[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6234]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TURNING OUR BACKS ON COLOMBIA

  (Mr. WELLER of Illinois asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my concern 
over an action taken by the majority in this House this past week when 
this House, the majority of the House, the Democratic majority, voted 
to turn its back on the Republic of Colombia.
  You know, when you ask the question of all of Latin America, who is 
our Nation's best friend, America's best friend in Latin America, 
everyone says the democratically elected government of Colombia. And 
when people ask who is America's most reliable ally when it comes to 
counternarcotics and counterterrorism in Latin America, everyone says 
it is the democratically elected government of the Republic of 
Colombia.
  Ladies and gentlemen, the damage that was done to the image of the 
United States is going to take us a long time to recover as a result of 
this House voting to turn its back on America's best friend in Latin 
America, the democratically elected Government of the Republic of 
Colombia.

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