there and back again

Hello to anyone that might still be hanging in there with my lame and inconsistent blogging. I made it back from gringolandia just under a week ago and much has happened since. I have mostly managed to recover from my varied and ill-timed diseases; although everyone´s second favorite way to die during the Oregon Trail computer game, typhoid fever, is still hanging on in a negligible but persistent way. Maybe proving once and for all that it was the real covered wagon malady to be feared, much more so than dysentery or the hapless and unfortunate failed fordings of the too-high river.

I had many, many adventures while home for the two weeks. One of which was the oh-so-joyous wedding of Jenna and Nate (seen dancing here!), the reason for the mid-year return and a weekend of mucho fun and celebration. I met up with my teammate of one week in November, Paul, whom I replaced here on the team. We took in some DC museums, had a catch on the mall and then made the somewhat egregious mistake of taking in some Congressional hearings on US aid to Colombia.

We attended the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere hearing on US/Colombia relations, specifically the success and validity of renewing/ratifying Plan Colombia and the Free Trade of the Americas Act. The first is up for serious consideration and renewal after the last six years of the ¨War on Drugs¨has only resulted in billions of dollars in funding for the Colombia military to fight a futile war which seems to only kill civilians while the price of cocaine on US streets has actually dropped - meaning it is more abundant, not less. Check out more on this here: It seems the War on Drugs has been just about as successful as ye olde war on poverty. The FTAA is under more fire as the Democratic halls of Congress are clamoring over the Colombian para-political scandal and certain conditions of the much-maligned free trade pact.

Paul and I decided that the hearing could be summed up quite concisely: insignificant. While it is encouraging that Democrats are taking a harder look at US aid to Colombia, led by long time critics Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rep Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep Sam Farr(D-CA), it only takes a few hours in a Congressional sub-committee hearing to understand that the majority of the people making these important decisions do not understand a darn thing. The first panelist was former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. ¨Coach¨ turned on his microphone and read from his prepared harangue, (which included the incorrect spelling of the country in question, ColOmbia) vacillating between awe-inspiring ignorance of the subject at hand and numbifying monologue on how Colombia drugs are killing American children, at the same time somehow managing to compare this drug epidemic to 9/11. Of course Hastert also probably believes that same sex marriage and burning the American flag are killing American children. While completely unimpressive in its scope of understanding, his speech was at least mildly entertaining. He referred to the second largest guerrilla group in Colombian as E-lon (ELN) and invented a completely new ¨terrorist¨ organization that he called the AUL.

The second panel consisted of former Ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson and Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Charles Shapiro. It was a relief if only because they provided competent testimony and spared us the pageantry of values-crusading. Their shared recommendation was to continue funding military focused aid to Colombia and to sign off on the free trade pact. Committee Chairman Engel did manage to probe about the disproportionate percentage of military versus social aid as part of US funding. The proposed split in aid for 2008 is 81.4% military versus 18.6% for social assistance programs. Rep Engel asked why the obvious disparity between the two couldn't be remedied, especially given the continually emerging links between the Colombian military and the paramilitary. Mr. Shapiro assured him that he hoped that one day soon more aid would be shifted towards social programming and effectively side-stepped a concrete answer.

I think the most outrageous moments during the hearing were provided by ranking Republican Member(and only Republican present in the sub committee hearing)Dan Burton (R-IN). He acknowledged the presence of Colombian Ambassador to the US, Carolina Barca by calling her a ¨lovely lady, a real lovely lady.. i mean she looks just like a model!¨ Really? Really Rep. Burton? Are we still patronizing women and assigning them value based on subjective beauty? And are we really doing this when they are foreign dignitaries? Really?

There was also some uninspired vilifying of the too-easy target President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, or he who is following in ¨Castro´s footsteps¨. Rep Burton then made some rather belligerent comments about Colombian opposition leader Gustavo Petro of the Polo Democratico. Senator Petro has been one of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe´s harshest critics, calling into question Uribe´s own ties with paramilitary especially during his years as governor of the volatile department of Antioquia in the mid-nineties. The ever distinguished Rep Burton couldn´t seem to recall Petro´s name but did refer to Senator Petro as the ¨Senator who has been making false remarks about Uribe and who is part of the terrorist organization MI-21 that terrorized in the past and is still terrorizing today¨.

I can only assume he was trying his darndest to speak about the former urban guerrilla group M-19 (April 19th Movement) of which Petro was part of in his youth. M-19 handed in their weapons and peacefully demobilized 17 years ago in 1990. Many former members are now respected politicians and members of Colombian society who have continued to struggle for justice in the political sphere. For Burton to throw the term ¨terrorist¨around seems to indicate his absolute lack of understanding of the Colombian conflict and how this kind of labeling literally endangers the lives of those who are so ignorantly singled out. This is continually a topic of discussion here in Colombian as the señalamiento or insinuating signalization of public figures, grassroots groups and even sometimes international NGOs (FOR in 2005), can absolutely prove deadly as armed groups zero in on supposed threatening opponents again and again.

I am not a fan of Republican Representative Dan Burton of Indiana.

There was a third part to the panel but Paul and I realized we couldn't handle more of the same and also, I was supposed to be on vacation. To their credit the committee did invite for the third and final panel a former Colombian Governor, Luis Murillo Urretia as well as Maria Sanchez Moreno of Human Rights Watch. These are the kind of panelists who I might have had a harder time poking fun at.

All in all it was good to know that I am involved in work that puts me daily in touch with people. And being with actual living, breathing people seems miles away from the talking suits of DC and the anemic discussions of its hearing chambers.

Not to say that there isn't some good news that makes its way out of our Legislative body. Senator Leahy, as chairman of the Appropriations Panel of the Foreign Operations sub-committee is refusing to just ¨rubber stamp¨ monetary aid to Colombia. In fact, just this last week he refused to accept Secretary of State Rice´s certification that Colombia is complying with all human rights standards and therefore able to receive US aid. Senator Leahy is not rubber stamping to the tune of 55 million dollars.

Senator Leahy stated last week, “The Administration and the Congress have a fiduciary responsibility to American taxpayers to use these dollars wisely and to take care that U.S. military aid is part of the solution, instead of perpetuating Colombia’s problems.¨ Fiduciary, indeed!

Next up: Is Uribe already preparing to seek a third term as President? Does the LA Times scoop linking the head of the Colombia Army, Gen. Mario Montoya to paramilitary groups hold any water? Will my covered wagon ford the raging river with success or will I opt to wait it out in order to waste some precious bullets shooting at small animals instead of deer with my arrow keys?

OR: A report on the delegation that I just helped to host in the community and an exciting out-of-Uraba report on my trip to the Eastern part of Antioquia where I will be accompanying organizers to campesino communities in this historically volatile and breathtakingly beautiful region of Colombia...

stay tuned.