[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 35 (Monday, September 4, 2000)]
[Pages 1970-1972]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Videotape Address to the People of Colombia
August 29, 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 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
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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 and destroy drug labs. We will help the
Colombian military improve their ability to intercept traffickers before
they leave Colombia. We will target illegal
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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. on August 24 in the Map
Room at the White House for broadcast in Colombia on August 29, and it
was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on August 29. In his
remarks, the President referred to President Andres Pastrana of
Colombia.