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First Available Data Shows Countries Are Using Special Drawing Rights to Stabilize Their Economies and Address the Pandemic

First Available Data Shows Countries Are Using Special Drawing Rights to Stabilize Their Economies and Address the Pandemic

Based on the IMF’s accounting of SDR holdings as well as media reporting on member countries, we can get a preliminary sense of what countries immediately used the additional allocation of SDRs and for what purposes.

By Andrés Arauz, Kevin Cashman

Biden and Latin America

Biden and Latin America

Donald Trump is no longer president, but that does not mean that the behavior of the United States toward its southern neighbors will change radically.

By Alexander Main

Child Rapes and “Sex Parties” by US Forces are Latest to Tarnish Plan Colombia’s Image

Child Rapes and “Sex Parties” by US Forces are Latest to Tarnish Plan Colombia’s Image

Plan Colombia has been on the lips of many U.S. officials lately, who tout the 15-year-old plan as a model to stabilize the country and promote human rights and transparency. This week, two new reports alleged sexual exploitation by U.S. security forces in Colombia, underscoring the detrimental (and hypocritical) role of Plan Colombia and U.S. military and police presence in the region.  

A report [PDF]released Thursday by the U.S. Inspector General (IG) investigating the DEA found that DEA agents stationed in Colombia allegedly had “sex parties” with prostitutes bankrolled by drug cartels. This follows last month’s even more alarming report, commissioned to inform peace talk negotiations, that revealed sexual abuse of more than 54 young Colombian children at the hands of U.S. security forces between 2003 and 2007.

According to the IG report, Colombian police officers reportedly provided “protection for the DEA agents’ weapons and property during the parties.” It also states that “the DEA, ATF, and Marshals Service repeatedly failed to report all risky or improper sexual behavior to security personnel at those agencies” and expressed concern at the DEA’s general delay and unwillingness to comply with the investigation.

While the sex party report has garnered a fair amount of media attention, the Colombian report of sexual abuse has gone largely unmentioned. (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting points out that, although the claims in have received some international attention, there has been almost no coverage of the claims in the U.S. media.) That report was commissioned by the Colombian government and the FARC in an attempt to determine responsibility for the more than 7 million victims of Colombia’s armed conflict. It reported that U.S. military personnel sexually abused 53 young girls, filmed the assaults, and sold the footage as pornographic material. In another instance, a U.S. sergeant and a security contractor reportedly drugged and raped a 12-year-old girl inside a military base. The alleged rapists, U.S. sergeant Michael J. Coen and defense contractor Cesar Ruiz, were later flown safely out of the country, while the girl and her family were forced from their home after receiving threats from “forces loyal to the suspects,” as Colombia Reports described them.

By CEPR