In Colombia and the Andean Region, our taxpayer money is paying to escalate a civil war, displace hundreds of thousands of civilians, strengthen a military with a horrible human rights record, damage critical bio-diversity in the Amazon basin, and more. Learn about recent events and the connections between the SOA/ WHINSEC and Colombia.
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The Impact of the SOA in Colombia |
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Once again, detailed research continues to uncover the connections between SOA/ WHINSEC graduates and instructors with extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations.
The researchers selected an important graph from the report that depicts extrajudicial killings in Colombia from 2002 to 2009 attributed to brigade divisions in the Colombian military, and matched the brigades with SOA-trained commanders. The results are startling, showing a high level of extrajudicial executions in areas under the command of SOA graduates. While the data focuses on those in command and is not entirely inclusive of all the soldiers in each unit, at a minimum this research demonstrates the failed efforts of the curriculum at the SOA/ WHINSEC to prevent human rights violations.
The report isolates the specific role of SOA/ WHINSEC attendees as part of their research, noting that in 2009, “30 of 33 brigade and division commanders who could be identified attended one or more courses at the School” and that “it is significant that the United States has trained virtually the entire class of Colombian Army commanders.” One of the cornerstones of the report (high numbers of reported killings after receiving U.S. military assistance, despite reports of killings before military assistance was approved) is also connected with training at the SOA/ WHINSEC, a form of U.S. military assistance. (page 12)
Unit Studies
According to the research, of the 33 brigade and division commanders who could be identified, only the commanders of the Second, Fifth and 13th brigades did not attend SOA/ WHINSEC. All seven division commanders attended the school. Here are summaries of a few of the unit studies in the report, with human rights violations attributed to units commanded by U.S.-trained Colombian officers:
- Codazzi Battalion (operating as part of the Third Brigade): In 2004, CINEP reported on the killings, reportedly by members of the Codazzi Battalion, of Carlos Rodrigo Largo in Corinto, Cauca on June 16 and of Claudia Patricia Morales in Palmira, Valle, on March 14. The killing of Largo was part of a village raid in which Codazzi troops reportedly threatened, robbed and beat villagers. In 2007 the Codazzi Battalion was identified as the author of ten civilian killings, and the same number again in 2008. Although the Third Brigade has 12 battalions, the Codazzi was reportedly responsible for 22 out of 53 executions attributed to the brigade. (page 18)
- Ninth Brigade: The brigade’s commander from at least September 2006 to November 2007 was Colonel Jaime Alfonso Lasprilla Villamizar. In 2002‐03, then‐Lt. Col. Lasprilla served as an instructor at WHINSEC, after also being trained at the school as a cadet. During his term as Ninth Brigade commander, at least 49 civilian killings were reportedly committed by the army in the brigade’s jurisdiction, 31 of them attributed by witnesses directly to Ninth Brigade soldiers. Lasprilla was subsequently promoted to the rank of brigadier general and commander of the U.S.‐supported Task Force Omega. (page 19)
- Sixth Brigade: During 2000 to 2005, 50 civilian killings by the military were reported in the brigade’s jurisdiction, including the well known Cajamarca massacre of five people in April 2004. A high percentage – 87.5% – of the 42 civilian killings in Tolima attributed to a unit were reportedly carried out by members of the Sixth Brigade. In 2008‐09, and again this year, the United States has been fully assisting a brigade in whose jurisdiction the Army reportedly killed 124 civilians since 2002, in clear violation of the Leahy Law. (pages 19-20)
- Eighteenth Brigade: This brigade operates in the conflictive and oil‐producing Arauca Department, on the border with Venezuela. The 18th Brigade became a prominent focus of human rights and labor groups and the U.S. Embassy in 2004, when troops killed three trade unionists. The previous year, eight killings were attributed to the brigade, including a massacre of four indigenous persons and the rape of four teenaged girls on May 5, 2003, allegedly committed by members of the ‘Navas Pardo’ Engineering Battalion dressed in paramilitary uniforms. Most – 75% – of the 44 civilian killings in Arauca attributed to a unit were reportedly carried out by members of the 18th Brigade. (pages 21-22)
- Fourth Brigade: This brigade has been a powerhouse of the army, with several of its commanders rising to leadership of the military in recent years. Extrajudicial killings by the army in the brigade’s jurisdiction also outnumber by far those of any other brigade – 608 since 2002, with more than 100 a year from 2004 through 2007. The current commander, Brigadier General Alberto José Mejía Ferrero, trained and studied for several years in U.S. military institutions, including the SOA/ WHINSEC; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; the Army War College; and the Naval Postgraduate School. (pages 22-23)
- Seventh Brigade: A total of 256 civilian killings by the army have been reported in the brigade’s jurisdiction since 2002; of these, 81 were attributed either to the Seventh Brigade or one of the mobile brigades. Officers of the Seventh Brigade and its Joaquin Paris Battalion were implicated in the Mapiripán massacre in 1997, in which paramilitaries massacred or disappeared 49 residents over the course of five days. There were 12 killings attributed to the 12th Mobile Brigade, at the time commanded by Colonel Carlos Hugo Ramírez Zuluaga, who took the Cadet Orientation at the SOA/ WHINSEC in November 1980. Colonel Zuluaga was named in the 1994 book Terrorismo de Estado de Colombia as a paramilitary death squad collaborator. In April 2006, according to CINEP, soldiers from the 12th Mobile Brigade opened fire on a civilian dwelling in San Juan de Arama, and continued shooting even after people fleeing the dwelling shouted to stop and the wounded were heard crying out. The soldiers killed 10 people, including three children. (pages 24-25)
These unit studies are likely the tip of the iceberg. Given the Department of Defense refuses to disclose who has trained or instructed at WHINSEC since 2004, there is a high probability even more graduates are connected to human rights violations in light of the fact that thousands of Colombians have moved through SOA/ WHINSEC programs without any oversight. Important reports like the one described above are essential resources for Congress and Administration officials making decisions about foreign military training. Despite the value of transparency, openness, and the public’s right to know, the Obama Administration made a clear decision to value secrecy instead, and to prevent further exposure of the negative impact the SOA/ WHINSEC has in Colombia and the rest of Latin America. Click here to take action and urge the State Department not to certify Colombia’s human rights record in August 2010 Note on summary above: the content of these summaries was taken from the FOR/ U.S. Office on Colombia report entitled Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications. In some cases, footnotes, graphs and other documentation in the original report will provide additional background to the information you read here. |
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Death Threat against Martha Giraldo |
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 Martha Giraldo, a Colombian human rights activist and a featured speaker at the 2009 November vigil to close the SOA (video), was subjected to a chilling death threat earlier this week in Cali, Colombia. Two SUVs with tinted windows -- the vehicle of choice of Colombian assassins -- tried to run her car off of the road. As they pulled up beside her, they pulled out guns and pointed them at her. They never fired a shot, but the message was clear: we can kill you, and if you don't keep quiet, we will.
Martha Giraldo and her family continue to tell the truth about how the Colombian army killed her father, a campesino, and dressed him up in guerrilla clothing to make the murder look like a "combat kill." Colombian human rights organizations report that extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian Armed Forces is on the rise. Please take two minutes out of your day today to call one of the Colombia specialists at the State Department, Terry Steers-Gonzalez (202-647-4173) or Susan Sanford (202-647-3142). Click here for the message Martha would like you to communicate.
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Video: U.S. Military in Colombia |
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 In the fall 2009, U.S. and Colombian officials signed an agreement granting the U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases for ten years. (Watch the 21min. video about the agreement)
SOA Watch is extremely concerned about the drastic increase of U.S. militarization in Latin America. The bases agreement operates from the same failed military mindset that has given rise to the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC). The purpose of the bases and the purpose of the SOA/ WHINSEC are the same: to ensure U.S. control over the region through military means.
Already, the SOA/ WHINSEC is deploying "Mobile Training Teams" to Colombia and other Latin American countries, that train hundreds of soldiers annually. Over 10,000 soldiers of the Colombian military (the military with the worst human rights record in the Americas) have received SOA/ WHINSEC training and used the lessons learned in their brutal war that has left thousands dead and millions displaced.
Click here to read the article Seven Bases by Diane Lefer and Hector Aristizábal, in which they take a look at the history of each of these bases as well as conditions in the surrounding communities and Colombia as a whole.
Take Action
Send a message to President Barack Obama. Demand a change in U.S. foreign policy, away from militarization and towards a culture of justice and peace. Demand an end to U.S. military bases in Latin America, a stop to all U.S. military aid to Colombia and an executive order to shut down the School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/ WHINSEC). Click here to send a message to the President.
Even more importantly; help to build a grassroots movement that has the power to ensure that our demands are being met. Join us for SOA Watch's April events in Washington, DC, the United States Social Forum and the SOA Watch Encuentro in June 2010 in Latin America.
In peace and solidarity,
SOA Watch
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Colombian Paramilitary Confirms Collusion with SOA/WHINSEC Graduates |
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Salvatore Mancuso, the former Commander of the right wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, testified Tuesday that the paramilitaries, branded "foreign terrorist organizations" by the U.S. State Department in 2001, were aided by high ranking Colombian military officers in training and logistics.
Mancuso, testifying in a closed hearing in the city of Medellin, said the Colombian state supported the paramilitaries since their creation in the 1980’s and that “paramilitaries are a state policy”.
Amongst the military and government officials signaled by Mancuso as collaborators are General Rito Alejo del Río, General Martín Carreño Sandoval, General Harold Bedoya Pizarro, General Fernando Landazabal, Colonel Alfonso Manosalva Flores, and the current Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos. The six men received training or served as instructors at the U.S. Army School of the Americas and have been accused by Mancuso of inciting and promoting paramilitary intervention in certain regions of Colombia.
The strategy of using civilian paramilitary groups and death squads to avoid government oversight and accountability has been a common tactic of SOA/WHINSEC graduates throughout Latin America. Salvadoran SOA/WHINSEC graduate and ARENA party founder Roberto D'Aubussoin established the Death Squads that were responsible for much of the violence in El Salvador in the 1980's. General Manuel B. Lucas Garcia, who attended the school in 1965 and 1970, masterminded the creation of the Civil Defense Patrols in Guatemala. Mexico's Jose Ruben Rivas Pena, who took the SOA/WHINSEC’s elite Command and Staff Course, called for the "training and support for self-defense forces or other paramilitary organizations in Chiapas” as a response to the Zapatista uprising in 1994.
The Colombian military is the largest recipient of US military funding and training in Latin America and holds over 60% of the seats available to attend courses at WHINSEC.
Read more about this Breaking News!
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New Evidence in February 2005 Massacre Investigation |
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A former member of the paramilitaries confessed to assisting the Army’s 17th Brigade in murdering Alejandro Perez, one of the eight people killed in the February 2005 massacre in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. On April 25, Adriano José Cano, alias Melaza, formerly with the Banana Paramilitary Bloc, told investigators that the Army gave him a weapon and a uniform to participate in operations, and that in one of them he helped in the killing of Alejandro Perez.
Cano gave testimony as part of the demobilization process that requires paramilitary members to confess crimes they committed in order to receive a sentence reduction. The prosecutor and Inspector General investigators working on the massacre’s criminal and disciplinary investigations were expected to follow up with more questions.
Cano’s testimony not only gives further evidence of Army’s responsibility in the massacre, a charge that the Peace Community has made since immediately after it happened. It also underscores the Army’s illegal practice of using non-army personnel (including active and demobilized illegal combatants) in carrying out military operations. While Colombian law allows using these people as informants, acts such as carrying weapons, wearing a uniform and engaging in combat itself are banned.
Source: El Tiempo, 26 April 2007.
Read More About the San Jose de Apartado Massacre
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