Donahue: Plan Colombia Aid and the Paramilitaries
May 9, 2005
Please Distribute Widely
Last week we reported to you on the U.S. soldiers caught allegedly trying to sell ammunition to Colombian paramilitary
fighters. On Friday, Sean Donahue posted an eye-opening history of U.S. collaboration with Colombian paramilitarism.
Donahue's piece in the Narcosphere quotes many sources, including his own past research on the subject, which all point
to the conclusion that U.S. military and intelligence services have long had a hand in supporting those who have
committed the worst atrocities against the Colombian people. Donahue writes:
"While this is the first documented case of weapons supplied for Plan Colombia apparently being funneled directly to the
paramilitaries, it certainly is not the first case in which U.S. aid has been implicated in paramilitary activity. A
short and by no means exhaustive catalog of such cases follows:
"In February of 1962, General William Yarborough led a U.S. Special Forces delegation to Colombia, which recommended the
formation of armed paramilitary groups to counter 'subversion.' ...It should be noted that this report pre-dates the
formation of either the ELN or the FARC, the two guerilla groups the paramilitaries were supposedly formed to combat..."
Read the full report:
Also in the comments section of this story, the latest on the case of the two soldiers. The U.S. gave Colombian
investigators this weekend the chance to "question" the two U.S. soldiers caught in a clandestine munitions warehouse.
The soldiers will then soon return to the United States, free due to an immunity agreement from further investigation
and prosecution for attempting to arm Colombian assassins. Read more on these developments:
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin