SECURING DEMOCRACY IN CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403850016-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: December 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403850016-6
A" T! LE APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAG ----^ 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 or milita training. It places
a num r o restrictions on the use of
funds for police trainin : it prohibits
C.I.A. participation, allows no more
than 10 percent o the equipment pro-
vided to be of a lethal nature, and re-
quires the General Accounting Office
to make tnree 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 prob-
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 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403850016-6