LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Colombia: Plan Colombia
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The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is active in Colombia, with a presence in Bogota, Medellin, and Cali. Despite the office’s high quality and professional work, the Colombian government repeatedly criticized it in 2006. After protracted negotiations lasting much of the year, the Colombian government extended the office’s mandate by one additional year. However, government officials, including Vice President Francisco Santos, stated that they planned to continue negotiating “adjustments” to the scope of the office’s mandate.
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In January 2007, Colombian leaders presented a new strategy to consolidate and build on progress under Plan Colombia, called the "Strategy to Strengthen Democracy and Social Development." The new strategy continues successful Plan Colombia programs while increasing state presence by improving access to social services, and supporting economic development through sustainable growth and trade.
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The Pacific Coast of Colombia, a narrow slice of jungle between the Andes and the ocean, is rich with plant and animal life. It's ... home to about a third of Colombia's 10.6 million Afro-Colombians, descendants of black slaves emancipated in the mid-1800s. In recent years, this isolated area has been hit hard by logging, gold mining, industrial agriculture, and Colombia's civil war.
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Participants in the Colombian armed conflict have ... contributed to the pollution of the environment in Colombia. The illegally armed groups have deforested large portions of land to plant illegal crops (mostly on government designated protected areas) while the government fumigated these crops using hazardous chemicals. The guerrillas also destroyed oil pipelines creating major ecological disasters.
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The main project the Colombia Program is currently involved in is with the USAID/ADAM Program (Areas for Municipal-level Alternative Development). The ADAM program, in conjunction with Acción Social (Agencia Presidencial para la Acción Social y la Cooperación) and DNP (National Planning Department) is working in 100 municipios spread throughout the country.
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Not everyone in Congress is convinced of the “progress” made in Colombia. On March 1, 2006, 56 members including Oregon Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio, signed a letter urging Secretary Rice to stop military funding to Colombia until human rights violations stop. The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) and the Center for International Policy (CIP), both non-partisan research NGOs in Washington, D.C., counter that the U.S. drug war has been successful. Both NGOs claim it an abysmal failure that further exasperates the war between the government and paramilitaries. CIP stated that Arauca is the focus of a $99 million plan to protect the Cano-Limon pipeline alone. That kind of money buys big in the impoverished region.
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