Colombian police foiled a plan by leftist rebels to attack U.S. military advisers at a popular vacation resort near the capital Bogota, a government official and the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday.
According to them, but the piece serves as a nice reminder of the situation in Colombia-
The U.S. advisers were living in Melgar as part of their mission at the nearby Tolemaida army base, the Colombian military’s main training center, the embassy official said. More than 300 U.S. military advisers and trainers are working in Colombia, which has received more than $4 billion in aid from Washington since 2000 to fight drug trafficking and leftist rebels who smuggle cocaine to fund their operations.
And yet all those upstanding soldiers of freedom and democracy seem to have missed this-
A sham paramilitary demobilization process, combined with thousands of cases of threats and killings and a chronic lack of investigations and prosecutions, makes Colombia one of the most dangerous places in the world for trade unionists, according to a new report released today.
Colombia’s National Trade Union School documented 2,245 killings, 3,400 threats and 138 forced disappearances of trade unionists between January 1991 and December 2006. Despite their supposed demobilization, army-backed paramilitaries and the security forces are thought to be behind most attacks. Guerrilla groups have also been responsible for such killings. (h/t MOA)
What must they be doing all day to miss that going on, unless…