US Military Aid to Colombia
Colombia has been one of the largest recipients of US military aid for well over a decade and the largest in the western hemisphere. Since 1994, AIUSA has called for a complete cut off of all US military aid until human rights conditions improve and impunity is tackled. Yet torture, massacres, "disappearances" and killings of non-combatants are widespread and collusion between the armed forces and paramilitary groups continues to this day. In 2006, US assistance to Colombia amounted to an estimated $728 million, approximately 80% of which was military and police assistance.
"Plan Colombia" – the name for the US aid package since 2000, was created as a strategy to combat drugs and contribute to peace, mainly through military means. The US government began granting large amounts of aid to Colombia in 2000 under the Clinton administration. Since the beginning of Plan Colombia, the US has given Colombia over $5 billion with the vast majority going to Colombia's military and police. These amounts are significantly higher than what is being given in economic and social assistance.
In addition to its call for a cut off of aid, AIUSA has supported the inclusion of a human rights "certification" provision in US aid packages for Colombia that require the Secretary of State to certify Colombia's progress on human rights criteria before aid can be distributed. The criteria includes suspension of military personnel who have aided or abetted paramilitary organizations, apprehension of leaders of paramilitary organizations, as well as others. While these provisions originally applied to 100% of U.S. security assistance to Colombia, Congress has changed the provision so it now only applies to the last 25% of U.S. assistance.
Despite overwhelming evidence of continued failure to protect human rights the State Department has continued to certify Colombia as fit to receive aid. The US has continued a policy of throwing "fuel on the fire" of already widespread human rights violations, collusion with illegal paramilitary groups and near total impunity.
Furthermore, after 6 years and over $5 billion dollars of US assistance to Colombia, US policy has failed to reduce availability or use of cocaine in the US, and Colombia's human rights record remains deeply troubling. Despite this, the Bush Administration's aid request for next year looks almost exactly the same as the past several years with an unjustifiable emphasis on security and especially military assistance that would make up about 80% of the aid package to Colombia. In fact, President Bush has asked Congress for another $3.9 billion over the next seven years.
Despite the government sponsored "demobilization" process both Colombian and international human rights organizations have repeatedly documented and reported on continued military-paramilitary collaboration. In fact, despite the supposed cease-fire agreement between the government and paramilitaries, the Colombian Commission of Jurists has documented that between July 2002 and June 2005 these groups assassinated or forcibly disappeared an average of 1,060 persons each year. Just recently, on January 31, 2007, a human rights defender named Yolanda Izquierdo was killed in the Department of Cordoba by gunmen suspected of being linked to army backed paramilitary groups. She was also working with survivors of paramilitary human rights violations at the demobilization hearing of paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso. In response, Mancuso issued a press statement acknowledging that there are currently over 5,000 re-armed paramilitaries operating in Colombia.
Meanwhile, reports documenting the ongoing direct responsibility of the security forces in human rights violations, including reports issued by the United Nations, are abundant. We see on-going use of military courts to handle cases of human rights violations and failure to take decisive action to combat impunity. In February, news coverage revealed that twenty-one military recruits were tortured by officers as they underwent training at the Colombian Army's Center for Instruction and Training.
Year after year US policy has ignored the evidence and the cries of the United Nations, Colombian and international non-governmental organizations and the people of Colombia. Plan Colombia is a failure in every respect and human rights in Colombia will not improve until there is a fundamental shift in US foreign policy.
