US Support for Colombian Army Units that Committed Extrajudicial Killings:
A Call to Investigate US Military Policy

FOR and Amnesty International have produced a report (download it here) on extrajudicial killings committed by Colombian army brigades financed by the United States, product of research by both organizations. The report reviews US law regulating military assistance, includes extensive data on US-trained army units, violations, maps, analyzes the extent of army killings in areas of US-supported brigades, and includes recommendations to US policy makers.

Our friends at SOA Watch have received confirmation that Congress will vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2009 that would require that the School of the Americas/WHINSEC release the names, ranks, country of origin, courses and dates attended of students and instructors at the institute. The amendment will be offered by Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Sanford Bishop (D-GA), and we expect the vote to happen on Thursday, May 22.

For the past few years, despite the WHINSEC PR machine proclaiming an open and transparent school, the WHINSEC and other US military schools have been unwilling to provide information about the students and instructors. WHINSEC is one of 35 US military schools and facilities where Colombian soldiers are trained, in addition to US training that occurs in Colombia. See the map of sites in the US where Colombian soldiers are trained. Freedom of Information Act requests for names of Colombian soldiers trained by the US military have been denied, proof of the Pentagon's unwillingness to submit to oversight from the public whose tax-payer dollars help fund the school.

Tens of thousands of Colombians marched on March 6 in Bogota and many other cities to stand with the victims of right-wing paramilitary violence and to protest violence by all armed groups. Solidarity events occurred in New York, Washington, and San Francisco.

Now, in the wake of accusations by a presidential advisor that the activists in Colombia who helped organize these peaceful marches are guerrillas, they are being targeted with paramilitary threats, kidnappings, and even killings.

Lethal attacks on Colombian labor activists also continue. On March 4 in Washington, President Bush called on Congress to approve the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, although Colombia is the most dangerous nation in the world to be a trade unionist. As if in response, in the four days following his statement, four labor leaders in Colombia were murdered.

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February 11, 2008

Dear Colombia Advocates:

Three young adults named Hortensia, Manuel and William were out one night celebrating Three King's day in the department of Cauca, in southwestern Colombia. After hanging out in a neighboring town, they were on their way home at 3am in the morning, traveling by motorcycle. For unknown reasons (whether on purpose or by accident) the military shot at them and killed Hortensia and Manuel, making the motorcycle crash and break William's leg. William managed to crawl back down to the community and let them know what had happened.

On January 29th, 2008 the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution calling for an end to military funding of the Colombian Army as part of the “drug war,” and re-direction of money to domestic drug treatment efforts.

The city government urged Congresswoman Barbara Lee to “step up her leadership to terminate all military assistance to the Colombian Army, and to re-direct these funds” to “substance abuse prevention, harm reduction, and treatment programs.”

The city’s Peace & Justice Commission submitted the resolution, and supporters include the local treatment center Options Recovery, the peace group Fellowship of Reconciliation, and local Colombian activists.

More than 40 peace, religious and solidarity organizations publicly declared their support in October for Ecuador’s decision to close the US military base in Manta, Ecuador, in a letter sent to President Rafael Correa.

“We applaud your administration’s publicly stated decision to not renew the agreement for the FOL in Manta, and to withdraw from the UNITAS naval exercises that were held in June, led by the U.S. military,” the groups said.

The groups pointed out that the US commander in Manta has said the base’s operations are “very important” to Plan Colombia, and that Plan Colombia has not been effective against drugs. “The militarized approach to reducing traffic of illegal drugs represents a tragic decision that has not affected the availability or price of these drugs in our communities,” they wrote. “Every dollar spent on military approaches to drugs represents a theft from programs for at-risk youth in the United States, for investment in reducing the United States’ carbon emissions, and for payment of other debts our country owes to the world.”