Reports of Army Chief’s Ties to Death Squads Highlight Need for Change

May 1, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dozens of organizations released a letter to Congress [1] today calling for a complete cessation of U.S. military aid to Colombia as that country’s president, Alvaro Uribe, arrives in Washington seeking support for his military and trade programs.

The letter, signed by 36 religious, peace and activist organizations and leaders from throughout the United States, condemns the current U.S. aid policy for failing in its stated aims, reinforcing impunity for human rights violations, and contributing to the displacement of millions of Colombians. Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world outside the Middle East. In the light of expanding revelations of Colombian government and army involvement with paramilitary death squads, which are responsible for 70% of atrocities committed in the country, the letter calls on Congress to re-cast U.S. policy in Colombia and articulate goals consistent with the value of respect for human rights.

“The United States should not support an institution that collaborates with death squads that the U.S. itself has labeled as terrorist groups,” said John Lindsay-Poland of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, one of the groups signing the letter. Others included United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, School of the Americas Watch, Witness for Peace, and groups from Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles and Westchester County, NY.

Military aid to Colombia is supposed to be contingent upon the Colombian army breaking ties with the death squads, but the organizations argue that current “mechanisms for separating the State from illegal paramilitary groups and protecting human and labor rights do not work.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month certified that Colombian armed forces had met human rights conditions for the release of military aid. Less than two weeks before, The Los Angeles Times disclosed a CIA report stating that Colombian Army chief General Mario Montoya Uribe had collaborated with paramilitary groups in 2002 in an operation that resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians and over a dozen disappearances. The leaders’ letter also cited legal charges against Uribe’s ex-chief of intelligence for paramilitary collaboration, Army executions of peasants who were then dressed as guerrillas, torturing of cadets, and Army involvement in domestic bombings as reasons why military aid should be terminated.

Colombian lawmaker Gustavo Petro two weeks ago accused President Uribe of hosting paramilitary groups on his ranch before they went out to commit massacres. Petro based his accusations on government documents and depositions by former paramilitary members and military officers.

Other prominent organizations, including the AFL-CIO, have also called for terminating U.S. military aid to Colombia. Amnesty International urges “a complete cut off of all US military aid until human rights conditions improve and impunity is tackled.” Some Democratic lawmakers also have called for steep cuts in military aid. Congress has previously banned military aid to Guatemala and Indonesia because of severe human rights abuses by the armed forces there.

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Contact: John Lindsay-Poland / Susana Pimiento Chamorro
Tel: 415-495-6334
Email: johnlp@igc.org

Download the letter and view signatories here [2]