On May 15, the Colombian newspaper El Espectador reported: “In a harsh letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Antony John Blinken, U.S. congressmen asked his government to suspend direct assistance to the Colombian National Police until real improvements in the use of force are observed and no judicial responsibility is assumed for the brutality cases that have been evidenced in the midst of the protests.”

The letter is available as a separate document here.

Yesterday, Representative Jim McGovern tweeted: “I joined w/ @repmarkpocan, @janschakowsky & @RepRaulGrijalva to lead 55 Members of Congress in expressing grave concern over the political & human rights situation in #Colombia & urging the U.S. Government to clearly & unambiguously denounce police brutality in Colombia.”

Among the eight asks in their letter:

– “Suspend U.S. direct assistance, other than human rights training, to Colombia’s National Police and establish concrete, achievable benchmarks on improvements in the use of force and judicial accountability for past police brutality cases, including those committed in the context of protests in November 2019 and September 2020.”

– “Freeze U.S. commercial and foreign military sales of weapons, equipment, services, or training to the ESMAD; and freeze any grants or sales of riot or crowd control equipment to all other Colombian security forces, police, and special units.”

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