Looking for Trouble

U.S.-Colombia business as usual

U.S.-Colombia relations don’t get much press these days. It’s understandable given all that’s going on in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

And, besides, there has been considerable hope for a more balanced approach to Colombia after President Barack Obama earlier this year said he would initiate a new policy of “multilateral diplomacy” in South America. (And we all know good news doesn’t play as well as bad news.)

The Bush administration had considered Colombia a close ally. President George W. Bush described Colombia’s president, Alvaro Uribe, as a close friend, ignoring that country’s notorious human rights violations and pretty much neglecting other allies in the region. Colombia has received over $6 billion in military and economic aid during the past nine years.

But the general thinking was that the Obama administration would not be so quick to underwrite the Colombian military and ignore rights violations. Unfortunately, that line of thought was wrong.

In August, news broke that the United States and Colombia had signed a deal that would make Colombian army and naval bases available to the U.S. in return for support in Colombia’s war against the leftist FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. That support, of course, includes more millions for the Colombian military.

Some South American countries, including Chile and Brazil, see a threat to their sovereignty in the growing U.S. presence and have expressed concerns that Colombia is just a staging area for future U.S. operations, perhaps against such countries as Venezuela.

In September, coincidentally, I’m sure, the United States cleared the way for the delivery of full military aid to Colombia’s armed forces because Colombia had met human rights criteria despite lingering concerns from the U.S. State Department.

“There is no question that improvement must be made in certain areas,” department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement at that time.

The statement cited extrajudicial killings as one of the areas still in need of improvement. Nevertheless, the State Department certification to Congress cleared the way for full aid to flow to the Colombian military.

While the State Department did not go into detail about the continuing human rights concerns in Colombia, the most recent Amnesty International report does.

At least 296 people were extrajudicially executed by the security forces in the 12-month period ending in June 2008, compared to 287 in the previous 12-month period, the report said. Amnesty cited a November (2008), visit to Colombia by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights who said extrajudicial executions in Colombia appeared to be systematic and widespread.

Amnesty said paramilitary groups remained active, despite claims by the government that all paramilitaries had demobilized in a government-sponsored process that began in 2003. Paramilitaries continued to kill civilians and to commit other human rights violations, the report said, “sometimes with the support or acquiescence of the security forces.”

Some 461 killings were attributed to paramilitaries in the 12-month period ending in June 2008, compared to 233 in the previous 12-month period, according to the report.

Also, there are at least three million people in Colombia who have been forcibly displaced by the fighting – a figure only surpassed by Sudan.

Is this really a country that the United States wants as our closest ally in South America? Does President Obama really want to continue to finance a military cited year after year for major human rights violations?

Don’t get me wrong. I think Obama has been doing some great things since he’s been in office, and he has the potential to do much more. But he has to make positive changes in U.S. foreign policies that match his positive rhetoric.