This month, three new U.S. ambassadors to Latin American countries were confirmed. On August 5th, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Rose Likins to be Ambassador to Peru and Peter Michael McKinley to be Ambassador to Colombia. On August 19th, President Obama announced four recess appointments to key administrations posts, including Maria del Carmen Aponte, Obama's nominee to be Ambassador to El Salvador. Aponte's confirmation had been on hold for almost one year after Republican Senators Jim DeMint (South Carolina) and Jim Risch (Idaho) blocked her nomination because of a past relationship with a Cuban-American who allegedly had contact with the interests section in Washington, according to the Los Angeles Times. "At a time when our nation faces so many pressing challenges, I urge members of the Senate to stop playing politics with our highly qualified nominees, and fulfill their responsibilities of advice and consent," President Obama said upon announcing the recess appointments. "Until they do, I reserve the right to act within my authority to do what is best for the American people."

Larry Palmer, nominated by President Obama to be Ambassador to Venezuela, however, must wait to be confirmed until after the U.S. Senate returns from recess on September 7th. Even if the Senate confirms his appointment, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez may not allow him in the country. On August 8th, President Chávez said it was "impossible" to endorse Palmer, due to his responses to a questionnaire from the Committee on Foreign Relations in which Palmer claimed that the FARC maintain camps in Venezuela and that he is concerned about "Cuba's influence within the Venezuelan military."

The United States does not plan to withdraw Palmer's nomination. "We believe that Larry Palmer, if confirmed by the Senate, will in fact be an effective ambassador and an effective interlocutor between our government and Venezuela," said U.S. State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley at the press briefing yesterday. He also noted that Venezuela had not withdrawn their prior agreement to accept his nomination.

Below are brief biographies of the four ambassadors recently confirmed, or awaiting confirmation, to take up posts in Latin America.

Michael McKinley - Colombia

On August 5th, the U.S. Senate confirmed career Foreign Service Officer Michael McKinley to serve as Ambassador to Colombia. McKinley served as Ambassador to Peru from 2007 to 2010.

McKinley joined the Foreign Service in 1982 and has held various international posts throughout his career. According to his biography on the State Department website, Ambassador McKinley

served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels between 2004 and 2007. From 2001-2004, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Between 1994 and 2001, Ambassador McKinley was Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires at U.S. Embassies in Mozambique, Uganda, and Belgium. Earlier assignments include U.S. Embassy London (1990-94), three tours in Washington (1985-90), and Bolivia (1983-85).

Ambassador McKinley was born in Venezuela and grew up in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He did his undergraduate and graduate studies in the United Kingdom, and has a doctorate from Oxford University.

McKinley is considered to be an expert on Venezuela. His history of colonial Venezuela was published by Cambridge University Press as part of its Latin America series, and has also appeared in a Spanish edition.

Rose Likins - Peru

Rose Likins' appointment to take Michael McKinley's place as U.S. Ambassador to Peru was also confirmed by the Senate on August 5th. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Likins was deputy director of the Foreign Service Institute prior to taking over McKinley's post. According to the White House press release announcing her nomination, Ambassador Likins

was previously Dean of the Foreign Service Institute's School of Professional and Area Studies. She also served as the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador. Washington assignments include Honduras Desk Officer, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Global Affairs, Director of the Department's Operations Center, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs. Overseas posts include Consular Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, Chief of the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She received a BA in Spanish and International Affairs from Mary Washington College.

As Ambassador to El Salvador under the George W. Bush administration, Likins was said to have interfered in the 2004 presidential elections in El Salvador by stating that the U.S. would "re-analyze" relations with the country if the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), who during El Salvador's 12 year civil war fought against the U.S. backed government, won the presidency.

Maria del Carmen Aponte - El Salvador

Maria del Carmen Aponte was nominated by President Obama to be Ambassador to El Salvador in late 2009. Aponte is an attorney, former board member of the National Council of La Raza and former president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. As noted above, her confirmation was put on hold in late December, by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and other Republicans, over her past relationship with a Cuban-American with an alleged link to the Cuban interests section. Last week, President Obama used a congressional recess appointment to bypass the Senate confirmation process and ended the eight-month long hold on Aponte.

Here is the White House's official bio for Maria del Carmen Aponte:

Maria del Carmen Aponte is currently an attorney and independent consultant with Aponte Consulting and serves on the Board of Directors of Oriental Financial Group. From 2001-2004, Ms. Aponte was the Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA). Prior to that, she practiced law for nearly twenty years with Washington D.C. based law firms. Ms. Aponte also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of La Raza, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the University of the District of Columbia. She is also a member of the Board of Rosemont College. She served as president of the Hispanic National Bar Association; the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia; and as a member of the District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Commission. In 1979, as a White House Fellow, Ms. Aponte was Special Assistant to United States Housing and Urban Development Secretary Moon Landrieu. Ms. Aponte has a B.A. in Political Science from Rosemont College, an M.A. in Theatre from Villanova University, and a J.D. from Temple University.

Larry Palmer - Venezuela

Larry Palmer, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, is awaiting confirmation from the Senate to be Ambassador to Venezuela. As described above, his recent remarks on Venezuela angered Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who said on television that "he can't come here, he has disqualified himself by breaking all the rules of diplomacy, by prejudging all of us, even our armed forces." The United States government, however, does not plan to choose a new nominee for the post, stating that Palmer "is still the best candidate for the job."

According to the White House, Palmer

is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He is currently serving as President and CEO of the Inter-American Foundation. Prior to that he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Honduras and as Charge D'Affaires in Quito, Ecuador. He also served as President of the 41st Senior Seminar and as Assistant to the President of the University of Texas at El Paso. Overseas posts include the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Paraguay, Korea, and Sierra Leone. Born in Augusta, Georgia, Palmer received a B.A from Emory University, an M.Ed. from Texas Southern University and a Doctorate (Ed.D) in Higher Education Administration and African Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Palmer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia.

Yesterday, six non-governmental organizations sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to ensure that, with the beginning of Juan Manuel Santos' presidency in Colombia, U.S. policy focuses strongly on the human rights issues facing the nation. "It is a moment to increase – rather than ease – pressure on the Colombian government to make substantial improvements in the protection and promotion of human rights," write the six Latin America and human rights organizations.

The organizations urge Secretary Clinton not to certify that Colombia's human rights performance is improving, as required by law to free up 30 percent of military aid in the foreign aid budget.

The letter points to five key areas on which U.S. policy should focus and press the Colombian government to achieve. They include:

• Ending and effectively prosecuting extrajudicial executions by the army;
• Ending and effectively prosecuting intelligence service abuses;
• Ensuring a safe climate for those working at risk for the rule of law, including human rights defenders, union leaders, judges, prosecutors, journalists and Afro-COlombian and indigenous community leaders;
• Dismantling paramilitary and new illegal armed networks; and
• Protecting the rights of and returning land to internally displace persons and refugees.

The six NGOs that signed the letter are: the Center for International Policy, Latin America Working Group, Washington Office on Latin America, U.S. Office on Colombia, Human Rights First and Lutheran World Relief.

The four-page letter includes a summary of concerns and recommendations in the five areas listed above. You can download the full text here.

Late Tuesday, Colombia’s Constitutional Court, part of its Supreme Court, decided by a 6-3 vote to strike down a defense cooperation agreement that Colombia’s government had signed with the United States in October 2009.

This accord, which gave U.S. military personnel the right to use seven Colombian bases for the next ten years, is suspended until Colombia’s Congress votes to approve it. Article 173 of Colombia’s Constitution requires that the country’s Senate be empowered to “permit the transit of foreign troops through the territory of the Republic.”

Politically, the court’s decision is a blow to both governments because it gives the impression – deserved or no – that the Obama and Uribe administrations sought to do something that violated Colombia’s Constitution. Operationally, however, the defense accord’s suspension will not affect the U.S. presence in Colombia. Not a single U.S. soldier or contractor will have to leave Colombia or alter what he is doing as a result of the Constitutional Court’s decision.

Though the Defense Cooperation Agreement (or DCA) was signed last October 30, the implementing agreements needed to make it operational have yet to be signed. This means that, as of yesterday, the new DCA had still not gone into effect. U.S. military and contractor personnel were still acting under the authorities laid out in a series of old accords (1952, 1962, 1974, 2004, 2007), whose validity the Colombian court did not challenge.

Under these old accords, U.S. personnel have already been frequently present at the seven bases listed in the DCA, as well as several others. The difference is that today, there is no “free entry”: each U.S. deployment is subject to a series of Colombian government approvals that would be unnecessary under the DCA. It also means that construction of new facilities at the Palanquero airbase in Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca – for which Congress appropriated $46 million in 2010 – cannot yet begin.

Note as of 16:00 PM: We've confirmed that U.S. military aircraft may still land at Palanquero as before, but such landings still require case-by-case Colombian government approval. For a list of planned construction to be funded by the $46 million, see the section beginning with page 217 of this PDF file from the U.S. Air Force.

The court’s decision means that implementation of the DCA may be delayed, and U.S. personnel in Colombia will continue to operate under the “old” agreements, for as much as a year. Even though Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos strongly favors the DCA, and even though roughly 80 percent of Colombia’s Congress is pro-Santos and likely to approve the DCA, the legislative process could take months. Opposition legislators will have a chance, for the first time in an official forum, to air their arguments against the agreement.

Once the Congress approves the agreement, it must then go back to the Constitutional Court for final approval. A leading opposition senator, Jorge Enrique Robledo of the leftist Polo Democrático, told the Colombian daily El Espectador that the court’s final approval is far from assured: “There is no article in the Constitution allowing foreign troops to be stationed in [as opposed to transiting through] national territory.”

In the United States, meanwhile, nothing changes. As a defense cooperation agreement and not a treaty, signing the Colombia accord is viewed as within the President’s powers as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Congressional committees were notified about the accord, but were not required to approve it.

Update as of 16:00 PM: Gen. Freddy Padilla, the chief of Colombia's armed forces until August 7, made headlines in Colombia today by claiming that the Colombian court decision would force the U.S. Congress to consider the defense cooperation agreement as well. We have consulted with a responsible Defense Department official and confirmed that this is not accurate.

• A car bomb went off in central Bogotá at 5:30 Thursday morning, injuring 9 people. It is believed that the target was the nearby headquarters of the Caracol radio network. President Juan Manuel Santos did not immediately blame it on the FARC guerrillas. A pro-FARC website claims the attack was carried out not by guerrillas but by “mafias,” though the methods resemble those used in the 2003 bombing of the El Nogal social club a few blocks away, a crime the FARC also denied but was later revealed to have committed. The “La Silla Vacía” website lays out the cases for why the bombing might be, or might not be, the work of the FARC: “Some believe that it was evidently the FARC, since the attack fit within its modus operandi and its motives. Others, on the contrary, believe that it is a message from the extreme right that Juan Manuel Santos must not move away from the uribista hard line, and that Santos must not open a space for negotiations with the guerrillas.”

• Venezuela and Colombia re-established diplomatic relations this week after a meeting between Presidents Chávez and Santos. It remains unclear how the two countries will deal with the issue that has detonated several past crises between the two countries: the presence of FARC guerrillas in Venezuelan territory. Asked by El Tiempo whether there will be “verification of the guerrilla presence in Venezuela,” Colombian Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín replied, “No. Verification, no. We are looking forward.”

• Asked a series of “questions for the record” by Sen. Richard Lugar, U.S. Ambassador-Designate to Venezuela Larry Palmer answered very frankly, using language stronger than the State Department has in the past. (“The Venezuelan government has been unwilling to prevent Colombian guerillas [sic.] from entering and establishing camps in Venezuelan territory. … [Military] morale is reported to be considerably low, particularly due to politically-oriented appointments. … As Cuba and Venezuela increase their military-to-military ties, I am concerned that Cuba’s influence within the Venezuelan military will grow.”) As a result, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has announced that Palmer is not welcome in Caracas. The Washington Post editorial page contends that it would be better for the United States not to have an ambassador at all.

• On Tuesday, Colombia’s Constitutional Court will decide whether the country’s new defense agreement with the United States, signed last October, is truly constitutional. The court may require Colombia’s Congress to vote to approve it. Sources tell “La Silla Vacía” that a majority of justices are likely to rule against the agreement.

• Starting next month, former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe will be a Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at Georgetown University.

• The new head of Colombia’s armed forces is a Navy admiral for only the second time ever. “La Silla Vacía” (linked for a third time in today’s post) has profiles of President Santos’ new high command. “These men,” reporter Dora Montero writes, “don’t follow the same line as the former high command – led by Gen. Freddy Padilla – that accompanied President Álvaro Uribe for years, and was seen by the rest of the military as more ‘political’ than ‘military.’ … The troops perceive this group of generals as closer to them.” Part of this “closeness,” Montero explains, is a likely willingness to defend the force more fiercely against accusations of human rights abuse.

• The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress [PDF] of a possible $162 million sale of nine Blackhawk helicopters to Colombia’s Army, Police and Air Force. Already, “Colombia operates the world’s third-largest BLACK HAWK helicopter fleet,” according to the aircraft’s manufacturer, Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.

• Three and a half years after adopting a hard-line approach to drug-related violence, Mexican President Felipe Calderón “finally accepted that the strategy had failed to rein in the cartels,” as The Guardian put it. “I know that the strategy has been questioned, and my administration is more than willing to revise, strengthen or change it if needed,” he said in a meeting with opposition leaders this week. Security Secretary Genaro García Luna blamed Mexico’s severe public security setbacks on “at least 30 years of structural abandonment of the country’s police forces.” The Associated Press obtained data indicating a badly broken judicial system: “only about 15 percent of drug suspects detained between December 2006 and September 2009 have been convicted or acquitted.” The Washington Post covered one strategic change currently underway: a $270 million program of new social spending in Ciudad Juárez, the most violent city in the hemisphere. On his blog, meanwhile, former President Vicente Fox called for the legalization of drugs.

• Ecuador’s El Universo writes about the cocaine trade along the country’s Pacific border with Colombia: “Here, an arroba [about 25 pounds] of coca seeds is sold for US$100, according to the campesinos. 40 arrobas can plant a hectare. The crops begin to produce within three months, and every arroba of coca leaf sells for US$15; a hectare produces 70 arrobas. After processing, the growers make basic cocaine paste. 40 arrobas of leaves make a kilo of paste, which in this zone sells for US$1,100.” Elsewhere on the border, in Ecuador’s north-central province of Carchi, El Universo contends that greater government presence has reduced the threat posed by guerrillas and other Colombian armed groups.

• Suriname’s former dictator Desi Bouterse, wanted in the Netherlands for narcotrafficking and on trial at home for a 1982 mass murder, was inaugurated as the country’s President on Thursday. A week earlier, reports the U.S. Southern Command, “Six U.S. Army medical personnel traveled to Paramaribo, Suriname, to exchange medical procedures with 45-medical personnel from the Suriname Armed Forces.”

• Sixteen U.S. military officers, including seven generals, paid a visit to Managua “to strengthen relations with the Nicaraguan army,” reports La Prensa. Meanwhile, McClatchy reports, “entities controlled by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega have received at least $1 billion in no-strings-attached donations through an oil deal brokered by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.”

• The costs of earthquake rebuilding will force Chile to cut its defense budget next year, President Sebastián Piñera explained to the high command.

• Argentina’s foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, visited Washington and met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela will be in China next week for “the fourth round of U.S - China sub-dialogues on Latin America.”

• As Brazil’s October 3 elections draw nearer, The Economist reports that Dilma Rouseff, the candidate of President Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party, is polling at 41 percent, nearly 10 points ahead of opponent José Serra. Earlier in the week, Serra angered Bolivia’s government by claiming that President Evo Morales’s administration has been “lazy with regard to controlling cocaine.” Serra said in May that 80 or 90 percent of cocaine that arrives in Brazil comes from Bolivia; Brazil’s police offer a figure of 59 percent.

• A recent poll places Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s approval rating at 37 percent. Though Ecuador and Colombia still have not re-established diplomatic relations after a 2008 crisis, Correa attended the August 7 inauguration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, and urged Santos to visit Quito “quickly.”

• A corruption scandal forced the resignation of the chief of Uruguay’s navy, Adm. Oscar Debali.

A big white teddy bear sat on top of one of the little coffin boxes, and red roses on the other three. The remains of the four sisters were finally being returned to their mother, Blanca Nieves Meneses.

“I never thought that this is the way they would be returned to me,” said their surviving sister Nancy. “I always kept hoping that they would be returned alive.”
At this ceremony in the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bogotá, Colombia, the Attorney General’s office returned the remains of the four young women, the youngest just thirteen, to their family. A paramilitary leader had confessed, as part of the Justice and Peace process, about where the bodies were buried in common graves. At most, those who carried out the crime can receive five to eight years in jail under this transitional justice framework.

The CTI, Colombia’s forensic team, looked on. They seemed both proud to have helped return the remains and personally shaken by the emotion in the room.

“Their crime was to be young and beautiful in a war zone,” said one of the speakers. They were brutally killed by paramilitaries who operated, according to the human rights group MINGA, “with total impunity” in the region.

Colombia’s Vice President Francisco Santos attended. He spoke of a family who had lost one son to the ELN, one to the FARC, and one to paramilitaries, and called for reconciliation. “Today, one family can begin achieving closure and today, the government is strengthening its presence so that blood will stop flowing in Colombia.” But he did not simply state that in this particular case, these unspeakable crimes had been committed by the paramilitaries.

After the young women were disappeared, their mother and sister waged a years-long struggle, at great risk, to achieve justice for Yenny Patricia, Mónica Liliana, Nelsy Milena and María Nely Galárraga Meneses. Their struggle became a catalyst for many other mothers in the region. “I am just a campesina from Putumayo who sows rice and corn,” Ms. Meneses explained. “But I tell all other mothers of the disappeared to keep searching. Justice should not be delayed,” she said, with bitterness. “Justice should arrive on time.” She spoke of the frustrations of trying to receive reparations or other help from the government.

A human rights activist I know saw me sitting in the back and grabbed my shoulder. “I just have to say, I just have to say, this happened in the context of Plan Colombia.” And indeed, this brutal killing and many others occurred as the United States heavily backed a Colombian army offensive into Putumayo in the early years of Plan Colombia, an offensive which expanded side by side with an increased paramilitary presence in the region.

She played the lyre, she liked to play mini-soccer, she liked best to eat fried eggs and french fries, she was an artist, were some of the memories as their relatives remembered them. The sisters Galárraga Meneses, Nelsy Milena, Mónica Liliana, Yenny Patricia, and María Nely.

This is cross-posted from the Latin America Working Group's blog, the LAWG Blog. It was written by Lisa Haugaard.

On July 15, Colombia’s Defense Ministry abruptly held a press conference to denounce that high-ranking leaders of the FARC guerrilla group are present in neighboring Venezuela. This announcement, coming just over three weeks before the end of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe’s term in office, immediately reversed what had been a slow warming of relations between both countries’ governments.

Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos had invited Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to attend his inauguration, and Chávez had authorized a meeting between Venezuela’s foreign minister and Santos’ minister-designate. Neither Chávez’s attendance nor the ministerial meeting are now likely.

Yesterday (July 22), Colombia took its case to the OAS, showing satellite photos and videos indicating a presence of FARC and ELN camps within Venezuelan territory. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez responded by giving Colombian diplomats 72 hours to leave Venezuela.

If we have to go to war with Colombia, we’d do it in tears, but we’d do it. I hold responsible President Uribe, who is sick with hatred, because he is headed to the dustbin of history, he’s going directly there, as a token of Yankee imperialism. He ended up isolated in this continent, he didn’t defeat the guerrillas or narcotrafficking, and Venezuela is a victim of all that. I hold him responsible for any aggression against Venezuela.

Added Venezuela’s defense minister, Gen. Carlos Mata Figueroa:

We hold responsible the Colombian oligarchy and its current government … if these brother nations should stain their history with blood.

Tensions between the two countries are dangerously high, though they may subside once Uribe leaves office on August 7, say analysts like Colombian newspaper columnist Laura Gil.

This is above all a breaking of relations with Álvaro Uribe. The political relationship between the two countries is now very deteriorated. The problem for Colombia may come if Chávez concludes that what Uribe did was agreed upon with Santos.

Added former OAS Ambassador Álvaro Tirado Mejía:

Santos will find himself, next August 7, in a situation that paradoxically will be very difficult, but he will also find the way clear to say ‘let’s start over.’

Regarding Santos, Chávez was more conciliatory:

Let’s hope Santos inundates himself with Latin American spirit and understands that governments of the right and left can live together here. We’re obligated to do that.

For his part, the Colombian President-Elect refused to comment.

I think the best contribution we can make is to say nothing. President Uribe is the President of the Republic until August 7. Thank you very much.

Vice-President-Elect Angelino Garzón also took a softer tone, saying that the next government will seek

all diplomatic mechanisms to improve and strengthen relations with all countries in the region, including Venezuela. In the end, the message that we have to give, as governments and as peoples, is the message of unity, of friendship, of cooperation and of peace.

In its lead editorial today El Tiempo, Colombia’s most-circulated daily, warned of the risk of armed confrontation.

All along this lively border, good relations are not an alternative but an obligation. If it is otherwise, those who would pay the consequences are the hundreds of thousands of people who live on both sides of the dividing line. This is without even mentioning the risks of an armed confrontation, since under the current circumstances, a simple spark could ignite a conflagration. This, then, is the occasion to ask the Colombian armed forces to exercise maximum prudence and to avoid falling into traps and provocations.

The U.S. government, through State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, has correctly called on both sides to work together to reduce tensions.

It would be good for the region if those tensions were eased, and it’s a matter of dialogue between Colombia, Venezuela, arrive at a common understanding of how to work cooperatively on the challenges that we face, among them, security challenges. But we certainly support greater interaction, cooperation, dialogue between Colombia and Venezuela to reduce those tensions and increase mutual cooperation.

In a written communication to Agénce France Presse, however, the State Department also called on Venezuela to respond to Colombia’s allegations of FARC presence.

Colombia’s allegations need to be taken very seriously. Venezuela has an obligation to Colombia and to the international community to fully investigate this information and move to prevent the use of its sovereign territory by terrorist groups.

OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza called for the two countries to renew dialogue on their own.

We succeeded in overcoming serious crises some years ago. I hope they can make it now as well, but the steps should be taken by Venezuela and Colombia, and I expect they can come to terms over the next months.

But Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, had very strong criticisms for the Secretary-General who, he said, ignored Ecuador’s calls to delay yesterday’s OAS discussion, which ended with a heated exchange that increased tensions.

I insisted, in the letter sent by the government of Ecuador to OAS Secretary General, I told him that the issue should not be discussed in such a precipitous manner, but let’s change precipitous for irresponsible. This is the result of not paying attention to what is going on in the region. Unfortunately who was called to avoid the severing of diplomatic relations and who was also warned about what could happen was not up to his duty. And that gentleman is OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

In the latest development, the secretary-general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, announced that he will meet separately with presidents Uribe and Chávez on August 4 and 5.

The Washington Office on Latin America has posted a statement about the crisis.

While the U.S. has long been a close ally of the Colombian government, we believe that it is most in the interest of the United States - indeed, of all parties involved - to reduce tensions and resolve this crisis through even-handed diplomacy and communication. Our policy over the next several weeks must place the greatest priority on a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and must take great care not to fan the flames.

This morning I was pleased to have an opportunity to testify before the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The occasion was a 3-panel hearing entitled, "International Counternarcotics Policies: Do They Reduce Domestic Consumption or Advance Other Foreign Policy Goals?"

My testimony (PDF) focused on the frustrating experience of cocaine supply reduction efforts in Colombia and Mexico. From that experience, I draw the lesson that reducing drug supplies depends on a much larger civilian governance and justice effort -- a big commitment that resembles "nation-building" far more than it resembles a "war on drugs."

Testimonies from all panelists, including "Drug Czar" Gil Kerlikowske and the senior counternarcotics officials at the State and Defense departments, are on the committee's website.

On July 13, 2000 – 10 years ago yesterday – President Bill Clinton signed into law a special $1.3 billion appropriation of mostly military aid to Colombia. Known as “Plan Colombia,” it became the framework for U.S. assistance to the hemisphere’s largest aid recipient for the following decade.

The Washington Office on Latin America commemorates this anniversary with a new online publication, “Don’t Call it a Model,” a copy of which is hosted here at the Just the Facts website.

U.S. and Colombian officials frequently portray Plan Colombia, combined with the Colombian government’s hardline security policies, as a major success. Some even cite Colombia’s experience as a model the United States should replicate in other troubled countries receiving U.S. assistance, like Mexico or Afghanistan. “Don’t Call it a Model” takes issue with that.

While the policy made important security gains, it argues, the downside has been great.

They [security successes] have carried a great cost in lives and resources. Progress on security has been stagnating, and even reversing. Scandals show that the government carrying out these security policies has harmed human rights and democratic institutions. Progress against illegal drug supplies has been disappointing. And wealth is being concentrated in ever fewer hands.

“Don’t Call it a Model” supports these claims with thorough documentation, and finishes by pointing out some of the principles that should guide a new policy. It’s worth a read.

On May 18, 2010, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), the Republican minority-party leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a detailed report evaluating U.S. aid to Mexico since the 2007 launch of the Mérida Initiative (download the PDF). This report included a very detailed table of aid that has been delivered, or is pending delivery, through the State Department's International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) program.

We have added the information in these tables to the Just the Facts database (see equipment details for 2009 here and training details for 2009 and 2010 here). Below is a summary of some of the information provided in the report's tables.

Top Ten Most Expensive Equipment to be Delivered to Mexico between 2009 and 2014

• $150,000,000 for 3 CASA Aircraft to assist the Mexican Navy in maritime interdiction efforts (due to be delivered in Summer 2012)
• $110,000,000 for 3 UH-60 Helicopters to assist the Mexican Navy in coastal operations (due to be delivered in 2014)
• $76,500,000 for 3 UH-60 Helicopters for the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) - Federal Police (due to be delivered in 2010)
• $66,000,000 for 5 Bell 412 Helicopters for the Mexican Army (delivered in 2009)
• $50,000,000 for 1 CASA Aircraft to assist the Mexican Navy in maritime interdiction efforts (due to be delivered in Winter 2011)
• $39,000,000 for 2 Bell 412 Helicopters for Mexican Army troop movement in support of counternarcotics operations (due to be delivered in 2010, estimated date of signed contract is August 2010)
• $28,000,000 for Constanza Software for the Procuraduría General de Justicia (delivered in 2010)
• $20,000,000 for Mobile Gamma Radiation Trucks. 18 are for the Secretariat of Public Security - Federal Police and 1 for the Mexican Army (due to be delivered in 2010)
• $15,500,000 ISR Aircraft for the Secretariat of Public Security - Federal Police (due to be delivered in 2011)
• $10,400,000 for 3 installed X-ray Portal Units for the Customs Agency

Total Dollar Amounts of Pending and Delivered Equipment as of May 2010

• Equipment

• Total dollar amount of equipment pending delivery in 2010: $230,985,322
• Total dollar amount of equipment due to be delivered from 2011-2014: $330,500,000

This table appears in the Committee's report

Total Equipment Pending and Delivered, by Recipient Unit:

• $261,200,000 - Mexican Navy
• $129,044,396 - Secretariat of Public Security - Federal Police
• $106,575,711 - Mexican Army
• $39,600,000 - National Migration Institute
• $36,140,271 - Procuraduría General de Justicia
• $26,101,277 - Customs Agency
• $16,100,000 - National Security and Investigations Center
• $6,238,744 - Secretariat of Communications

U.S. Narcotics Affairs Section Capacity Building Events - Top recipient units, 2009 and 2010 combined

• Secretariat of Public Security - Federal Police: 4,957 trainees (corrections, investigations, and policy & procedure courses)
• State officials: 75 trainees (anti-kidnapping courses)
• Customs Agency: 44 trainees (canine courses)