Since Plan Colombia’s launch in 2000, Washington has sent more than $6 billion in aid to Bogotá with few positive results. Colombia produces at least as much cocaine as it did before the start of Plan Colombia; peace with Colombia’s left-wing guerrillas remains beyond reach; the hemisphere’s worst humanitarian crisis rages on; and the country’s security forces are increasingly committing gross human rights abuses, particularly extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians.

President Obama should use his first one hundred days in office to signal his support for a new, positive direction by communicating, at the highest levels, that the United States will:

• Support and protect human rights defenders and victims. The U.S. must stand by and empower the truly courageous individuals—human rights advocates, victims, judges, prosecutors, trade leaders, and countless others—who are the driving forces for a more just and peaceful Colombia.
• Demand an end to the military’s human rights violations. Despite assurances that the Colombian army’s human rights record would improve with U.S. training, according to recent news reports, the army has carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings of unarmed civilians.
• Actively support overtures for peace. In a war that threatens to go on indefinitely, the immense suffering of the civilian population demands that the United States takes risks to achieve peace. Now is the moment when careful, renewed efforts could yield real progress. Actively supporting peace also means that the United States cannot continue endlessly bankrolling war.
• Invest in institutions and fight impunity. In Colombia, human rights violators are still rarely brought to justice for their crimes. The U.S. must invest in–and demand accountability from–the institutions, such as the judiciary, charged with investigating human rights abuses and politicians’ ties to illegal armed groups.
• Get serious, and smart, about drug policy. Today, there is as much coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, in Colombia as there was nine years ago. The U.S. must stop bankrolling the inhumane and ineffective aerial spraying program, and instead invest strategically in alternative development projects for small farmers in rural Colombia and drug treatment programs here at home.
• Ensure that trade policy supports, rather than undermines, overall U.S. goals. Colombia remains a dangerous place to be a trade unionist. The United States must insist that those who kill or threaten trade leaders are brought to justice. Any trade agreement must also protect the livelihoods of Colombia’s small farmers.
• Protect the rights of internally displaced persons and refugees. Colombia has the world’s 2nd largest population of internally displaced persons—and this year displacement is on the rise. The United States must make prevention of further displacement, and protection of this vulnerable group, one of its top priorities.

For more information, see A Compass for Colombia Policy, a new report that makes a strong case for a new U.S. approach in Colombia that would achieve our goals while helping to end impunity and strengthen respect for human rights.