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Colombia

Country Overview

The Impact of Colombia's War on Women and Children

Nearly four million Colombians (in a country of 42 million), have been driven from their homes in the decades-long three-way war between Colombia's military, paramilitary forces, and guerillas. The vast majority of displaced people are women and their children. Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombians are disproportionately affected by the violence, making up over one-third of the displaced population.¹

Most of those who have been displaced end up in overcrowded and impoverished urban slums, where they have no way to earn a living, face ongoing violence, lack basic necessities such as food, water, sanitation, electricity and transportation and are denied critical services such as health care and education.² In some of these communities, unemployment rates are as high as 70 percent. At least 60 percent of Indigenous women who have been displaced lack access to health services.³

Children who have been displaced have higher rates of malnutrition, respiratory illnesses, diarrhea and dehydration. Many children are forced to migrate to urban areas in order to avoid recruitment by armed forces. In fact, Colombia is considered one of the worst offenders in the recruitment of child soldiers. Over 11,000 children have been recruited by armed forces in Colombia during four decades of violence. At least one in four combatants is under the age of eighteen. Some are as young as eight years old.⁴

US Support

Civilians are not simply "caught in the crossfire" of Colombia's war: they are directly targeted in military and paramilitary operations. In fact, Colombia is the worst violator of human rights in the hemisphere. It is also the leading recipient of US military aid. Under the Clinton and Bush Administrations, billions of dollars have been allocated to the Colombian military in the name of the "war on drugs" and then the "war on terror." The money fuels Colombia's conflict by providing the military with massive amounts of weapons and funding. US military aid also means indirect support for brutal paramilitary groups closely linked to the army. These forces are responsible for 75 percent of the country's human rights violations. The leftist guerillas known as FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the Colombian military also stand accused of human rights violations.

Neo-liberal Policies and US Economic Interest

The official reason for vast US support for Colombia's military is counter-terrorism. But one of the key duties of the Colombian military is to protect the shared economic interests of US and Colombian elites. For example, in 2003, under the guise of "fighting terrorism," US military aid to Colombia included $98 million to train Colombian soldiers to guard the 480-mile Cano Limon pipeline, partially owned and used by the California-based Occidental Petroleum.⁵ The FARC had made the pipeline and other US economic holdings in Colombia a central target of its attacks.

Indigenous communities are routinely subjected to violence arising from the conflict, as multinational corporations seek control over their lands, which contain nearly 80 percent of Colombia's hotly contested resources, such as oil, water, and minerals.⁶ Already, tens of thousands of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia have been displaced from their ancestral lands, now controlled by foreign-owned oil companies such as Occidental and British Petroleum.

US military aid gives the Colombian army the muscle to enforce trade agreements between the US and Colombia. Most small farmers and Indigenous Peoples oppose such deals because they concentrate land-ownership in the hands of a few, allowing large-scale agribusiness to drive small and medium-sized farmers off of their land. Today, more than 80 percent of rural Colombians live in poverty and just 30 percent of landowners control 95 percent of the country's land.⁷ Thus, US support for Colombia's government and military aggravates the very inequalities that gave rise to Colombia's conflict.

End Notes

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1. UN Human Rights Council, 2003 Report on Internally Displaced Persons
2. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, June 2006. http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/
   (httpCountries)/CB6FF99A94F70AED802570A7004CEC41?OpenDocument&count=1000
3. United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR), 10 November 2004, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Addendum: Mission to Colombia, E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.2. http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/
   (httpDocuments)/A24BABCD72225C8B802570B700590624/$file/
   SpecialrapperteurColombia.pdf
4. "You'll Learn Not to Cry: Child Combatants in Colombia." Human Rights Watch, September 2003.
5. William Baue "Occidental Pipeline in Colombia Strikes It Rich in Washington," Social Funds (May 10, 2002) http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/839.html
6. Edeli, David and Zachary Hurwitz. "There Can Be No Peace Without Indians at the Table: A Narrative from Armando Valbuena,"Cultural Survival (January 31, 2003) http://209.200.101.189/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1356
7. "Evaluacion de la Politica Social 2003."
   http://www.contraloriagen.gov.co:8081/
   internet/html/publicaciones/detalles.jsp?id=81