Description
Book SynopsisIn Plan Colombia John Lindsay-Poland examines a 2005 massacre in Colombia, its subsequent investigation, official cover-up, and the international community's response to outline how the U.S. military's support for the Colombian Army contributed to atrocities while shaping the United States's dominant model of military intervention.
Trade Review"Most studies of human rights violations approach cases at the national level and offer little insight into how U.S. military aid is territorialized. . . . By tracking the career trajectories of Colombian officers, Lindsay-Poland directs our attention to a shared war, and to a common counterinsurgent expertise, developed between the United States and Colombia over the course of 50 years." -- Emma Shaw Crane * NACLA *
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Prologue 1
Introduction: Challenging American Exceptionalism 7
1. The Longest War: U.S. Military Influence in Colombia, 1952-1995 26
2. War on the Frontier 38
3. How Plan Colombia Was Sold 51
4. "We Want a Witness": Accompaniment in San José de Apartadó 64
5. Mapping Our War: Where Did U.S. Aid in Colombia Go? 83
6. Killing the Future 101
7. Projects of Life 123
8. Massacre Aftermath and Cover-Up 140
9. Widespread and Systematic: The Dynamics of "Legalized" Murder 151
10. The United States Effect: Impacts on "False Positive" Killings 164
11. Investigation of the Massacre 183
12. An Encounter with Power 198
13. Judicial Warfare 210
14. U.S. Policy Lessons 220
Conclusion: The Arc of Impunity 226
Notes 233
Bibliography 273
Index 281
