April 23rd 2010

This report starts by providing an overview of some of the current social and political issues in Colombia. The report also provides an update on specific cases of human rights violations which were presented to the International Lawyers Delegation which visited Cali, Southwest Colombia, in August 2008.

When Plan Colombia was first announced there were different versions put into circulation each of which had a slightly different emphasis depending on the audiences to which they were being presented. Thus, the version presented to the EU rearranged the chapters so that social spending came to the fore of the document and not the afterthought that it seemed to be in the US. However, all three versions had one thing in common and it was that they described themselves quite clearly as an anti-narcotics strategy for the region. Many critics at the time claimed that it was really a counter insurgency plan designed to increase the US?s role in the region and went on to point out that the anti-narcotics strategy that was being championed had failed everywhere else.

The EU?s Humanitarian Spaces in Colombia are not a minor component of its intervention in Colombia and in a way are more worrying than the african palm crops they finance. To their defenders the Humanitarian Spaces are a tool for building dialogue and harmony. According to the EU vision and that of the World Bank ( which partly finances the laboratories and moreover has been financing the managers of the first peace laboratory in Magdalena Medio namely the Programme for Development and Peace in Magdalena Medio) the organisations of the communities are weak with very little ability to engage with the state and other entities.