USAFE Airman to be presented award for service in Colombia

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kelly LeGuillon
  • 435th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Lt. Col. Cornelia Weiss, U.S. Air Forces in Europe directorate of plans, programs and analysis consortium beddown division, is the 2008 National Image Inc. Meritorious Service Award winner.

The award, presented by the National Image Inc., recognizes Colonel Weiss for her promotion of human rights and the rule of law in Colombia, as the U.S. Southern Command Staff Judge Advocate Liaison Officer working with the Colombian Ministry of Defense.

Spending a year and a half working with the Colombian Ministry of Defense to help the country's military develop legal resources to fight narcotics-related terrorism, Colonel Weiss considers her time in Colombia as one of her most challenging assignments to date.

"Colombia is a country desperately working to get to the post-conflict stage," said Colonel Weiss. "This country of 40 million people has been combating narco-terrorism for more than 40 years. The human costs are high."

During her deployment, Colombia's Ministry of Defense made military justice reform a priority.

"They realized that without a credible and legitimate military justice system, the operational end of the war with the narco-terrorists was not likely to improve," said Colonel Weiss.

Day-to-day, Colonel Weiss advised and helped train Colombian legal officers to use an oral advocacy system and assisted them in investigating and addressing charges of cover-ups of human rights abuses.

In order to help the Colombian government gain control throughout its country, Colonel Weiss worked with SOUTHCOM and the Colombian Ministry of Defense to develop specific plans of action and measures of effectiveness for human rights and international humanitarian law training.

"The most time-consuming part of my job was the pro-active effort, immeasurably aided by the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies, to train the second-largest military justice corps - after the United States - in the world in the accusatorial system," said Colonel Weiss.

Colonel Weiss also helped the Colombian military modernize its military justice system by planning and implementing $2.5 million in legal and human rights reforms.

Colonel Weiss is currently working at USAFE to create an international heavy airlift consortium of NATO and Partnership-for-Peace nations for national, NATO, and international humanitarian airlift and disaster relief purposes. She is also a reservist attached to the 52nd Fighter Wing Judge Advocate office at Spangdahlem Air Base.

She will be presented her award April 17 in Las Vegas.

"For all of its problems, Colombia is also a paradise," said Colonel Weiss. "The Colombia that I now hold in my memory is a nation of contrasts. There is a Colombia where I met and made many friends, and there is a Colombia where I had to be protected by bullet-proof glass and bodyguards."