Aid to Colombia will stay the same despite rights allegations

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 25, 2006
COLOMBIA
Aid to Colombia will stay the same despite rights allegations
The Bush administration pledged to extend Plan Colombia for another two years, but some funding outlays are being delayed over corruption concerns.

BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY AND PABLO BACHELET
[e-mail]

BOGOTA - The Bush administration plans to keep U.S. aid to the Colombian military at current levels through 2008 despite human rights and corruption scandals that already have delayed some U.S. disbursements, a top official said Tuesday.
(snip)

In May, 10 members of an elite U.S.-trained counterdrug police were killed by army troops near the southwestern city of Cali. It was initially portrayed as a case of friendly fire, but Colombian prosecutors later alleged the troops were working for drug traffickers.

In Barranquilla, eight army officers and soldiers face criminal charges after six civilians were killed in an operation in August first presented as a kidnap rescue raid. It was later revealed that the deaths were drug related.

Last month, prosecutors opened an investigation of 18 soldiers for the deaths of 29 civilians, whose bodies were allegedly dressed in military fatigues and presented as guerrillas killed in skirmishes.

Local media also revealed details of an investigation into at least two army officers who allegedly paid former guerrillas to stage fake bomb plots in Bogotá ahead of Uribe's August inauguration to a second term. One bomb went off July 31, killing one civilian and wounding 21 others.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/15841191.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombian congressmen testify to court over paramilitary links

UPDATED: 11:13, October 25, 2006
Colombian congressmen testify to court over paramilitary links

Three Colombian congressmen gave testimony on Tuesday before the Supreme Court on charges of conspiring with and receiving financial support from a right wing paramilitary group, the Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).

The courts began investigating senator Jairo Merlano, Alvaro Garcia and deputy Erik Morris last week after their names were discovered in a computer confiscated from paramilitaries.

The laptop, probed for several weeks by experts working for the attorney general, had belonged to AUC chief Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, better known by his alias Jorge 40.

The three officials are from two parties in the ruling coalition. The Attorney General's Office is investigating other senators for possibly receiving campaign financing from the AUC.
(snip/...)

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200610/25/eng20061025_315033.html

[mom cat]

2. Thanks for keeping us posted on news from Latin America. It is clear

that the US is proping up the death squads there and in Iraq.