SECURING DEMOCRACY IN CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100200004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/04: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100200004-7
A?T'^LE APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
PH PAGE 25 December 1985
Letter: On Foreign Aid
Securing Democracy in Central America
To the Editor:
Your Dec. 16 editorial, "The Wrong
Beat for American Cops," failed to
note the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee action on the Administra-
tion's request for counterterrorism po-
lice training in Central America. The
committee-passed bill is now the issue
before Congress. The editorial was es-
sentially about a moot proposal.
On Dec. 5, the committee voted 15-1
to authorize $22 million for police
training in El Salvador, Honduras,
Costa Rica and Guatemala. No funds
were provided for Panama.
The committee bill provides no
funds o~ r )Mary trainina. It places
a number restrictions on the use of
funds for lice trainin : it prohibits
participation, allows no more
than 10 percent of the equipment pro-
vided to be of a lethal nature, and re-
quires the General Accounting Office
to make three quarterly reports on
human rights in the area. The Admin-
istration supports these changes.
The committee did not reach this
decision easily. All of us are painfully
aware of past abuses. But the condi-
tions have changed substantially. We
now observe in El Salvador and
Guatemala, for example, democrati-
cally elected presidents who once
were the targets of police abuses.
They may now wish our assistance in
reforming police practices.
This bill received a great deal of bi-
partisan support. Senator Christo-
pher Dodd argued that providing the
money was a risk. but concluded that
if there is to be reform in Central
America "it is essential that the se-
curity forces be part of it."
The establishment of democratic
governments throughout Latin Amer-
ica is one of the most important new
foreign policy developments facing
the United States. These countries
confront enormous economic preb-
lems and face the continuing threats
of terrorism. It is in our interest to
help them address these problems.
The committee's action is not "a
dubious idea derived from a flawed
premise," as you claimed (without
mentioning the action that your news
pages had reported 11 days before). It
is a constructive and careful effort to .
use American aid to help democracy
and human rights by meeting the very
.
real threat of terrorism in Latin Amer.
ica. RICHARD G. LUGAR
Washington, Dec. 18, 1985
The writer is chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/04: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100200004-7