COLUMBIA AND ICC

Last week the U.S. gave Columbia $31 million in aid. See the story on VOA. It appears that the U.S. will withhold around $5 million from Columbia if there is no deal on Columbia's exempting U.S. citizens from prosecution at the International Criminal Court. But the rest of the U.S. aid package (near $250 million) will apparently not be threatened.

Now five million dollars is five million dollars, to be sure, but we can classify Columbia as getting a "practical waiver" nonetheless; I imagine that if members of Congress and the executive branch really wanted to, they could classify more of the money that goes to Columbia as military aid and decide to withhold it, although Columbian aid is complicated by the overwhelming context of the war on drugs plus the intermitted criticism of its human rights record. Yesterday I heard a snippet of coverage from The World that noted that the U.S. presence in Columbia has actually increased over recent months, but their story isn't up right now. Here's the link in case it ever appears.

See also here.