U.S. House votes to limit troops to 500 - May 27, 2004
In a defeat for President George W. Bush, the U.S. House of Representatives voted May 20 to limit U.S. military personnel in Colombia to 500 and U.S. contractors there to 400. A 2000 law set 400-person caps on both military personnel and contractors. The Bush administration has requested that Congress raise the caps to 800 and 600, respectively. And Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California), the bill’s sponsor, proposed eliminating the caps. The numbers approved by the House stem from an amendment by Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Missisippi) in the House Armed Services Committee. In the Senate, a bill granting the Bush request reached the floor May 21 but lawmakers took no action before recessing until June 1. The Bush administration says the additions are vital for President Alvaro Uribe Vélez’s counterinsurgency programs, including a three-year southern offensive dubbed the “Patriot Plan” that Washington helped design. In a May 14 memorandum, the Washington Office on Latin America warned that the plan “signals the entrance of the U.S. into a new, more intense phase of military involvement in Colombia’s internal armed conflict, and underscores the potential for escalation beyond the mission understood by Congress and beyond the appetite of the American public.” JO