Colombia’s armed forces commander, 8 other generals, accused of ordering civilian killings

Colombia’s armed forces commander, 8 other generals, accused of ordering civilian killings
Sep 4, 2014 posted by Adriaan Alsema

The commander of Colombia’s armed forces and eight other generals have been accused of being complicit in a scandal involving the killing of thousands of civilians to inflate the military’s apparent effectiveness.

According to former Colonel Robinson Gonzalez, himself charged with killing civilians and embezzlement of army funds, Armed Forces commander General Juan Pablo Rodriguez and eight more army generals directly ordered the killing of civilians that became a widespread activity under the command of former President Alvaro Uribe.

One of the generals reportedly is Mario Montoya, who was forced to step down as Armed Forces commander in 2008 when US newspaper The Washington Post and Colombian weekly Semana revealed the ongoing killings.

Testimonies that had been leaked to media before, revealed Gonzalez indicated Montoya to be the “creator” of the practice that has left at least 3,896 civilians dead and more than 4,o00 members of the military under criminal investigation.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombias-armed-forces-commander-8-generals-accused-ordering-civilian-killings/

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From Wikipedia:

The U.S. provides assistance to the Colombian army which has documented ties with paramilitary groups on the U.S. terrorist list.

U.S. Policy in Colombia

Amnesty International USA has been calling for a complete cut off of US military aid to Colombia for over a decade due to the continued collaboration between the Colombian Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies as well the failure of the Colombian government to improve human rights conditions.
. . . .

Furthermore, after 10 years and over $8 billion dollars of US assistance to Colombia, US policy has failed to reduce availability or use of cocaine in the US, and Colombia's human rights record remains deeply troubling. Despite this, the State Department continues to certify military aid to Colombia, even after reviewing the country?s human rights record.

Despite the government sponsored "demobilization" process both Colombian and international human rights organizations have repeatedly documented and reported on continued military-paramilitary collaboration, including reports issued by the United Nations, are abundant. We see on-going use of military courts to handle cases of human rights violations and failure to take decisive action to combat impunity.

Human rights organizations also worry about extraditions of paramilitary leaders to the U.S. as another obstacle to justice. A 2010 report by the International Human Rights Law Clinic of the University of California, Berkeley, Truth Behind Bars: Colombian Paramilitary Leaders in U.S. Custody, describes how the extraditions of paramilitary leaders to the U.S. have had adverse consequences for Colombia's ongoing human rights and corruption investigations and undermine U.S. counternarcotics efforts. The report recommends that the United States incentivize the extradited leaders? cooperation with accountability efforts and improve cooperation with Colombian prosecutors and judges.

Year after year US policy has ignored the evidence and the cries of the United Nations, Colombian and international non-governmental organizations and the people of Colombia. Plan Colombia is a failure in every respect and human rights in Colombia will not improve until there is a fundamental shift in US foreign policy.