Salt of the Earth: New financing for Colombia's drug war

Social justice news
February 2000

New financing for Colombia's drug war
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New financing for Colombia's drug war
The Clinton administration proposes sending $1.6 billion in military aid to Colombia in an effort to shore up Colombia's government and military in their long and violent struggle against an armed left-wing and the nation's drug traffickers. The two-year package, unveiled in January, is designed mostly to combat drug trafficking but also would bolster Colombia's sagging economy and address some social problems.

Colombia is the world's largest exporter of cocaine. Colombian and Clinton administration sources say that Colombia's left-wing rebels earn as much as $100 million a year from the narcotics trade, allowing them to become perhaps the best-equipped insurgency in the world.

Colombia already receives $300 million annually from the U.S. to aid its drug interdiction efforts. In the largest such package for a Latin American ally since the end of the cold war, the Clinton poposal would add an additional $1.3 billion in aid. The Colombian military would receive 30 Blackhawk helicopters and 33 Huey helicopters to ferry soldiers into two southern provinces that have become the center of coca production. In addition, $600 million set aside for military assistance would include money to train and equip two more counternarcotics battalions. Colombian farmers who grew coca or poppy and villagers displaced by the drug effort would receive $145 million to help find new livelihoods and new homes. And $93 million would be spent to strengthen Colombia's judicial system in its drive to protect human rights, enforce drug laws and crack down on money laundering.

In Washington last month to drum up support for the aid package among Congress members, Colombian President Andrés Pastrana of Colombia argued against tying the aid to an improved record on human rights from the Colombian military. Pastrana describes himself as optimistic that recent talks about ending Colombia's long conflict are on the right track. He argues that the Clinton aid package could be crucial in pressuring rebels to seriously negotiate a peace accord. The package already enjoys the support of many congressional Republicans but faces some opposition from members of Congress who are concerned that the committment only draws the U.S. deeper, Vietnam-style, into Colombia's long and brutal struggle with a determined and powerful leftist insurgency that already controls significant territory within Colombia.

Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, told the New York Times: "Everyone wants to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, but we have spent billions trying to do that, and the flow has gotten worse, not better. What we are seeing is a dramatic ratcheting up of a counter-insurgency policy in the name of counterdrug policy.

"I don't want us to make the mistake in the drug war that we made in the cold war, where we gave money to people regardless of their human rights records as long as they were anti-Communist," Leahy said when the package was first described last Janaury. "I am concerned that we could end up supporting people involved in human rights violations—this time for what is considered the greater good of fighting drugs."

The plan has quickly drawn fire from critics who charge that the massive federal aid package will be put into the hands of a military which has been linked to paramilitary slayings and the oppression of hundreds of Colombian citizens. "We're talking about giving money to an army that is deeply wedded to paramilitary groups that are the main human rights abusers," Robin Kirk of Human Rights Watch told the New York Times. "This is a very dirty war, and you have to ask where will U.S. tax dollars ultimately end up." Colombia's right-wing paramilitaries also enjoy a substantial income either directly from drug trafficking or by protecting drug traffickers.

A bulletin from the 8th Day Center for Justice said that the proposed aid package would "simply enhance the Colombian military's capacity for carrying out 'dirty work' against Colombia's citizens, including human right workers, school teachers, union leaders, journalists, university professors, and any one else who dares to criticize Colombia's facade democracy."

Colombia and the SOA Connection
According to 8th Day, human rights violations in Colombia are not a thing of the past. In 1997 alone, over 3500 people were killed for political reasons, and School of the Americas graduates continue to participate in these abuses. Fifty percent of the 247 Colombian officials cited for violations in the human rights report, "State Terrorism in Colombia," were SOA graduates. The 1998 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights in Colombia contradicts claims by SOA supporters that human rights abuses by SOA graduates are a thing of the past. The report reveals that: "In May 1998, the Colombian army formally disbanded the 20th Brigade for its involvement in human rights abuses, including the targeted killings of civilians."

The commander of the Brigade at the time was an SOA graduate, Paucelino Latorre Gamboa. SOA graduate and instructor Gen. Yannie Diaz "was accused of implementing a strategy to have paramilitary groups carry out counter guerrilla activities that the army was prohibited from doing . . . Despite attempts to bring him to justice in the civilian count system, the military prevailed, continuing the tradition of impunity. . . . Major Hernan Orozco Castro (an SOA graduate) is under investigation by the Attorney General's office for his complicity in the July 1997 Mapirpan massacre of 30 peasants."

Further action:
8th Day and the Colombia Support Network oppose Clinton's proposal and urge citizens to write, call or e-mail President Clinton to protest of the proposed military aid to Colombia and to encourage their representatives and senators to oppose the escalation of the war against the people of Colombia.

President Clinton
phone: 202-456-1414
fax: 202-456-2461
e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
phone: 202-647-4000
fax: 202/647-1533
e-mail: secretary@state.gov

Secretary of Defense William Cohen
phone: 703-692-7100
fax: 703-697-9080

Congress
phone: U.S. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (Ask for your representative's or senator's numbers.)

For more information on conditions in Colombia: Colombia Support Network.

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