I'm sure our Colombian allies will be overjoyed to hear that we're putting military sanctions on them.
While the DoEA considers out relationship with Colombia to be very important, we have great concerns over the power of drug cartels, and we are concerned about how many weapons fall in drug lord hands. If our Colombian allies are able to make strong progress against the drug cartels, meaning rooting out corruption as well as weakening and eliminating many of the cartels, then the restrictions will happily be lifted.
For all I'm critical of Santos/Uribe on a lot of fronts, it's undeniable that they've done much laudable work in terms of hashing out the drug cartels-FARC (they're interrelated, obviously). It seems pretty obvious to me that any sane government would certainly not cut out funding to a close ally who has worked in our interests in a region increasingly keen on breaking from the old line and has done, arguably, good work. It'd be like placing restrictions on your beloved Israel, see.
