Clinton in Columbia: Para-Military Death Squads, Avoiding the Issue of Human Rights

[amborin]

Try 
Colombia.

Less than 48 hours before Bill and Hillary quit the White House, with a legal 
deal covering his own ass, his administration announced that it would employ
 a highly questionable legal interpretation of “Plan Colombia”–the
 $1.3 billion in aid going mostly to the Colombian military. The interpretation 
allowed the administration to dodge entirely any certification or waiver of
 human rights conditions attached to the aid, thus circumventing the whole certification 
process in providing money to the Colombian government.

In August of 2000, Clinton waived four of the five human rights criteria laid out by Congress 
to release the first chunk of $781.5 million. A certification or waiver was
also required for the second installment of $56.4 million. Two Democratic senators, Paul Wellstone and Tom Harkin, called on Clinton to reject 
a waiver for the second slice because the Colombian government had “failed 
to make significant progress” on human rights. But the State Deptartment’s 
Richard Boucher said the Clinton administration had decided that because the 
second slice of aid was not included in “regular funds,” but rather 
in an emergency spending bill, the certification and waiver process did not
apply.

With virtually no opportunity for the human rights community to
 respond, the Clinton administration effectively created a way to avoid the
 whole question of human rights in Colombia

Here we have the Clintons and Madeleine Albright doing a last-minute end run around
 a modest congressional roadblock against sending U.S. dollars destined in considerable 
part to Colombia’s paramilitary death squads. One final parting shot, taken while no one was watching, just to show you where they really stand.

Here we have the Clintons and Madeleine Albright doing a last-minute end run around
 a modest congressional roadblock against sending U.S. dollars destined in considerable 
part to Colombia’s paramilitary death squads. One final parting shot, taken while no one was watching, just to show you where they really stand.