by Travis Wheeler
on June 15, 2006
Comments by Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director of the Latin America Working Group Education Fund
Many thanks to Bob Perillo for his excellent report on an issue that has received far less than the attention it is due.
No group in Colombia has been more specifically singled out for threats and assassination than organized labor, and no group has shown a more daring tenacity in continuing to operate under threat. Here today we are not only condemning these attacks but celebrating the Colombian union movement’s bravery and persistence.
Read more »
by Travis Wheeler
on May 17, 2006
Click here to view a PDF version.
To: Foreign Operations staffers
From: Lisa Haugaard
As you consider assistance for Colombia in the foreign operations appropriations bill for FY07, we hope the following information is useful. We strongly support continued assistance for Colombia, but believe it is imperative to readjust the aid package that has been primarily focused on military aid and aerial spraying (82% of U.S. aid since 2000 has been military/police aid).
- Despite $4.7 billion invested by the United States in Colombia, the amount of coca planted in Colombia in 2005 was more than when funding began in 2000 (136,200 hectares at the start of Plan Colombia in 2000; 144,000 hectares at the end of 2005, according to the State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 2005). Farmers whose crops are sprayed by aerial eradication who are not given adequate economic alternatives are replanting, and coca production is spreading all over the countryside. Coca production in 2005 increased in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. If the goal is to reduce drug abuse at home, resources must be redirected to treatment and prevention at home, and sustainable development alternatives abroad.
- Human rights violations remain grave. While there is some reduction in violence due to the demobilization of paramilitary forces, human rights violations continue to be severe in Colombia. The number of people fleeing their homes from political violence increased 8 percent from 2004 to 2005, estimated at 318,387 people displaced in 2005 by the Consultancy on Displacement and Human Rights (CODHES). Moreover, in 2005 more grave violations than in previous years were committed directly by Colombia’s security forces, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office in Colombia. The office reported “an upward trend” in allegations of extrajudicial executions of civilians and alteration of crime scenes by members of the army.
Cases were denounced of coordinated actions in which the victims were allegedly handed over by paramilitaries, subsequently executed by members of the military, and then presented as members of armed groups killed in combat, particularly in the metropolitan area of Medellín (Antioquia). Another modality was observed in allegations regarding victims executed by paramilitaries and presented by members of the army as killed in combat, in Putumayo and in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. (United Nations’ Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Colombia, January 20, 2006, covering the year 2005, Part I, point 29)
- Paramilitaries’ criminal and drug-trafficking structures remain largely intact. The demobilization of Colombia’s abusive paramilitary forces if permanent would be a very positive development, but these forces are far from completely dismantled. The OAS monitoring mission has documented the formation of new paramilitary groups and the participation of demobilizing paramilitaries in violent activities in five Colombian provinces, including committing massacres, forming new criminal bands and offering security services to drug traffickers. Paramilitary leaders have penetrated some local and national government structures; the former head of Colombia’s civilian intelligence agency, for example, is facing allegations that he colluded with a paramilitary mob boss in assassinations of civic leaders. Human rights groups and victims’ representatives have had their offices broken into and computer databases stolen, and some have received threatening messages from self-proclaimed new paramilitary groupings. The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective, for example, which litigates high-profile human rights cases such as the Mapiripán massacre, received this message recently: “This is an invitation to join our crusade against terrorism or your staff will suffer the full weight of our presence, we have the support of the government’s armed forces who always supported us… And to everyone who received a copy of this message I warn you if you don’t align yourselves with this reality it is better for you to take your humanitarian ideas and go to some other place outside of our sacred Colombian territory…”In another recent example, fifteen students, employees and teaching staff at the University of Antioquia just received a death threat from the Autodefensas Unidas de Antioquia, believed to be operating since 1999 (Amnesty International alert 23/023/2006, 16 May 2006).
How should U.S. policy and aid be improved?
In FY07, US assistance should prioritize alternative development and humanitarian aid:
- increase focus on alternative development for a more sustainable impact on drug production, rather than pouring resources into expensive, ineffective and inhumane aerial eradication campaigns
- increase focus on the victims of violence: humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons and Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities
- channel assistance to efforts to strengthen justice, including funding for the Colombia office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and for the Colombian government’s ombudsman’s office, inspector general’s office, and the Attorney General’s human rights unit and unit to implement prosecutions under the paramilitary demobilization law.
In addition, U.S. policy should get tougher in insisting that the Colombian government end impunity and thoroughly dismantle paramilitary and drug trafficking structures:
- enforce the human rights conditions in law, requiring the Colombian government to make much greater efforts to investigate and prosecute members of the security forces credibly alleged to have committed human rights violations, and greater efforts to sever all links between the armed forces and illegal armed groups; and
- insist that the Colombian government make much more vigorous efforts to fully dismantle paramilitary groups and their financial, criminal and drug trafficking structures; confiscate their financial assets and, particularly, the vast areas of land which they have obtained through violence; return lands to Colombia’s internally displaced persons; and investigate and prosecute new illegal paramilitary groups that are being created.
Additional assistance for expensive helicopters or more military training beyond the enormous investment Colombia already receives will only drain resources from these important goals and will not help Colombia reduce drug production or provide the necessary support to the justice system to strengthen the rule of law.
For more detailed recommendations, see Blueprint for a New Colombia Policy we published with the Center for International Policy, the Washington Office on Latin America, and the U.S. Office on Colombia, with input from Colombian civil society organizations.
Read more »
|
by Travis Wheeler
on June 13, 2006
House vote on Colombia drug policy
Last week, the House of Representatives authorized more foreign aid for Colombia in FY07 than in previous years, approving an aid package that even exceeded President Bush's request by $39 million. Members voted down an amendment to the foreign aid bill which would have transferred $30 million from failed aerial drug spraying efforts in Colombia to emergency relief aid for refugees worldwide. The Colombian military carries out the country's aerial fumigation programs, and while the amendment would have transferred only a relatively small portion of the overall aid package to Colombia, the debate sent a message to the Colombian government that U.S. aid cannot be taken for granted, and that we demand accountability from the recipients of U.S. funds. The House amendment was struck down by a vote of 174-229.
The vote on the House amendment was preceded by an intense, hour-long debate on the House floor. Members of Congress in favor of the amendment laid out strong arguments on the ineffectiveness of drug policy and spoke adamantly about human rights problems in Colombia. They insisted that the United States should not give Colombia a blank check.
The heated debate in the Capitol was led by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the initial sponsor of the legislation, who spoke passionately about our approach to Colombia in recent years. "[Drug policy] has been a miserable failure," he stated, "and the Colombian military continues to commit heinous acts with impunity." Rep. McGovern cited grave human rights abuses by the Colombian military, including the recent massacre of an entire anti-narcotics police unit. "We're not a cheap date that you can take advantage of," said Mr. McGovern. "…We're watching and we demand accountability." Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services C ommittee, reinforced the idea. "This amendment, which I support, shows Colombia that assistance is not unlimited and should not go unchecked." Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA), a co-sponsor of the amendment, voiced his overall concern about the U.S. role in Colombia's internal conflict. "I don't support the amendment out of a conviction it is an answer to a real dilemma between both the Colombian and American people, but out of a belief that a military emphasis of this kind carries many counterproductive consequences."
Representatives also focused on the total lack of success of the drug policy. Rep. Leach mentioned that "[t]he priority debate today is not about whether stemming the drug trade is appropriate, but the methodology of going about it." The opposition insisted that hundreds of thousands of hectares of coca have been sprayed during Plan Colombia, to which Rep. McGovern rebutted, "[y]es, eradication has dramatically increased, but it has changed nothing." Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) agreed, asserting that alternative development programs for small far mers are far more effective than aerial spraying. "You can't wipe out a crop by bombing it."
Few amendments to the foreign aid bill, which determines U.S. assistance worldwide, received as much attention as did this one. The U.S. approach to Colombia policy, which has undergone little change since the inception of Plan Colombia in 1999, continues to be contentious among legislators. The vote on this amendment occurred on a Friday when some members of Congress travel back to their districts, which could explain the nearly 30 representatives who were absent for the vote. Although the number of votes in favor of the amendment was 174, slightly lower than in past years, the same percentage of representatives voted for a change in policy toward Colombia.
We owe a special thank you to the cosponsors to the Colombia amendment: Representatives McGovern, Leach, Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Barbara Lee (D-CA). We are particularly grateful of Rep. McGovern's relentless dedication to this issue. Thanks also to Reps. Skelton and Dave Obey (D-WI) for making strong statements during the debate, and to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for her active support of the amendment. We are very appreciative of Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) as well, the top Democrat on the foreign operations subcommittee, who helped to ensure an extra $10 million in economic aid to Colombia, in response to our concerns of the need to help victims of the conflict.
Other amendments to the foreign aid bill affecting Latin America
Representatives in the House also voted on an amendment to the foreign aid bill to cut funds for the School the Americas/ WHINSEC, a U.S. training facility for Latin American military. A number of graduates of the institution have been implicated in mass murders and other grave human rights violations in Latin America in recent decades. The amendment lost by 188-218 but generated a strong debate. "Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been victims of School of the Americas graduates," stated Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). Congresswoman Barbara Lee echoed the sentiment, saying that "a positive step to improve relations with Latin America would be to simply eliminate this institute."
In a similar vein, Reps. Leach and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) offered an amendment to transfer $250 million from the Foreign Military Financing account to the Development Assistance account. Funds would have supported investments to reduce severe poverty around the world including for increased access to clean water. "[T] he American people overwhelmingly support these investments to fight against global poverty," said Rep. Blumenauer. "Recently, the Program on International Assistance Policy Attitudes found that 65 percent of the American public would support significant increases in U.S. assistance to fight poverty and disease."
Senate freezes aid to Colombian military
While the House approved increased aid for Colombia in the coming year, the Senate decided in the same week to put a temporary hold on a portion of this year's military assistance to Colombia. The decision was influenced by growing concerns of the human rights' record of the Colombian military, including the massacre of the anti-narcotics police unit just weeks ago.
Supplemental aid for helicopters in Colombia cut in half
The House approved in March an amendment to the Iraq Supplemental spending bill to provide Colombia's armed forces with an additional $26 million. Yet in the final version of the bill this aid was cut down to $13 million. The original amendment, proposed Rep. Burton (IN), indicated that the funds were to be used to purchase new spray planes and helicopters from U.S. companies for drug interdiction efforts. These funds add to the nearly $700 million that Colombian military and police forces receive each year from the United States. Read more on Rep. Burton's amendment at: http://www.lawg.org/countries/colombia/house-mixed_signals.htm.
President Uribe visits Washington; State Department releases military aid in wake of Uribe's reelection
The Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe met with various members of Congress and with President Bush last week in a trip to Washington, D.C. The visit came on the heels of President Uribe's reelection on May 28, which was immediately followed by a State Department decision to release millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Colombia's military. The assistance was released through the human rights certification process, which occurs twice a year and requires the State Department to determine whether or not Colombian security forces are meeting human rights standards. Yet relatively little progress has been made on many cases of abuse by the Colombian military.
Read more »
by Travis Wheeler
on March 08, 2006
In March, the House of Representatives made a strong statement of concern regarding lack of human rights progress in Colombia—and added several aircraft to the Colombian police and navy's drug interdiction efforts. Representatives Sam Farr and James McGovern sent a letter signed by 59 members of Congress to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging the secretary to withhold certification that Colombia is meeting the human rights conditions established in law. The letter urged progress on specific cases and improvements in the human rights record of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army (Reps. Shays and Bean also sent similar letters). The State Department is currently withholding a portion of FY2005 military aid from the Colombian government due to lack of progress in investigating cases of human rights abuses. Your actions asking your members to sign helped make this a significant letter.
See the letters and signers at: http://www.lawg.org/docs/RiceCertification03-06.pdf
See LAWGEF memo on certification at: http://www.lawg.org/countries/colombia/certification2006.htm
"Certification is our only congressional oversight tool for urging the Colombian government to comply with international human rights norms," stated Congressmen Farr and McGovern. The certification process mandates that in order for the Colombian military to receive 25 percent of each year's military aid budget, the State Department must certify that significant progress is being made on cases of human rights abuses by Colombian security forces. Currently, the Department of State is withholding 12.5 percent of the approximately $640 million in police and military aid from FY2005.
The House of Representatives approved $26 million in additional assistance for Colombia's police and military last week in an amendment to the Iraq supplemental bill. Proposed by Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), the sudden amendment was passed in the House by a margin of 250 – 172. The funds will add to the approximately $600 million in aid that Colombian security forces are already scheduled to receive this year from the United States.The amendment will fund marine patrol aircraft for the Colombian navy and helicopters for the Colombian national police. While intended for drug interdiction, these aircraft could be used for protecting spray planes and for the war effort more generally.
The original version of the amendment intended to send nearly $100 million to Colombian security forces, but Rep. Burton reduced it to $26 million in an effort to gain support. The final version of Rep. Burton's amendment was especially difficult to oppose because it did not simply add $26 million to the Iraq supplemental bill, but took the money from a program to construct more prisons in Iraq. Members were forced to choose between sending money to the Colombian security forces or sending it to Iraq for building prisons—neither a very attractive option.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), ranking member on the foreign operations subcommittee, spoke on the House floor just before the vote. Ms. Lowey had recently returned from a trip to Colombia and called for a new approach to U.S.-Colombia policy focusing on alternative development in lieu of drug crop eradication. "I think it is time that we look at a different mix for funding for Colombia, one that boosts spending on alternate development and interdiction programs and reduces funding for eradication programs which I think are ineffective at best," Lowey stated.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) reported that despite the largest drug crop spraying campaign ever in Colombia in 2004, there was no change in the amount of coca produced, and similar figures are expected for 2005. The drug problem is fundamentally one of supply and demand, and in order to stop it money should be put into drug prevention and treatment programs at home in order to reduce demand, and into alternative development abroad in order to reduce supply.
This skirmish was not the major vote for aid to Colombia this year, which will still take place as the FY 2007 foreign operations appropriations bill comes to the House floor in May or June. Congress is expected to request that Plan Colombia continue as it has for the past six years, with 80 percent of the aid going directly to Colombian security forces. We support amendments to this bill that transfer aid from military assistance to humanitarian needs; we would like to see the United States prioritize aid for those most negatively affected by Colombia's conflict, including internally displaced persons, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, and the rural poor.
View the roll call for the vote on Rep. Burton's amendment.
Also, thank your member of Congress if they signed the Farr-McGovern letter and/or voted NO on Rep. Burton’s amendment.
Read more »
|
by Travis Wheeler
on June 06, 2006
Read more »
by Travis Wheeler
on March 01, 2006
"We are writing to ask you to refrain from certifying that the Colombian government meets human rights conditions...until the Colombian Army's 17th Brigade improves its human rights practices. We also believe that certification requires more substantial progress in prosecuting a number of other outstanding cases involving allegations of gross human rights violations." Read the full letter (PDF).
Read more »
|
Action Center
