Report: U.S. Troops in Colombia Linked to More Than 50 Rapes

The 800-page document is the work of 12 experts, six picked by the government and another six by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

In a section prepared by Renan Vega Cantor, head of the Department of Social Sciences at the National Pedagogical University in the central Colombian towns of Melgar and Girardot, are compiled the cases of sexual abuse committed near the country’s largest military base, Tolemaida.

The U.S. personnel not only raped the adolescents, they videotaped the assaults and made copies to sell as pornography, according to Vega’s report.

One of the rape victims was only 12.

Vega said there is “plenty of information about sexual violence committed with total impunity” by U.S. personnel in Colombia.

This impunity was possible “thanks to bilateral accords and the diplomatic immunity of United States officials,” according to the university professor.

“Both for the duties they (the Americans) perform and for their status of immunity, they contribute to the insecurity of people in conflicted areas, but also in other areas where they are based and make contact with the civilian population,” Vega said.

The professor also noted that “rape and sexual aggression are also frequent in the Colombian army.”

He added that “other serious cases that have involved soldiers and mercenaries” include “homicides, drug trafficking and selling arms to paramilitaries.”

The United States, which has provided Colombia with roughly $9 billion in military aid over the past 15 years, also has troops and civilian defense contractors stationed in the Andean nation acting as trainers and advisers to the Colombian military.