US defense contractors are receiving nearly half the money allotted by Washington to fight cocaine trafficking and leftist rebels in Colombia, throwing into doubt their mission to train Colombians to replace them.
When US defense contractors were first hired by the US government in 2000 to help the Colombian government under the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia aid package, US officials assumed the contractors would be gradually replaced as they trained Colombians.
But a recent US State Department report showed that more US aid going to private companies, igniting criticism of the spending in Congress.
"We need to be working ourselves out of a job in Colombia, but these contracts are creating dependency on US contractors and are not helping build a sustainable or peaceful Colombia," Democratic Congressman Sam Farr said.
Colombia, the largest recipient of US aid outside of the Middle East and Afghanistan, is in the midst of five-decade civil conflict that pits rebels against far-right death squads and the government, a battle in part funded by the world's largest cocaine industry.
The state and defense departments spent about US$300 million on private contractors last year, just under half of the roughly US$630 million in US military aid for Colombia.
In 2002, private contractors got about US$150 million of the roughly US$400 million destined for Colombia's security forces.
The past decade has seen a major increase in US government use of military contractors around the world, with billions spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it was in Colombia that the policy got its trial run.
Last year, Dyncorp International Inc, whose pilots fumigate coca fields with armored crop dusters, took in US$164 million for work in Colombia, the State Department report showed, or a quarter of all aid destined for Colombia's military and police. That was double what Dyncorp got in 2002.
Lockheed Martin Corp, which does much of the maintenance for Colombia's air fleet, saw the value of its contracts more than triple over the same four years to about US$80 million.
Critics already were questioning the effectiveness of US aid in Colombia. Despite record drug eradication efforts -- the bulk of it carried out by the contractors -- a US survey earlier this month found coca planting in Colombia rose for a third consecutive year last year.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese