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Fueling Conflict in ColombiaWhat's Going On | Take Action | More Information Plan Colombia This two year, $1.6 billion aid package shaped by the Clinton Administration to $1.6, approved with little Congressional or public debate and wide bipartisan support, now inherited by President Bush. This new aid combined with funds already directed toward Colombia will amount to $1.6 billion over the next two years. The majority of the aid will go to the most abusive military in the Western Hemisphere and pull the United States into the quagmire of a counterinsurgency war. Major components of Clinton's aid package include:
A History of Conflict Colombia’s tumultuous history stems from a rural civil war fought between Colombia’s Liberal and Conservative parties for political control from 1948 to 1953. During this period, referred to as "La Violencia," groups of armed men paid by political bosses from both sides of the conflict, often with assistance from the police, would attack villages, scalping and decapitating peasants. Massive human rights abuses continue to this day. The conflict is driven by a complex system of economic and land related needs, and age old divides between rich and poor and accompanying social inequities. Parties to the modern conflict include: Guerrillas: Approximately 20,000 combatants compose the two largest guerilla groups, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army). The former exerts territorial control in key coca growing regions in southern Colombia, taxing coca cultivation and cocaine production to fund its war effort. The latter maintains a strategic base in key oil producing areas in the northeastern part of the country. Each is responsible for widespread violations of international humanitarian law. Guerrilla forces are responsible for the majority of kidnappings for profit. FARC guerrillas killed 3 U.S. indigenous rights activists in 1999. Paramilitaries: Paramilitary groups have been united since 1996 under the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia). Violent attacks by these groups against unarmed civilians escalated in 1999 as they fought for territorial control, access to key drug trafficking routes, and a seat at the negotiating table. Paramilitaries are responsible for 70% of human rights violations. Army: Security forces engage in both counterinsurgency and counter drug operations. The Colombian army is one of the most abusive in the hemisphere. Often linked to paramilitaries and their abuses, it also harbors a number of human rights violators. Parties to Colombia’s conflict rarely fight one another, and instead attack their enemies’ alleged sympathizers - most often unarmed civilians. The impact of this violence is staggering. Over 30,000 Colombians have lost their lives in the conflict. More than 185 massacres were recorded in 1997 alone. One-and-a-half million internal refugees have been forced from their homes by violence. Human rights monitors, labor unionists, peace leaders, humanitarian workers, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous peoples are increasingly threatened, displaced by violence, disappeared and murdered. U.S. Military Assistance Every day, at least 250 to 300 U.S. military personnel and advisors counsel, train, and share intelligence with Colombia’s security forces in ways that support counterinsurgency efforts. Our government has already funded the creation of a 950-troop counternarcotics battalion that is being trained to operate in Southern Colombia in a territory under dispute between Colombia’s leftwing guerrillas and rightwing paramilitaries. Two more battalions are in the works. In addition to military aid, many Colombian soldiers have attended the U.S. School of the America’s (SOA) located in Fort Benning, Georgia. The SOA is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers that is well-known for graduating some of the worst human rights abusers in Latin America. Colombia has sent more troops to train at the SOA than any other Latin American country, with chilling results. The 1993 human rights report State Terrorism in Colombia cites 247 Colombian officers for human rights violations. Fully one half of those cited were SOA graduates. Some were even featured as SOA guest speakers or instructors or included in the "Hall of Fame" after their involvement in such crimes. For example, General Farouk Yanini Diaz was a guest speaker at the school in 1990 and 1991 after his involvement in the 1988 Uraba massacre of 20 banana workers, the assassination of the mayor of Sabana de Torres, and the massacre of 19 businessmen. According to a U.S. State Department Report, he was also accused of "establishing and expanding paramilitary death squads, as well as ordering dozens of disappearances, and the killing of judges and court personnel sent to investigate previous crimes." A 1998 U.S. State Department Report states that Colombia’s 20th military brigade was disbanded for its involvement in human rights abuses, including the targeted killing of civilians. The commander of that brigade was SOA graduate Paucelino Latorre Gamboa. The report also links SOA graduates to an illegal raid on the offices of a nongovernmental human rights group, and implicates an SOA graduate for his complicity in a 1997 massacre. Alternatives to Plan Colombia Plan Colombia has made the United States a major actor in Colombia's three-decade old internal conflict. The U.S. Government claims that this aid package is directed at counter narcotics operations and will not further involve us in Colombia's dirty counter insurgency war. They claim increased assistance will only support positive investment in Colombia's economic development and future. In reality, only a small portion of the aid package provides for nonmilitary aid in an attempt to support peace, human rights and economic assistance. Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) returned from Colombia at the end of February calling for steps that must be taken to before Colombia receives additional U.S. aid. These steps include:
Civilians in Colombia have overwhelmingly voted for and marched in favor of peace. Massive infusions of military aid will not only increase the displacement and suffering of the Colombian people, being perpetrated by all the armed groups, but will also strengthen hard-liners in Colombia who oppose the peace process. Increased funding to enable farmers to shift from coca production to other crops not aerial defoliation, for drug addiction programs in the United States, for economic development, and for human rights work is needed - not more weapons for military training. Update of a fact sheet by Diana Onken. Thank you to the Latin America Working Group and SOA Watch for providing information for this bulletin. Links to other organizations and sites |
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