Just what has Colombia done to earn such a close partnership with the US?

There are many questions about Colombia's place in the US orbit these days. This seemingly democratic country, and strong US ally, has one of the poorest human rights records in the Americas and yet they have continuously lucked out on being at the right place at the right time on the war on drugs . What have they done, in fact, to earn a free trade agreement? And just what does an Administrative Security Department do apart from conducting political killings, selling intelligence to the highest bidder, and indiscriminate wiretapping in a country where such a practice is illegal? 

Lastly one would like to know, what more must a country whose president has scrubbed the constitution for a second time in order to run for president and whose own government is complicit in the deaths of scores of trade unionists and human rights activists do get on the bad side of the Obama administration? Apparently a lot more:

Ian C. Kelly, a State Department spokesman, said last week that the accusations of illegal wiretapping were “troubling and unacceptable.” But in the same statement, he said Colombia’s human rights record was satisfactory enough to meet standards allowing Mr. Uribe’s government to receive all of the military assistance included in the $545 million in American aid that Colombia was set to receive this year.