“Money for the victims, money for the displaced. No more money for
murder and waste!” Chanted the crowd gathered outside the White House
on Monday, June 29th. Inside, Colombian President Uribe was trying to
get the same approval from President Obama that he received from the
Bush Administration, and activists from around the city came to make
sure that he would not get it. Attracting media attention and stopping
traffic, they exposed the human rights abuses committed by the
Colombian military and demanded that the U.S. change its policies to
support victims of the ongoing violence.
As President Uribe visits the White House, the scandal regarding the Colombian intelligence agency Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) is widening daily. According to Colombia’s Attorney General, over the last seven years the DAS systematically and without warrants tapped the phones and email of Colombia’s major human rights groups, prominent journalists, members of the Supreme Court (including the chief justice and the judge in charge of the parapolitics investigation), opposition politicians, and the main labor federation. Not only did DAS personnel spy on their targets, they spied on their families. This includes taking photos of their children, investigating their homes, their finances, and their daily routines. DAS even wrote a detailed manual of spying methods for personnel to follow.
Since 2007, the Latin America Working Group has been demanding action
to end the killings of civilians by the Colombian Army. While the
Colombian government has taken some steps to address these systematic
abuses, the nightmare is not yet over. Two important resources have
just come out that show that much more needs to be done.
In mid-May, shortly after being confirmed to lead the White House
Office on National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowski offered the
latest hint that the Obama Administration might take a new approach to
counternarcotics.
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.
When we started working with faith-based and grassroots groups to
plan this year's Days of Prayer and Action, Colombians were being
forced to flee their homes at the staggering, almost unbelievable rate
of 1,500 a day. By the time 2008 was said and done, nearly 400,000 had
become internally displaced people (IDPs) and Colombia's displaced
population had swelled to more than 4 million, overtaking Sudan in the
seeming-blink-of-an-eye as the country with the world's most displaced
people. We knew we had to do something to make this crisis visible to
people here in the United State and to our government that has funded
and supported so many of the policies that have exacerbated this
humanitarian crisis.
While many of our readers know that Colombian human rights defenders
are frequently targeted and stigmatized by public threats and innuendo
that call the very legitimacy of their work—and sometimes their
personal integrity—into question, what’s less well understood is how
often the voices of those denouncing human rights abuses are stifled by
baseless investigations and prosecutions.
Speaking to reporters after a local “security council” meeting in Norte
de Santander earlier this week, President Uribe claimed that only 22 of
the many hundreds of cases of “false positives” civilian killings by
the Colombian army in recent years have any “judicial foundation.”
Here's a guest blog from LAWG colleague Adam Isacson at the Center for International Policy on the debate surrounding Colombia's victims' law. Colombia needs a strong, fair law on victims rights and meaningful reparations.
Last week, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos visited Washington, DC to meet with lawmakers and top Obama Administration officials, including Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Sec. Robert Gates, and National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones.
