By Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
Colombia will receive $461 million in aid from the U.S. government in 2022 after the House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approves a bill to do so. However, the support will for the first time be conditional on resources going to the Colombian police.
The U.S. government made it clear that from now on, if the law is passed, 30 percent of all counter-narcotics resources going to the South American country's police will depend on a certification from the State Department confirming that the country is investigating and punishing uniformed officers involved in human rights violations.
After the demonstrations that began in April of this year in Colombia, international organizations reported on the massive human rights violations that occurred by the Colombian police against the demonstrators.
According to Temblores, an NGO that has been in charge of recording and documenting the practices of police violence through its platform "GRITA" and in assisting victims and connecting them with the administration of justice through "Policarpa", as of June 16, 4,285 cases of violence by the security forces had been identified, not including cases of disappearances.
While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported Wednesday that it found "serious human rights violations" during the demonstrations against the government of Ivan Duque.
It should be noted that the conditioning of resources in aid to Colombia is not new, as this condition already existed for the army, but the restrictions are now extended to the police force.
The condition that the U.S. government seeks to impose on the resources specifies that at least $65 million cannot be delivered until certification is issued by the U.S. State Department.
It is important to detail that 80 percent of those resources - $52 million - would be for the police and 20 percent for the army.
According to El Tiempo, almost since the beginning of Plan Colombia in 2000, resources for the army had been subject to human rights evaluations. Requirements that grew with the scandal of false positives and illegal interceptions of journalists, human rights defenders, members of the high courts and congressmen.
At a congressional hearing last Thursday, José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights WatchThe governor asked congressmen to approve the new restriction on police funding.
For her part, Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez, who is in New York, said Thursday that she sees no reason for the social unrest and recent protests that led to violence in her country to damage the relationship with the United States.
"We see no reason for bilateral relations to be affected," the foreign minister said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
"This is a Congress -the U.S. Congress- that has been permanently monitoring Colombia's evolution. Thanks to all this help and the confidence of Congress and the different U.S. administrations, our country has been able to face very tough challenges and, among other things, has also managed to work for the poorest, reduce the level of poverty.... fight drug trafficking, and strengthen institutions," Ramirez said.
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