Armed with bazookas, instruments and colorful posters, residents of Santa Cruz will show their support on Tuesday, June 10th at 3:30pm in favor of a pending city resolution requesting that all US military aid to Colombia be re-directed to domestic drug prevention and rehabilitation programs, which have been shown to be more effective in the “war on drugs.” Bert Muhly of Tres Americas will speak on the issue, as well as Sandra Alvarez, long time Colombia activist and Ph.D candidate at the University of California Santa Cruz.

“The US has put almost five billion dollars into the Colombian military, and the army has committed massacres and collaborated with death squads and drug traffickers with almost total impunity,” said national campaign organizer Liza Smith of the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Latin America program. “It’s time US communities stand up for how they want their tax dollars spent.”

Military spending in Colombia was supposed to cut cocaine production in half by 2005. Instead, retail prices for the drug have dropped and purity has increased, according to the Office on National Drug Control Policy. Meanwhile, a recent study showed that killings of civilians by the Colombian army has increased since the U.S. overhauled military training of its forces. Read More