[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 15, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H1348-H1349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN COLOMBIA AND THE FARC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak against the 
ongoing negotiations in Havana between the Government of Colombia and 
the terrorist group known as the FARC.
  This draft agreement contains alarming provisions that could empower 
the ringleaders of the world's largest cocaine cartel and undermine 
America's security interests in the region.
  It would also make American taxpayers foot the bill, through their 
tax dollars, in support of this bad agreement that effectively 
whitewashes human rights abuses while the administration of President 
Obama seeks more than $70 million to help implement this proposal.
  This agreement diminishes the FARC's responsibility for its role in 
drug trafficking as well as the thousands of murders and kidnappings 
and other innumerable crimes that the FARC has perpetrated against the 
Colombian people by allowing the soldiers and the leaders of the FARC 
to avoid any jail time for all of those crimes.
  To make matters worse, this agreement creates an equivalency between

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the FARC and innocent civilians, categorizing both as actors in the 
conflict, when it has been civilians who have been the victims of the 
FARC's narcoterror and the FARC's brutality.

                              {time}  1015

  As if that were not awful enough, Mr. Speaker, to equate innocent 
victims with the FARC in the courts of law, the draft agreement goes 
even further by allowing those very same violent drug dealers and 
insurgent leaders to not only stand for election to public office, but 
also to use the proceeds of the drug trade, the kidnappings, and all of 
the other illicit sources to fund their campaigns. This is incredible.
  But the flaws in this deal don't end there, Mr. Speaker. This 
agreement will prevent the United States from extraditing any FARC 
members who have been accused of crimes against American citizens. This 
is especially troubling when we consider that many of the FARC members 
may receive immunity.
  It would not surprise me if the Obama administration uses this deal 
as an excuse to drop the FARC from our list that designates the FARC as 
a foreign terrorist organization.
  The Obama administration has never met a bad deal that it did not 
want to say yes to, especially if the deal empowers tyrants or 
acquiesces to terrorist demands. This puts our credibility and our 
national security at risk.
  But what is really driving these requests is the Obama 
administration's continued quest to appease the Castro regime. This is 
the same Castro regime whose weapons systems from China to Cuba was 
intercepted by the Colombian Government just last March and which were 
suspected of being intended for the FARC.
  While negotiations were taking place, they were doing this illicit 
arms shipment. Incredible. It is the same Castro regime that, for 
decades, has supported the FARC and trained many of its leaders in the 
terror camps.
  Mr. Speaker, Cuba has no interest in a peaceful resolution to the 
conflict in Colombia. The Castro regime is only interested in 
leveraging a strengthened and legitimized FARC as a dominant player in 
Colombia.
  The proposed deal as well as those requests by Colombia of the U.S. 
Government are not only dangerous to our Colombian partners, but they 
are also dangerous to our national security and our interests in the 
region.
  I urge my fellow Members of Congress to speak out against this 
terrorist group, the FARC, as well as to block any attempts by our 
administration to go soft in these negotiations because this weak 
position could threaten our safety and block American citizens from 
receiving their rightful justice.
  I urge my colleagues to block attempts by the Obama administration to 
use U.S. taxpayer dollars for this agreement between the Colombian 
Government and the FARC.
  A reinforced FARC with established political legitimacy sets a 
dangerous precedent for other organizations with similar dangerous 
aspirations and anti-American objectives in the region.
  Let's not force our constituents to pay for this flawed and dangerous 
deal with terrorist groups.

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