US embassy urged Clinton to hold back on praising Uribe during 2010 visit
US embassy urged Clinton to hold back on praising Uribe during 2010 visit
Posted by Grace Brown on Sep 7, 2015
The United States’ embassy in Bogota warned former State Secretary Hillary Clinton ahead of a 2010 visit to Colombia to “avoid effusive praise for President Alvaro Uribe” because of the latter’s implication in mayor human rights abuses.
The email, dated June 3 2010 and originating from the office of Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), was forwarded by Ambassador William Brownfield, now Assistant Secretary of State for Narcotics Affairs and Law Enforcement, and sent to Clinton’s then-chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, prior to flying to Colombia on a state visit.
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However, the email advised, this recognition should avoid “repeating the tone of Defense Secretary [Robert] Gates’ April visit, in which he called Uribe a ‘great hero’ and failed even to mention any concerns.” Among those concerns were mounting accusations of mass human rights violations that happened under Uribe’s watch.
The email highlighted the possible scale of the “false positives” scandal, in which Colombia’s US-backed military murdered thousands of innocent civilians and dressed them in guerrilla clothing in order to inflate body counts and receive bonuses.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/us-embassy-urged-clinton-to-hold-back-on-praising-uribe-during-2010-visit/