More Evidence of Corruption in Colombia

On the front page of today's Washington Post is a major article on Colombia. The piece by Juan Forero, "Traffickers Infiltrate Military in Colombia: Officers Provided Secret Information on U.S. Navy Ships," details how drug traffickers and leftist FARC guerrillas have been able to gain key information about Colombian military operations as well as its U.S. military support. The piece focuses on the Colombian army's Third Brigade, which has been wracked by corruption charges in recent weeks.

Interestingly, by discussing this connection (and referring to Colombian media sources), the article seems to suggest that the nefarious alliance is only between the leftist rebel groups and the traffickers -- without even mentioning the fact that right-wing paramilitary groups have been identified by the same media as well as human rights advocates as deeply interlinked with the drug cartels. Moreover, as FOR's Colombia Program revealed last month in an investigative report, three key leaders in the military's Third Brigade were former instructors at the U.S. "School of the Americas" (known now as the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation).

It seems an egregious oversight to have filed this headline story without noting that the issues of drug trafficking and corruption in the Colombian military are intricately interrelated with the issue of the government's known support for paramilitary groups ... and the U.S.'s role in funding those alliances.