Morning Star.png Santos, Obama Kill ‘Plan Colombia’ James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 6 February 2016 The bloodstained Plan Colombia campaign against Marxist revolutionaries in that country is to be wound up, US President Barack Obama said on Thursday. Mr Obama welcomed Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to the White House to discuss the ongoing peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group. Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, President of Colombia Mr Obama pledged that his administration would be Mr Santos’s “partner in waging peace.” He announced that the 15-year, $10 billion (£7bn) Plan Colombia — ostensibly to combat drug trafficking — would be replaced by a new scheme called Peace Colombia. Critics have long alleged that Plan Colombia, which has failed to significantly reduce cocaine production, is in reality a covert war against the Farc. They say the true aim of the plan is to control the resources of the 15th-largest exporter of oil to the US. Seventy-one per cent of the Plan Colombia funding went to the armed forces — more military aid than the US gives to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean combined. Death squads Human rights groups accused Washington of using the scheme as a cover for channelling money to right-wing death squads responsible for murdering over 4,300 peasants, trade unionists and human rights activists. The US president said that in place of Plan Colombia, he would ask Congress for some $450 million (£310m) to help “reintegrate” guerrillas and help Mr Santos’s government make inroads into the Farc’s rural strongholds. That figure includes $390 million (£270m) in humanitarian and development aid, but tens of millions of dollars will still be spent on Pentagon counter-narcotics programmes. Some of the money will be spent on clearing landmines over the next five years, in conjunction with Norway. “We all know that it’s easier to start wars than to end them,” Mr Obama admitted. “But after half a century of wrenching conflict, the time has come for peace.” Mr Santos also reiterated his request for the Marxist guerrilla group to be removed from Washington’s list of terrorist organisations. But US special envoy to the peace talks Bernard Aronson said Washington would only consider removing the Farc once it has renounced violence, given up weapons and ceased hostile actions against US citizens and interests. He did not clarify what those interests were. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-24da-Colombia-Obama-swings-axe-at-anti -Farc-scheme#.VrWSp_l9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-24da-Colombia-Obama-swings-axe-at-anti- Farc-scheme#.VrWSp_l9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
