|
|
| Resources | Colombia | Palestine | Iraq | People of Color | Students| Photos | Links |
The movement and energy of the media, the government, and the people was amazing; so amazing it eclipsed all other subjects, including U.S. involvement and aid to Colombia. While we were all fighting to keep troops out of the Middle East, troops were being deployed to Colombia to fight "terrorism and drug trafficking". The U.S. government has succeeded in distracting the public's attention from ongoing military intervention in other regions where the U.S. has a long history of worsening human rights and social justice. The government was able to distract us from other key regions where U.S. intervention also has a long history of worsening human rights and the rights of people around the globe.
Military Aid to Colombia, while historically billed to the public under the guise of the "War on Drugs", comes in a context of a Colombian civil war over the land rights of peasants, farmers, workers and indigenous peoples rights to land. This year alone we are giving $860 million to the Colombian government, three quarters of which is going to military and police forces. This money is blatant Vietnam-era anti-insurgency aid intended to combat. This aid comes in direct response to people's groups like the ELN (National Liberation Army) and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) who have been fighting since the 50's and 60's for social change in Colombia the rights of peasants. In a weakly governed country with stark social inequalities and historically abusive and corrupt security forces, focusing U.S. largesse on the police and military to fight drugs, a symptom more than a cause of the country's problems, has had grave consequences. These consequences include leading to an expansion of the social and armed conflict, failing to solve drug problems, harming the peace process,
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.
So why does the U.S. keep funding the Colombian government?
Much like Iraq, Colombia has oil. Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia provide a very substantial amount of the oil that we use here in the U.S. There are also a vast quantity amount of precious resources such as emeralds and rich farmland. Looking geographically, Colombia is a very important country. Not only are they the only country with both Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but at a time when the U.S. no longer has the Panama Canal there are talks of building a land "canal" in northern Colombia. Thus the U.S. is afraid 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.
Human Rights, or lack thereof
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 cleared that the government is not guilty of human rights abuses and that the military has no connections with paramilitaries. 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. Essentially the distinction between the "legal" military and the paramilitaries is non-existent.
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch indicate that the money that we are sending in military aid is going directly into activities and groups like the paramilitaries that are amongst the worst human rights violators in the world. Colombia, in fact, has the worst human rights record in Western Hemisphere. Paramilitaries use tactics like disappearances, massacres, bombings, threats, and also destruction of the environment that peasants and the Colombian people rely on to live.
A whole other facet of the human rights catastrophe in Colombia is the violence committed against labor organizers. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) released a report indicating that 184 trade unionists were killed last year in Colombia ALONE! This number accounts for some 86% of worldwide killings of union members. ICFTU reports that an additional 189 Colombian unionist were the target of death threats, 27 were victims of assassination attempts, nine were "disappeared" and that there were a total of 166 abductions and arbitrary arrests of union members. Security forces and paramilitary groups do this violence against union members and civil society as a whole with our tax dollars!
For More Information:
Washington office on Latin America: www.wola.org
Human Rights Watch, Colombia Campaign: www.hrw.org/campaigns/colombia/
Amnesty International, Colombia: www.amnestyusa.org/countries/colombia/
Military aid to Colombia: www.americas.org/country/Colombia/ U.S._Military_Aid.htm
The Center for International Policy's Colombia Project: www.ciponline.org/colombia/
Human Rights Abuses at The Coca Cola plant in Colombia: www.cokewatch.org
THE U.S. WAR AGAINST THE COLOMBIAN PEOPLE MUST END NOW!
Anti-War
Committee |