On January 29th, 2008 the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution calling for an end to military funding of the Colombian Army as part of the “drug war,” and re-direction of money to domestic drug treatment efforts.

The city government urged Congresswoman Barbara Lee to “step up her leadership to terminate all military assistance to the Colombian Army, and to re-direct these funds” to “substance abuse prevention, harm reduction, and treatment programs.”

The city’s Peace & Justice Commission submitted the resolution, and supporters include the local treatment center Options Recovery, the peace group Fellowship of Reconciliation, and local Colombian activists.

“I am happy that Berkeley is taking the lead in ending war funding to a corrupt and brutal military and putting the money where it can really help people suffering from addiction,” said Dr. Davida Coady, executive director of Options Recovery.

“The US has put almost five billion dollars into the Colombian military, and the army has committed massacres and collaborated with death squads and drug traffickers with almost total impunity,” said Susana Pimiento Chamorro of Berkeley, an Colombian attorney who co-directs the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Latin America program. “It’s time US communities stand up for how they want their tax dollars spent.”

Military spending in Colombia was supposed to cut cocaine production in half by 2005. Instead, retail prices for the drug have dropped and purity has increased, according to the Office on National Drug Control Policy. Meanwhile, a recent study showed that killings of civilians by the Colombian army has increased since the U.S. overhauled military training of its forces.

The resolution recognizes Rep. Lee’s leadership in advocating reduced military spending, and says that as a member of two key Congressional spending committees, she is “in a unique position to reorient U.S. counter-narcotics spending away from Colombia and towards U.S. social programs.” Lee is also co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which each March produces an alternative federal budget.

To read the full text of the approved resolution, click here [0]. To read more about the drug war failure, click here [1].

To read the article in this month's edition of El Tecolote, click here [2]

For more information about passing other resolutions similar to this one in your city, email liza(at)igc(dot)org.