Between the end of the Cold War and the close of the first decade of the new millennium, Colombia-Latin America’s third largest country and oldest electoral democracy-came to occupy a central place in U.S. foreign policy. By 2000, Colombia was the third largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid worldwide, surpassed only by Israel and Egypt.2 Between fiscal years 2000 and 2008, U.S. economic and military aid exceeded $6 billion.3 For several years the U.S. embassy in Bogota hosted the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, until overtaken by Baghdad in the years following the 2003 U.S. military invasion. At a 2009 White House ceremony scarcely seven days before leaving office, President George W. Bush bestowed on Colombian president Alvaro Uribe the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honor. The award was given, said Bush, “in recognition of exemplary achievement, and to convey the utmost esteem of the people and the president of the United States.”4