Report: 'Correlation' between U.S. Aid and Army Killings (Colombia)

[EFerrari]

Published on Friday, July 30, 2010 by Inter Press Service
Report Suggests 'Correlation' between U.S. Aid and Army Killings

by Helda Martínez

BOGOTÁ - "There are alarming links between increased reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian army and units that receive U.S. military financing," John Lindsay-Poland, lead author of a two-year study on the question, told IPS.

Lindsay-Poland is Research and Advocacy Director for the U.S.-based Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), which presented a new report, "Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications", in Bogotá Thursday.

The report, produced in conjunction with the U.S. Office on Colombia (USOC), studies the application in Colombia of the so-called Leahy Law, passed in 1996, which bans military assistance to a foreign security force unit if the U.S. State Department has credible evidence that the unit has committed gross human rights violations.

The Leahy Law is one of the main U.S. laws designed to protect against the use of U.S. foreign aid to commit human rights abuses.

"If the Leahy Law was fully implemented, assistance would have to be suspended to nearly all fixed army brigades and many mobile brigades in Colombia," Lindsay-Poland said.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/30-6

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is tremendous. People NEED to see this. Recommend.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[rabs]

2. Good article overall but pointing out major mistake

The article states:

---------------------------

Furthermore, the agreement for U.S. military access to the bases has not been approved by the Colombian Congress, as required by law.

As a result, the Constitutional Court ruled the agreement unconstitutional on Jul. 22 and gave Congress one year to approve or reject it.

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A judge from the Constitutional Court has written an opinion saying the current bases agreement violates the constitution. The full court, nine members, on Tuesday of next week (Aug. 3) is scheduled to begin analyzing and debating that opinion.

Should the court accept it, the Congress would then have one year to come up with a new treaty that obeys the constitution re the presence of U.S. troops on soverign Colombian territory.

The JM Santos presidency's Congress is 95 percent santista and uribista, so the Congress almost will certainly pass such a treaty, thus allowing U.S. troops in Colombia.

[EFerrari]

3. Thank you for the clarification, rabs!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks for the help on that issue. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

5. Colombia: US Military Aid May Have Sparked Civilian Killings

Colombia: US Military Aid May Have Sparked Civilian Killings
Saturday 31 July 2010

by: Nadja Drost | GlobalPost | Report

La Macarena, Colombia - When Colombian military units receive an increase in U.S. aid, they allegedly kill more civilians and frame the deaths as combat kills, according to a new report.

The report, released Thursday by two American human rights organizations, raises serious questions about the implications of U.S. military aid to Colombia. The United States has provided more than $7 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia since 2000 for fighting drugs and counterinsurgency — making it the largest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel.

The army is accused of killing civilians and presenting them as guerrillas killed in combat to pump body counts. The Colombian military faces significant political pressure to produce concrete results in its war against the the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the country's left-wing guerrilla insurgency.

Many point to the macabre practice — euphemistically known as producing a “false positive” — as a result of an unofficial incentive-based system that rewards high numbers of combat kills with job perks and promotions. Colombia's attorney general's office is investigating more than 2,000 alleged cases of false-positives committed by the armed forces.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/colombia-us-military-aid-may-have-sparked-civilian-killings61904

[Judi Lynn]

6. Your article gives the answer to how serious the US is about these bases. Dead serious!

From the Common Dreams article:

~snip~
The U.S. military presence in Colombia dates back to the 1940s, when leftwing guerrillas became active in the country. But it escalated to a new level in 1999 when Plan Colombia was agreed by the governments of then presidents Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) and Bill Clinton (1993-2001).

Plan Colombia was complemented and extended in 2004 by Plan Patriot, signed by President Álvaro Uribe, whose term ends Aug. 7, and former president George W. Bush (2001-2009).

The two plans have undergone radical changes since 2009, according to Lindsay-Poland, when they reached beyond the initial aims of counterinsurgency and counternarcotics, with a view towards strengthening U.S. control in the region.

U.S. army Southern Command documents state the importance of establishing a base "with air mobility reach on the South American continent and a capacity for counter-narcotics operations until the year 2025," he said.

[Wilms]

7. k&r n/t