Taking Note
JMB
Storm Over Colombia In July 1997, the paramilitary group known as the United SelfDefense Units of Colombia (AUC) went on a grisly killing spree in Mapiripdn, a small coca-growing town in...
...Administration officials argue that U.S...
...training and abusive officers in the Mapiripin massacre underscore, Washington cannot possibly know or fully control how its aid and equipment will be used...
...This is not surprising, given that the links between paramilitaries and the Colombian army have been well established...
...military forces to an army unit involved in gross human rights abuses should give pause to legislators contemplating a massive infusion of taxpayer money to the Colombian military...
...forces were directly involved in the massacre, or even knew that it was being planned, the events offer compelling evidence that U.S...
...The paramilitaries used an army-guarded air strip to land from their stronghold in northern Colombia and from which to launch their attack...
...The reports linking U.S...
...But Castailo did not act alone...
...assistance, while the paramilitaries continue their "dirty war" and their drug trafficking operations, unimpeded, in the north...
...equipment, training and money can be easily turned to vile purposes in what Human Rights Watch has called a "war without quarter...
...Human rights observers immediately noted the complicity of the Colombian armed forces in the Mapiripdn massacre...
...Evidence later emerged suggesting that the role of the Colombian military in the massacre was in fact much deeper, and in March 1999 Colombian prosecutors indicted Colonel Lino SAnchez, operations chief of the Colombian Army's 12th Brigade, for planning, with Castafio, the Mapiripdn massacre...
...It will also mean financing a longterm counterinsurgency effort to control southern Colombia, the heart of activity of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC...
...How can effective oversight exist in a country in which human rights activists, independent journalists and academics are being systematically killed and threatened...
...This may be difficult for Washington legislators, addicted as they are to campaign money from corporations like Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of United Technology, and Bell Helicopter Textron, makers of Blackhawk helicopters, who stand to gain millions of dollars from the aid package, and amenable as they are to the interests of big corporations like Occidental Petroleum with megabucks at stake in Colombia...
...If the current aid package is approved, it will mean that Washington will provide direct aid to the Army...
...Carlos Castafio, the selfanointed leader of the AUC, immediately and unabashedly took credit for the massacre...
...Storm Over Colombia In July 1997, the paramilitary group known as the United SelfDefense Units of Colombia (AUC) went on a grisly killing spree in Mapiripdn, a small coca-growing town in southeastern Colombia...
...As the ties between U.S...
...The $1.7 billion aid package proposed by the Clinton administration threatens to dramatically escalate Colombia's war and undermine the possibilities for a lasting peace...
...Army Green Berets on Barranc6n Island, on the Guaviare River...
...While it cannot be said that U.S...
...In which the government cannot even keep its own prosecutors safe...
...According to eyewitness accounts, the paramilitaries hacked their victims to death with machetes, decapitated many with chainsaws and dumped the bodies-some still alive-into the Guaviare River...
...These "clean" operations will get much of the planned U.S...
...According to a February Human Rights Watch report, half of the Colombian Army's 18 brigades have clear links to paramilitary groups...
...Though observers note that human rights violations by the Colombian military have decreased, they ignore that this is because the military has farmed out much of its dirty work to the paramilitaries, and aided and abetted paramilitaries in their push to establish territorial control...
...At least 30 people were killed, though the true number of dead may never be known...
...In order to not violate this law and still send money and training to Colombia's military, Washington is helping the Colombian army create new brigades of "clean" officers that will operate in "counternarcotics" operations in southern Colombia...
...Nor did the authorities respond to repeated calls by a local judge to stop the attack, which lasted six consecutive days...
...In recent weeks, new evidence has emerged suggesting that weeks, if not days, before the Mapiripbin massacre, Colonel Sdnchez received "special training" by U.S...
...aid will not be used to support army units involved in human rights abuses-a policy that is now law thanks to the Leahy Amendment passed in 1996...
Vol. 33 • March 2000 • No. 5
