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Plan Colombia... Plan of Death
Colombia is a country known for its majestic beauty, abundant biodiversity and extensive rainforests, which lead some people to coin the region the "lungs of the world." Adding to these visual splendors is what lies below the surface. In addition to its acclaimed gold, copper, and silver deposits, Colombia has one of the largest known oil reserves in our hemisphere and is among the top suppliers of oil to the United States. Belying what would appear to be paradise is Colombia's infamous designation as one of the most violent countries in the world.
Many thanks to the ongoing research by Adam Isacson and the Center for International Policy. Please visit: http://www.ciponline.org to learn more about the effects of US foreign policy as it relates to human rights in Latin America and Asia.
For more information about the School of the Americas (SOA) / WHINSEC visit: http://www.soawne.org and http://www.soaw.org
A shorter version was published in the 2006 McGraw-Hill college textbook:
"Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Latin American Issues."
Overview: Our purpose for traveling to Colombia in 2001 was two-fold. First, to better understand and see first-hand the effects of the US-sponsored fumigation campaign in the Putumayo region. Second, to bear witness to the violence being perpetrated by the Colombian military and paramilitary forces (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia /Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC), -- who act with complete impunity and in conjunction with the Colombian military to instill terror in the populace.
The AUC have been designated a "foreign terrorist organization" under Section 219 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.
It is reported that they are responsible for 70 percent of the massacres that have occurred over the last few decades in Colombia, and Amnesty International states that the "paramilitary [have been] responsible for the vast majority of political killings in Colombia in recent years."
More than 10,000 Colombian soldiers have been trained at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA), which was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), in 2001.
Conveniently, the US government refuses to track any of its graduates. Nor will they take responsibility for the selection of known human rights abusers, drug traffickers, and death squad leaders who have been selected to receive training at US military bases and who have been responsible for some of our hemispheres most horrific human rights violations.
The fumigation program is a US-sponsored "anti-drug" campaign that was attached to a multibillion-dollar aid program developed by the government of Colombia purportedly to deal with the many socio-economic factors afflicting the country.
The sequestering of this drug campaign by the US turned what was to be a State-aid program to bring "peace, prosperity, and the strengthening of the state," into a multi-billion dollar US-funded "war on drugs." The bulk of the money - an initial $1.3 billion, now equating to billions - has gone to US weapons and chemical corporations in the form of military training, helicopters, and other fumigation and war related expenses.
For Colombia, this campaign has been a war on their ecosystem, crops and forests, and has further eroded their means for subsistence living; it has also created a health and environmental crisis with wide-reaching and staggering consequences. The US aid packages and diversion of weapons have also helped fuel the ongoing civil war which has lasted for over four decades.
The end result of billions of US taxpayer dollars being used to bolster the "war on drugs" has been wide-spread destruction and destabilization throughout Colombia while in the US there has been little affect on reducing the availability of cocaine on the streets or its market price.
Rather than spend billions of dollars on programs that could potentially save lives by helping individuals end their addiction to cocaine and greatly diminish the demand for the drug, the US -too often addicted to war and flexing its abusive muscles - has opted instead to impose greater punishment on addicts in the US, while its policies continue to displace, kill and maim tens of thousands of victims throughout Colombia.
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