In 2005, I visited the community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia. A group of poor farmers who had been repeatedly displaced from their homes by violence, they had decided to call themselves a “peace community” and reject violence from all sides—paramilitaries, guerrillas and the army. Yet the community was subjected to ever more harassment and violence, including by the local 17th army brigade. Some 170 members of the peace community have been assassinated since 1997. My visit came soon after seven members of the peace community, including three children, and a local farmer had been massacred and dismembered. The community members had left their army-occupied town to construct a bare-bones, dirt-floor village down the road.
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by Lisa Haugaard
on July 01, 2010
Over two thousand civilians intentionally killed by army soldiers
seeking to beef up their body counts and score days off. A massive
illegal wiretapping operation by the president’s intelligence agency
targeting Supreme Court judges, journalists, opposition politicians and
human rights defenders. Seven human rights defenders and leaders of
displaced communities killed in May alone, in a nation where threats and
attacks against defenders are rarely effectively investigated and
government officials’ denunciations of them place them in danger. In
which authoritarian country opposed to the United States did these
abuses take place? In none other than Colombia, often called “the
United States’ best ally in the Western Hemisphere.” And we, the U.S.
taxpayers, bankrolled this friendship to the tune of more than $6
billion.
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by Lisa Haugaard
on August 24, 2010
Colombia's Constitutional Court issued an important decision last week
which sent Colombia's new administration back to the drawing board to
secure approval for a U.S.-Colombian military base agreement. The
decision effectively struck down the contentious agreement, chastising
the Colombian executive for having failed to get approval from
Colombia's Congress, and requiring them now to seek congressional
endorsement before moving forward.
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by Lisa Haugaard & Jenny Johnson
on June 27, 2010
We’ve seen up close how the production and trafficking of illicit drugs has fueled a war in Colombia, corrupted governments in Central America and brought terrifying violence to Mexican communities. We know about the devastating effects of drug abuse in our own neighborhoods in the United States. What has become clear is that solutions the U.S. government has pursued, such as the massive aerial spraying campaign in Colombia which destroys food as well as illicit drug crops or aid that encourages the Mexican army to police the streets and checkpoints do not solve the problem. Instead, it leads to more devastation and violence.
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by Lisa Haugaard
on August 19, 2010
On August 13th, a car bomb was detonated near the Caracol Radio headquarters, one of the largest networks in Colombia. LAWGEF and its partners issued the following statement in response:
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by Lisa Haugaard
on June 22, 2010
Guatemalans dreaming of and campaigning for a nation governed by the
rule of law were devastated June 7th when the head of a UN-supported
body set up to investigate organized crime resigned in frustration.
Carlos Castresana had labored valiantly, as head of the International
Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), to investigate the
organized crime that has penetrated the nation.
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