I also discussed the aid with Secretary Albright, Under Secretary Pickering, and other U.S. officials, as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Everyone I spoke with, without exception, acknowledged the serious human rights problems in Colombia, and the serious weaknesses of the Colombian judicial system. I was repeatedly assured, by proponents of the aid in Congress, and Colombian and U.S. officials, that protecting human rights is a central goal of Plan Colombia. Although our version of the human rights conditions, which passed the Senate without opposition, did not include a waiver for the President, the House version of the amendment did provide a waiver, which was included in the final Conference Report. It is an amendment with teeth . .
American people deserve to know that . . .
Our amendment advances core American values in our fight against drug traffickers by establishing meaningful conditions to safeguard human rights. The way to deal with this is through the conditions that are written all through this bill. We worked . . . to ensure that safeguards were put in place to prevent U.S. assistance from being used by those in Colombia who do not respect human rights. Our provisions were not only developed to punish human rights abuses in Colombia but, more importantly, they were developed to prevent those abuses. This bill addresses that and says, we will bird-dog you every step of the way, and . . .