The US Origin of Evil in Columbia

Columbia Reports wrote, “‘The origin of evil’ in Colombia was the ‘National Security Doctrine’ the US military kicked off in the early 1960’s.”

Alfredo Vázquez Carrizosa said the US aided the Columbian military in its fight against “the internal enemy.” The Columbian military fought to “exterminate social workers, trade unionists, men and women who are not supportive of the establishment.” This included human rights activists, like Carrizosa.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented “the deadly results” of the Columbian military and its close partnerships with paramilitaries (aka death squads). “In the 1970s, human rights groups recorded 1,053 political killings. In the 1980s, that figure leapt to 12,859.”

The Colombian military’s massacres were a direct result of U.S. policymaking. A U.S. Army Special Warfare Team “Led by Gen. William P. Yarborough,” recommended that the Colombian military be trained when “necessary [to] execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents. It should be backed by the United States.”

Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, U.S. military aid to Columbia kept flowing. Columbia Journal wrote, “substantial amounts of U.S. aid in the 1990s went to Colombian army units that have a history of human rights abuses.” The army subjected peaceful Colombians “to massacres, torture, disappearance, kidnapping and forced displacement.”

In 1999, Colombia was the leading recipient of U.S. military aid. The U.S. continued its close collaboration with the Colombian Military through gory periods. The Guardian reported, “approximately 10,000 civilians were executed by the army between 2002 and 2010.”

Despite the war the Colombian army waged against its own people, Washington provided millions of dollars of aid. Washington provided crucial support to President Álvaro Uribe. The Washington Post wrote that the Colombian military, under Uribe,“committed thousands of extrajudicial killings of citizens falsely identified as enemy combatants.”

The Human Rights Office recorded “Between 2016 and 2025, the UN Human Rights Office documented 972 killings of human rights defenders.”

Yet, the bloody U.S. history in Columbia was missing when U.S. mass media outlets reported on the recent election of Abelardo de la Espriella.

President Trump and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, openly rooted for De la Espriella to win the presidential election. Trump and Rubio willfully ignored De la Espriella’s close ties to the Colombian paramilitary organization AUC or his defense of paramilitary groups.

The U.S. mass media remains silent about Colombia. It remains silent about the massacres committed by U.S.-back paramilitaries and the Colombian army. They stay silent about the Colombian army and paramilitaries partnership.

They stay silent about the 100 human rights defenders killed a year. Yet, in 2024, Columbia received over $300 million from Washington. Taxpayers continue to pay for the Colombian army to wage a war against the internal enemy.

HRW wrote that the “official silence by the United States… allows the Colombian military to fight a dirty war and Colombian officialdom to deny it. The price: thousands of dead, disappeared, maimed, and terrorized Colombians.”

-Anton Porcari