U.S.-backed Colombian Army kills for cash

US-backed Colombian soldiers execute innocent for cash

The Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe is facing questions about its handling of the war against the country’s FARC rebels following a UN report that accuses Colombian soldiers of systematically killing innocent people for a cash reward.

The United States is slated to hand over some $750 million in mostly military aid to Colombia this year. The potential contribution of US taxpayers’ money to fund the killing of innocent people — though likely inadvertent on the part of the Colombian government — will almost certainly raise eyebrows among human-rights activists and others who have long criticized the Colombian government’s actions in its war against cocaine and insurgents.

At the heart of the problem is the Colombian government’s practice of paying soldiers for dead bodies of FARC members. Predictably, the incentive has led some soldiers to kill innocent civilians, dress their bodies up as FARC rebels, and hand them in for cash.

The phenomenon has come to be known as “falsos positivos,” or “false positives.”