U.S. POLICY
Bush budget pushes more aid to Latin America
The Bush administration's proposed budget would increase U.S. aid to
Latin America slightly and boost funding for Cuba democracy programs.
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's new budget calls for a slight
increase in U.S. aid for Latin America, with a few targeted nations like
Colombia, Ecuador and Haiti getting the lion's share of the money, and a
big jump in U.S. funding for controversial programs to promote democracy
in Cuba.
The 2008 fiscal year budget request released Monday asks for $46 million
for the Cuba programs, compared to $9 million in the 2006 budget.
In the budget proposal, the State Department seeks $446 million for
Colombia security forces in 2008, a slight decrease from $457 million in
2006. The budget also calls for $139 million for social programs for the
world's leading cocaine producer.
State Department officials declined to comment on the numbers until
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presents the budget request to
Congress later this week. The 2008 fiscal year starts Oct. 1 of 2007 and
ends a year later.
In its written budget presentation, the State Department said total aid
to Latin America would amount to $1.6 billion, a 4 percent increase over
the 2006 budget. The administration has long denied complaints that it
is ignoring Latin America's social needs, and its budget document says
U.S. aid to the region nearly doubled under President Bush.
The increase includes money spent through the Millennium Challenge
Corp., which conditions aid to countries complying with a set of policy
benchmarks like combating corruption and respecting private property.
Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Haiti would account for 70 percent
of the 2008 budget request for the Western Hemisphere.
The proposed boost to Cuba programs is in keeping with last year's
recommendations by an interagency commission to augment such aid to $80
million over two years in order to help and hasten a move toward
democracy on the island. The 2008 budget proposed $38.7 million for
Radio and TV Martí -- similar to current levels.
The Cuba programs usually come under attack in Congress, where a group
of lawmakers tables amendments that seek to cut or eliminate the
programs. The attempts have been unsuccessful so far.
The administration also wants a big increase for HIV/AIDS programs for
Haiti, from $47 million in 2006 to $83 million. The 2008 budget's
numbers on Colombia sparked some criticism that Washington is still
directing too much money into Colombia's security forces and too little
for social and other programs in that country.
'After weeks of talk about a new `social' approach to aid to Colombia,
the aid request for next year looks almost exactly the same as the past
several years,'' said Adam Isacson, a Colombia analyst for the
Washington-based Center for International Policy, who favors more
spending on social programs.
European donors were expected to fund the social programs when Plan
Colombia was unveiled in 1999 as a way to help the country attack its
cocaine and heroin industries. But the Europeans never provided the
level of financing the Colombians had hoped for.
Unofficial copies of the Colombian government's proposals for a second
phase of Plan Colombia, first published in Bogota and obtained by The
Miami Herald, show the government there wants to spend $44 billion in
the 2007-13 period, of which only 14 percent would be for the security
forces.
The 77-page document does not say how Colombia will raise the $44
billion. The U.S. government has provided some $4 billion to the first
phase of Plan Colombia since 1999.
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