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Whereas the FARC is holding five Colombian legislators, a
presidential candidate, and Colombian police and army
officers and soldiers as hostages and has recently esca-
lated bombings against civilian targets, including a foiled
attempt to destroy the city of Bogota’s principal water
reservoir;
Whereas, according to the Colombian Government, the FARC
has received training in terrorist techniques and tech-
nology from foreign nationals;
Whereas, since 1992, United States-designated foreign ter-
rorist organizations in Colombia have committed serious
crimes against United States citizens, kidnapping more
than 50 Americans and murdering at least ten Ameri-
cans;
Whereas the Drug Enforcement Administration believes that
members of the FARC and the AUC directly engage in
narcotics trafficking;
Whereas individual members of Colombia’s security forces
have collaborated with illegal paramilitary organizations
by, inter alia, in some instances allowing such organiza-
tions to pass through roadblocks, sharing tactical infor-
mation with such organizations, and providing such orga-
nizations with supplies and ammunition;
Whereas while the Colombian Government has made progress
in its efforts to combat and capture members of illegal
paramilitary organizations and taken positive steps to
break links between individual members of the security
forces and such organizations, further steps by the Co-
lombian Government are warranted;
Whereas in 1998 Colombian President Andres Pastrana
began exhaustive efforts to negotiate a peace agreement
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with the FARC and implemented extraordinary con-
fidence-building measures to advance these negotiations,
including establishing a 16,000-square-mile safe haven
for the FARC;
Whereas the Government of Colombia has also undertaken
substantial efforts to negotiate a peace agreement with
the ELN;
Whereas the United States has consistently supported the
Government of Colombia’s protracted efforts to negotiate
a peace agreement with the FARC and supports the Gov-
ernment of Colombia in its continuing efforts to reach a
negotiated agreement with the ELN;
Whereas the United States would welcome a negotiated, polit-
ical solution to end the violence in Colombia;
Whereas, after the FARC hijacked a commercial airplane and
took Colombian Senator Jorge Eduardo Gechem Turbay
as a hostage into the government-created safe haven,
President Pastrana ended his government’s sponsorship
of the peace negotiations with the FARC and ordered Co-
lombia’s security forces to re-establish legitimate govern-
mental control in the safe haven;
Whereas President Pastrana has received strong expressions
of support from foreign governments and international
organizations for his decision to end the peace talks and
dissolve the FARC’s safe haven; and
Whereas the Government of Colombia’s negotiations with the
ELN are continuing despite the end of the negotiations
with the FARC: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That—
(1) the House of Representatives—
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(A) expresses its support for the democratically
elected Government of Colombia and the Colombian
people as they strive to protect their democracy
from terrorism and the scourge of illicit narcotics;
and
(B) deplores the continuing criminal terrorist
acts of murder, abduction, and extortion carried out
by all United States-designated foreign terrorist or-
ganizations in Colombia against United States citi-
zens, the civilian population of Colombia, and Co-
lombian authorities; and
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that the President, without undue delay, should transmit
to Congress for its consideration proposed legislation,
consistent with United States law regarding the protec-
tion of human rights, to assist the Government of Co-
lombia protect its democracy from United States-des-
ignated foreign terrorist organizations and the scourge
of illicit narcotics; and
(3) it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that the Secretary of State should designate a high-
ranking official to coordinate all United States assist-
ance to the Government of Colombia to ensure clarity of
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United States policy and the effective delivery of United
States support.
Attest:
Clerk.