by Lisa Haugaard
on July 27, 2010
A big white teddy bear sat on top of one of the little coffin boxes, and red roses on the other three. The remains of the four sisters were finally being returned to their mother, Blanca Nieves Meneses.
“I never thought that this is the way they would be returned to me,” said their surviving sister Nancy. “I always kept hoping that they would be returned alive.”
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 Vanessa Kritzer and Lisa Haugaard
on July 23, 2010
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by Vanessa Kritzer
on July 01, 2010
Far Worse than Watergate reveals the inside story about a wiretapping scandal in Colombia. It documents how the Colombian government’s intelligence agency not only spied upon major players in Colombia’s democracy—from Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges to presidential candidates, from journalists and publishers to human rights defenders, unions and faith-based organizations, from international organizations to U.S. and European human rights groups—but also carried out dirty tricks, and even death threats, to undermine their legitimate, democratic activities. Read our publication Far Worse than Watergate (PDF) Lea nuestra publicación Mucho peor que el Watergate (PDF)
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by Vanessa Kritzer
on July 16, 2010
This week marked the 10th year since the infamous U.S. aid package known as “Plan Colombia” was signed into law. And while some U.S. and Colombian officials have been celebrating it as a “success” and pushing to use it as a model for other countries like Afghanistan or Mexico, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) chose to commemorate this anniversary by releasing a report that describes exactly why that analysis is not only misguided but also dangerous.
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by Lisa Haugaard
on June 17, 2010
The year was 2004. I was contacted by Colombian human rights activists. Would I please come to Colombia to join them in a book launch of the second edition of The Authoritarian Spell? They were worried that the book, a collectively written critique of what they saw as authoritarian tendencies by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe, would provoke a reaction, and wanted international accompaniment. I said yes, and went to one of the book launches in Medellín, where a professor at the local university spoke and introduced me and several of the book’s coauthors, and we had a genteel, scholarly discussion of current events, in an auditorium filled mainly with students and professors.
Little did we know that the book, criticized by the government as exaggerated, was in fact far too light a critique of the government’s authoritarian tendencies.
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