(SILVER SPRING, MD) April 3, 2002 – In a March 7 letter to House International Relations Committee Chair Henry Hyde (R-IN), the presidents of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) urged the Senator to, “Maintain standards of human rights as a condition for military aid to Colombia and do not broaden the scope of military assistance.” The Conferences sent their letter to Congressman Hyde, members of the International Relations Committee, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House and Senate leadership. 

A March 15 Washington Post article reports that the Bush Administration “plans to ask Congress next week to remove all restrictions on U.S. military aid to Colombia....” According to the article, the plan is included in legislation that the Administration expects to submit to Congress asking for additional funds for global and domestic anti-terrorism efforts. 

But the CMSM and LCWR presidents, Sister of St. Joseph of Peace Kathleen Pruitt and Conventual Franciscan Father Canice Connors, explained that increasing military aid to the government in Colombia will only make the situation worse. 

“Our religious lived through a similar short-sighted and tragic policy in Central America,” noted the presidents referring to the experiences of U.S. missionaries in Colombia as witnesses to human rights abuses. “Our religious are [still] on the front lines of human rights work, providing the most basic human services, supporting efforts among the people to build a more humane nation in Colombia.”   

Sister Pruitt and Father Connors recently returned from a February 2002 meeting of religious leaders of Catholic congregations from the Americas, held in Montreal, Canada. At the meeting, leaders of religious congregations from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean also described deteriorating conditions in Colombia:  the government has ended peace talks, the military has increased its activity, rebel groups have kidnapped two elected officials and the country is experiencing an escalation in violence and further destruction of the economy. The leaders decided during this meeting to make Colombia a priority for action.

In their letter, Sister Pruitt and Father Connors said, “We believe that [lifting restrictions and increasing military aid] would be a dangerous expansion in the “war on terrorism” that seems to have no clear boundaries or goals. Administration officials...have started referring to the rebel forces as ‘terrorists,’ a clear indication that a shift in policy and the ‘packaging’ of policy is underway.”

Furthermore, “We are also concerned that the U.S. commitments to human rights are weakening all over the world as the scope of the war on terrorism escalates.”
 

The membership of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) has approximately 1,500 men and women religious leaders who are responsible for more than 700 Catholic institutes in the United States.  Together, the conferences’ members represent more than 100,000 of the country’s Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious priests.