U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991
Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm
.Discrediting FARC-diplomacy with para-diplomacy?http://colombiareports.com/opinion/cantonese-arepas/7650-discrediting-farc-diplomacy-with-para-diplomacy.html
The credibility of the Foreign Service is meanwhile affected by the culture of paying political favours that results in the appointment of unqualified individuals, in the best of cases, or, in the worst of cases, criminals. Some examples:
Salvador Arana Sus was named ambassador to Chile in 2003 after masterminding, with the help of paramilitaries, the kidnapping, torture and murder of a political opponent a few months prior; the Supreme Court sentenced him to 40 years in jail.
Luis Camilo Osorio has since 2005 served as ambassador to Itay, Greece and now Mexico. He is accused of having protected paramilitaries during his term as Prosecutor General from 2001 to 2005. He refused to investigate Arana Sus.
Jorge Noguera Cotes was named consul in Milan, Italy in 2005 after setting up the illegal wiretapping division of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) and sharing secret information with the paramilitaries; he is currently detained awaiting trial.
Sabas Pretelt de la Vega has served as ambassador to Italy since 2006 and is the sole candidate to preside over the UN's World Food Programme. As Interior Minister he allegedly bribed Congresspeople into voting for a constitutional amendment allowing Uribe’s first re-election. He is being investigated by the Prosecutor General.
Juan Jose Chaux Mosquera was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands in December 2007 immediately after the Prosecutor General’s office opened a preliminary investigation of possible links to paramilitaries; he is awaiting trial.
Ernesto Yamhure Fonseca was a consular official in Stockholm, Sweden, where he spied on Colombian dissidents; a paramilitary boss declared Yamhure was a friend and political adviser to United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) founder Carlos Castaño Gil.
Retired General Mario Montoya Uribe was appointed ambassador to the Dominican Republic in February 2009 after he retired as general following the extrajudicial killings by the army. He is being criminally investigated for alleged ties to paramilitaries.
Colombia's Alvaro Uribe, of course, is a close Washington ally, a recipient of massive amounts of U.S. security assistance and is widely regarded as a beacon of democracy. Yes, he's a former narco-terroristhttp://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm
who was a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar,http://www.newsweek.com/id/54770and, yes, labor leaders and protest organizershttp://www.cipcol.org/?p=563are routinely assassinated in Colombia. And, sure, Uribe's cousin and close confidant was arrested last week for his ties to right-wing terrorist groupshttp://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN2229946220080422
-- joininghttp://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iWG2LxDYBEblErWnaRRrEl4OhfkwD9072IRG0"More than 30 current or former members of Congress, the vast majority allies of the president, [who] have been arrested for allegedly backing and benefiting from the illegal right-wing bands" -- and, OK, now there are allegationshttp://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ixoJlMny-zqGaU2dGxiPlktJhfsQthat Uribe himself might have had a hand in the assassinations of 15 lefties in the 1990s.
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia.http://www.counterpunch.org/cryan08252004.html
Neoliberalism Needs Death Squads in Colombiahttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2091/1/
Uribe is going down the same road as Alberto Fujimori, a right-wing crookhttp://colombiareports.com/opinion/131-gustavo-silva-cano/5545-disappointed-in-uribe.html
VIDEO-Indigenous Colombians Begin 10,000-Strong March Against Uribe Governmenthttp://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/indigenous_colombians_begin_10_000_strong
Eight members of Congress, all allied with President Alvaro Uribe, had been jailed prior to Monday's warrants in a snowballing scandal that has badly tarnished the government.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/14/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Paramilitary-Scandal.php
10,000 indigenous Colombians have begun a protest march against President Alvaro Uribe. Marchers are protesting the militarization of their territories, the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the failure of Uribe’s administration to fulfill various accords with the indigenous communities. We speak to Rafael Coicué, an indigenous leader who lost sight in his left eye when he was assaulted by masked gunmen in his home, and Mario Murillo, a US journalist and professor currently in Colombia. [includes rush transcript]
ASOCOLOM: Uribe is NOT welcome in Canada PRESS RELEASE – JUNE 10, 2009, Montreal -Canada.FROM: Colombia Action and Solidarity Network (ASOCOLOM)http://canadacolombiaproject.blogspot.com/2009/06/asocolom-uribe-is-not-welcome-in-canada.html
As Colombians living in Canada, we hereby express our indignation at the presence in Canada of the current President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who has been invited by the government of Canada. We consider this an affront to the defense and protection of Universal Human Rights, given that the majority of the Colombians that live in Canada had to forcibly flee Colombia in the recent past, displaced from our country as victims of violence, poverty and political persecution carried out by the Uribe government.
In view of this, we consider that the Canadian people, in recognition of its democratic tradition, especially in regards to the protection of human rights, cannot condone the presence of a president such as Mr. Uribe, who is directly responsible for crimes against humanity in Colombia, as follows:
1. For his direct link to the persecution and harassment of judicial due process in order to prevent the investigation and prosecution of his family members, and political supporters (Deputies and Senators) of his past presidential and re-election campaigns for their roles in the establishment, involvement and support of paramilitary groups and their complicity in crimes against humanity in Colombia. In view of this, Mr. Augusto Ibañez, the President of Colombia’s Supreme Court recently requested that the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Judicial Independence come to Colombia to act as a witness and guarantor of the independence of the judicial process in these legal proceedings;
2. For his involvement in maintaining and protecting his political allies and personal friends in their offical state capacities and government roles, while having full knowledge of their involvement in aiding and abetting crimes committed by paramilitary groups. One example is Jorge Noguera, ex-director of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), currently in prison and accused of being an accomplice to paramilitary groups, in the assassinations of trade union, civil society and leftist leaders. Uribe appointed Noguera as Ambassador to Italy, and was investigated for activities in that position by Colombia’s Attorney General. A similar example is Uribe’s political party colleague, personal friend, the ex-governor of Sucre Department, Mr. Salvador Arana, who was identified in the presence of Uribe by Eudaldo Diaz, mayor of El Roble Municipality, just before he was assassinated. A few days later, Uribe rewarded Arana by appointing him as Ambassador to Chile. Subsequently, following his arrest by Interpol, Arana was convicted for assassination, and aiding and abetting crimes by paramilitary groups, such as the Chengue Massacre;
3. For his direct family ties, through his cousin Mario Uribe and brother Santiago Uribe, in the planning of assassinations committed by paramilitary groups, such as the Aro Massacre in Antioquia Department. The material author and principal witness of this massacre, Enrique Villalba, was recently killed in Colombia. This also happened in the case of Mario Uribe, whose involvement in land robbery as its frontman was carried out through murders. These investigations are currently being brought to the National Attorney General, the highest level of judicial investigation;
4. For his direct responsibility as Commander in Chief of the Colombian Armed Forces in judicially-proven criminal offences, committed by high-level military officers, such as aiding and abetting of massacres and systematic civilian assassinations, such as the so-called “false positives” scandal;
5. For his direct responsibility in permitting the impunity, in Colombia, of paramilitary leaders for the crimes against humanity committed by them, by prioritizing their extradition to the USA for narco-trafficking , rather than standing trial in Colombia. (Investigative journalists have argued that Uribe has done this in order to avoid being implicated in their crimes, should they be brought to trial in Colombia);
6. For assuming a policy of indifference in the face of attacks by paramilitary groups that have refused to demobilize and that, according to their communiqués, now have the intention to take control of Colombia through a campaign of terror;
7. For the direct link of the Presidential Palace in ordering the wiretapping of telephone conversations between the Administrative Department of Security and judges of the Supreme Court of Justice, opposition politicians, trade unionists, civil society leaders and journalists, in order to continue and facilitate ongoing political persecution; and
8. For his direct responsibility in maintaining and pursuing a policy of war, wrongly called “democratic security”, directed primarily at peasant farmers, Afro-Colombian communities and indigenous peoples, which is incrementally adding to Colombia’s grave humanitarian crisis and conditions of absolute misery, as has been corroborated by recent reports of Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights, the Office of the High Commission of Human Rights, and the Organization of American States.
In view of all of the above, we ask the community for the creation of a committee to verify the state of human rights in Colombia, comprised of members of Canadian and Colombian civil society, the trade union movement, politicians and well-known individuals before the end of 2009.
For the respect of human rights and the dignity of the Colombian people, we renounce President Uribe’s presence in Canada.
Stop Fascism in Colombiahttp://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/content/view/155/54/
The son of a landlord narco-trafficker, friend of dodgy businessmen and a long time promoter of right-wing paramilitary death squads, Uribe was elected by less than a quarter of all Colombians. He is doubling the size of the armed forces, recruiting hundreds of thousands of village guards and aims to build a network of one million informers to defeat the social movements and the guerrillas, the FARC and the ELN. At the same time, US military involvement is rapidly expanding, with the planned insertion of US troops creating the very real possibility of a Latin American front to the so-called War on Terror.
Militarisation goes hand in hand with authoritarian rule. Government ministers openly state that they must curtail democratic rights. Uribe immediately declared a 'State of Internal Unrest' allowing him to rule by presidential decree, by passing Congress. All the social movements live in fear for their lives. Armed police raid international NGOs accusing them of being guerrillas. Uribe's government clearly regards trade unionists as legitimate targets for assassination. He has brought Colombia to the brink of fascism.
There is continued grass roots resistance, but it needs a sea change in international solidarity if it is to survive Uribe's offensive. While Bush has given Uribe the green light for state terrorism, who will stand by the Colombian people?
A ray of hope has come from the Polo Democrát-ico, a group of independent and socialist Senators and Congress representatives who managed to get elected despite the intimidation. At this juncture they have pivotal role in expressing the needs of the excluded majority. These deputies live under constant threat of assassination. Should their voice be silenced then fascism will have not only arrived but taken over.
Just as Latin America is seeking a way out of neo-liberal capitalism, Uribe throws Colombia further into its depths. Uribe is plunging into debt to finance military expansion. Before long the Colombian people will have to pay, right now it means that Uribe does whatever Bush wants.
As in the Middle East and Asia, Bush has made clear his readiness to go to war. While most of Latin America is shaping resistance to US domination, and its peoples struggle for a new economic model that is oriented to their needs, the Colombian government is ever more in Bush's pocket. Uribe is not only selling off his own country, but threatens to betray a whole continent.
Nor is Uribe just Bush's man in Latin America, he is a favourite of the Blair government too. The multinationals are the driving force behind Blair's love-in with Uribe. That famous revolving door with BP has been in full swing.
On 10 December David Taylor MP asked government minister Bill Rammell to "make a statement on the political situation in Colombia." Rammell's response? "The new democratically elected Colombian Government face enormous challenges, particularly in their fight against terrorism and the illegal drugs trade, as well as over human rights and Colombia's humanitarian crisis. We support their effortsto tackle all those issues."
Nowhere does Rammell acknowledge the Colombian government and state's own responsibility for terrorism, drugs and human rights violations.
A broad political campaign is needed to tackle the British government’s shameful position, which is a cover-up for fascism.
Our challenge is to mobilise international solidarity delegations, to unmask the multinationals’ agenda, to tell the public what is really going on in Colombia and to defend human rights.
The Colombia Solidarity Campaign supports Colombians who are in danger of persecution. We support humanitarian efforts to assist Colombians seeking temporary refuge, or full asylum should they require it.
We call for a common front based on action to defeat fascism and imperialist intervention in Colombia.
Unite to Stop Uribe Fascism!
Mobilise Against Imperialist Intervention!
US and Colombian Activists Target "World of Coca-Cola"http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2225/61/
"They systematically violate human rights in Colombia. All workers have the right and obligation to defend their rights. Simply exercising those rights has cost the lives of workers in Colombia," Caja Marca said. "Lastly we came here to demand justice. These are the men of war. These are the ones who put seven US military bases in Colombia. These are the ones who create paramilitaries. We accuse Coca-Cola of financing assassins. We want truth and reparations," Caja Marca said.
Colombians Refuse to Be Displaced: Over 5,000 Occupy the Piñuña Negro Police Inspectors Office in Putumayo Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Campesinos Demand an End to Coca Eradication and Plan Colombiahttp://www.narconews.com/Issue63/article3998.html
Documents allegedly describe joint US-Colombian spy operationshttp://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/01-291/
The DAS' 'Political War'http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7338-the-das-political-war.html
Venezuela arrests 'Colombia spies'http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/2009102922252954951.html
Documents allegedly describe joint US-Colombian spy operationshttp://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/01-291/
US bans Colombian intelligence agency as aid recipienthttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7448-us-bans-colombian-intelligence-agency-as-aid-recipient.html
Colombia: ex-para names US banana companies in murder of trade unionistshttp://ww4report.com/node/8096
THIS IS A MUST WATCH
RIGTHWING PARAMILITARISM in COLOMBIA 1 URIBE AUC killers COLOMBIA VIDEO TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH PART 1http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/jAABv-PfTtk/
PART2http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/Fksf6eqli1Y&feature=youtube_gdata/PARAMILITARISMO_en_COLOMBIA_2_URIBE_BUSH_AUC_asesinos_CIA_US.html
PART3http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/Fgy4PfjGtWE&feature=youtube_gdata/PARAMILITARISMO_en_COLOMBIA_3_URIBE_BUSH_AUC_asesinos_CIA_US.html
VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Rule Border Areahttp://www.insidecostarica.com/special_reports/2009/2009-12/venezuela_colombia_border.htm
A community leader from the city of San Antonio del Táchira, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Carlos, told IPS that Colombian "mafias" like the Black Eagles, made up of former members of far-right paramilitary groups in Colombia, "have controlled the smuggling of gasoline, food and plastic products from Venezuela to Colombia for years, and also the smuggling of goods from there to here."
Carlos said "this shows that the (Colombian) paramilitary mafias and their accomplices in Venezuela are the law here, they’re the ones who administer justice. And not only in San Antonio. They are moving into the small towns and rural areas. They have already arrived with their 'taxes' and 'fines' in San Cristóbal and even farther away."
Curacao Is U.S. Spy Base Against Venezuelahttp://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16649
Dutch Socialist MP Harry van Bommel has claimed that US spy planes are using an airbase on the Netherlands Antilles island of Curaçao.
Mr Van Bommel has asked Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen whether he is aware that a Boeing RC-135 aircraft has been making regular reconnaissance flights from the Caribbean island's Hato airport over the past few weeks.
The opposition MP said it is up to the Netherlands to help de-escalate these tensions. He is asking for a ban on American military flights over Colombia from the Antilles. Ostensibly such flights are part of the US "war on drugs" but Mr Van Bommel claims they are also used in a "war on guerrillas". The MP wants to scrap the US-Netherlands Forwards Operations Location treaty enabling the Americans to use airfields in Curaçao and the Antilles for anti-drugs flights.
Gringo media in bed with Uribehttp://colombiareports.com/opinion/117-cantonese-arepas/7444-gringo-media-in-bed-with-uribe.html
After praising Uribe and his war policies the editorials brazenly fail to mention, or downplay, his government’s dozens of cases of corruption: Para-politicshttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/496-parapolitics-paralyzes-colombian-senate.html, Yidis-politicshttp://www.colombiareports.com/events-nightlife/85-colombian-news/856-yidis-medina-found-guilty-of-bribery.html, extrajudicial killingshttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/3696-prosecution-investigates-1300-false-positives-cases.html, Carimaguahttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/457-controversial-carimagua-plans-suspended-minister-says.html, DAS illegal wiretappinghttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/2981-das-continues-illegal-wiretapping.html, free trade zones given to Uribe’s sonshttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/3677-uribe-sons-allegedly-engaged-in-insider-trading.html, notaries scandalhttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/4891-presidency-issed-notaries-to-congressmen-official.html, humanitarian crisishttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/3706-colombia-violence-displaced-more-than-380000-in-2008-codhes.html, and Agro Ingreso Segurohttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/6082-beauty-queens-and-policitians-families-receive-major-subsidies.html, among many others. Abuses of power are also conveniently ignored: allowing U.S. troops to use seven military baseshttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/6547-state-council-recommends-that-bases-agreement-pass-through-congress.html, hindering the trial of soldiers behind extrajudicial killings, interfering in the trial of a colonel behind the disappearance of 11 people during the Palace of Justice siegehttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7241-families-of-palace-of-justice-victims-take-case-to-un.html, framing a Navy Admiralhttp://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7177-supreme-court-acquits-navy-admiral-of-drug-trafficking-charges.html, and derailing investigations on the DAS scandalhttp://www.semana.com/noticias-nacion/tapen-tapen/131043.aspx
FARC is being demonized: scholarhttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7424-farc-is-being-demonized-scholar.html
The untold Paramilitary war of Casanarehttp://colombiapassport.com/2009/12/17/the-untold-casanare-war/
Two paramilitary factions, supposedly created to combat guerrillas, killed each other for control of drug trafficking, oil royalties and thousands of hectares of land in Casanare in a paranoiac, hellish war that left thousands of victims – a war still very much kept secret in Colombia.
In little more than a few months between late 2003 and early 2004, about 3,000 people, including civilians and combatants were killed in Casanare, a department in eastern Colombia rich with oilfields across rolling plains.
Opposition party proposes coalition against Uribehttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7412-right-seeks-coalition-with-left-to-oppose-possible-uribe-re-election-.html
The leader of the Partido Liberal on Thursday invited the Polo Democratico party to begin discussions regarding the formation of a New Progressive Majority.
UN claims Colombian justice receiving threats from govt and policehttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7395-un-claims-colombian-justice-receiving-threats-from-govt-and-police.htm
The DAS' 'Political War'http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7338-the-das-political-war.html
Using threats, blackmail, sabotage and media manipulation, the Directorate of Intelligence of the embattled Colombian intelligence service DAS carried out covert operations to misinform NGOs and discredit political opponents, El Espectador reported Monday. The report said the DAS used state funds in a “political war” to "neutralize the influence" of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations. The covert operations also aimed to discredit Constitutional Court judges, such as Humberto Sierra, who was involved in postponing a referendum that would allow President Alvaro Uribe to seek another term. This is the latest of a series of embarrassing events that have befallen the DAS, documented by the prosecutors investigating the agency. Uribe earlier this year announced a restructuring of the DAS in the wake of several scandals involving Illegal wiretapping and allegations of spying on certain politicians, journalists and Supreme Court judges. A PowerPoint file found by the researchers, titled "political warfare," details a complete assembly manual for developing and instigating false accusations to tarnish NGOs, deport foreigners unfriendly to the Government, and to prevent the publication of certain books, all in the name of “creating division within the opposition movements” and to manipulate public opinion against those who criticize the government..
"Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
Colombia’s Right-Wing Paramilitaries and Splinter Groupshttp://www.cfr.org/publication/15239/colombias_rightwing_paramilitaries_and_splinter_groups.html
No To Fascism In Colombia: London 10 Dec Vigil
Report by Colombia Solidarity Campaign
Published: 11/11/02
Vigil on International Human Rights Day
4pm - 7pm Tuesday 10th December 2002
BP Headquarters, Finsbury Circus London EC2
(nearest tubes Moorgate and Liverpool Street)http://www.labournet.net/world/0211/colomb5.html
We call on all democratic people to join us on 10th December, International Human Rights Day, in nationwide vigils calling attention to the devastation of life in Colombia. Colombia has the worst human rights record of any country in the western hemisphere, and it now hovers on the brink of fascism.
The horrific scale of the violence goes unreported in the mainstream media. In Colombia:
last year 201 trade unionists were assassinated or ‘disappeared’, 90% of all such killings worldwide. The rate has increased this year, with 118 trade unionists murdered to the beginning of September
Amnesty International estimates that 20 people are killed every day due to political violence
The main perpetrators are right wing paramilitary death squads who are linked to the army and who carry out massacres and targeted assassinations with impunity from prosecution
There are over 2. 5 million Colombians displaced from their homes due to violence, one third of Afro-Colombians have been driven off their land and displaced women especially suffer violations. The Colombian people are suffering under the grip of the World Bank and the IMF
Like most of Latin America, Africa and Asia the Colombian economy has been plundered for centuries. Since 1990 the imposition of the ‘neo-liberal model’ - a Thatcherite mix of privatisations, markets rigged for the benefit of the multinationals, slashed social services and attacks on the right to organise - has driven the country to its worst ever economic crisis. Only a quarter of the working population have a regular job, only 43% of Colombians have access to health care, and at least 68% live in absolute poverty.
Any form of social protest is met by official and unofficial repression. Despite the death threats there is widespread resistance from unions and communities. Public service workers in SINTRAEMCALI occupied to stop the sell-off of water, electricity and telephones, the U’wa people have blocked the robbery of their oil, and there have been united general strikes on 16th September and 30th October.
Under new President Álvaro UribeVélez the human rights violations are even worse
The son of a landlord narco-trafficker, friend of dodgy businessmen and a long time promoter of official support for the right-wing paramilitaries, Uribe was elected by just one quarter of all Colombians. He aims to double the size of the armed forces, recruit hundreds of thousands of village guards and create a network of one million informers - all in the name of ‘democratic security’ to defeat the social movements and the guerrillas of the FARC and the ELN. Uribe refuses to seek a political solution to the conflict. He has introduced measures that take Colombia down the road of dictatorship. His ministers state openly that they must curtail democratic rights. After his inauguration Uribe immediately declared a ‘State of Internal Unrest’ allowing rule by presidential decree, bypassing Congress and sowing fear amongst the people.
Uribe’s Decree 2002 was issued on 10th September with provisions to establish ‘Zones of Rehabilitation and Consolidation’, whole regions under direct military rule with the army and police empowered to move residents, establish roadblocks, raid homes and make arrests without a warrant. Already in these zones:
the army is carrying out mass arrests and has set up detention centres for thousands of captives
the armed forces are acting without any restraint or oversight by official watchdogs. For example, the Prosecutor in Sucre says that enquiries concerning human rights violations cannot be answered before 12 February 2003
foreign journalists are restricted and international observers are denied access.
Uribe - Bush’s main man in Latin America
The USA has spent $2. 3 billion in military aid to Colombia, more than the rest of Latin America combined. The US military intervention programme was first called Plan Colombia and then the Andean Regional Initiative, supposedly for the war on drugs. Two years of fumigations have caused massive ecological damage in Colombia’s Amazon region, contaminating all flora and fauna, inflicting serious health problems on hundreds of thousands of peasants and forcing them off their land. Three new battalions and eighty helicopter gunships later and the USA now admits that it has barely dented the supply of cocaine. But this was always an excuse to justify intervention.
Direct US involvement is growing. Officially there are 400 US armed forces and 400 civilian contractors in Colombia, in fact there are up to 2, 000 US personnel at any one time including special forces teams, Green Berets, military intelligence, top advisers, trainers and satellite station staff. US spy planes fly over Colombia 24 hours a day, a US trained unit called the Urban Anti-Terrorist Force smashed into a working class district of Medellin killing ten people and making over 200 arrests.
In exchange for Washington’s weapons of mass destruction, the Colombian government has agreed that any US forces in Colombia will be immune from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. And Uribe is helping Bush to force through the Free Trade Area of the Americas which will subject the whole of South America to US commercial domination. Popular resistance is pushing Latin governments to make a stand for a fairer deal, but at every turn Uribe takes Washington’s side.
Behind the Violations is the Drive for Oil... led by Britain’s richest company BP
US oil company Chevron is prospecting in the Zone of Rehabilitation and Consolidation covering Sucre and Bolívar departments, and another US multinational Occidental Petroleum has big investments in Arauca department. Arauca, as well as being declared a special zone, will see US troops arriving in November to establish a new battalion to protect Occidental’s pipeline.
BP is the biggest foreign investor in Colombia. Through its management of the Casanare oilfields, BP controls over half of the country’s crude oil production. Its human rights and environmental impact has been disgraceful. There is no trade union organisation in BP’s oilfield. BP uses a shadowy private security operator Defense Systems Limited, and it makes payments to the 16th Brigade of the Colombian army that has been involved in human rights abuses. Yet BP has refused to pay just compensation to hundreds of peasants forced off their land by its OCENSA pipeline and who now live in complete destitution.
Occidental, Texaco and BP are members of the “US Colombia Business Partnership“ a grouping that lobbied in Washington for Plan Colombia. Altogether BP and other oil companies have spent $25 million pushing for US military intervention to protect their investments. And now BP’s interests have led the British government into backing Uribe and his crackdown on the Colombian people.
It is high time that respect for human rights and not BP’s profits formed the basis of policy.
Colombian establishment rocked by death squad scandal |http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/nov/29/colombia.sibyllabrodzinsky
Death-Squad Scandal Circles Closer to Colombia's President http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/americas/16colombia.html
Colombia finds a mass grave containing 2,000 bodieshttp://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article3527
In the small town of La Macarena, Meta region, 200 kilometers south of Bogota, one of the hottest areas of the Colombian conflict is the largest mass grave discovered in the recent history of Latin America, with a number of bodies "NN "buried without identification, which could reach 2,000, according to various sources and the residents themselves. Since 2005 the Army whose elite forces are deployed in the vicinity, has been deposited behind the local cemetery with hundreds of bodies that were buried command without a name.
The lawyer Jairo Ramirez is the secretary of the Standing Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia and accompanied a delegation of British parliamentarians to place a few weeks ago when he began to discover the magnitude of the grave of La Macarena."What we saw was terrifying," he told public. "Countless bodies, and surface plates hundreds of white wood with NN and registration dates from 2005 until today." Ramirez adds, "Army Commander told us they were guerrillas killed in combat, but the people of the region tells of many community leaders, farmers and community advocates who disappeared without a trace.""The government does not want to investigate"
Alfredo Molano. Sociologist and writer Alfredo Molano, one of Colombia's most influential columnists, has toured the country as a chronicler of violence, which earned him exile to escape threats of military and paramilitary.
What is the situation of the graves in Colombia? The Attorney-General's own nation speaks of 25,000 "disappeared", that must be somewhere. There are huge mass graves in Colombia. most people deleted. They may also have done away with them as did the nazis against their victims.
Do these graves have to do with the so called 'false positives? Yes, this may be related to false positives [Colombian civilians killed then labbelled "killed in action"]. The army buried many underground. Many of them will be found in these mass graves.
What might be the magnitude of these findings pits? Terrible. Not even in the fifties when there was much brutality in Colombia could be compared to these new (rightwing paramilitaries) but the government has no willingness to investigate thoroughly, and will only bring back some graves. The timeframe is very long and technical difficulties for identification, chemical and DNA testing are enormous.
Prison director investigated over expansion of politician's cell http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7848-prison-director-investigated-over-expansion-of-politicians-cell.html
investigating the director of Picota prison in Bogota, who allegedly allowed a jailed politician to double the size of his cell and paint the walls.According to INPEC boss Colonel Carlos Barrangan, prison director Enrique Arce withheld information and lied when INPEC asked him about the home-improvements jailed congressman Juan Carlos Martinez had performed in his cell.
The politician, in jail awaiting trial for his alleged ties to a paramilitary group, was assigned two inmate workmen who tore down the wall between the cell of the congressman and a neighboring cell, giving Martinez double the space. According to the INPEC, the politician also had been verbally abusive to prison guards without being punished.The INPEC has ordered the prison director to reconstruct the wall.La Picota prison is Bogota's largest penitentiary institution and home to dozens of politicians with (alleged) ties to paramilitaries.
European Parliament officials visit Colombia to investigate human rights abuseshttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7835-european-parliament-officials-visit-colombia-to-investigate-human-rights-abuse.html
Six European Parliament officials, and a Spanish senator, will be in Colombia until the end of January in order to investigate cases of human rights abuse. The officials will meet with local social organizations, international agencies, Colombian government representatives and judicial officials from Bogota, Medellin and Cali, reports Caracol Radio.One of the European Parliament representatives, Marian Suarez, announced on Monday that the international community is concerned about Colombian violations of the rights of women, trade unionists, and human rights activists.
The officials will collect testimony in order to compose and deliver a report to the European community.The inquiry was called for by the Spanish chair for the EU, due to concerns over the Colombian government's attitude to human rights, following the murder of trade unionists, extrajudicial killings by the army, and baseless imprisonment of social leaders and human rights activists.
Prosecutor general opens criminal investigation against Ariashttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7849-prosecutor-general-opens-criminal-investigation-against-arias.html
Colombia's prosecutor general has opened a preliminary investigation into former minister and current Conservative Party presidential hopeful Andres Felipe Arias for alleged corruption in the granting of agriculture subsidies, local media reported on Tuesday.The former minister is suspected of having granted large amounts of government money to powerful families who sponsored the project of seeking President Alvaro Uribe's re-election in May this year through a referendum.
The Prosecutor General's Office will investigate these accusations and will try to establish the extent to which Arias himself was involved in the fraudulent granting of the subsidies.The country's inspector general previously started a disciplinary investigation into the Conservative politician for the same reason.Arias left the Agriculture Ministry in 2008 to prepare for the presidential elections in May this year. Arias plans to run for president only if Uribe does not.
State guards caught kidnapping farmerhttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7828-state-guards-caught-kidnapping-farmer.html
Three agents of Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office were arrested on Sunday after allegedly kidnapping a wealthy landowner.The three agents, together with two civilians, were arrested in the central Colombian Meta department after they were caught transporting the victim in a special armored vehicle with a falsified arrest warrant.
When highway police verified the arrest warrant and were told there was never issued a warrant to arrest the land owner the men were arrested.The five suspects were taken to the capital of Meta, Villavicencio, where they will be indicted for kidnapping.
Paramilitaries displace population near Venezuela borderhttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7821-paramilitaries-displace-population-near-venezuela-border.html
Paramilitary groups that are terrorizing people living along the Venezuelan border is causing an alarming cross-border displacement in the region, Colombia's Ombudsman said.Ombudsman Volmar Perez Ortiz, quoted on Friday by newspaper El Tiempo and again on Sunday by radio station Caracol, paramilitary groups Aguilas Negras and Los Rastrojos have been carrying out selective killings, massacres and attacks on the civilian population in the Norte de Santander department and to lesser extent in other border departments.The aggression has led to the displacement of communities that live near the border in neighboring Venezuela. Without being able to say how many people have been displaced to the neighboring country, Perez warned the new displacement is particularly dangerous because of minefields in the area and the vulnerability of the displaced population to forced recruitment and forced prostitution.The departments bordering Venezuela have been considered dangerous for years as the border is crossed by both left-wing guerrillas and right-wing militias involved in drug trafficking.
comment-both groups mentioend are rigthwing paramilitary...Aguilas NegrasBlack Eagles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_EaglesBlack Eagles (Spanish: Águilas Negras) is a term describing a series of Colombian right wing, counter-revolutionary, paramilitary organization
and Los Rastrojoshttp://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,QUERYRESPONSE,COL,4562d94e2,4829b55d23,0.htmlLos Rastrojos and Los MachosThese two groups, which are linked to the drug cartels, have taken over the territories previously occupied by the AUC (International Crisis Group 10 May 2007, 6)
Former Congress president arrested for assassination of colleaguehttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7816-former-congress-president-arrested-for-allegedly-ordering-assassination-of-colleague.html
Agents of Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office on Friday arrested former Congress President Luis Humberto Gomez Gallo for allegedly ordering to kill a colleague.The arrest for the former lawmaker had been warranted by the country's Supreme Court who wants the Conservative Party politician to stand trial on suspicon he made a pact with paramilitary leaders Eduardo Restrepo Victoria, alias "el Socio." The now extradited paramilitary warlord allegedly received 300 million pesos (152 thousand) pesos from the politician to kill congressman Pompilio de Jesus Avendaño in 2001.Two former members of the paramilitary group led by "El Socio" confirmed the transaction when testifying before prosecutors. After being arrested, Gomez expressed to "feel very sad" about the high court's decision to arrest him again and denied all accusations."They will never find evidence against me. Never. I never met with any paramilitary in Tolima, ever," the lawmaker told press.
