King Juan Carlos I offered Spain’s support to the Clinton administration for the US military intervention in Colombia

 Danilo Albin @Danialri, Bilbao, Público, 06/06/2021

Translated by Andy Barton

A recently declassified document shows how Spain’s former monarch told the U.S. government that it would seek funding to help support 'Plan Colombia' in 2000. The initiative took the form of a military assistance agreement set in motion under the excuse of the 'War on Drugs'. It was one that would result in thousands of deaths and serious violations of human rights. After the Spanish king’s promise, the Spanish government at the time, headed up by José María Aznar, contributed $100 million.

 

Plan Colombia was operational between 2000 and 2016. From the very beginning, it counted on the full support of King Juan Carlos I and José María Aznar, the Spanish president at the time. Under the pretext of the ‘fight against drug trafficking’, the allied Colombian and U.S. governments drew up the controversial plan. At first glance, it was responsible for a sustained military strategy that allowed U.S. soldiers to participate in Colombian military operations. More important was the economic aid that came with it, coming to a total of around $10 billion, for an endless war against guerrilla forces that took a heavy toll on the Colombian people. In Spain, the Partido Popular (Popular Party) government, under the auspices of the Casa Real (Royal House), helped to finance the operation.

According to the declassified document obtained by Público, the Spanish newspaper, Plan Colombia was one of the topics of conversation during an official meeting between Juan Carlos I and Clinton on 23rd February 2000 during the former’s visit to the White House. The Spanish King left no room for ambiguity, stating that Spain was already searching for funding that could be used to support the U.S. intervention on Colombian soil.

February 2000: the presidential couple receiving the royal couple at the White House. Queen Sofia stumbles, Bill helps her up

“In Latin America, we can be useful, perhaps we can even be a bedrock. We know the people well, and we have a shared history. We can smooth over the rough edges.” These were the words of Juan Carlos I during the encounter, accompanied by Abel Matutes, the foreign minister, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. secretary of state, Edward Romero, the U.S. ambassador to Spain, and Antonio de Oyarzabal, the Aznar government’s diplomatic representative in Washington.

Former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana, one of the signatories of the military plan alongside Clinton, is now at the head of the FAES foundation (Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies), which has Aznar as its director and whose goal is to promote right-wing political parties in Latin America.

At the start of the 2000s, Pastrana was a loyal associate of Clinton and his hawkish strategy in Colombia. This was especially curious at a time when the South American country was attempting to establish peace agreements with the FARC during the famous negotiations in Caguán, which ultimately failed. The Plan Colombia was initially devised as an anti-drug trafficking initiative. In reality, it was a precursor to the 'War on Terror', especially in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

The cooperation agreement between Bogotá and Washington directly lead to serious human rights violations, particularly as the plan advanced under the new governments of George W. Bush and Álvaro Uribe in the U.S. and Colombia respectively. Bush and Uribe capitalised on Plan Colombia in every way possible. Between 2001 and 2016, the United States designated $10 billion dollars to military programs in Colombian territory. It also created a bilateral working group between the armed forces in both countries and promoted the creation of 'anti-drug battalions'.

The hawkish strategy against the FARC and ELN guerrilla forces received a significant boost with the arrival of Uribe, a right-wing candidate, in the Colombian government in 2002. In fact, Uribe leaned on U.S. economic aid to establish the Política de Defensa y Seguridad Democrática (Defence and Democratic Security Policy). This policy played an important role in the modernisation of the armed forces and in increasing the sophistication of the war. Information gathered by the human rights platform Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination (CCEEU) shows that the plan promoted by Clinton “intensified the military conflict”. The report they published in 2016 also underlines that “the human cost of this security initiative is devastating; it cannot simply be forgotten”.

The data is truly shocking. According to the CCEUU, “more than 4,300 civilians were assassinated. The assassinations appear to have been carried out by government soldiers to improve the plan’s statistics”. This demonstrates a clear violation of human rights in a scandal that became known as the 'false positives'. In short, the Colombian armed forced perpetrated extrajudicial assassinations of civilians, which were then dressed up to make them look like guerrilleros killed in combat. This helped to improve, or inflate, the statistics and gave the impression that the military was achieving success in its war against the guerrillas and drug traffickers.

The Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (the Special Jurisdiction for Peace) is a Colombian organisation born out of the peace accords that seeks justice in the cases of human rights violations during the armed conflict. According to their up-to-date statistics, the number of known victims of the false positives scandal has risen to 6,402.

In a similar vein, “more than 1,000 trade unionists and 400 defenders of human rights have been assassinated” during the internal conflict. An uncountable number of women have also suffered sexual aggressions.

During the meeting with Juan Carlos to finalise the plan’s commencement, Clinton said, “it will be interesting to see what happens in Colombia. We have to work together in this”. The U.S. president was keen to stress the need for a “strong collaboration” with Spain. Juan Carlos I followed these remarks with his own message brought from Madrid: “We want to help. Last week, we held a meeting in Spain to raise funds for Plan Colombia.”

The minutes from the meeting, signed by Albright and classified as “confidential”, show how the Aznar government’s foreign minister was pressuring the country’s allies to raise more funds for the plan. “We are applying pressure to the Scandinavians, Germany and France to speed up the financing. The plan is good. It has clear goals in the medium- and long-term. We need to build a strong civil society and incorporate the guerrilleros”, Matutes signalled.

Clinton did not hide his enthusiasm, even going as far as to propose that Juan Carlos I lead the defence of Plan Colombia in the EU, which the former described as “very positive”. The U.S. president also said, “the future of Latin America depends on the preservation of stability and the strengthening of democracy”.

During the meeting, Clinton admitted that Colombia must be dealt with carefully: “we want to help train soldiers, but after Vietnam, Congress is fearful that we get embroiled in their conflict. We have tried to be very clear when we say that we are training corruption-free soldiers to fight against drugs and protect the civil police force. We are not going to get embroiled in a civil war.”

Beyond any reservations about the plan, the Aznar government met Juan Carlos I’s promise and set out to raise funds for Plan Colombia. In July 2000, the 'donor’s table' was populated by representatives from various European, Latin American and Asian governments. At this meeting, $250 million worth of aid was agreed upon for the intervention on Colombian soil. Of this, Spain would contribute $100 million.

“They don’t take us seriously”

During the meeting with Clinton, Juan Carlos I moved between showing support for Plan Colombia and his commitment to the military intervention in Kosovo to demanding that the U.S. support Spain in the international arena: “I want to express openly that we have genuine concerns that are not taken seriously. We are not taken seriously despite our contributions and our loyalty as a good friend to the United States.”

Here, Juan Carlos signalled Spanish support for Washington’s policies in the conflict between Israel and Palestine “even though this could cost us in terms of our relationship with the Arab world. We would like to see more support for our international status. I speak about this as a friend because we are able to speak openly”, the Spanish monarch added.

Plan Colombia was brought to an end in 2016 by Barack Obama and Juan Manuel Santos, the same year that a peace agreement was signed with the FARC. Both presidents agreed that cooperation between the U.S. and Colombia from that moment on would be known as 'Paz Colombia' (Peace Colombia). However, the story ended with a paradox: Santos, who signed the peace agreement, was the defence minister in Uribe’s government during the operational years of Plan Colombia.

Old pals: Juan Carlos and Clinton at Casa Lucio restaurant in Madrid, November 2007