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Tell the U.S. Government: ''Stop Funding Colombia's Death Squad Democracy!''

by Comite por la Nueva Colombia
May 26th, election day in Colombia, is an opportunity for solidarity activists in the U.S. to highlight the lack of a political solution and the corruption of democracy in Colombia, and to stand against the U.S. military and political support for the corrupt Colombian government and against the people of Colombia.
Sunday, May 26th, 3pm Centro del Pueblo - 474 Valencia @ 16th St, San Francisco:

May 26th is Election Day in Colombia. Political
violence in Colombia is immense. For example, in 1984, an alternative party called the Union Patriotica was formed as a possible political solution to the civil war. Since its formation, over 4000 of the UP members have been murdered by the military or paramilitaries.

Colombia's democracy is a death squad democracy, where any political opposition to the establishment is destroyed as expediently as possible by either the state or its paramilitary allies.

Despite this situation, the U.S. government continues to give millions in aid every year to the corrupt Colombian government. In order to do this, they continue to support the myth that Colombia is a democratic state. On May 1st the U.S. government announced that the Colombian government had improved its human rights records, clearing the way for the release of $62 million dollars in aid, a portion of the $104 million aid designated for this year. This aid was not released initially in what was supposedly
an attempt to pressure the Colombian government to
improve its atrocious human rights record. 80% of the human rights violations in Colombia are committed by right-wing paramilitaries that have proven connections to the Colombian military. The U.S. State Department, the UN High Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have all documented that the official Colombian military is linked to the paramilitary death squads. The Colombian military has a 97% impunity rate, meaning that 97% of the crimes committed by the military remain unpunished. Three of every five unionists killed in the world are Colombian, and 152 Colombian unionists were killed in 2001.

Colombiaâ s human rights record has not improved since U.S. aid was retained. Moreover, the Colombian government has done little to try and improve it because the Colombian government is well aware that aid from the U.S. is not dependent on human rights abuses but on U.S foreign policy objectives. As Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said, "This certification has more to do with the fact that U.S. aid was running out, than with sufficient progress on human rights." The U.S is not concerned with human rights abuses but rather with protecting U.S. interests in Colombia and Latin America. The U.S. government has an interest in keeping political control of the region while its corporate backers have
an interest in protecting their claim to the sources of cheap labor, oil resources and other natural resources the region provides. The social movements of students, women, indigenous and trade unionist and the armed insurgency movements in Colombia threaten both these interests. Thus, U.S. aid to Colombia continues regardless of human rights abuses.

Please join the Comite for a New Colombia at 3pm at the Centro Del Pueblo at 474 Valencia st. in San Francisco for an educational forum with a panel and discussion about the civil war and U.S. intervention in Colombia. If you would like more information or can volunteer to help build the forum please email cnc_sf [at] yahoo.com or call 415 312 9567.

End U.S. aid to Colombia!


___________________________

Ramon
ramon_cnc [at] yahoo.com
Comite por la Nueva Colombia
(415) 821-6545

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