US military focus in Colombia shifts from rebels to paramilitaries
Source: Colombia Reports
US military focus in Colombia shifts from rebels to paramilitaries
Posted by Jack Norman on Feb 15, 2016
Colombia and the United States have formed an unprecedented joint task force they say will block paramilitary successor groups from using a peace treaty with the FARC to expand their power.
The joint task force precedes the possible congressional approval of an increase and shift in US aid to Colombia requested by President Barack Obama last week in his 2017 budget proposal.
. . .
The last time leftist rebels made peace and entered Colombia’s mainstream political system, they–along with many leftist activists who had not been guerillas–were met with a wave of assassinations by AUC’s predecessors. President Juan Manuel Santos knows it would be political suicide and economic disaster to let that episode be repeated.
But a key question for post-peace treaty Colombia is whether Santos will both protect the FARC’s fighters when they go mainstream and also follow through on a thorough-going attack to eliminate the neo-paramilitaries, who years ago overtook the guerrillas to become Colombia’s primary human rights violator.
Read more: http://colombiareports.com/us-colombia-joint-task-force-paramilitary-bacrim/
