One year later, I sought political asylum in the United States due to threats. Colombia is enduring the hemisphere's worst human rights crisis. Human rights, union, university and religious leaders are among the many people living under death threats or forced into exile. Guerrilla groups and rightwing paramilitaries both target civilians which they claim are supporters of the other side. The army, though directly responsible for fewer violations, has extensive links with paramilitary forces at a local and regional level.
Some army officers facilitate the work of paramilitaries or look the other way as violence occurs.
Colombia has sent more troops to train at the SOA than any other Latin American country, with chilling results. The 1993 human rights report State Terrorism in Colombia cites 247 Colombian officers for human rights violations. Fully one half of those cited were SOA graduates. For example, Gen. Farouk Yanine Diaz was a guest speaker at the School in 1990 and 1991 after his involvement in the 1988 Uraba massacre of 20 banana workers, the assassination of the mayor of Sabana de Torres, and the massacre of 19 businessmen. SOA graduates have been linked to some of Colombia's most heinous massacres, including the 1988 massacre in Segovia in which 43 people were killed, the Trujillo chainsaw massacres, which took place between 1988 and 1991, and the 1993 Riofrio massacre.