Don't Renew Military Aid to Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

30/06/2005 14:56 Stockholm | 08/12/2006 13:40 Bogotá
Don't Renew Military Aid to Colombia

A top official in the Bogotα Embassy confesses that he's not sure where the “goal line” is for U.S. policy in Colombia. By the government's own statistics, U.S. policy aims there are not being met.

At the same time, the State Department is withholding certification of the military's human rights record due to stalled human rights cases involving the armed forces and their ties with paramilitary groups. Eight members of the San Jose de Apartado peace community, including women and children, were killed in February. The community asserts and physical evidence points to the military as the responsible party.

Unfortunately Congress doesn't seem to find this disturbing enough, and approved another $742 million to renew current U.S. policy.

Recently Congress reauthorized funding for “Plan Colombia.” When Congress first passed it in 2000, it established a five-year lifespan. Congressional policymakers have now concluded that this military strategy is effective and worthy of renewal with taxpayer dollars. They are wrong. They were duped by the administration's creative, but ultimately deceptive, number games and carried away by the increasingly desperate drumbeat of war.

Despite pumping more than $3 billion into the Colombian military in the past five years, neither of Plan Colombia's twin aims of reducing the amount of drugs on U.S. streets and of increasing Colombian security has been met. Colombia remains the number one producer of cocaine. The drug problem is set against a backdrop of a protracted conflict pitting guerrilla groups against paramilitary forces with documented ties to the military. In 2000, a few wise members of Congress warned against entering into yet another military quagmire.
(snip/...)

http://www.anncol.org/uk/site/doc.php?id=229