Who We AreDirectory of Progressive OrganizationsCurrent EventsMajor IssuesTools for ActivistsContact Us




Colombia

The Issue

The following description of the human rights situation in Colombia and U.S. complicity in it is a slightly edited version of a piece by Noam Chomsky.

Colombia has been the leading human rights violator in the hemisphere in the 1990s -- and, in conformity to a depressing pattern, also the leading recipient of US military aid and training, now in first place worldwide (after the perennials, Israel and Egypt, which belong to a different category). Colombia is also the all-time leading enroller of military officers in the School of the Americas (SOA). In its Human Rights Report for 1998, the State Department provides an understated but accurate account of the military repression there. The State Department figures are 2-3000 people killed, 300,000 new refugees, about 80% of massacres with known origins attributed to paramilitaries and the military.

The State Department reports that "credible allegations of cooperation [of the armed forces] with paramilitary groups, including instances of both silent support and direct collaboration by members of the armed forces, in particular the army, continued" through 1998. "There were tacit arrangements between local military commanders and paramilitary groups in some regions, and paramilitary groups operated freely in some areas that were under military control." Church and human rights groups give much more detailed reports, including the close connections with narcotraffickers. But they reach the same essential conclusions: killings by the paramilitary groups are "carried out with the tolerance or active participation of the security forces," Human Rights Watch reports once again in October 1998.

The atrocities of 1998 broke no new ground in Colombia. Each passing year has recorded the same story, leaving a trail of terrible crimes and one of the world's worst refugee crises, reaching to well over 1 million people forcibly displaced. Washington's contribution to this sordid history has been decisive for a long time, through the SOA and other means. The Colombian security forces, their paramilitary associates, and their Washington sponsors continue to adhere closely to programs that were outlined by a Kennedy military mission in 1962. The mission recommended that civilian and military personnel be trained to "execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known Communist proponents," all of which "should be backed by the United States." The category of "known Communist proponents" is very broad, Human Rights Watch pointed out, including "government critics, trade unionists, community organizers, opposition politicians, civic leaders, and human rights activists." These designated targets of paramilitary and terrorist activities are labeled "the unarmed branch of subversion" by the government we hail as a vibrant democracy, as it criminalized social protest in accord with the counterinsurgency doctrine developed and taught by its US mentors.

Current Activity

Human rights and peace groups made a sustained and strong effort to head off the Clinton Administration’s plan to pour over $1 billion into Colombia, presumably to assist in the war on drugs but with the assured result of weighing in on the side of the military and police forces as they deal with a long-standing popular armed revolt. That struggle was lost, and there will now be greatly intensified armed conflict and terror in Colombia, supplied and funded by Uncle Sam. The Center for International Policy has been closely following U.S. plans and posts fresh and excellent news in both English and Spanish on its website at http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/aid/. Human Rights Groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, monitor and publicize conditions in Colombia.

Campaigns

Local: The Greater Houston Chapter of Peace Action has taken the lead. Along with the Amnesty International group at University of St. Thomas (UST), it is sponsoring a major teach-in on U.S. intervention in Colombia Thursday & Friday, April 26-27. In the two sessions, both of which begin at 7:30 p.m., various aspects of U.S. intervention will be examined, including the political and economic background of the decades-long insurgency in Colombia; the impact on human rights and the environment of Plan Colombia; the spread of the conflict to neighboring nations; and the War on Drugs. Location is the Scanlan Room of the Jerabeck Center on the UST campus. The event is free and open to the public. Contact Peace Action at 713/861-2494 or herbertrothschild@hotmail.com The Drug Policy Forum of Texas works on that dimension of the intervention in Colombia and other Latin American nations. Contact them at 713/784-3196, www.mapinc.org/DPFT).

National: Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch welcome members. The home pages on their web sites indicate what they are doing and how to join. AI: www.amnesty.org; Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org.