17/7/22, 11:20 The Rise and Fall of ‘False Positive’ Killings in Colombia: The Role of U.S.

ole of U.S. Military Assistance, 2000-2010 | FOR Peace Presence

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The Rise and Fall of ‘False Positive’ Killings in

Colombia: The Role of U.S. Military
Assistance, 2000-2010
May 13, 2014 | Human Rights, Impunity and Justice, News, Our Partners, US
Drug Wars and Military Aid

Our partner John Lindsay Poland has been working on a ground breaking
work looking into the relationship between levels of US aid to Colombia, one
of the highest recipients of US military aid and training in the world, and the
incidence one of the most grievous forms of human rights abuse,
extrajudicial executions. The report utilizes statistical analysis, as well as in
depth and wide-ranging interviews with both the military and the civilian
population that was subjected to this abuse. The report was last week

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17/7/22, 11:20 The Rise and Fall of ‘False Positive’ Killings in Colombia: The Role of U.S. Military Assistance, 2000-2010 | FOR Peace Presence

presented to an audience in Washington, and the Spanish language report

will be officially launched in book form on the 3rd June in Bogotá. Below is
the executive summary in English, followed by a link to the full report.

Executive Summary: Report: The Rise and

Fall of ‘False Positive’ Killings in Colombia:
The Role of U.S. Military Assistance, 2000-
2010 by John Lindsay Poland (May 8 2014)
This study advances a methodology for assessing the human rights impact
of U.S. military assistance, by looking in depth at a discrete set of human
rights violations carried out by the Colombian armed forces. It seeks to
understand what role, if any, U.S. security assistance from 2000 to 2010
played in increasing or decreasing the commission of “false positive” killings
— extrajudicial executions by the Colombian Army of civilians claimed to be
have been killed in combat.

The United States has trained, armed and equipped the Colombian armed
forces at a cost of $6.8 billion since 2000. Supporters cite aid to Colombia as
proof that U.S. security assistance promotes human rights improvements.
Critics look at the same case and assert that U.S. assistance tacitly
encouraged or empowered the Colombian forces to carry out grave human
rights abuses. Neither side presents systemic evidence.

The Colombian case is important not only because of the amount invested
and the divergent claims about outcomes, but because of the renewed
emphasis in U.S. military strategy on “building partner capacity,” reflected in
$25 billion in foreign security assistance in 2012. Evaluating the human
rights outcomes of this strategy and spending in Colombia is thus critically
important for populations throughout the world.

Our findings for Colombia call into question much of the assumed wisdom
about military assistance programs. We offer detail about the Colombia
experience to model methods of evaluation, show what data is needed, and
to demonstrate the importance of post-assistance assessments that may
surprise participants, policy-makers, and critics. We found that increased

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information collection and analysis that would facilitate such assessments

is possible.

Based on data on 5,763 reported executions in Colombia and extensive

documentation of U.S. assistance to the Colombian military, we found
a positive correlation between the units and officers that received U.S.
assistance and training, and the commission of extrajudicial killings. A
statistical analysis of 1,821 of these executions where responsible units
were directly identified showed that Army brigades that received a
moderate as compared to low level of U.S. assistance correlated to ten
more executions per brigade in the two years following assistance. While
the analysis does not show that U.S. aid specifically caused or encouraged
executions, it casts strong doubt on claims that U.S. assistance improved
human rights performance.

Army brigades that received high levels of U.S. aid did not show a
statistically robust different number of executions, compared to those
receiving little aid. Those receiving high levels of U.S. assistance, such as the
Counter-Narcotics Brigade, may have been subject to closer scrutiny for
their human rights conduct than units receiving significant but less intensive
assistance. Statistical ambiguity may reflect the small sample of high-aid
units, or the difficulty of identifying units responsible for executions,
especially in areas where mobile units operate; much U.S. assistance
focused on mobile brigades.

To understand how widespread the practice of “false positives” was, we

analyzed the prevalence of the practice of extrajudicial killings across
Colombian Army brigades. We found that in 2007, at least one execution
was directly attributed to 99 of the Army’s 219 combat battalions and
mobile brigades. We identified 117 brigade commanders and 184 battalion
and mobile brigade commanders, whose units were directly identified as
committing one or more extrajudicial killing between 2000 and 2010.

A question raised by this analysis is the role of military leadership and

institutional culture within problematic army units. Three of the five brigade
commanders with the largest number of executions reported by soldiers
under their command were promoted to command the Army, including the
current Army commander, General Jaime Lasprilla Villamizar. General
Lasprilla is the active duty officer with the largest number of executions

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reportedly committed by soldiers under his brigade command, and he

received substantially more U.S. training and assistance than his peers.

The provision of intelligence capacity and products is rarely evaluated for

human rights outcomes. We found an example of U.S. intelligence
assistance to Colombia that, though on its own may not have violated
human rights, supported units that had adopted a strategy conducive to
extrajudicial killing.

Measurements of the impacts of military assistance should evaluate the

performance of individual officers in whom much assistance is invested, and
the disproportionate role that commanders have in the performance of
troops under their command. These officers and commanders, after
receiving U.S. military training, transfer to other units that may or may not
receive U.S. assistance, but are impacted by the training provided to
individual officers.

U.S. military training, especially at the Western Hemisphere Institute for

Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), is practically a required step for the
promotion of a Colombian Army officer. Of the 25 Colombian WHINSEC
instructors and graduates of the Command and General Staff course from
2001 to 2003 for which any subsequent information was available, 12 of
them — 48% — had either been charged with a serious crime or
commanded units whose members had reportedly committed multiple
extrajudicial killings. A random sample of 25 Colombian officers from
approximately the same period showed a better human rights record than
the WHINSEC cohort: we identified four (16%) who subsequently led units
with multiple extrajudicial executions under their command. Another three
officers led units with one execution under their command.

Colombia may have a “systemic [human rights] problem across the country”
that is reflected in the high percentage of WHINSEC instructors and
graduates implicated in crimes, as one U.S. military officer suggested. If that
is the case, it raises a question of how the disproportionate representation
of Colombian instructors at WHINSEC, or U.S. funding of Colombian training
of other nations’ security forces, contributes to increased respect for
human rights.

The number of executions in Colombia fell dramatically after 2008. Evidence

indicates that diverse pressures — from civil society, the office of United

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Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and civilians within the
Colombian government who engaged the Army, were key to changing an
institutional environment that sanctioned, if not encouraged,
extrajudicial killings.

If reducing impunity is important to deterring serious abuses, we must

consider the United States’ key role in two changes in the Colombian judicial
system. The U.S. gave substantial material support for the Human Rights
Unit of the Attorney General’s Office, which made significant judicial
advances in prosecuting executions by 2013 (although less than 10% of
reported executions had advanced to trial). But the U.S. also funded and
promoted the implementation of the new accusatory justice system, which
has had poor results in prosecuting those responsible for
committing executions.

While other branches of Colombian security forces also have committed

abuses, this report focuses on assistance to and rights violations committed
by the Army, which was a focus of U.S. assistance, and in which human
rights concerns had been identified at the time assistance was expanded.
The report also examines “false positives” and U.S. aid in greater detail in
several regions of Colombia.

This evaluation is not possible without detailed data about human rights
violations, U.S. assistance, and Colombian military structure and leadership,
compiled by U.S. government agencies, human rights organizations, and
private researchers. For more effective assessments, greater transparency
about who receives assistance, and the amount and nature of what they
receive, and tracking of the human rights performance of those recipients
are needed.

Click here for full report.

FOR Peace Presence

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17/7/22, 11:20 The Rise and Fall of ‘False Positive’ Killings in Colombia: The Role of U.S. Military Assistance, 2000-2010 | FOR Peace Presence

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