Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos criticized the
publication of declassified CIA documents that revealed the agency’s knowledge
about Colombian human rights abuses.
According to Santos there are people who are seeking to “inflate” the problem of extrajudicial killings or ‘false positives’.
“You have to be careful with people who want to inflate the problem to something bigger than it is,” the Minister said Thursday.
Earlier, U.S. research group National Security
Archive revealed documents that showed that the CIA was aware of links between Colombia’s armed forces and paramilitary death squads since 1994. The intelligence documents also warn about a “body-count syndrome” within the armed forces leading to the murder of civilians to make its war against leftist insurgents look more effective.
Santos wouldn’t respond to the contents of the CIA documents, but defended the defense and human rights policy of the Uribe administration.
According to the Minister, there is now a policy of “zero-tolerance towards any kind of human rights violation,” reiterating “there is not an army in the world that’s received more training and guidance when it comes to human rights.”