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Military Aid to Colombia |
Plan Colombia is a death sentence for us. [It] is a plan for violence. The money the United States is spending in Plan Colombia will go to protecting the international companies by purchasing arms, more sophisticated equipment, and to constructing military bases in the richest [resource] zones.
---- Roberto Perez, President, U'wa Traditional Authority, Feb 7, 2001
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Plan Colombia, the controversial U.S.-backed military aid package passed in 2000 allegedly aimed at curbing drug production is generating widespread concern and criticism for fueling Colombia's civil war and spraying harmful chemicals over communities and ecosystems in the southeastern region. Recent fund allocations to protect Occidental Petroleum's oil pipeline in the conflict ridden Arauca province suggest that Plan Colombia is driven by the need to secure U.S. access to Colombian oil reserves.
The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador, than from all of the Persian Gulf. New US energy policy envisions greater reliance on Colombian oil. Multinational companies dominate the Colombian oil industry, with Occidental Petroleum (OXY) being the biggest US player in the region. Military aid has only worsened Colombia's cycle of violence, yet the need to secure access to oil is driving the United States' deeper into the Colombian civil war.
The proposed 2004 foreign aid bill contains almost $600 million in aid to Colombia, the vast majority of which is military aid. Starting last year, military aid to Colombia can be used for both counter-drug efforts-- mostly the aerial fumigation of drug crops-- and counterinsurgency. Since Plan Colombia's passage, the U.S. has given $2.5 billion to Colombia, with few tangible results and a growing trail of human rights abuses.
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