On August 1 the U.S. State Department issued a “certification” that the right-wing government of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has made sufficient progress in “meeting statutory criteria related to human rights and severing ties to paramilitary groups.”

The move opens the door for the release of $70 million that had been withheld for Washington’s Plan Colombia, which since 1999 has provided billions in military and economic aid to the Colombian government. Washington is pressing for an additional $742 million to go to the Uribe government this year.

The program has made Colombia the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid, behind Israel and Egypt. In the last five years Washington has funneled more than $4 billion to Bogotá and its armed forces.

On July 22, Uribe had signed the Justice and Peace Law. This legislation is aimed at demobilizing and pardoning 20,000 members of ultrarightist death squads, who, financed by wealthy landlords and businessmen, have functioned as an extralegal arm of the Colombian military. The rightist squads have killed thousands of trade unionists, peasants, and others.

The law assures that the vast majority will never face prosecution for their crimes. Of the 6,000 demobilized so far, only 25 face possible prosecution, according to Human Rights Watch. Even if convicted, they face a maximum sentence of five to eight years.

Meanwhile, Washington has continued to make known its hostility toward the government of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. In an August 3 interview with the Associated Press, U.S. undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns said Washington was concerned with what he described as Venezuela’s “massive” arms imports. He expressed hope that Venezuela “will refrain from giving support to the FARC,” referring to the largest of the anti-government guerrilla groups operating in Colombia.  
 
 
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