Escaped Colombian journalist, interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now:
"if the U.S. continues military aid, there will not be any journalists left alive who will be able to tell the story of the atrocities committed with that money, the U.S. is supporting fascist cocaine dealers."

The senator said: "We give more aid to the military. They give more aid to the paramilitaries. The paramilitaries are involved with atrocities. Guerrillas are too. Drug lords seem to flourish, but the paramilitaries are now working as sort of semi-drug lords too."

Since the human-rights waiver was granted, he said, "the paramilitaries have doubled in size. The number of massacres have increased."

But recently declassified documents show that the US Government knew that part of the anti-drug aid was siphoned off by Colombian military officials who maintained close ties with right-wing paramilitary groups.

The documents, including those of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Drug Enforcement Administration, appear to support fears by Congress members about suspected links between the drugs trade, right-wing paramilitaries and elements within the Colombian armed forces.

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