[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[August 24, 2000]
[Pages 1727-1729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Videotaped Address to the People of Colombia
August 24, 2000

    Muy buenas noches. Tomorrow morning I will travel to your country to 
bring a message of friendship and solidarity from the people of the 
United States to the people of Colombia and a message of support for 
President Pastrana and for Plan Colombia.
    I will be joined on my trip by the Speaker of our House of 
Representatives, Dennis Hastert, and other 
distinguished Members of our Congress. We come from different political 
parties, but we have a common commitment to support our friend Colombia. 
As you struggle with courage to make peace, to build your economy, to 
fight drugs, and to deepen democracy, the United States will be on your 
side.
    Some of the earliest stirrings of liberty in Latin America came in 
Colombia, as the proud people of Cartagena, of Cali, of Bogota rose up 
one after the other to fight for independence. Now, nearly two centuries 
later, Colombia's democracy is under attack. Profits from the drug trade 
fund civil conflict. Powerful

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forces make their own law, and you face danger every day, whether you're 
sending your children to school, taking your family on vacation, or 
returning to your village to visit your mother or your father.
    The literary genius you call Gabo, your Nobel laureate, painted a 
portrait of this struggle in his book ``News of a Kidnapping.'' He 
presented me with a copy, and his book has touched my heart. Now I know 
why he said writing it was the saddest, most difficult task of his life. 
And yet, all across Colombia there are daily profiles in courage. 
Mayors, judges, journalists, prosecutors, politicians, policemen, 
soldiers, and citizens like you all have stood up to defend your 
democracy.
    Colombia's journalists risk their lives daily to report the news so 
that powerful people feel the pressure of public opinion. Their courage 
is matched by the bravery of peace activists and human rights defenders, 
by reform-minded military leaders whose forces are bound by law, but who 
must do battle with thugs who subvert the law. There is also uncommon 
courage among the Colombian National Police. They face mortal danger 
every moment, as they battle against drug traffickers.
    Tomorrow in Cartagena I will meet with members of the police and the 
military and also with widows of their fallen comrades. The people of 
Colombia are well-known for their resilience, their ability to adapt. 
But my friends, enough is enough. We now see millions rising up, 
declaring no mas, and marching for peace, for justice, for the quiet 
miracle of a normal life.
    That desire for peace and justice led to the election of President 
Pastrana. In the United States, we see in 
President Pastrana a man who has risked his life to take on the drug 
traffickers; who was kidnapped by the Medellin, but who kept speaking 
out. As President, he has continued to risk his life to help heal his 
country. He has built support across party lines for a new approach in 
Colombia. The United States supports President Pastrana, supports Plan 
Colombia, and supports the people of Colombia.
    Let me be clear about the role of the United States. First, it is 
not for us to propose a plan. We are supporting the Colombian plan. You 
are leading; we are providing assistance as a friend and a neighbor.
    Second, this is a plan about making life better for people. Our 
assistance includes a tenfold increase in our support for economic 
development, good governance, judicial reform, and human rights. 
Economic development is essential. The farmers who grow coca and poppy 
must have a way to make an honest living if they are to rejoin the 
national economy. Our assistance will help offer farmers credit and 
identify new products and new markets.
    We will also help to build schoolrooms, water systems, and roads for 
people who have lost their homes and their communities. Our assistance 
will do more to protect human rights. As President Pastrana said at the 
White House, there is no such thing as democracy without respect for 
human rights. Today's world has no place and no patience for any group 
that attacks defenseless citizens or resorts to kidnapping and 
extortion. Those who seek legitimacy in Colombian society must meet the 
standards of those who confer legitimacy, the good and decent people of 
Colombia.
    Our package provides human rights training for the Colombian 
military and police and denies U.S. assistance to any units of the 
Colombian security forces involved in human rights abuses or linked to 
abuses by paramilitary forces. It will fund human rights programs, help 
protect human rights workers, help reform the judicial system, and 
improve prosecution and punishment.
    Of course, Plan Colombia will also bolster our common efforts to 
fight drugs and the traffickers who terrorize both our countries. But 
please do not misunderstand our purpose. We have no military objective. 
We do not believe your conflict has a military solution. We support the 
peace process. Our approach is both pro-peace and antidrug.
    The concern over illegal drugs is deeply felt around the world. In 
my own country, every year more than 50,000 people lose their lives, and 
many more ruin their lives, because of drug abuse. Still, the 
devastation of illegal drugs in Colombia is worse. Drug trafficking and 
civil conflict have led together to more than 2,500 kidnappings last 
year; 35,000 Colombians have been killed, and a million more made 
homeless in the past decade alone.
    Drug trafficking is a plague both our nations suffer and neither 
nation can solve on its own. Our assistance will help train and equip 
Colombia's counterdrug battalions to protect the National Police as they 
eradicate illicit drug crops

[[Page 1729]]

and destroy drug labs. We will help the Colombian military improve their 
ability to intercept traffickers before they leave Colombia. We will 
target illegal airstrips, money laundering, and criminal organizations.
    This approach can succeed. Over the last 5 years, the Governments of 
Peru and Bolivia, working with U.S. support, have reduced coca 
cultivation by more than half in their own countries, and cultivation 
fell by almost one-fifth in the region as a whole.
    Of course, supply is only one side of the problem. The other is 
demand. I want the people of Colombia to know that the United States is 
working hard to reduce demand here, and cocaine use in our country has 
dropped dramatically over the last 15 years. We must continue our 
efforts to cut demand, and we will help Colombia fight the problems 
aggravated by our demand.
    We can and we must do this together. As we begin the new century, 
Colombia must face not 100 years of solitude, but 100 years of 
partnership for peace and prosperity.
    Last year I met some of the most talented and adorable children in 
the world from the village of Valledupar. Ten of them, some as young as 
6 years old, came thousands of miles with their accordions and their 
drums, their bright-colored scarves and their beautiful voices, to 
perform for us here at the White House. They sang ``El Mejoral.'' They 
sang ``La Gota Fria.'' Everyone who heard them was touched. Those 
precious children come from humble families. They live surrounded by 
violence. They don't want to grow up to be narcotraffickers, to be 
guerrillas, to be paramilitaries. They want to be kings of Vallenato. 
And we should help them live their dreams.
    Thousands of courageous Colombians have given their lives to give us 
all this chance. Now is the moment to make their sacrifice matter. It 
will take vision; it will take courage; it will take desire. You have 
all three. In the midst of great difficulty, be strong of heart. En 
surcos de dolores, el bien germina ya.
    Viva Colombia. Que Dios los bendiga.

Note: The address was videotaped at 9:50 a.m. in the Map Room at the 
White House for broadcast in Colombia on August 29. The transcript was 
released by the Office of the Press Secretary on August 29. In his 
remarks, the President referred to President Andres Pastrana of Colombia 
and author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.