Present-day Conflicts in Colombia By Matt Stikker and Nicolia Eldred-Skemp

Conflicts in Colombia: Overall Contributions  Increase in guerrilla attacks by FARC and ELN  Increased violence from paramilitary groups like AUC  Social Inequities  Increase in illegal drug production  Increase in military aid from US

Internal Conflicts: Colombian Armed Conflict  Continual conflicts between leftist guerrillas and paramilitaries  Leftist guerrillas:  FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)  ELN (National Liberation Army)  Paramilitaries (trained & armed civilians)  AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia  AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia)

Colombian Armed Conflict  Low intensity conflict since 1964  Started with guerrilla groups’ insurgency campaigns against the government

Colombian Armed Conflict  1990s: Increase in FARC military activity  FARC group grew from various kidnapping and drug-related activities  Often, guerrillas protected coca growers from eradication campaigns

1996 Civil Protest  Civil protest made of 200,000 coca growers  Marched against Colombian government, rejected their drug war policies  FARC backed the protest FARC during an attack (BBC)

AUC Action in Colombia  AUC executes offensives in areas of guerrilla influence  Very active around 1997  Government blamed Colombian army for permitting these events  Army suspected to more or less support the paramilitaries

Bojayá Massacre: 2002  FARC guerrillas seized Bojayá in attempt to take land away from AUC  119 people killed  Worst massacre yet (in over 40 years)

Desplazados: A Human Rights Violation  2.5 million Colombians uprooted due to internal conflicts  Second highest number of displaced people  Surpassed only by Sudan  Refugees live in slums & outskirts of cities, not camps

Desplazados  Country requires aid only for first 6 months  Before 2002, over half of Colombian refugees received no help

President Álvaro Uribe  Nov 2005: Government increased budget to over $400 mil per year  Elected in 2002  2004: Colombian courts ruled that neglected refugees was violation of human rights

Is situation improving?  Government claims that the number of desplazados has decreased since Uribe  Credit goes to Uribe’s tough “democratic security” and overall cuts in violence  Still, others disagree with progress

U.S. Involvement  The Plan Colombia, originally unveiled by former Colombian President Andres Pastrana in 1999, called for international aid to help end the violence and assist in manual eradication of the drug crops. Due to U.S. economic influence, the emphasis soon shifted to eliminating drug trafficking and building the military.  From 2000 – 2005, the United States gave over $3 billion in military and police aid (including training and equipment) to the Colombian government, ostensibly to combat drug cultivation.  European countries have contributed but have disassociated themselves with the Plan, considering it to be unduly militaristic

Breakdown of U.S. Aid to Colombia,

 1997 – The “Leahy Provision” amends the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, banning the U.S. from giving anti-narcotics aid to foreign military units whose members have committed human rights abuses.  President Pastrana promised that guilty parties would be brought to justice but in reality tolerance and support for right-wing paramilitary activity remained widespread among the regular military forces  In August 2000, President Clinton overrode remaining restrictions to funding in the interest of national security – viewed by many as a tacit admission of funding human rights violators  During a state visit in 2004, President Bush confirmed his continuing support for Plan Colombia aid

Criticism of the Plan Colombia  Seen by many as an ineffective means of combating drug use – claim that treatment and prevention programs at home are much more effective  Some critics have claimed it is focused less on drug eradication and more on combating the leftist guerillas supported by rural peasants, because they are calling for social reform and represent a threat to U.S. economic interests (oil and other natural resources)  Widespread use of herbicides against coca crops has resulted in the destruction of subsistence crops and raised health and environmental concerns  Colombia has one of the worst human rights records in the Western Hemisphere; Colombian military forces aided by the Plan have participated in or allowed abuses and massacres by right-wing death squads

“Plan Colombia is based on a drug-focused analysis of the roots of the conflict and the human rights crisis which completely ignores the Colombian state's own historical and current responsibility…Social development and humanitarian assistance programs included in the Plan cannot disguise its essentially military character. Furthermore, it is apparent that Plan Colombia is not the result of a genuine process of consultation either with the national and international non- governmental organizations which are expected to implement the projects nor with the beneficiaries of the humanitarian, human rights or social development projects. As a consequence, the human rights component of Plan Colombia is seriously flawed.” -Amnesty International Press Release, 2000

Works Cited   mbia/topten.html mbia/topten.html mbia/topten.html    