The Latin America Working Group estimates, “Since the start of Plan Colombia, more than 6 million people were victimized, more than 4 million people were displaced, more than 4,300 civilians were murdered allegedly by government security forces to up the body count, more than 1,000 trade unionists and 400 human rights defenders were murdered, and countless women suffered sexual violence.” A report released in 2010 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the U.S. Office on Colombia identifies “alarming links between Colombian military units that receive U.S. assistance and civilian killings committed by the army.”

According to an investigation published in 2013 by Washington Post journalist Dana Priest, Plan Colombia has handed over more than $9 billion in mostly military aid. Some of that cash was funneled to a covert CIA program “that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders” and conduct surveillance, writes Priest. This program was initiated under President George W. Bush and continued by Obama.

Yet, the Obama administration does not appear to have reckoned with this troubling legacy. As recently as February 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry lauded Plan Colombia as “a great success story.” He said: “In the 1990s we worked very hard on Plan Colombia, and it was controversial at the time, but it resulted in assisting this transformation to take place, together with the extraordinary courage of the people of Colombia, who really fought to reclaim their country.”

"A great deal of the repression, dirty war tactics, and strength of paramilitary groups in Colombia has to do with the United States," Alirio Uribe Munoz, Congressman for the left opposition party Polo Democratico Alternative, told AlterNet. "In the worst years of dirty war in Colombia, when President Uribe was persecuting social leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, and opposition politicians, when the para-politics scandal emerged, when extrajudicial executions were commonplace, he had the unconditional support of the United States."