Rarely in the history of Colombia has the United States meddled so much in its domestic affairs as today. Incredibly, this has the blessing of the government.
Since Colombia accepted the 25 million dollars from the United States to “eliminate all of the disagreements produced by the political events that occurred in Panama in 1903” as part of the Thomson-Urrutia treaty of 1921, the U.S. government has always held a place of honor at the table of Colombian politics. It is a place that it has not abandoned, as was demonstrated last week. On Sunday, the Colombian government backed off after Vice President Francisco Santos proposed the end of Plan Colombia. He was complaining that the few dollars that Colombia received in aid did not justify the mistreatment that the country was receiving in certain circles in Washington. But he was swiftly corrected by Minister of Foreign Relations Jaime Bermúdez who said, “We have to continue with Plan Colombia. This plan is needed in order to be able to consolidate results in the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism.”
Days before, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos had announced the transfer of U.S. equipment and aircraft from the Manta base in Ecuador to Colombia. On Wednesday Colombia woke up to the news that Senator Patrick Leahy had frozen 72 million dollars in military aid, given his concern about the “false positives” scandal. On Thursday it was announced that the United Sates would request the extradition of David Murcia of DMG, the company at the center of the pyramid scheme scandal. That informational barrage, far from being exceptional, reflects the level of interference that the three branches of power that the United States have in Colombia, possibly the highest level it has had in the history of relations between the two countries.
American influence isn’t new, but few are the times that it has affected the daily life of Colombians like what is being experienced today. If the pillar of any state is the judicial system, in Colombia it has a great American influence. The criminal justice system that has been implemented in the last few years is not only inspired on the U.S. system, but also promoted and financed by Washington. Colombian investigators are instructed by their American counterparts.
The participation of the United States isn’t limited to that. According to what sources at the Fiscalía, the prosecutor general’s office, have told SEMANA, U.S. officials have a key role in several critical fronts like in the use of polygraphs to determine the suitability of Colombian investigators. In cases that interest the United States such as drug trafficking and human rights, agents from the FBI or Justice Department directly intervene.
Criminal military justice is being transformed to replicate the Pentagon model through training of Colombian judges and investigators.
Extradition, formerly an exceptional tool in combating the big drug capos – the Medellín and Calí cartels – is used today in an indiscriminate manner. There have been more than 800 Colombians extradited since 2002, of whom only a small percentage would qualify as falling under the category of being too powerful or too dangerous in order to be tried in Colombia, which was the reason why extradition was implemented.
Also, Mario Iguarán, the head of the Fiscalía, or other judicial officials are traveling often to Washington, not only to meet with their counterparts at the Department of Justice but also to present defenses and explanations to members of Congress and their advisors.
Providing updates to members of the U.S. Congress is not a coincidence. Colombian institutions, including the Fiscalía, annually receive more than 500 million dollars from American contributions. This transfer of money is what gives politicians in the United States carte blanche to meddle in Colombian affairs. They do so gladly. Not only in judicial matters, but also in human rights, national security, social policy and even how labor relations should be applied in Colombia.
http://www.semana.com/noticias-print-edition/the-51st-state/122042.aspx
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
