by The Progressive

About the author: The Progressive is a weekly journal primarily concerned with civil rights and liberties, peace, and social justice.

Torn by civil war, Colombia is quickly becoming another chapter in the ignominious tome of U.S. meddling in Latin America. Today, U.S. policy toward Colombia is almost exactly at the same spot where U.S. policy toward El Salvador was in 1980: U.S. military aid to a brutal government is increasing dramatically; U.S. “advisers” are on the ground, “professionalizing” the armed forces; U.S. officials are sharing “intelligence” with a military that has one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere.

“More than 1,000 civilians were killed [in 1998] by the security forces or paramilitary groups operating...