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 If approved, the aid would help with security and fighting the
drug trade, as well as educating and retraining members of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the leftist rebel
group at war with the government since 1964.
"After half a century of wrenching conflict, the time has come for
peace," Obama said after meeting with Colombian President Juan
Manual Santos.
The U.S. government would also commit $33 million to a global
program to help the country remove land mines in the next five
years, and Obama said he would help mobilize more international aid
if the peace deal is reached.
Three previous attempts at an accord failed, but the government and
FARC are on the verge of an agreement after four years of talks.
 Santos thanked the U.S. government for its long-standing bipartisan
support for "Plan Colombia," $10 billion in funding between 2000 and
2015 for military and social programs that he said helped keep
Colombia from becoming a failed state.
The new program, dubbed "Peace Colombia," would provide about 25
percent more U.S. funding compared with 2016 levels.
"Just as the United States has been Colombia's partner in a time of
war, I indicated to President Santos we will be your partner in
waging peace," Obama said at a White House reception.
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A jump in U.S. aid is "fundamental" to the success of the peace
plan, particularly given a 20 percent hit to Colombia's budget from
the plunge in oil prices, said Douglass Cassel of the University of
Notre Dame, who has been an adviser to Santos for the past year.
"The government of Colombia will do everything it can, but it's
clear that it doesn't have sufficient resources on its own to do the
job the way it ought to be done without significant support from the
United States and the European Union," Cassel said in an interview.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by David Gregorio and Peter
Cooney)
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