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Paramilitary link could sink Colombia's Uribe
During the last decade, the U.S. has spent or handed out more than $10 billion in social, defense and security assistance to the South American republic of Colombia, according to tabulations by the Washington Office on Latin America. Much of that funding was aimed at countering Colombia's massive production of coca and export of cocaine to North America and Europe and eradicating human rights violations associated with paramilitary organizations operating freely in the country.
Smaller than Alaska, Colombia consistently produces more than half of the entire world's supply of coca and cocaine. While trends on production and trafficking wax and wane, the 2009 World Drug Report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime suggests that little lasting progress is being made in wiping out that trade. Meanwhile, another United Nations report has called into question the efforts by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to demobilize paramilitary organizations and stem human rights violations.