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In 2000, the Clinton Administration won a $1.6 billion aid package to
Colombia, called Plan Colombia. This amounted to over $2 billion over
the following two years, $2 million per day. 85% of this aid package will
go to the most abusive military in the Western Hemisphere and pull the
United States into a civil war. The Bush Administration has continued
the Clinton policy of massive military aid.
Every day, hundreds of 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 funded the
creation of several counternarcotics battalions that have gone into direct
combat with Colombia's left-wing guerrillas. In spite of the terrible
human rights record of the Colombian army, US collaboration with them
is growing every day.
Major components of Clinton's aid package included:
- helping the Colombian government push into the coca-growing regions
of southern Colombia, the very same areas where Colombia is battling
the counter-insurgency war;
- training new special counter-narcotics battalions to clear the Southern
area of insurgency;
- 30 Blackhawk and 33 Huey helicopters;
- upgrading Colombian capability to aggressively interdict cocaine
and cocaine traffickers as well as support radar, aircraft and airfield
upgrades, and improved anti-narcotics intelligence gathering;
- coca crop eradication through aerial fumigation tactics that damage
the environment and have failed to reduce coca production in the past.
The Clinton Administration claimed that this aid package aims to stop
drug trafficking, but coca production has been on the rise since the program
began. He said militaray aid wouldn't pull us deeper into Colombia's dirty
counter-insurgency war, but U.S. military have died fighting Colombian
guerrillas. Clinton claimed that increased assistance will only support
positive investment in Colombia's economic development and future, instead
it has wrecked the peace process and unemployment and poverty continue
to grow.
The Bush Administration has continued to call for more dollars to for
Colombian killers, and has supported the new right-wing President, Alvaro
Uribe Velez. Velez has brought the dirty war home to every village in
Colombia, recruiting poor people to serve as spies against their neighbors.
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The Human Rights Situation in Colombia
General Facts:
- Reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch indicate
that the human right situation in Colombia is growing worse while
the
Colombian government, against their obligations, does little to nothing
to reverse this course.
- Amnestly International and other human rights organizations report
that Colombia has the worst human rights record in Latin America.
Killings
- 112 labor leaders were killed in Colombia in 2000; in past years,
over half of all labor leaders killed globally have been Colombian.
Paramilitaries
- Paramilitaries are responsible for the vast majority of human rights
abuses in Colombia -- at least 78%.
Displacement
- 317,000 more people were displaced in Colombia in 2000; there are
a total of over 1.5 million internally displaced people.
Indigenous People's Rights
- Children from the indigenous U'wa tribe have been killed by military
forces after the U'wa resisted the government's illegal sale of their
land to Occidental (a US oil company)
Take Action!
Contact Minnesota's congressional delegation and the president. Urge them
to demand the US not give military aid. Click
here for contact info.
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*********** TALKING POINTS ***********
When you call or write Congress or the media, focus on
some of this information!
TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE/SENATOR:
- Colombia's military is the most abusive in the Western Hemisphere.
Colombian security forces continue to support paramilitary forces that
participate in the drug trade and commit over 70% of the horrendous
human rights abuses in Colombia.
- The package does not adequately address Colombia's human rights and
humanitarian crisis.
- Despite a 17-fold increase in US drug war spending since 1980, illicit
drugs are cheaper, more potent and more easily available than two decades
ago. The drug war at home and abroad not only has harmful side effects:
it doesn't work. In the United States, we should focus on reducing demand
through treatment and prevention programs.
ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE/SENATOR TO:
- Oppose aid to the Colombian army due to human rights concerns, especially
army links to brutal paramilitary forces.
- Increase funding for drug treatment and prevention at home.
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