Could US complicity in war crimes in countries like Colombia offer a playbook for domestic repression? After the Cold War, U.S. advisors helped the Colombian military incorporate illegal paramilitaries to assassinate trade unionists, journalists and others.
The Colombian journalist, Hollman Morris, had his request for a U.S. visa to study at Harvard as a prestigious Nieman Fellow denied on grounds relating to alleged terrorist activities as defined by the U.S. Patriot Act.
The accusations against the journalist came after Hollman Morris briefly interviewed four hostages–three police officers and one soldier–shortly before they were released by the FARC.
Two U.S. soldiers were arrested in Bogotá over arms and ammunition bound for an illegal paramilitary group identified by the State Department of being both a drug-trafficking and terrorist organization.
This story became of the evidence that led the State Department to designate Carlos Castano and his paramilitary group known by its acronym in Spanish as the AUC, as a terrorist organization over a year later, in 2002.
Both the PBS series and the NPR panel also present a number of former American drug war veterans who have since changed their own views who said that U.S. efforts in the “war on drugs” are falling short.
The lesson of El Salvador was that the guerrillas could not be wiped out, and that in the end the United States needed to pressure America’s own allies in the Salvadoran military to reach a peace settlement.
