|
|
| Resources | Colombia | Palestine | Iraq | People of Color | Students| Photos | Links |
As the debate has been raging in the US as to whether the US’ pre-emptive strike on Iraq was moral, and whether occupation is war, the US has been quietly escalating a conflict in another part of the world: Colombia. Since 2000 the US has been funding a war against the Colombian people through its aid proposals entitled: Plan Colombia. In fact, Colombia, after Israel and Egypt, is the 3rd highest recipient of military aide from the US. Since 2000, the US has spent about 2.5 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia under the banner of a “war on drugs”(Washington Post 2/2/04). However, in August of 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield traveled to Colombia and stated what the Bush administration really sees as their new justification, “Colombia is a very important country that is in our same hemisphere…(and it is) on the front line of the global war against terrorism.” (WW 9/11/03) Rather, this “War of Terror” is using American tax dollars to kill trade unionists, human rights workers, and civilians in a brutal effort by the US government to, just like in Iraq, push forward another agenda determined by corporate economic interests.
The History of Plan Colombia:
Many people assume that US intervention is a Republican strategy, but the US started its largest increase in military aid to Colombia under a Democratic president. On July 13, 2000, President Clinton signed Plan Colombia into law. Through Plan Colombia, the U.S. has invested some two billion dollars in Colombia's civil war. Most of the aid is fumigation chemicals, attack helicopters, weaponry, hi-tech surveillance planes and equipment. Much of the money outfits and trains "counter-narcotics battalions" for a push into southern Colombia. These battalions in reality don’t combat drug lords as much as left-wing guerrillas like the FARC and the ELN, and they include soldiers who violate the human rights of Colombian civilians.
The justification Clinton and Congress gave for Plan Colombia was to help the Colombian government fight the “War on Drugs”. They claimed that through this process they would help the Colombian government improve it’s democracy and human rights record. Even though the Colombian Congress did NOT pass this law, and almost all of Minnesota’s legislators didn’t vote for it, Plan Colombia unfortunately did still pass and Clinton signed it.
This legacy has continued with every budget cycle since 2000 has included new increases in aid to Colombia and the Andean region. In fact, according to the International Herald Tribune, “US military aid to Latin American has more than tripled in the past 5 years”. It goes on to note, “Colombia is also the largest recipient of US training despite the fact that the US State Dept, the UN, and several international human rights organizations have documented serious human rights abuses by the Colombian military.” (12/24/03)
In 2003, the Bush Administration, using the "War on Terror" as a justification, won more increases in military aid and involvement, including a $100 million military aid project to protect an oil pipeline in northern Colombia. That money was attached directly to the administration’s request for funds for the war in Iraq. Bush has altered the original intent and rhetoric of Clinton’s Plan Colombia. Now the US clearly states that it’s goal is to arm the Colombian government in an effort to fight “terrorism and to defeat the rebel armies. The US has placed the FARC, the ELN and the AUC (the paramilitaries) on the State Dept’s list of terrorist organizations. Although the US’ military aid is not used against the paramilitaries and rather FOR the paramilitaries, the Bush administration is attempting to connect it’s military interests in Colombia and its rhetoric with it’s ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Colombian human rights, labor & other activists are calling for an END to U.S. military aid & intervention, because it fuels and accelerates the military and the paramilitary’s war efforts. Before Plan Colombia, there was a formalized peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC. There were also talks starting to occur between the ELN and the government. Unfortunately the peace process fell apart. The military aid that poured in from Plan Colombia escalated the conflict, and has taken – for now- peace talks off the table. Paramilitary forces have driven more than 2 million people have been driven off their lands, many of them Afro-Colombians. Paramilitary death squads work hand-in-hand with the Colombian military, and reap the benefits of US military aid. The paramilitaries, along with the military, are responsible for 80% of Colombia's human rights violations - the worst record in Latin America. Political assassinations and disappearances are all too common, and trade unionists are the hardest hit. US corporations even employ paramilitary groups to intimidate, threaten and murder Colombian union leaders. Coca-Cola is now the subject of an international boycott campaign, because of its use of paramilitary violence against its union workers.
The US interests in Colombia and Latin America:
Much like Iraq, Colombia has oil. Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia provide a substantial amount of the oil that we use here in the U.S. Corporations like BP Amoco and Occidental Oil want to increase their holdings in the country, however Colombia is not a ‘safe place for investment’ with a long standing civil war. Both guerrilla armies feel that Colombians should receive the economic benefit of their natural resources and fight against the oil industry’s expansion into new territory – some of which are controlled by indigenous groups.
The progressive government next door in Venezuela is also a cause for concern for corporate interests and for the US government. Hugo Chavez has taken steps to secure Venezuela’s oil production profits for the Venezuelan people and has not let the US use its air space to fly into Colombia. His defiance of the US’ interests in the region is a danger to the US. The US has attempted to overthrow Chavez several times and views both him and the rebel armies of Colombia as bad examples for the rest of Latin America.
Colombia is a very important country geo-politically for the US. Not only are they the only country with both Atlantic and Pacific coasts in South America, but also at a time when the U.S. no longer has the Panama Canal there are talks of building another canal in northern Colombia. The U.S. is concerned that if armed rebel groups got state power that would foil the U.S.'s economic plans for increased free trade, oil access, canal building, and possibly cause turmoil in the region.
The US also sees the Colombian revolution as a threat to their economic interests
in the region.
Despite Colombia’s vast wealth of natural resources, more than 60% of
Colombia’s 44 million people are poor. Unemployment is almost 15%. Uribe
has increased taxes and food prices while decreasing access for basic human
services like healthcare, education and transportation. Meanwhile his privatization
plans have laid off many workers in healthcare and phone services. Uribe has
been a supporter of the US’ free trade plans for Latin America. The US
wants to push the FTAA and regional agreements like CAFTA through. However,
throughout Latin America the social movements are responding by saying “Neoliberalismo
NO!” In Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, El Salvador, etc. the social movements
and progressive political parties are organizing and saying no to becoming
the dumping ground for US products which shut down local industries, privatization
which decreases social services and increases unemployment, and to an increase
in maquilas and free trade zones. Cherrene will develop these ideas further,
but the intent of the US’ military aid to Colombia and throughout the
region is to subdue the social movements’ resistance to free trade, privatization
of oil industries, and social services.
Human Rights, Rather the Lack Thereof
The president of Colombia, Uribe, recently traveled to the European Union to drum up support for his war efforts. His visit was not met with support on Feb. 10th in France where more than a dozen legislators walked out of his visit to protest his atrocious human rights record. Forces in the EU have recently shown they are concerned about Uribe’s decision in December to give the military and the police considerable new and sweeping powers to search and arrest without warrants. He also proposed fines and community service as just punishment for paramilitaries who are convicted of crimes against humanity!
Unfortunately, the US government doesn’t appear to have the same level of concern. Although aid to the Colombian government is supposed to be conditioned on a determination by the Secretary of State, with the assistance of 3 NGO's, Colin Powell has consistently determined that the Colombian government is not guilty of human rights abuses and that the military has no connections with paramilitaries. Most recently on January 24th Powell AGAIN waived the human rights record of Colombia in order to release continued military aid even though human rights groups in Colombia and in the US – including the Washington Office on Latin America, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch - denounced his decision. They document that the military aid the US sends goes directly to the paramilitary death squads. Human Rights Watch found, "the Colombian Armed Forces, in particular the army and navy, continue to organize, coordinate with, share information with, support and tolerate paramilitary groups." Military and paramilitary officers known to have atrocious human rights records remain in command and in active duty. Paramilitaries use tactics like disappearances, massacres, bombings, threats, and also destruction of the environment that peasants and the Colombian people rely on to live. Essentially the distinction between the "legal" military and the paramilitaries is non-existent. International human rights groups argue that Colombia has the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere and that it’s one of the most dangerous places to be a union activist or journalist in the world! This is the eighth time the US has waived Colombia’s human rights requirements for aid despite the fact that it was their awful record that got this prevision added to the bill in the first place!
Conclusion:
This is not a "War on Drugs,” nor even a "War on Terrorism." This is U.S. intervention in Colombia's civil war. By funding a corrupt government that is fighting against it's own people and involved in gross human rights violations, we are agitating a conflict that should be in the hands of the Colombian people. This intervention has eliminated Colombian's sovereignty over their own country and destinies. The Colombian people should be able to choose their own government.
On Feb. 2nd Bush proposed a federal budget for 2005, which includes a proposal for nearly 700 million in aid to Colombia. This is a 24 million dollar increase in aid from 2004 and would put Colombia only 2nd in foreign aid to Pakistan. Most of the money is earmarked for drug crop fumigation and drug trafficking interdiction. This budget includes 109 million to finance a special Colombian military brigade to protect an oil pipeline and to train and equip new military leaders (Colombia Week 2/10/04). We need to call Congress and the president to say no to continuing the extension of Plan Colombia!
This issue will continue to be an important on in the coming months. Both Kerry and Bush have supported Plan Colombia and the upcoming election is an opportunity to challenge their support for US military aid to Colombia! We also need to challenge their support for free trade agreements that attack labor and human rights!
The Anti War Committee will continue to organize against US military aid to Colombia and we hope you’ll be a part of helping stop Plan Colombia!
Anti-War
Committee |