U.S. needs to reevaluate Plan Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. needs to reevaluate Plan Colombia
Colombia gets a new president this week, but more is required to bring change. We cannot continue to celebrate a so-called success story that has had disturbing human rights and humanitarian repercussions.
By Milburn Line

August 5, 2010

Colombia inaugurates a newly elected president on Saturday: the former minister of defense, Juan Manuel Santos. Amid saber-rattling by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez following Colombian allegations that he is supporting FARC rebels, Santos is likely to follow outgoing President Alvaro Uribe's policy of attempting to defeat Colombia's insurgencies and its drug trade through military means. The Obama administration, however, should support a renewed effort for a peace process. This, and more focused leadership by the U.S., would give our Colombian partners a better chance of resolving a 40-year conflict in which we have invested billions over the last decade, as well as helping to defuse tensions between Colombia and its neighbors.

Recent visits by U.S. officials to Colombia have only scratched the surface of the challenges that nation faces. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meeting with Uribe in June, focused on the promotion of free trade, the war on drugs and democratic transition, though she at least raised the issue of ongoing human rights violations. Before that, in April, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates addressed agreements that allow for a U.S. military presence on seven Colombian bases, another source of tension with Colombia's neighbors. His lauding of the Colombian "success story" was front-page news in Bogota.

After 10 years and $7 billion of the U.S.-supported Plan Colombia, the Colombian government has had only marginal success in the war on drugs and in defeating the FARC and other Marxist guerrillas. A new report by a U.S. advocacy organization, the Washington Office on Latin America, details the staggering human costs of Plan Colombia, a U.S. package of assistance established during the Clinton administration and overwhelmingly directed to the Colombian security forces.

Colombia, with a population of 45 million, suffers up to 20,000 violent deaths a year, down from almost 30,000 a year at the beginning of the decade. (By contrast, Mexico's much-covered drug violence resulted in 6,500 deaths last year.) Colombia's population of 3.3 million internally displaced people, who have fled conflict and persecution and live in impoverished squatter camps around urban centers, is second only to Sudan's.

Human rights violations persist. In 2008, the Colombian military was caught recruiting, then killing 11 young men from a poor neighborhood of Bogota, and presenting them as guerrillas killed in combat. Almost 2,000 cases of civilians allegedly killed by the military are now being investigated by the Colombian courts. After a 2005 plea-bargaining scheme to demobilize nearly 30,000 paramilitaries, many accused of massive human rights violations, none have been convicted. Stolen property has not been returned to their victims, and sexual violence committed against thousands of Colombian women has gone unpunished.

Homicide statistics indicate that Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. Up to 20,000 minors have been forcibly recruited into the various armed factions. A scandal recently described by human rights advocates as "worse than Watergate" has exposed the principal security agency, which reported directly to Uribe, of harassing Colombian human rights defenders.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-line-colombia-20100805,0,3435586.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fprintedition%2Fopinion+%28Los+Angeles+Times+-+Editorials%2C+Op-Ed%29

[Peace Patriot]

1. Beware! The author of the article Milburn Line was Bushwhack USAID Director in Colombia.

See my comment at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x551958

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Something's going on with this--corpo-fascist paper publishing Bushwhack's USAID Director in Colombia on the, um, "failure" of our $7 BILLION "investment" to kill off the armed and unarmed opposition to Colombia's narco-thug government and to stop coca leaf growing by Colombia's small farmers by driving 5 MILLION of them off their land--with toxic pesticide spraying and official terror--into urban squalor or fleeing over the border for refuge in Venezuela and Ecuador from the U.S.-funded Colombian military.

It was such a great program, so well-meaning, how could it fail to produce the desired results--a "free trade for the rich" deal with Colombia rammed through Congress, a "pacified" slave labor work force in Colombia, and the oil resources of Colombia's neighbors back in Exxon Mobil's control?

Got to re-think this project, find some patsies to blame, protect the Big Perps in Washington, cover our asses, and figure out how to keep profiting from war, exploitation and lies.

I don't know if I've quite nailed why the CIA would suddenly be all appalled at the death and mayhem in Colombia, but, if past and recent past history is any guide, we are seeing the tension between "free trade for the rich" vs the conditions needed to impose "free trade for the rich" (on countries and regions), that is, first laying waste to a country that is a good candidate for U.S. tool in the region--all the better if you can get locals to lay waste to their own--and then "working with" the puppet government on democracy cosmetics, to steal resources and create a slave labor force for U.S. corporate sweatshops, with an even darker purpose behind these--using the puppet government and military for region-wide war, if and when the time is ripe.

The "fly" in this "ointment" is that Latin America and the world have become aware of the atrocities in Colombia. And I think one really bad one--the La Macarena massacre (nearby to a U.S. military base, and with the involvement of the USAID in a "pacification" plan in the area)--may be about to "hit the fan." Scapegoats must be found. (Uribe is a good candidate for that--a perp for sure, but maybe not one in a class with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, for whom the law does not exist.)

Anyway, whatever is going on with this, I would just say, beware, beware, beware! (And the swipe at Chavez--that HE is the "saber rattler"--may be the tipoff. It certainly tipped me off--prompted me to look up Milburn Line's bio.)

Consider this crock from Line's new perch at the Kroc Institute at the University of San Diego:

"Colombia has been a regional and historical ally of the United States since the Korean War. Its democracy has withstood mighty challenges from drug lords and insurgents — all the more reason for the United States to honestly assess and support our Colombian partners, including renewing efforts for a peace process and demanding full accountability for human rights violations. We cannot continue to celebrate a 'success story' with such disturbing human rights and humanitarian results. Saturday's inauguration may mean more of the same failing policies unless U.S. leadership conducts a more candid review of our joint efforts under Plan Colombia and renews its commitment to peace and justice."

I mean, it IS possible that he's "found Jesus." It's a Catholic University and it is at least possible that Jesus is in in residence there. But the swipe at Chavez from this Bushwhack USAID Director in Colombia tells me otherwise--as does virtually every phrase of the above paragraph. "Withstood mighty challenges." A "success story." "Commitment to peace and justice." Good God!

The hidden agenda may lay in the crock of "full accountability"--never happen, cuz that's Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld and whomever they have chosen to protect--and "a more candid review" of "our joint efforts." More candid than what?

I think "urbito" is in big trouble. He has imitated Bush Jr but he is NOT Bush Jr. His hysteria about FARC guerrillas hiding in Venezuela and it all being Chavez's fault may be an indication of how much trouble he is in (trying to buy continued CIA protection with a stunt like that). And I think the plan is to do a purge of him and other lesser perps, to keep suspicion off the biggest perps (here), to get the "free trade for the rich" deal through Congress, and possibly to complete preparations for the next oil war, with the new puppet, Santos--whom I think is far more dangerous than Uribe--as the front man.

I'm pretty good at parsing Catholic theology for its agendas. It has helped me learn to read the corpo-fascist press for their agendas. It's quite interesting to me that a man like Fine would land at a Catholic university, heading an institute that claims devotion to "peace and justice." (Sorry about the swipe at the Kroc name. The Kroc family may be genuinely devoted to peace and justice. I really don't know.) The mindbending twists and turns of Catholic theology, to end up with the conclusion that Jesus didn't want women to be priests--and some of their other wilder flights--strike me as quite similar to corpo-fascist propaganda about "democracy" and "freedom" and "peace." In actuality, their every action has aimed to DESTROY these things, forevermore, throughout the world. These words have become absolutely meaningless in their mouths, in much the same way that Jesus' simple message of love has become meaningless, down through the centuries, in the hands of self-inflated, powermongering prelates.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The country which has been involved militarily in Colombia for decades

without a doubt has known all about these atrocities from the first, and the truth is eventually be outed to what extent they've always known, and participated.

In time the truth DOES get out, even though a lot of people who were there at the time die in the meantime. How many government secrets have been "sealed" until almost everyone there originally is gone, and the next generation couldn't give two hoots! Sad, so damned sad. It's a complete "in your face" from the government we are obligated to fund continually with our taxes.

So glad you got the idea of looking up the author. What you discovered SURELY does explain what he's doing in that article. It could probably be "read" by someone who knows more, as a good indicator where the official line's going next on Colombia, too.

Found a small bio on Milburn Line:

Milburn Line's Biography
Milburn Line, Chief of Party, MSD/Colombia Milburn Line heads MSD's Human Rights Program funded by USAID. He brings extensive USAID and UN project management experience in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America in the fields of human rights and civil society strengthening. Mr. Line most recently was Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Human Rights and Reconciliation Program in Guatemala City where he helped coordinate the efforts of civil society organizations to increase public awareness and public participation in human rights initiatives. Mr. Line also served as a human rights observer and conducted field investigations of allegations of human rights abuses committed by the Guatemalan army. Mr. Line worked also in Caracas, Venezuela monitoring human rights violations in marginalized urban communities, developing grassroots education programs, and promoting local and international legal advocacy for human rights protections. Mr. Line holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, and is fluent in Spanish.

http://www.spoke.com/info/pEw9jUt/MilburnLine

It's possible they will try to "flush" all the bad news which has been surfacing (after so many years of TOTAL suppression) concerning false positives, wiretapping, surveillance, massacres, political connections to narcotraffickers, etc. with Uribe's replacement then go through the contemtible charade of pretending Santos is squeaky clean, "a new broom sweeps clean," and all that bad government-connected violence, abuse of power is all in the past. No one left to believe them.

They should have sent Milburn Line to work in Venezuela in the very poor neighborhoods before Chavez when the oligarchy completely hated, and locked out the vast poor majority, kicked them all to the curb. THAT'S when they could have used some guys from USAID handing out fistsful of walking-around money to influence the starving, dispised, nearly invisible poor.

You have to congratulate USAID presence in Guatemala, too, since Ronald Reagan's alliance with Efrain Rios Montt nearly cleansed the country of indigenous people altogether, entire VILLAGES destroyed, residence tortured to death in front of their spouses and children who were then murdered gruesomely themselves and all hurled into common graves. Nice work,Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Jesse Helms.