Opening Statement

Chairman Eliot L. Engel

 

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere

 

Crisis in the Andes: The Border Dispute Between Colombia and Ecuador and Implications for the Region

 

Thursday, April 10, 2008

 

A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere will come to order.

 

It is my pleasure to welcome you to today’s hearing on the Andean border crisis. And, I want to once again thank my good friend José Miguel Insulza for briefing the Subcommittee on his recent mission to Colombia and Ecuador.  It is a special honor to have the OAS Secretary General with us, and I know we all look forward to hearing his thoughts about the situation in the Andes.

 

As you all know by now, March madness this year unfortunately did not begin on our nation’s college basketball courts, but instead with a Colombian raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador on March 1st. The unauthorized incursion caused a major diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Ecuador when Ecuador cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia and sent additional troops to its Northern border with Colombia. Venezuela followed suit by cutting off diplomatic and trade ties with Colombia and sending ten battalions of troops to its border with Colombia.

 

Immediately after the crisis began, Ranking Member Burton, Congressman Meeks and I, along with 11 of our colleagues, sent a letter to Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Insulza and OAS Permanent Council Chairman Cornelius Smith asking the OAS to send a high-level diplomatic mission to visit Colombia and Ecuador to gather facts on what happened and to negotiate a reduction of tensions in the region.

 

I was pleased that on March 5th, the OAS Member States decided to send such a mission to the region, and I was particularly impressed by the leadership displayed by Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Panama whose OAS ambassadors participated in the mission with Secretary General Insulza.

 

You know, sometimes, much to our pleasant surprise, diplomacy and face-to-face interaction have a way of resolving things when we least expect it. That’s precisely what happened on March 7th in Santo Domingo when Dominican President Leonel Fernández masterfully transformed a meeting – where you could cut the tension in the room with a knife – to an exchange of handshakes and abrazos among the Colombian, Ecuadorian and Venezuelan Presidents.

 

The OAS then passed a resolution on March 17th rejecting the Colombian incursion into Ecuador, and asking the OAS Secretary General to implement a mechanism to restore trust between the two countries. I believe that the OAS really stepped up to the plate in alleviating tensions between Colombia and Ecuador. And countries like Brazil, Chile and Argentina played an essential role in helping the OAS member states reach consensus. One publication, writing about the crisis and its resolution, noted that “South American diplomacy went into overdrive.” I agree.

 

Of course, regional diplomacy was just the start. Relations between Ecuador and Colombia are still at a historic low, and there is a long road ahead. Ecuador has not yet restored diplomatic relations with Colombia, and tensions between the two countries remain extremely high. While I will not comment on the merits of Ecuador’s recently filed case against Colombia in The Hague over drug fumigation near their shared border, I believe that it will not help in the short term to allay bilateral tensions.

 

Likewise, serious allegations of Venezuelan and Ecuadorian connections to the FARC have emerged from files found on laptop computers belonging to slain FARC leader Raúl Reyes. Colombian officials maintain that files on the laptops show that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may have channeled $300 million to the FARC. There are also charges that the FARC made campaign contributions to President Correa in 2006.

 

I believe that we must let cooler heads prevail here. I encourage our Colombian and Ecuadoran friends to avoid steps which might exacerbate tensions and impede efforts to improve cooperation.  I think Colombia should suspend the release of any further files from the laptops and give Interpol every opportunity to take an unbiased look at the documents before we jump to our own conclusions. At the same time, I think Ecuador should consider restoring diplomatic relations with Colombia and temporarily suspending its case in The Hague. 

 

 But, let me also be clear that the FARC is a terrorist organization. As a New Yorker and a United States citizen, I understand that such a brutal group needs to be confronted at all levels.  Prior to the recent crisis, the State Department had informed me that Ecuador was doing a reasonably good job in taking on the FARC. They reportedly closed more than 100 FARC encampments, captured FARC leader Simon Trinidad, and even lost several Ecuadoran troops in the process. Nevertheless, while terrorists must not be permitted to use another country as a sanctuary, it is unclear exactly what happened in this instance. Moreover, while what President Uribe did might be understandable, I think it is possible that the Colombian military action might have been carried out differently, including with more notice.

 

So, all in all, I believe there are equities on both sides and that neither side is completely right and neither is completely wrong. Rather, the United States should work with Presidents Uribe and Correa, along with our other partners in South America, to improve relations, communication, and security cooperation so that such a crisis can be averted in the future.

 

Let me make a brief comment on U.S. policy as it relates to the border crisis. As most of you know, I have been impressed with the Bush Administration’s renaissance in diplomacy toward Latin America under the leadership of Assistant Secretary Shannon. I may not be in the same political party as the President, but I believe that foreign policy must be bipartisan, and I have never been shy about praising the Administration’s positive initiatives in the hemisphere. That said, I must say that I was very disappointed by the Bush Administration’s reaction to the Colombia-Ecuador border conflict.

 

            Shortly after tensions began to flare up between Colombia and Ecuador, President Bush reached out to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. Unfortunately, President Bush failed to personally reach out to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. I recently traveled to Ecuador and had a very positive meeting with President Correa. I am convinced that he is someone with whom the United States can and should work. Frankly, I believe it was a mistake for President Bush not to reach out to President Correa. I encourage Assistant Secretary Shannon and other Bush Administration officials to visit Ecuador soon to complement the Administration’s many visits to Colombia and show our commitment to bilateral relations.

 

            I was also disappointed that the Administration wrapped the Colombia – Ecuador border dispute in the flag of the U.S. – Colombia Free Trade Agreement. This, too, was a mistake. Whether Congress should pass the FTA is a question for another day, but it certainly has nothing to do with the Colombian attack on the FARC just across the frontier into Ecuador. This rhetorical connection only isolated us from other countries in South America which were disturbed by Colombia’s cross border raid.  In the end, I believe a balanced response was called for – our response was skewed too heavily toward one side.

 

            I now would like to introduce our distinguished witnesses. Julia Sweig is Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Michael Shifter is Vice President for Policy at the Inter-American Dialogue. And, finally, Ray Walser is Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America at the Heritage Foundation. We look forward to hearing from all three of you.

 

            I am now pleased to call on Ranking Member Burton for his opening statement.