The verdict is in for Plan Colombia in 2006, and there is both good and bad news to report. We came up against not only the White House but House Republican leadership, who were insistent that Plan Colombia continue unchanged. However, even more conditions were added on aid to Colombia – it is the most complicated legislation on aid to any country in the world, reflecting the concerns over the policy.

In the final version of the 2006 appropriations bill, Congress approved $734.5 million for the Andean Counternarcotics Initiative, as expected. The Senate, in response to all of our concerns, had put a cap on military and police aid to Colombia and had set a minimum bar for aid to be spent on development programs, including alternative development for farmers and assistance to internally displaced people. The House rejected this improvement in the balance of aid. The final bill increased economic aid, but only by $6.5 million over the previous year. In the end about 80% of U.S. aid to Colombia next year will go to military and police forces – the same as previous years.

Congress also approved up to $20 million for the current paramilitary demobilization process. Human rights groups have criticized the demobilization process for providing minimal punishment to leaders responsible for massacres; for having no truth commission; and for failing to ensure that demobilized paramilitaries disclose their crimes, structures and financial assets. Congress fortunately included conditions on the assistance, although not as strong as we would have wished. The conditions require the Secretary of State to certify that demobilized paramilitaries receiving benefits have renounced violence and disclosed their involvement in past crimes and knowledge of the paramilitary structures, financing sources, illegal assets, and the location of kidnapping victims and bodies of the disappeared. They also require State to certify that the Colombian government is providing full cooperation to the United States in extraditing individuals who have been indicted in the United States for murder, drug trafficking and kidnapping. Disturbingly, the administration plans to take the $20 million in aid for the paramilitary demobilization out of the limited existing development funds for Colombia, including alternative development and, possibly, programs for the internally displaced. However, Congress has not agreed to this, and we will work to insist that it comes from other sources.

Good news: The human rights conditions for Colombia—which had resulted this year in a seven-month delay in delivering some US military aid—were maintained and a new provision added to reflect concern about the war’s impact on indigenous communities.

The bill requires the Agency for International Development to appoint a special advisor for indigenous issues worldwide—an effort to ensure greater consultation with indigenous peoples and improve how they are affected by aid programs.

The environmental conditions on the aerial spraying program for Colombia were also maintained. The conditions also require compensation for food crops destroyed, in cases where farmers were not growing any coca or poppy. While these conditions have proven extremely difficult to enforce, maintaining them keeps certain minimal limits on the program.

Thank you to all who pushed this year for a more just U.S.-Colombia policy. Our small strides are important to Colombians struggling for peace! There is also good news to report from the appropriations bill in maintaining the ban on military aid to Guatemala, on Central American development aid and on new funds for DNA testing for human rights abuse cases throughout the Americas.

To read more on the outcome of the bill as it relates to Colombia and other countries in Latin America, go to http://lawg.org/countries/colombia/2006appropriations.htm.