tariffs range 
from 3.6 percent to 7.4 percent.
  The purpose of this preferential treatment was intended to encourage 
Andean countries to develop legal alternatives to drug crop cultivation 
and production, the same intention of Title III that we are considering 
now. This policy has failed in Colombia. Coca eradication efforts to 
date in Colombia have been lest than anticipated.
  For the third consecutive year Colombia has failed in its efforts to 
be fully certified, or reduce the production of illegal drugs. In order 
to maintain an open dialogue, the Administration recently made the 
determination to put forward a national-interest waiver with respect to 
Colombia.
  Cultivation of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine, has 
dropped significantly in all of the Andean countries except Colombia. 
The Colombian coca crop expanded more than 30 percent from 1996 to 
1997, from almost 51,000 hectares to over 67,000 hectares. Alternative 
crops developed in Colombia include cut flowers such as roses and 
carnations and then exported to the United States. Colombia now has the 
distinction of producing 80 percent of the world's cocaine and over 70 
percent of the cut-flower imports into the United States.
  The latter has resulted in a steady weakening of the American flower 
industry. Since the enactment of ATPA, the number of American 
chrysanthemum growers has fallen by 25 percent, the number of carnation 
growers has fallen as by much as one-third and the remaining major 
commercial types have fallen in the double-figure range as well. 
California flower growers go out of business at a rate of 10 percent 
per year.
  California grows 22.1 percent of the Nation's cut flowers. In 1997 
alone, flowers and foliage sales brought $729 million to the states 
economy. Although California is ranked number one in flower production, 
77.9 percent of the industry is scattered throughout the United States, 
in my colleagues districts. In 1997 in California, more than 270 
million rose blooms were sold for nearly $69 million. In my district in 
Monterey county alone, 75 million rose blooms were sold for more than 
$18 million.
  We must oppose the continuation or expansion of a policy that has 
proved effective and is, in fact, detrimental to our own citizens and 
businesses.
  Also of serious concern is the lack of reference to human rights 
protection in this bill. The countries who will ``benefit'' from this 
bill have some of the worse human rights abuse records in the 
hemisphere.
  Since 1988, an average of ten people per day have died as a result of 
the political conflict in Colombia. In Bolivia in the first few months 
of 1997 at least six individuals were killed in confrontations with 
antinarcotics police, including a 3-month-old baby, a six-year old 
child and a 53-year-old woman.
  There is no assurance that funds, equipment, or training intended for 
drug eradication will not be used against innocent citizens or for the 
benefit of the recipients. One Colombian General, when asked if 
counter-narcotics aid might be used against guerrillas struggling for 
political recognition, whether or not they are involved in drugs said, 
``It's the same organization, and everyone in it is responsible,'' To 
avoid corrupt law-enforcement officials in Mexico, elite units were 
formed, trained, and given helicopters by the U.S. Now, two years 
later, some 80 members of these elite units have been under 
investigation on allegations that some took hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in bribes to transport drugs to the U.S.

[[Page E1761]]

  Concerned Members have been fighting to stop the School of the 
Americas from training the next generation of human rights abusers, but 
this bill wants to create not one but THREE new academies to train 
individuals in so called ``drug-prevention efforts.'' These are nothing 
but human rights abuse academies.
  I have seen no convincing reason to believe that a new infusion of 
$2.3 billion for counter narcotics programs in Latin America will prove 
more successful, and less damaging, than the billions of dollars that 
have been spent on similar programs over the past fifteen years.
  Funds for international narcotics control efforts have increased 150 
percent in the last ten years. Coca cultivation is 11.7 percent higher 
and opium production has doubled in the past 10 years. Colombia, the 
largest recipient of U.S. counter-drug assistance, has received nearly 
one billion dollars to date. Yet over the last decade, total drug 
production in Colombia has risen an estimated 260 percent.
  In short: drugs are a serious problem--but Congress and the 
Administration must pursue a more careful and intelligent policy toward 
Colombia--both to fight drugs, and protect the human rights and safety 
of the Colombian people.

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