[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 188 (Friday, September 29, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Page 67420]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-21414]



[[Page 67420]]

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice: 12201]


Certification Related to Foreign Military Financing for Colombia 
Under Section 7045(B)(2)(B) of the Department of State, Foreign 
Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023

    Pursuant to the authority vested in the Secretary of State, 
including under section 7045(b)(2)(B) of the Department of State, 
Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023 (Div. 
K, Pub. L. 117-328), I hereby certify that:
    (I) the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and other judicial 
authorities, as appropriate, are sentencing perpetrators of gross 
violations of human rights, including those with command 
responsibility, to deprivation of liberty;
    (II) the Government of Colombia is making consistent progress in 
reducing threats and attacks against human rights defenders and other 
civil society activists, and judicial authorities are prosecuting and 
punishing those responsible for ordering and carrying out such attacks;
    (III) the Government of Colombia is making consistent progress in 
protecting Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities and is respecting 
their rights and territories;
    (IV) senior military officers credibly alleged, or whose units are 
credibly alleged, to be responsible for ordering, committing, and 
covering up cases of false positives and other extrajudicial killings, 
or of committing other gross violations of human rights, or of 
conducting illegal communications intercepts or other illicit 
surveillance, are being held accountable, including removal from active 
duty if found guilty through criminal, administrative, or disciplinary 
proceedings; and
    (V) the Colombian Armed Forces are cooperating fully with the 
requirements described in (I) through (IV) above.
    This Certification shall be published in the Federal Register and 
shall be transmitted, along with the accompanying Memorandum of 
Justification, to Congress.

    Dated: September 15, 2023.
Antony J. Blinken,
Secretary of State.
[FR Doc. 2023-21414 Filed 9-28-23; 8:45 am]
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