US Policy and Human Rights in Colombia

Paul Angelo, who worked with the Colombian military on Plan Colombia, has a piece up at Global Americans about the scope of the Colombian military's murder of civilians. His argument is that the United States has a positive role to play in implementing the peace agreement but we cannot ignore the need for accountability.

This is a much needed counterweight. James Stavridis, former head of SouthCom, recently had an op-ed at Bloomberg with the rah-rah version of U.S. policy toward Colombia. He does not mention human rights at all. No homicides, no displaced people, no accountability, nothing.

The lessons of Colombia would stand America in good stead as we consider our level of support in Syria, for example. Or how we move forward in Afghanistan.

If you completely ignore human rights, then you will create new problems. Blindly copying Colombia in the Middle East is just dangerous.