The State Department on September 15, 2011, certified that Colombia had met the human rights conditions attached to U.S. assistance. No surprise there—the State Department always certifies Colombia meets the conditions, no matter what is happening on the ground. To be fair, this time, with the year-old Santos Administration, there’s somewhat more reason to certify than during countless rounds of certification during the Uribe Administration. The certification document cites the Santos Administration's successful passage of a victims' reparations and land restitution bill; a “disarming of words” initiative in which it abandoned the inflammatory anti-NGO language used by Uribe and his top officials, which had endangered human rights defenders and journalists; progress on some historic human rights cases; and a variety of directives and policy initiatives, at least on paper, to support human rights and labor rights.
But the 118- page document contains a wealth of information that shows why we should still be deeply concerned.
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.
With over 4.9 million Colombians forcibly displaced from their homes by a debilitating war, Colombia is now the second worst internal displacement crisis in the world. Between now and April 30, tens of thousands across the U.S. and Colombia will participate in this year’s National Days of Action for Colombia to call for a much-needed shift in U.S. policies toward the war-torn country. Please join us! Click here for photos, stories, instructions, factsheets, and more!
This year, the National Days of Action will focus on the displacement crisis, but in a different way than last year when we made thousands of paper dolls to symbolize the number of IDPs in Colombia. This year we’re asking you to go a step further than just understanding what is happening, and start talking about why in a campaign we’re calling “Face the Displaced – Colombia: Our Hemisphere’s Hidden Humanitarian Crisis.”
The art project: Our partners in Colombia have helped us gather over 40 faces of forcibly displaced people in Colombia and their stories. As a way to make our legislators and communities face up to the human reality of this crisis, we’re going to make large posters displaying these people and their words, and will frame them with a message to President Obama asking for U.S. policies towards Colombia that will support internally displaced people and help alleviate the crisis.
Take a look at the example we made on the right. Now, imagine how powerful thousands of posters like these would be!
Community action: Once we’ve made these posters, we’re going to need your help organizing public events and church services all over the country where we can display these faces and teach about the displacement crisis in Colombia. Even if you can’t do a poster making party, if you can join the hundreds of grassroots groups and churches both in the United States and in Colombia that will be educating their communities throughout April and praying for peace in Colombia on the weekend of April 16-19th, it will make a huge difference.Click here for more information on organizing a demonstration.
Legislative change: We’ll work with you during April and beyond to ensure that Washington feels the force of the movement calling for change in U.S. policies towards Colombia. First, they’ll hear from you on the National Call-In Day on April 19th. Then, once you’ve displayed these faces in your cities, send the materials to Washington in May where we’ll be doing some last big displays before taking the faces with to Congress and the Administration to deliver your message. We’ll post more info on these actions soon!
by Adam Isacson, Center for International Policyon November 10, 2009
On Friday, November 6th, the U.S. government finally released itsestimate of how much coca was cultivated in Colombia in 2008. The result is the first reduction in coca-growing since 2002-2003, a significant drop from 167,000 hectares measured in 2007 to 119,000 hectares in 2008. (A hectare is equal to 2.47 acres.) This brings the U.S. government’s coca cultivation estimate to its lowest level since 2004. (The U.S. government has not yet released 2008 coca data for Peru and Bolivia.)
This matches a downward 2007-2008 trend – though not the number of hectares – that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime announced (PDF) back in June.
A reduction in coca cultivation is good news. But what caused it?
by Adam Isacson, Center for International Policyon May 21, 2009
The Obama administration’s State Department has released a “Summary and Highlights” document for its 2010 foreign assistance request, which offers some significant clues about where future aid is headed.
Many of the changes in aid to Colombia that you contacted your members of Congress about in 2007 became law when the president signed the all-rolled-into-one spending bill on December 26. While still very far from the perfect world we dream about, the law makes some positive changes in U.S. aid and policy towards Colombia.
The Colombia package in the foreign aid bill includes:
cuts military and police aid in the foreign operations bill
by $141.5 million below what the President asked for, a 31 percent cut.
increases economic and social aid by $97.4 million, a 70 percent increase.
aid
that we called for to strengthen human rights and protect victims of
violence, including funding for investigation and prosecution of human
rights abuses; witness protection for victims; investigation of mass
graves; funding for legal representation of victims; and contributions
to the UN Human Rights office in Colombia.
cuts
aid for the inhumane and environmentally damaging aerial spraying
program, and increases aid for alternative development programs.
ties the human rights conditions to 30%, not just 25%, of military aid in the foreign operations bill.
$15 million for development aid for Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities
in
the human rights conditions that the Army must respect the rights and
territories of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities
restrictions on investment in oil palm development if it causes people to be displaced or environmental damage.
What wasn't achieved? Among other things, we were not able to affect
funding in the less transparent and less accountable defense bill,
which also includes funding for counternarcotics programs, and we would
have liked the human rights conditions to apply to all military aid—and
for more military and aerial spraying funding to be cut.
But this is a real step forward! It would not have been possible without all of your actions in support of peace and human rights in Colombia.
Legislative change: We’ll work with you during April and beyond to ensure that Washington feels the force of the movement calling for change in U.S. policies towards Colombia. First, they’ll hear from you on the National Call-In Day on April 19th. Then, once you’ve displayed these faces in your cities, send the materials to Washington in May where we’ll be doing some last big displays before taking the faces with to Congress and the Administration to deliver your message. We’ll post more info on these actions soon! 
