{"id":298070,"date":"2025-05-05T12:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/as-u-s-support-vanishes-a-nations-postwar-peace-teeters\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T12:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:40:13","slug":"as-u-s-support-vanishes-a-nations-postwar-peace-teeters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/as-u-s-support-vanishes-a-nations-postwar-peace-teeters\/","title":{"rendered":"As U.S. Support Vanishes, a Nation\u2019s Postwar Peace Teeters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/05\/multimedia\/05int-colombia-usaid-mjpw\/05int-colombia-usaid-mjpw-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"As U.S. Support Vanishes, a Nation\u2019s Postwar Peace Teeters\" title=\"As U.S. Support Vanishes, a Nation\u2019s Postwar Peace Teeters\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Colombia signed a landmark peace agreement with rebels in 2016, it was celebrated internationally for ending a war that had ravaged much of the country for decades. The United States bolstered the peace efforts, helping displaced farmers return to their land and helping prosecute war crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, support from the U.S. government \u2014 the agreement\u2019s biggest foreign economic backer \u2014 has vanished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the Trump administration has withdrawn most foreign assistance globally, including dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, it has undercut a deal designed, in part, to curtail the flow of drugs to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis puts wind in the wings of armed groups,\u201d said Le\u00f3n Valencia, director of the Bogot\u00e1-based Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, an organization that works on post-conflict issues and had received U.S. funds. \u201cThey can tell demobilized guerrillas or victims that the government signed a peace agreement and didn\u2019t keep its promise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since 2001, U.S.A.I.D. has spent more in Colombia than any other South American country, about $3.9 billion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While the U.S. Defense and State Departments funneled military spending in the 2000s toward a much-debated plan to eradicate coca farming, U.S.A.I.D. poured money into related economic development projects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then, after Colombia signed the peace deal with the country\u2019s biggest and oldest guerrilla group, the United States also directed spending to projects that helped Colombian officials fulfill the agreement \u2014 while also giving farmers alternatives to cultivating coca leaves, the base for cocaine. The rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had been fighting the government for six decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Compounding Colombia\u2019s challenges during the second Trump administration has been the withdrawal of support from the State Department, which helped pay for efforts like major counternarcotics operations and the tedious process of removing land mines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The results have been on-the-ground setbacks for the military and police that could benefit criminal groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to overstate what a big paradigm shift this is for the Colombians because they\u2019re so interconnected with the Americans,\u201d said Elizabeth Dickinson, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, which monitors and tries to prevent armed conflicts. \u201cIt\u2019s a tectonic shift that the U.S. might not always be there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In small towns and rural areas of Colombia where armed groups are still active, U.S.A.I.D. projects had been vital to helping maintain stability, according to interviews with 14 current or former agency employees or contractors based in Colombia. Most declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak, and out of concern that it would jeopardize the possibility of future work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere are parts of the country where there\u2019s the bad guys and then there\u2019s U.S.A.I.D.,\u201d said one former contractor, who was working with a nonprofit that suspended its work trying to prevent young people from joining armed groups, after its U.S. financing was stopped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">U.S.A.I.D. had also helped Colombia provide services for the more than 2.8 million migrants from Venezuela who have arrived in the last decade, making Colombia the world\u2019s largest recipient of people fleeing Venezuela\u2019s political and economic crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, American support isn\u2019t entirely welcomed in Colombia. Many conservative politicians agree with the Trump administration\u2019s claims that it\u2019s an inefficient use of funds, while some leftist politicians say U.S. money is an instrument to control Colombian society.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Colombia\u2019s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, questioned why U.S. aid was going toward beefing up the country\u2019s immigration and customs agencies, saying that type of spending infringed on the country\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTrump is right,\u201d Mr. Petro said in a televised address. \u201cTake your money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Colombia\u2019s armed conflict goes back generations. Rooted in frustration over inequality and land distribution, it morphed into a complex battle among leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug cartels and the government, fueled by drug money and other illicit business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While FARC laid down its arms, offshoots remain, and existing and new armed groups have gained strength, according to analysts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Today, the country faces eight separate armed conflicts, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.icrc.org\/es\/publicacion\/retos-humanitarios-2025-colombia\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">which described<\/a> the country\u2019s humanitarian situation as reaching <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.icrc.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2025-03\/Balance%20Humanitario%20versi%C3%B3n%20digital%202025.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">its most critical point since<\/a> the signing of the peace accord.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ariel \u00c1vila, a senator for the Green Party who worked in peace-related projects before holding office, said U.S.A.I.D.\u2019s withdrawal eliminated resources for a web of nonprofits that relied on U.S. support for democracy-building efforts, some of which have shut down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cFor me, U.S.A.I.D. hasn\u2019t been just about peace building,\u201d Mr. \u00c1vila said. \u201cIt\u2019s been an agent for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Central to helping the country cement a lasting peace has been the creation of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/06\/world\/americas\/colombia-court-war-crimes.html\" title=\"\">Special Jurisdiction for Peace<\/a>, a court dedicated to trying crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the internal conflict, which left <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/28\/world\/americas\/a-truth-commission-publishes-the-most-comprehensive-account-yet-of-colombias-war.html\" title=\"\">at least 450,000 people dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">American assistance \u2014 through U.S.A.I.D. and the State Department \u2014 represents about 10 percent of the court\u2019s foreign support, court officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The U.S. government provided technical and logistical support in three of the court\u2019s large-scale cases \u2014 each representing thousands of victims \u2014 on sex crimes, crimes targeting Black and Indigenous people, and the systematic murder of leftist politicians. The agency also provided investigative tools, such as DNA test kits, to identify bodies found in mass graves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The loss of U.S. help will slow down the court\u2019s work, court officials said, which is worrisome because it has a 15-year deadline to reach verdicts and sentences in cases involving tens of thousands of victims and defendants living in rural and difficult to reach areas, said Judge Alejandro Ramelli, president of the court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019re committed to finding the answers to thousands of questions that the victims have had for many years and have never had answered,\u201d Mr. Ramelli said. \u201cInternational aid is essential to being able to find that truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">U.S.A.I.D. funding also helped the Colombian government map millions of acres in conflict-afflicted territories, which was key to the peace deal. Land inequality had been a core grievance since fighting erupted, so the government promised to give formal ownership to poor farmers working in rural lands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Government officials are in the process of mapping broad chunks of territory for which little or no formal government record exists. Colombia\u2019s National Land Agency, which oversees the process, said the U.S. government helped carry out land surveys, develop safety protocols for work in conflict areas and identify land used for illegal crops.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials have mapped more than 3.2 million acres through a program funded by U.S.A.I.D. Just in the town of C\u00e1ceres, in the mountainous Antioquia region, they were able to issue titles to 230 families who agreed to stop farming coca leaves in exchange for formal land ownership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Without the support, much of that mapping is on hold because the National Land Agency does not have the budget to complete the work on its own, the agency said. \u201cThe importance of U.S.A.I.D. is evident,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">U.S.A.I.D. support has also been key in regions experiencing new conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the northeastern Catatumbo region, near the Venezuela border, the country is seeing its worst period of violence in a generation. Since January, 106 people have been killed and more than 64,000 displaced from their homes, according to a local government <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GoberNorte\/status\/1915712968253227327\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">count<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-13\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Theylor Villegas, 27, is among the displaced. In 2019, he helped found Corporaci\u00f3n Pride, an L.G.B.T. advocacy group in the Catatumbo region, and last year his organization won a U.S.A.I.D.-financed contract to track violence affecting women, young people and minority groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In January, two major events flipped Mr. Villegas\u2019s life upside down: Widespread gunfire erupted between offshoots of the disbanded FARC guerrillas, and the Trump administration ordered a global freeze on foreign aid. Mr. Villegas was forced to flee the region and lost both his contract and U.S.-sponsored psychological and legal support he was receiving for his work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, Mr. Villegas\u2019s future is uncertain, and his organization\u2019s work tracking and supporting victims in one of Colombia\u2019s most violent regions is on hold. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI feel impotent,\u201d he said. \u201cAn organization like ours in this part of the world rarely gets noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/05\/world\/americas\/colombia-usaid-peace.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Colombia signed a landmark peace agreement with rebels in 2016, it was celebrated internationally for ending a war that had ravaged much of the country for decades. The United States bolstered the peace efforts, helping displaced farmers return to their land and helping prosecute war crimes. Now, support from the U.S. government \u2014 the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/05\/multimedia\/05int-colombia-usaid-mjpw\/05int-colombia-usaid-mjpw-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17709,164576,48482,2376,3166,103120,40865,173025,864,27479,221,1021,163847,128437,72870],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298072,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298070\/revisions\/298072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}