Military assistance to Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Military assistance to Colombia
23 June 2009 at 23:15 by VeggieKris
Tags: Colombia human rights killings Tony Lloyd MP

More than 240 MPs have signed a motion (EDM 713) to freeze UK military aid to Colombia until human rights concerns have been satisfied.

Among 242 who have signed the motion there is very solid support from MPs of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party, almost all the Liberal Democrats but rather less than half of those in Labour. The number of Conservative MPs who have signed so far is the same as the number from Plaid Cymru – three.

The motion, put forward by Tony Lloyd MP, quotes the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who believes that the security forces in Colombia are involved in "widespread and systematic" killings of civilians. His motion also refers to the view of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, that military assistance from the UK is inappropriate given the serious human rights situation in Colombia.

http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=3402

[Judi Lynn]

1. The Uribe Government of Colombia

The Uribe Government of Colombia
Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 10:07 am
Press Release: Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Majority Leader Hoyer Needs to Know that the Uribe Government of Colombia is Not Fit for an FTA

The most outspoken Democratic proponent of an ill-deserved Free Trade Agreement with Bogotá has not only reversed his own position on the deal, but has defended and legitimized a corrupt, venal government, heavily tied to political scandals and human rights violations, whose legislative backers are being indicted in droves. Only Colombia’s elite will be the major beneficiaries of an FTA and not the average American or Colombian. Is the Majority Leader sufficiently resolved in his convictions to debate the issue?

Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe will be in Washington on Monday, mainly to drum up support for his signature economic policy, the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CFTA). The trade deal was negotiated under the second Bush administration but blocked by House Democrats in April 2008, primarily in response to the endemic violence against trade unionists that continues to plague Colombia. Although President Obama echoed his party’s criticisms of the CFTA during his presidential race, he has not taken long to respond to the persistent courting of the Colombian government, which has aggressively lobbied in favor of the agreement. At the April 2009 Summit of the Americas, Obama and Uribe joined for an unplanned lunch to discuss the agenda for the security and development of Colombia, reaffirming the close, if ill-deserved relationship the two nations have enjoyed under previous administrations. The following day, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that he would begin extensive consultations with Congress to work toward the ratification of the CFTA. Uribe’s invitation to the White House, another outcome of the Summit, offers him a chance to bolster the growing chorus of Congressional, media, and business voices that are prioritizing the CFTA over an adhesion to high human rights and democratic principles in Colombia.

Opposing Delegations
Far less publicized than the Obama-Uribe meeting at the Summit, but equally important in paving the way for the resumption of CFTA discussions, was the visit to Colombia two weeks earlier by a eleven-member Congressional delegation led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Hoyer’s ardently pro-FTA delegation traveled to Cartagena, Colombia to meet with President Uribe and several of his Cabinet Ministers. Hoyer lauded the Uribe administration’s use of Plan Colombia aid, its reported “progress” on human rights, its fight against drug traffickers, and its petition for an FTA with the United States. He expressed his personal support for the FTA, claiming its importance “not only the economic relationship of Colombia and the United States, but also the people of Colombia.” The sad fact is that Hoyer is probably bereft of a serious understanding of Colombia’s grim realities which, under Uribe, have transformed Colombia into a dictatorial democracy where otherwise innocent Colombians are under constant danger from the security forces and corrupt factions tied to the presidency itself.

Hoyer’s assessment starkly differed from the evaluation advanced by a contemporaneous delegation of twenty U.S. and British legislators and trade unionists, which took the time to meet with average Colombians—mothers, peasants, labor rights workers—and listened to testimonies of the atrocities perpetrated by right-wing paramilitaries in the name of fighting leftist rebels and drug traffickers. The members of this counter-delegation, which included U.S. Representative James McGovern (D-MA), became “convinced” that the Colombian government and military fully support and condone the paramilitary activities. In a final statement, they demanded that, “there will be no free trade pact with Colombia whatsoever until human rights and union rights are respected in an internationally verifiable way.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0906/S00345.htm