Colombia sent general who lost job over rights abuses to its embassy in US
Source: McClatchy Washington Bureau
Colombia sent general who lost job over rights abuses to its embassy in US
By KEVIN G. HALL AND BRITTANY PETERSON | McClatchy Washington Bureau | Published: April 13, 2017
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — A Colombian army chief relieved of duties following a scathing report on the summary killing of almost 3,000 peasants has spent the last 18 months working at his nation’s embassy in the United States, to the ire of human rights groups.
Army Commander Gen. Jaime Lasprilla Villamizar has been serving as Colombia’s defense attache in Washington since soon after he and other top brass in the military command were removed from their posts after a damning report from Human Rights Watch in June 2015.
The State Department was aware of his transfer to the embassy in November 2015, but made no mention that he was working in the U.S. capital when it referenced the killing allegations in an annual human rights certification letter sent to Congress last September.
Rights groups and their supporters in Congress said they were surprised to learn in mid-March that Lasprilla had been in Washington for months, though there appears to have been little effort to hide his whereabouts — his name, email and phone number are listed on the embassy’s website. Almost a year earlier, in April 2016, he joined his country’s ambassador at a ceremony at Washington’s St. Matthews Cathedral honoring the victims of the conflict.
Read more: https://www.stripes.com/news/us/colombia-sent-general-who-lost-job-over-rights-abuses-to-its-embassy-in-us-1.463315#.WPA6VYjyvIU
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