"...on May 26 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "certified" to Congress that the Colombian government and armed forces were continuing to meet statutory criteria for fulfilling U.S. requirements related to human rights for receiving American assistance.

Vivanco, of Human Rights Watch, pointed out that despite strong evidence of human-rights abuses and collusion to commit crimes, the United States had repeatedly certified that Colombia's armed forces were meeting human-rights conditions on military assistance. "This time," he said, "the United States certified Colombia's compliance with the conditions without even mentioning the alarming reports of an increase in extra-judicial executions by the army, the army's killing of 10 anti-narcotics police officers, and serious allegations of torture in military training."

Maria Cristina Caballero/Providence Journal/CommonDreams 25.Jun.06