Colombian Mayor’s 2003 Death Detailed

An article written on May 30, 2007 (Colombian Mayor’s 2003 Death Detailed) has addressed an issue that is mainly overlooked in this country: Colombia’s devastating civil war has been demonstrably made worse by U.S. aid delivered under Plan Colombia. The death of Mayor Eudaldo Diaz, of the small community of El Roble, in 2003, is reason enough for the U.S. to review its huge amount of fiscal aid to a country that has disqualified itself as worthy of receiving such funding.

Unlike other Colombian politicians who for practical reasons have bought into the ongoing and often government sponsored violence, Mayor Diaz sought to improve the country’s living conditions and was assassinated because of his resistance to right-wing vigilantes. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a confirmed right-wing politician, has had amiable relations with paramilitary groups for years; he is hardly worthy of U.S. support. Curiously enough, in recent years, the number of civilian deaths in Colombia has significantly declined while the assassinations of key trade unionists and opposition political figures, such as the Mayor Diaz, have noticeably climbed. Uribe’s cloudy relationship with paramilitary groups, and the current scandals surrounding his party’s ties to them, may have a direct connection to the deaths of such constructive political figures, as Mayor Diaz, and is reason enough to question continued U.S. financial backing for what is at most a venal and heartless regime.