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Colombia has been at war with itself for 40 years while the government has fought thousands of rebels in four main leftist guerilla groups, and has alternately fought or supported approximately 500 self-defense and/or paramilitary groups of various political stripes. The U.S. State Department's 1997 human-rights report noted that Colombia's continual violence has included indiscriminate killings of unarmed citizens, torture, kidnappings, displacement, and "disappearances" caused by all sides, including the government. Recently, Colombia's internal conflicts have become a lot worse: In the past two years, the guerrillas have become powerful enough to raid government counterinsurgency units and walk away with night-vision gear, rifles, and ammunition. Nevertheless, President Clinton recently waived a 20-year ban on selling advanced weapons systems to Latin America, a restriction imposed because of the region's rampant human-rights violations. He recently agreed to help fund a 1,000-man counternarcotics brigade, expected to be in action in mid-1999. While many speculate that U.S. aid will be used against rebels rather than narcotics traffickers, the two fights have become deeply intertwined for the Colombian government. The Washington Post reported that the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), one of the leading guerrilla groups, earns an estimated $500 million a year protecting Colombian drug lords who traffic in heroin and cocaine. U.S. arms sales in the Clinton years Amid this violence and confusion, the Clinton administration has sold or licensed sales of $440 million in U.S. arms to the Colombian government. These deals included $169 million for 12 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters, machine guns, and ammunition to combat the trafficker/rebels, according to the Federation of American Scientists' Arms Sales Monitoring Project. According to the State Department, the U.S. is especially interested in "reducing the flow of cocaine and heroin into the United States ... promoting the protection of human rights ... and ending violence which affects U.S. citizens and commercial interests." Selling more arms to the Colombian military and its affiliated right-wing militias seems unlikely to promote human rights. In late developments, on January 10-11 of this year, as the government initiated peace talks with the leftist FARC, right-wing paramilitary gunmen slaughtered 111 known victims in a series of massacres. Many were killed while partying at a discotheque; others were shot as they walked out of church. --Suzie Larsen Flags courtesy of World Flag Database | | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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