Understanding the Effect of Security Assistance on Human Rights: The Case of Plan Colombia

Existing large-N research argues that governments that rely on their citizens for their revenue are more accountable to their citizens and thus have more incentives to protect human rights. This argument predicts that other sources of revenue fail to provide such incentives. Due to this, governments that rely on alternative sources of revenue will experience poor human rights conditions. This article is aimed at exploring this expectation by looking at one particular type of alternative source of revenue: security assistance. According to the argument, security assistance should negatively impact human rights conditions due to its effect on governments’ efforts to protect and respect human rights. This article uses the case of Plan Colombia to assess this argument. By looking at the way in which foreign assistance interacts with domestic institutions, the case suggest that the negative effect is caused by the erosion on checks and balances and, most importantly, by changes in civil-military relations.