Action Alert: Say NO to U.S. Military Aid to Colombia

Last week the Colombian government and the FARC (the largest rebel group in Colombia) resumed peace talks in Cuba.  The Colombian government has little incentive to negotiate so long as their war is funded by U.S. tax dollars.  Now is the time to take action to bring an end to military aid, to stand in solidarity with the Colombian people, and their struggle for peace with justice.

U.S. aid fuels Colombia’s 49-year civil war.   The Fellowship of Reconciliation reports, “Since 2000, the United States has spent more than $6 billion on ‘Plan Colombia,’ as part of the ‘drug war’ and ‘war on terrorism’ — 80% of it military aid. Colombia has received more U.S. military aid during this period than any country outside the Middle East. Support of the escalation has been bipartisan, and the Obama administration has continued this approach, disguising a bloody counterinsurgency as a war on drugs… ”

In its 2012 annual report, Human Rights Watch concluded, “The U.S. remains the most influential foreign actor in Colombia…Thirty percent of US military aid is subject to human rights conditions, which the U.S. Department of State has not enforced.”

Please call President Obama to support the peace talks, and stop sending military aid to Colombia at 202-456-1111. 

The U.S. should not send military aid to fuel a civil war, especially since doing so undermines peace talks now happening.  Tell the president to take a real stand for peace in Colombia, and discontinue all aid to its repressive government.