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107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1591

To prohibit the United States Government from providing financing for nongovernmental organizations or individuals to carry out military, law enforcement, armed rescue, or other related operations in the countries

of the Andean region, including any operations relating to narcotics

control efforts.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 25, 2001

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on International Relations

A BILL

To prohibit the United States Government from providing

financing for nongovernmental organizations or individuals to carry out military, law enforcement, armed rescue, or other related operations in the countries of the

Andean region, including any operations relating to narcotics control efforts.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Andean Region Con5 tractor Accountability Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress finds the following:

3 (1) Hundreds of civilians, including many

4 United States citizens, are working with the military

5 and police forces of the Republic of Colombia and

6 other countries of the Andean region under con7 tracts between the United States Government and

8 several private corporations. The duties of such indi9 viduals include piloting drug-crop fumigation air10 craft, flying helicopters transporting army battal11 ions, serving as mechanics and logistics personnel,

12 assisting the reform of the security forces, per13 forming armed search-and-rescue missions, and

14 gathering aerial intelligence, among others.

15 (2) On February 18, 2001, United States con16 tractor personnel on a search-and-rescue mission in

17 the guerrilla-held zone of Curillo, in Colombia’s

18 Caqueta ́ region, were involved in an exchange of fire

19 with members of Colombia’s FARC guerrilla groups,

20 raising concerns about force protection and prox21 imity to Colombia’s conflict.

22 (3) According to the Inspector General of the

23 Department of State, three United States contract

24 personnel have died while piloting spray planes over

25 Colombian territory since 1997.
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1 (4) Contract personnel are being employed in

2 circumstances and locations in Colombia which, for

3 force protection reasons, would generally be off-lim4 its to uniformed United States personnel.

5 (5) Increasing use of private contract personnel

6 raises questions of accountability and transparency

7 in the management of United States policy toward

8 Colombia and other countries of the Andean region.

9 (6) On April 20, 2001, a plane operated by in10 nocent United States civilians conducting missionary

11 work was shot down in the airspace of the Republic

12 of Peru. The plane was targeted as a result of intel13 ligence sharing between Central Intelligence Agency14 contracted private military personnel and Peruvian

15 authorities. As a result, Veronica ‘‘Roni’’ Bowers,

16 age 35, and her 7-month old daughter Charity were

17 killed.

18 (7) Basic information about the extent of activi19 ties of private military contractors in Colombia and

20 in other countries of the Andean region is generally

21 unavailable to the public.
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1 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FINANCING OF PRIVATE MILI2 TARY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, OR ARMED RES3 CUE OPERATIONS IN ANDEAN REGION COUN4 TRIES.

5 (a) PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding chapter 8 of

6 part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 or any other

7 provision of law, no officer or employee of the United

8 States Government may enter into a contract or other

9 agreement under which the United States Government

10 provides financing, in whole or in part, for a nongovern11 mental organization (including a corporation or other

12 business entity) or individual to carry out military, law

13 enforcement, armed rescue, or other related operations in

14 the countries of the Andean region, including any oper15 ations relating to narcotics control efforts.

16 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in sub17 section (a) shall be construed to prohibit the financing,

18 in whole or in part, for a nongovernmental organization

19 (including a corporation or other business entity) or indi20 vidual to carry out humanitarian activities, including the

21 delivery of food, in the countries of the Andean region.

22 SEC. 4. DEFINITION.

23 In this Act, the term ‘‘countries of the Andean re24 gion’’ means the Republic of Bolivia, the Federative Re25 public of Brazil, the Republic of Ecuador, the Republic
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1 of Colombia, the Republic of Panama, the Republic of

2 Peru, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

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