Colombia army chief linked to militias -report(CIA)

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters AlertNet

Colombia army chief linked to militias -report
25 Mar 2007 17:01:37 GMT
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The CIA has obtained intelligence alleging that the head of Colombia's U.S.-backed army collaborated extensively with right-wing militias that Washington considers terrorist organizations, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

Disclosure of the allegation about army chief Gen. Mario Montoya comes as the approximately $700 million a year in aid Colombia's government receives from the United States is under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress, the Times said.

Montoya has had a close association with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and would be the highest-ranking Colombian officer implicated in a growing scandal over links between the outlawed militias and some of Uribe's political allies.

A Colombian government spokesman declined to comment on the Times report.

Eight pro-Uribe lawmakers and one state governor have been arrested on charges they colluded with paramilitary commands, which were set up in the 1980s to help fight Marxist rebels and are accused of some of the worst atrocities and massacres in the conflict.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25275530.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is SUPERB information: wonderful. It's completely expected, too.

So glad you posted this, and we can be SURE Congress is going to discuss this new addition with real gusto, considering they are looking at a request for a VAST amount of money from _Bush to continue funding the next mostly military aid bill to Colombia.

From your article:

~snip~
The intelligence about Montoya is contained in a report recently circulated within the CIA. It says that Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and conducted a military operation in 2002 to eliminate Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin, the Times said.

At least 14 people were killed during the operation, and opponents of Uribe allege that dozens more disappeared in its aftermath, it reported.

The intelligence report includes information from another Western intelligence service and indicates that U.S. officials have received similar reports from other reliable sources, the Times said.

The Times said the CIA document was made available to the paper by a source who declined to identify himself except as a U.S. government employee. He said he was disclosing the information because he was unhappy that Uribe's government had not been held more to account by the Bush administration.

The CIA did not dispute the authenticity of the document, although agency officials declined to confirm it, the paper said.
(snip)

This should invite a much deeper tone of seriousness in US/Colombian relations. Not so sure _Bush and Uribe are the ones who should be driving the ships of state for their countries. It's good to remember that now BOTH men have had questionable elections which brought them to the unfortunate power they wield over their countrymen/women.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Just me or does anyone else get the feeling that the U.S. and Columbia

are trying to set things up for an Irai-Iran Iran-Iraq war manipulation the way we did with those two countries - i.e., pitting Columbia against Venezuela - with Columbia right wingers winning back and reversing with a concenration of oil reversals (or attempting to)?

[Peace Patriot]

4. I don't quite follow you, Higher class.

But I think the Colombia military/paramilitary/Bush Junta plot failed. You notice how Bush got publicly lectured by Latin American leaders, from Brazil to Mexico, both left and right, on the sovereignty of Latin American countries. I found it extraordinary. It seemed to be the consensus among all Latin American leaders. And they didn't let Bush say one peep about Hugo Chavez on the whole trip. (Part of the Colombian military gang's plans was to assassinate Chavez--that got exposed). I think "no Chavez bashing" was placed on Bush as a condition of his visit (most likely by Brazil and Uruguay--but they all held to it.) And I'm beginning to think that this was the reason--that they have something on Bush about this. (Heck, now that I think of it, maybe it was the whole reason for his rather strange trip to South America--to try to keep a lid on it.) I originally thought it was that the Bolivarian idea of Latin American self-determination was catching on, even more so than is obious, and is even empowering right/center governments to stand up for themselves. And I do think that's true. But Bushite involvement in this paramilitary plotting--which may have involved a lot more than assassinating Chavez (destabilizing Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador and possibly Argentina--say a "squeeze" movement, from bases in Colombia on the Venezuelan border, and from the rumored Bush Cartel 300,000 acres in Paraguay near a US military air base)--would alarm and unify Latin American leaders. And keep in mind, also, that the OAS is now dominated by leftist governments.

Do Latin American leaders know something we don't know? Is this what Chavez has been hinting about, in his somewhat vague statements re: Bushite assassination plans against him? The involvement of this top Colombian military leader--the head of their military, beneficiary of billions of US/Bush (our) dollars in so-called "war on drugs" military aid--points that way. So far it's been rightwing paramilitaries (drug trafficking, murder) and their dirty but murky connections to politicians and Uribe, including Uribe's top advisor and former head of intelligence, Jose Noguera (who just got arrested and jailed, but then let out by an appeals court). But they haven't nailed Uribe. This (the head of the military) is a more direct connection to the Bush Junta. Could Noguera have ratted on the head of the Colombian military? (Noguera is the one who disclosed the plot against Chavez.) Just a speculation. This thing is really heating up, and I smell something big, re: the Bushites.

[Eugene]

3. LA Times article: Colombia army chief linked to outlaw militias

Source: Los Angeles Times

Colombia army chief linked to outlaw militias
The allegations come as Congress reviews aid to the U.S. ally.
The CIA says the intelligence hasn't been fully vetted.
By Paul Richter and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers
March 25, 2007

WASHINGTON — The CIA has obtained new intelligence alleging
that the head of Colombia's U.S.-backed army collaborated
extensively with right-wing militias that Washington considers
terrorist organizations, including a militia headed by one of the
country's leading drug traffickers.

Disclosure of the allegation about army chief Gen. Mario Montoya
comes as the high level of U.S. support for Colombia's government
is under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress. The disclosure could
heighten pressure to reduce or redirect that aid because Montoya
has been a favorite of the Pentagon and an important partner in
the U.S.-funded counterinsurgency strategy called Plan Colombia.
The $700 million a year Colombia receives makes it the third-
largest beneficiary of U.S. foreign assistance.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colombia25mar25,0,5238580.story

[Judi Lynn]

5. Excellent link! Isn't it good to know he has been an instructor at the School of the Americas?

They no doubt can use the benefit of his wisdom, when they want to know how to torture and murder villagers, and drive them out of their ancestral homes.

From the LA Times article:

In addition to his close cooperation with U.S. officials on Plan Colombia, Montoya has served as an instructor at the U.S.-sponsored military training center formerly called the School of the Americas. The Colombian general was praised by U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when Pace directed the regional military command for Latin America, and Montoya has been organizing a new Colombian counternarcotics task force with U.S. funds.

There have been rumors that Montoya has worked with the paramilitaries, but no charges have been lodged by authorities.
(snip)

Sure hope they don't drop the ball here, since they know the whole world is watching them. It won't be all that easy to sweep absolutely everything under the rug the way this Republican President would.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Apparently non-Bush Americans have been watching this creep for a long time & know his history well.

Isn't it noteworthy that the _Bush administration had no idea formally that anything was wrong at any level in the Uribe government? That's because it was working just the way they wanted it to work.

From a great article published in May, 2002, in the U.S.:

~snip~
But that should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Gen. Montoya’s history.

PARAMILITARY TIES GOING BACK TO THE LATE 1970’s

In the late 1970’s Mario Montoya Uribe was allegedly involved in the “AAA” (American Anti-Communist Action) paramilitary group, and was involved in a series of bombings the group carried out in 1978 and 1979. The targets included the offices of the Communist Party, a newspaper, and a magazine. Several leading activists and academics were kidnapped and murdered. A defector would later tell one of Bogota’s leading daily newspapers that the AAA was led by military officers. Fr. Javier Giraldo, SJ writes in his account of AAA’s campaign of terror that:

“ The names of the officials who were charged with these deeds would later on be familiar to the majority of Colombians, since they received all of the promotions and military honors possible and occupied the highest offices and responsibility in the hierarchy of the Colombian Armed Forces.”

(Incredibly, a recently declassified diplomatic cable sent by then U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Curtis Kamman in 2000 regarding Gen. Montoya’s appointment to head Joint Task Force South, indicates that Kamman was aware of these allegations against Montoya, and that in addition to being unable to determine whether the chages were true, wasn’t sure that the bombings constituted “gross human rights violations.” If bombing civilians isn’t a “gross human rights violation,” then what is?)

Par for the course, Montoya was selected in 1983 for training at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, then located in Panama – anyone who wants to advance quickly in the ranks of the Colombian military needs to receive U.S. military training, preferably at the SOA. In 1993, the year after Montoya was publicly accused of being involved in the 1978-79 AAA bombing campaign, Montoya, then a Lieutenant Colonel returned to the SOA as an instructor. That same year the Prosecutor General of Colombia issued a scathing report on the Colombian military’s paramilitary links, in which he wrote:

" act under the premise that gained currency in El Salvador, of ‘draining the sea,’ which means that a direct relationship is established, for example, between trade union or peasant movements and the subversive ranks. When counter guerrilla actions are carried out, these passive subjects are not identified as ‘independent’ victims, but rather, as part of the enemy."
(snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Montoya’s name next turns up in a letter from of Human Rights Watch to Ray Irani, Chairman and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, in 1997. Occidental has significant oil investments in Colombia, and there was a rash of “extrajudicial executions,” in the Arauca department where Occidental had encouraged the Colombian military to crack down on ELN guerillas who were attacking its pipeline. At the time Montoya, who had been promoted to Colonel, was serving as head of Operative Command No. 2 of the 18th Brigade of the Colombian army. Soldiers under his command were implicated in the murders of several innocent campesinos, which the army tried to cover up by claiming that the dead were guerillas killed in combat. None of these incidents came up when Montoya was being considered for his position as commander of Joint Task Force South.
(snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amnesty International’s 2001 annual report noted that:

“A wide-ranging pattern of collusion between the national police, the army and paramilitary forces in the area of Puerto Asís, Putumayo department, was revealed to the authorities by a member of the national police and the local human rights ombudsman. According to their sworn testimonies, paramilitary groups consorted openly with army personnel and police in the town of Puerto Asís. On the outskirts of the town they maintained a base, where people who had been abducted were taken to be tortured and killed. The base was only a few hundred metres from the headquarters of the army’s 24th Brigade and a base of the 25th Battalion. Army officers held regular meetings with paramilitary leaders in the base.”

Gen. Montoya clearly bears responsibility for the crimes his troops helped the paramilitaries commit in Putumayo under his watch. Yet instead of being prosecuted or investigated, Montoya was recently appointed commander of the 4th Brigade, based in Medellin in the Antioquia department – another unit with a long history of collaborating with the paramilitaries. The Brigade also operates in the Choco department, where paramilitaries have long terrorized Afro-Colombian communities. Last year 35 union organizers were murdered in Antioquia, and human rights abuses have continued at an alarming rate in the department. In one recent incident, soldiers under Montoya’s command killed three teenagers in Medellin. Yet the Colombian military continues to put Montoya forward as an example of an ideal officer in press releases celebrating his victories against the FARC and the ELN. Most recently Montoya's name came up in connection with the May 2 massacre in Bojaya in Choco in which 117 people were killed during fighting between the FARC and paramilitaries, many of them by a FARC bomb that accidentally hit a church. Montoya has yet to provided any satisfactory answers about why the Fourth Brigade ignored warnings that paramilitaries were planning on attacking the village, and allowed paramilitaries to enter Choco by boat and by helicopter. On a visit to Bojaya, UN human rights envoy Anders Kompass expressed concern about the links between the military and the Fourth Brigade, telling reporters that "The people ... are saying with a lot of anguish that the paramilitaries are present and that — along with the presence of the security forces — has created confusion among the civilian population" An angry Montoya said that there is no evidence of ties between the military and the paramilitaries and that his command receives too many warnings of potential massacres to be able to respond to all of them.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/may22-2002donahue.cfm



General Montoya & the 24th Brigade
http://www.soawne.org/Montoya.html

[gorbal]

11. That figures

This is blowing my mind right now...everything just falls in place.

[Judi Lynn]

7. To DU'ers who are watching Colombia news currently, Uribe was linked to Pablo Escobar

in a Department of Defense report in 1991!

DU'er Say_What posted that information tonight here, and it has been moved to G.D., and you will not want to miss it!

Here it is:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=503314&mesg_id=503314

[Judi Lynn]

8. FT: Colombia army chief denies role in 2002 raid

Colombia army chief denies role in 2002 raid

By Anastasia Moloney in Bogotá
Published: 26/3/2007 | Last Updated: 26/3/2007 20:40 London Time


The head of Colombia's armed forces on Monday denied allegations that he collaborated with rightwing paramilitaries in a 2002 raid, amid a growing scandal threatening to undermine the government of president Alvaro Uribe.

Colombia's army chief, General Mario Montoya, told the country's leading daily, El Tiempo, that his "conscience is clear" over allegations contained in evidence obtained by the US Central Intelligence Agency and published by the Los Angeles Times at the weekend.

The intelligence information claims Mr Montoya worked with paramilitaries to plan a crackdown against guerrillas in a slum area of Colombia's second city, Medellin, in which some 12 people died.

The disclosure of the evidence is a further blow in the worst political scandal to hit Mr Uribe since he came to power in 2002.
(snip)

It is an open secret in Colombia that the armed forces and paramilitary groups have collaborated in the past to defeat leftist guerrillas and Mr Montoya said on Monday that it was "probable" that members of the armed forces could be implicated in the para-politics scandal in the future.
(snip/...)

http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/31379390/

[gorbal]

9. About time.

The CIA has obtained intelligence alleging that the head of Colombia's U.S.-backed army collaborated extensively with right-wing militias that Washington considers terrorist organizations, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

So they finally got that subscription to "In These Times" that I sent them. About time.

[donkeyotay]

10. Kick for yet another scandal.

[Judi Lynn]

12. The politicians and the drugs cartels - scandal engulfs Colombia's elite

Seven senators languish in prison as president comes under increasing pressure

Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogotá
Tuesday March 27, 2007
The Guardian

In the cramped and dirty cells of La Picota prison in Bogotá, some of Colombia's most hardened criminals languish, existing on the barest amenities. The prison is notorious - the scene of bloody feuds and riots.

But in part of this sprawling complex a number of well-heeled detainees have a starkly different routine. Their cells are newly painted, decorated with bedspreads, curtains, and filled with tape players and personal belongings. A freezer is stocked with a steady supply of their favourite foods: dried fish from the Caribbean coast, catfish, duck, and small turtles - a local speciality. On visiting days, they have festive barbecues with their families.

These fortunate few - seven senators and one congressman - are political allies of President Alvaro Uribe, and all are charged with collusion with illegal rightwing militias. Some also face charges of conspiring to commit electoral fraud, murder, kidnapping and even organising massacres.

Accusations of alliances with drug-trafficking death squad leaders who effectively controlled swaths of the country have engulfed Colombia's political, military and business elites. They increasingly threaten to touch the president's office, and while the Bush administration's support for its only ally in the region has been unwavering, the US Congress is increasingly questioning the multimillion dollar military aid packages handed out to the Bogotá government in the so-called "war on drugs".
(snip/...)

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2043499,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

13. How did we miss seeing this one, from the Boston Globe?

U.S. worried by scandal rocking Colombia
Inquiry links state to drugs and gangs
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan The Boston Globe
Published: February 28, 2007


BOGOTÁ: Just two weeks before a high-profile visit by President George W. Bush to Latin America, the United States' key partner on the continent is engulfed in an extraordinary scandal that threatens to undermine the credibility of U.S. alliances and policy priorities from Mexico to Argentina.

The widening investigation linking dozens of political allies of Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe, to the country's rightist death squads and drug traffickers has started to erode support on Capitol Hill for Colombia, the biggest recipient of U.S. aid outside the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The United States has spent $4.7 billion since 2000 fighting drugs and the insurgency in Colombia. In a show of support for his center-right ally, Bush is scheduled in March to be the first U.S. president since John F. Kennedy to visit the capital, Bogotá.

But after a week that saw the ouster of Uribe's foreign minister over her family's ties to paramilitary militias and the arrest of his handpicked former secret police chief on murder charges, the next casualty of the scandal could be the United States' reputation. The region feels forgotten by and estranged from Washington since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
(snip)

"Who have we staked all of our political capital on in Latin America? Uribe," said Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy, a research group in Washington. "If this scandal engulfs him or his armed forces, it will be a devastating blow to the whole design of U.S. policy."
(snip/...)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/28/news/colombia.php

[Judi Lynn]

14. President rejects allegations against Colombian general

President rejects allegations against Colombian general

CIA ACCUSATIONS: General Mario Montoya is the highest ranking official yet to be touched by a paramilitary scandal that has rocked the government

AP, BOGOTA
Tuesday, Mar 27, 2007, Page 7

Advertising President Alvaro Uribe rejected allegations in a leaked CIA report that his army chief collaborated extensively with right-wing militias accused of some of the worst atrocities in Colombia's long-running civil conflict.

In a front-page story on Sunday, the Los Angeles Times cited what it called a new CIA intelligence report linking General Mario Montoya, a close ally of the president, to a paramilitary group headed by one of the nation's biggest drug traffickers, whose extradition has been requested by the US.
(snip)

"These allegations are consistent with the record of many Colombian military units, which have historically tolerated and supported paramilitaries," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Washington-based Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mail.

"Instead of rejecting the allegations out of hand, Uribe should take them seriously and call for a thorough investigation in the civilian justice system," he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/03/27/2003354084

[Bolshy]

15. Not really surprising

the RW militias (UAC, IIRC) were defending the oligarchs and the bourgeoisie; of course the capitalist Colombian government had something to do with them.

Hopefully FARC can overcome these reactionaries.

[Bacchus39]

16. the paramilitaries have disbanded for the most part

and Colombians do not support the FARC.

[Bolshy]

17. Some do

some don't. That's the way it is with every faction in every country.

Nevertheless, FARC is trying to improve the place, and that is to be admired.

[Bacchus39]

18. not likely

most do not support the FARC and wish they would go away. they are NOT trying to improve Colombia. on the contrary, they are an impediment to progress in Colombia.

[Bolshy]

19. Very likely

why do they keep getting recruits if they are so unpopular?

Anyway, they are trying to improve Colombia, unless you're an oligarch who hates stuff like equity.

[Bacchus39]

20. they are narcotraffickers

its all about business. any political leaning are an excuse to operate lawlessly. how does murder, kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, blowing up infrastructure improve Colombia?

[Bolshy]

21. That's untrue

FARC allows farmers to grow what they want to, and farmers make a lot more money growing coca than they do maize, so that's what they do.

AUC is responsible for the atrocities; FARC does carry out military actions, but that's because they're an armed group.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Once somone starts researching it becomes evident the paramilitaries are the bloodthirsty scum

expatriot Colombians say they are, in every way. If someone attempts to point fingers in other directions he is attempting to mislead those of us who haven't yet taken the time to try to find out.

Here's a very quick reference:

The paramilitaries -- currently grouped in a national federation called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) -- have been responsible for the majority of murders and forced displacements of civilians in Colombia's tragic armed conflict for many years. Over 3 million Colombians have been uprooted from their homes and communities -- "displaced" -- since 1985, and tens of thousands more have been murdered. The paramilitaries' signature terror methods include slow torture, dismemberment, and the use of chainsaws. When guerrilla groups participated in the formation of new political parties in the 1980s as part of an attempt to resolve the decades-old war between the government and guerrillas, paramilitaries exterminated over 3,000 members of these new parties.

In a proposal announced in June called the "Justice and Peace" law, Uribe seeks to offer the paramilitaries immunity from any serious punitive consequences for their crimes. Under Uribe's proposal, they will not have to turn over the land and wealth they have acquired to victims (or even the government); tell the truth about their crimes to victims, survivors, or the society; or serve more than a few years in jail.
(snip)

http://www.counterpunch.org/cryan07012005.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They are also the ones connected to a filthy, murderous right-wing regime. It's a hideous operation, and Americans are being forced to underwrite it financially with their tax dollars, making Colombia the THIRD largest U.S. foreign aid recipient. Most of the money is delivered to the military.

[Bacchus39]

24. here is some info you don't want to see

I suggest you consider doing more research. I wouldn't call posting editorials from clueless college students research.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/06/colomb12761.htm

(Washington, March 6, 2006) — As national elections approach, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group has intensified its attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.

These massacres appear timed to spread terror before the elections and undermine the democratic process. By continuing to commit atrocities, the FARC has once again displayed a complete disregard for the lives and well-being of the people it claims to represent.

José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch

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Over the past week, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC–EP) have killed at least 20 civilians in two separate massacres and an attack using gas cylinder bombs. On March 12, Colombia will hold congressional elections, which will be followed by presidential elections on May 28.

"These massacres appear timed to spread terror before the elections and undermine the democratic process," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "By continuing to commit atrocities, the FARC has once again displayed a complete disregard for the lives and well-being of the people it claims to represent."

Human Rights Watch pointed out that recent FARC attacks have included grave violations of the right to life and the laws of war, including deliberate killings of civilians and the indiscriminate use of gas cylinder bombs.

These massacres appear timed to spread terror before the elections and undermine the democratic process. By continuing to commit atrocities, the FARC has once again displayed a complete disregard for the lives and well-being of the people it claims to represent

[Bolshy]

35. Try again

there are many reports on those atrocities, and not all trails lead to FARC. Furthermore, there seems to be more to the story.

HRW has been known to get it wrong before.

[Bacchus39]

41. many atrocities are by the paramilitaries

and its a good thing they are disbanding. why not the FARC? how does continued violence lead to progress in Colombia. Colombians don't support the FARC.

here is a "recruitment" technique used by the FARC
Child Recruitment.

Conscription of Children is a tactic used by the guerillas. Some children may join by choice but many are conscripted.


Murders and Coercion

Committed by the guerillas, include attacks on ambulances and hospitals attacks on officials and the use of land mines.



Kidnappings

Committed by the guerillas about 66% of the times - leaders, jurists, journalists and businessmen are all targets


Killings and Torture

Committed by the paramilitaries. Summary executions and disappearances. Teachers, labor leaders, community activists, law enforcement, including jurists and local officials are all targets. Used both as a tool of intimidation and as a way to extract revenue.



Displacement

Burning villages is a way to move inhabitants out of an area and a method of intimidation. Moving people out of the area is a way to deprive the guerillas of any support they could receive from the local population.

http://www.markswatson.com/Drug%20Wars.htm

[Bolshy]

43. That's true

but FARC is not nearly as culpable, not by a long shot.

As I said before, some Colombians don't support FARC, some do, that's just the way it is with every effort in every conflict.

[ronnie624]

46. Typically, HRW is long on hear-say,

And short on verification.

Also, José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, has on a number of occasions, publicly expressed support for US policy with regard to Latin America in general, and the current regime in Colombia in particular. Forgive me if I do not have much confidence in his pronouncements.

You too, on many Latin American threads, have posted about how you think Alvaro Uribe is the cat's meow. Why don't you tell us more?

[Bacchus39]

47. I think he is OK

the pursuit to the end of the war is a good thing. the disbanding of the paramilitaries as well. the relative stability in Colombia. a rare US ally. Colombia will be an ally of the US when a Democrat is elected in 08. Will Colombia's neighbors?? personally, I do not celebrate the deterioration of relationships with latin american countries.

[ronnie624]

48. Stability in Colombia?

Whatever.

A Democrat being elected in 08 has nothing to do with US policy in Latin America, except that the status quo is likely to continue. I do not support relationships with other countries that are predicated on dominance for US corporate and strategic interests.

[Bacchus39]

49. I said "relative"

have you ever visited? certainly not how its portrayed on TV or these boards.

I see then you have a problem with US foreign policy in general and not just latin america. nevertheless, I am not interested in further exacerbating relationships with latin america.

[ronnie624]

50. I do not watch television for news and information.

Your posts are a distraction from the topic.

Good day.

[Bacchus39]

53. neither do I. relax, tranquilo

n/t

[Bacchus39]

23. you're kidding right?

FARC is a terrorist organization. they have committed their own atrocities. the paramilitaries had their drug operations too and they "let farmers grow what they want to".

and the paramilitaries are disbanding, the FARC is not.

[Bolshy]

34. No

FARC is fighting a corrupt and sadistic government which has done nothing to help the people.

Yeah, revolutions aren't picnics, anyone who's read history can tell you that. However, to call FARC a terrorist organization that commits atrocities is beyond ridiculous.

Is the capitalist government (which supported AUC, per this thread) disbanding? That is what matters here.

[Bacchus39]

36. please elaborate on how FARC is improving Colombia

through narcotrafficking, murder, terrorism, kidnapping, extortion. I'm all ears.

the government is responsible for disbanding the AUC. the FARC does not want peace and the Colombian people do not support them.

[Bolshy]

37. First

read my posts.

They let farmers grow what they want to, it would be ridiculous for them to stop farmers from growing coca. They carry out actions against a terrible government that needs to be overthrown.

The government funded the AUC in the first place and knew exactly what they would be used for.

FARC wants to create a better Colombia, and they are not going to negotiate away their future.

FARC does have support, they keep getting recruits.

[Bacchus39]

38. the paramilitaries controlled much of the drug trade

they
"allow" farmers to produce cocaine too. the FARC murders, kidnaps, extorts "protection" money, bombs civilians, and Colombias infrastructure. is this a good way to garner support from the Colombian people? what type of government do you think they would have?

the current "terrible" government is the one that negotiated the dissolution of the paramilitaries.

[Bolshy]

39. They did

the AUC was heavily involved, and were actually protecting obscenely rich land lords (who were likely making the profits).

Meanwhile, FARC allows farmers to do what they want (unlike the land lords). In addition, they fight against a government which has shown no interest in improving the lot of the people.

The government didn't have a use for the AUC anymore, so they could dissolve their former tool without too much problems.

[Bacchus39]

40. forced conscription and "protection" tax

to go along with killing. sounds like the type of group you'd want to run your country.

you do no most of the cocaine is imported from Peru and Bolivia don't you?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-08/29/content_676718.htm

Colombians say children forced to fight for rebels
(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-29 11:23

SARAVENA, Colombia - Leftist rebels battling for control of an impoverished corner of Colombia are increasingly using a recruiting tactic associated with Africa's bloody civil conflicts, abducting children and forcing them into their ranks, residents say.

Since the beginning of this year ... there has been a conflict between the FARC and the ELN for the control of the riches of the zone, the agriculture and the coca," said Saravena Mayor Antonio Ortega, referring to the raw material used in the production of cocaine. "The dispute means both sides are recruiting children to fight for them."

Farmer Victor Algarra quoted a common local saying: "If one has four children, one is for the guerrillas and the others you get to keep."

[Bolshy]

42. Reports and more reports

nothing substantial. Cite all the mayors and singular farmers you like, they're suspect at best.

[Bacchus39]

44. well, the FARC can put forth a candidate for president

and put their platform in front of Colombian voters. That might be an alternative to waging war, murder, kidnapping, and general terrorist actions.

You can deny FARCs activities all you want, they have no credibility.

[Bolshy]

56. They're revolutionary

not reformist. It would be fundamentally contradictory to contest elections.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

51. Ooops, my friend Peter just came over.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Colombia's Paramilitary Problem

Colombia's Paramilitary Problem
Written by Cyril Mychalejko
Wednesday, 28 March 2007

The CIA has revealed new evidence that the head of the Colombia’s American-backed army worked hand-in-hand with right-wing death squads.

Army Chief Gen. Mario Montoya, who collaborated with paramilitaries to murder or disappear Marxist guerillas, is a former instructor at the the School of the Americas, has worked closely with U.S. officials and has recently been organizing a new U.S. funded counter-narcotics task force. Montoya is just another in a long line of high-ranking officials in President Alvaro Uribe’s administration exposed for having ties with groups Washington "officially" considers terrorist organizations.

President Uribe dismissed the allegations. But Human rights organizations don’t share Uribe’s sentiments.

"These allegations are consistent with the record of many Colombian military units, which have historically tolerated and supported paramilitaries," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at the Washington-based Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Instead of rejecting the allegations out of hand, Uribe should take them seriously and call for a thorough investigation in the civilian justice system."
(snip/...)

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/677/1/

[Bacchus39]

26. Uribe should rule by decree to get things under control

don't you think? its a good thing the paramilitaries are disbanding too.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Trade Secret: Colombia's Dirty War

Trade Secret
Colombia's Dirty War


by Patrick Keaney
Boston Phoenix
February 14, 2002

WHEN HIS BODY was recovered, it was clear that Aury Sara Marrugo spent his last hours alive in agony. His gums had been butchered. A blowtorch had been used to sear the flesh under his arms and the soles of his feet. Over 70 small incisions were found on his corpse, and strong acid had been applied to his abdomen. At some point during the savagery, a single bullet was fired at close range into the middle of his face, ending his misery. Sara had been “disappeared” on November 30, 2001. His remains, and the grisly warning they were designed to convey to his colleagues, turned up the following week.

Sara drew his final, tortured breaths in the town of Cartagena, on the northwest coast of Colombia. His executioners, members of a right-wing paramilitary group known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), wanted his fate to be public knowledge. According to a statement by the AUC, Sara was executed because he was thought to be a member of one of Colombia’s armed opposition groups, the National Liberation Army, or Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). Others familiar with the paramilitaries and their role in Colombia’s long-running civil war point to a more likely explanation for Sara’s murder. He was president of Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) — the Oil Workers’ Trade Union, Cartagena Section — and was therefore guilty of a crime that cost nearly 170 Colombian men and women their lives last year: he was a trade unionist.

Since 1985, over 3800 union workers and leaders have been assassinated in Colombia, making it by far the most dangerous place on earth to fight for workers’ rights. In 2001, according to the United Workers’ Central, or Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), the country’s 600,000-member central trade union, there were 169 assassinations of union workers, 30 more attempted assassinations, 79 “disappeared” or kidnapped, and over 400 reports of threats and intimidations. And, as of the third week in January, this year shows every indication of keeping pace with 2001’s horrific toll: already there have been six assassinations, including Maria Ropero, president of the Union of Community Mothers, who was shot 13 times. According to human-rights advocates at Amnesty International, in Colombia “the security and armed forces, as well as their paramilitary allies, often accuse trade unionists of being guerrilla sympathizers or auxiliaries.” They are frequently referred to as “military targets.”

The leaders of Colombia’s labor unions believe they are being targeted because they openly denounce the violence and unjust distribution of wealth that takes such a heavy toll on the majority of their country’s population. As the most prominent members of Colombian civil society, trade unionists — especially representatives of the threatened public sector — find themselves at the point where four very powerful vectors meet. First, there are North American and European transnational corporations, which look to take advantage of Colombia’s vast natural resources and growing, low-wage labor pool. Second, there is the Colombian government, including the armed forces and national police, whose stability is threatened by the civil war, and whose stated goals are to eliminate the leftist guerrillas and enter the global economy. Third, there is the US government, which has started to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to the Colombian military, ostensibly to fight the “War on Drugs,” but whose desire to protect US-based corporations operating abroad is well-known. And, last, there are the paramilitaries, a group whose various links to the country’s elites, the transnational corporations, the Colombian military, and, by extension, the US government are a matter of record. Their primary function has traditionally been to perform the dirty work of torturing and killing Colombians like Aury Sara.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/keaney_dirtywar.cfm

[Judi Lynn]

28. Once more, the paramilitaries are responsible for the vast majority of the atrocities.

Just another article to reinforce a fact I've been posting here for ages, from many other sources. This article was published August, 2001, before the paramilitaries got as powerful as they have become since Uribe was "elected." You may remember evidence sufacing recently pointing out the right-wing paramilitaries intimidated voters into voting for this man. It's been in recent newspaper articles in the last few weeks:

Into the Abyss: The Paramilitary Political Objective
By Ana Carrigan
August 2001

The lights are going out in Colombia. In the last two years, the growth in the military and political power of the paramilitaries (known as the "United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia," "Auto-Defensas Unidos de Colombia" the AUC), has brought a brutal, illegal army within reach of gaining political control over Colombia's future.

Colombian officials admit that the AUC are responsible for 80% of all political murders and massacres in the past year. The AUC's founder and longtime commander-in-chief, Carlos Castaño, is the subject of 22 arrest warrants for massacres, kidnapping, assassinations, and drug trafficking. The American Ambassador in Bogotá, Anne Patterson, and the U.S. Commander in Chief of Southern Command, General Peter Pace, have both warned that the AUC now represent the most serious threat to Colombia’s democracy.
(snip)

http://www.crimesofwar.org/colombia-mag/abyss-print.html

[Bacchus39]

29. good thing they are disbanding

n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

52. I'll believe it when I see it. Or rather, when I don't see it. -nt

[Bacchus39]

54. its already happened

n/t not to say Colombia doesn't have its problems.

[Bacchus39]

55. its already happened

n/t not to say Colombia doesn't have its problems.

[Judi Lynn]

31. More on that voter intimidation from an article published today:

By Anastasia Moloney in Bogotá and Richard Lapper in São Paulo

Updated: 12:12 a.m. CT March 28, 2007

~snip~
The scandal has also raised doubts about the ­possible lack of transparency in local elections scheduled for October, particularly in light of the re-arming of demobilised paramilitary groups. Mr Uribe's political opponents are urging the government to push through reforms to prevent election fraud.

"There are still parts of the country where people are coerced into voting for candidates backed by ­illegally armed groups and are not free to choose who they want," said Carlos Gaviria, an ex-presidential candidate and leader of the Alternative Democratic Pole Party which won a surprising 22 per cent of the vote in last year's election.
(snip/...)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17820445/

[Judi Lynn]

32. U.S. Silent on Colombia’s Election Irregularities

March 13, 2006

U.S. Silent on Colombia’s Election Irregularities

by Garry Leech

How would Washington have reacted if left-wing paramilitary death squads in Venezuela supportive of President Hugo Chávez had claimed to control 35 percent of that country’s National Assembly following elections four years ago? What would President George W. Bush have said about the man in the red beret if that political control had been achieved through massacres of the political opposition? What would Condoleezza Rice be saying today if those same left-wing militias had used violence and coercion during recent election campaigns to gain a majority in the National Assembly? Do we believe for a minute that the Bush administration would respond with silence?

If we were to transplant the aforementioned hypothetical scenario to Colombia it would constitute a clear representation of that country’s electoral process. The principal difference in the Colombian version is that President Alvaro Uribe and the paramilitary death squads are firmly entrenched on the right side of the political spectrum rather than the left.

Pro-Uribe parties proved victorious in the March 12 congressional elections, gaining a majority in Colombia’s Congress. Many of the pro-Uribe candidates had violence and intimidation perpetrated by right-wing paramilitaries to thank for their victory. As German Espejo, an analyst with the Bogotá-based Security and Democracy Foundation, noted, “The paramilitaries played a decisive role in this election, particularly in the northern part of the country.” The Bush administration, however, has decided to ignore the massive electoral irregularities in Colombia.

In the March 12 congressional elections, as has been the case in most of Colombia’s recent elections, the technical act of voting and vote counting were generally considered to be free and fair. It is in the process of campaigning, however, that irregularities are most evident in Colombia. While the country’s leftist guerrilla groups often attempt to disrupt elections, they have mostly remained outside the electoral process. The role of the paramilitaries, on the other hand, has proven particularly troubling in recent years as they have sought to actively participate in elections in order to directly increase their influence over the country’s governing institutions.
(snip/...)

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia231.htm

[Judi Lynn]

30. More information on paramilitaries from an article written before they had a full head of steam

going for them:

5. Extrajudicial Executions

290. Almost all of the killings by paramilitary groups are selective. These groups generally seek out individuals included on lists of suspected guerrilla collaborators provided by security forces or other sources and assassinate them. Thus, in effect, the massacres committed by paramilitary groups differ from individual or multiple extrajudicial executions only in the sheer number of victims killed in a single incident rather than any difference in method.

291. For example, on May 29, 1996, members of the ACCU paramilitary group entered into the La Zumbadora banana plantation in the municipality of Turbo. They gathered the workers together and consulted a list which they carried. They detained and then proceeded to execute two workers, Plutarco Ramírez and Marcos Chala.
(snip)

6. Forced Disappearances and Arbitrary Deprivation of Liberty

294. Statistics provided by non-governmental organizations indicate that paramilitary groups committed approximately 50 forced disappearances in 1995 and approximately 96 disappearances in 1996.( 146 ) Frequently, persons who are detained and taken away by paramilitary groups appear dead soon thereafter. Sometimes the bodies of the victims are mutilated or are buried in mass graves, making the identification of corpses extremely difficult. In this way, the paramilitaries hinder or block the search by the family members for information regarding the fate of the victims.
(snip)

7. Torture

302. Paramilitary groups in Colombia also engage in torture. According to statistics provided to the Commission, members of these groups tortured 108 individuals in 1996 and more than 34 in 1995.( 148 ) The acts of torture committed by paramilitary groups constitute approximately 75% of the total number of acts of torture which took place in 1996.( 149 ) In the majority of the cases involving these groups, the torture victim is found dead. The statistics regarding the incidence of torture are thus based largely on the number of corpses found with signs of torture.

303. The paramilitary groups in Colombia have employed horrifying techniques of torture, including the use of chainsaws and other techniques to dismember their victims. For example, on February 21, 1996, in the community of Las Cañas, in the municipality of Turbo, Department of Antioquia, members of the ACCU paramilitary group tortured and then killed Edilma Ocampo and her daughter Stella Gil. The paramilitaries, some of whom wore hoods, arrived at the home of the victims at 10:30 a.m. Stella's three children were present at the time. The paramilitary members tied the hands of the victims and told them that they would receive a special treatment, since they were guerrillas. The two women were taken out of the house approximately 100 meters and were beaten and decapitated in front of the three children. The victimizers then opened the stomachs of the victims, from the waist to the neck. They then placed Stella's dead body on top of Edilma's body and threatened the other residents of the community to leave the area or suffer the consequences. These actions obviously constitute acts of physical torture against those who are killed as well as psychological torture against those who are forced to witness these events and who are threatened with similar consequences.
(snip/...)

http://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Colom99en/chapter.4f.htm

[Judi Lynn]

33. To refreshen memories:In Colombia, paramilitary scandal grows after testimony

In Colombia, paramilitary scandal grows after testimony

By Simon Romero
The New York Times
Posted January 21 2007


BOGOTA, Colombia · The government of President Alvaro Uribe, the largest recipient of American aid outside the Middle East, has found itself ensnared in a widening scandal as revelations surface of a secret alliance between some of the president's most prominent political supporters and paramilitary death squads.

Testimony last week from Salvatore Mancuso, a former paramilitary commander who admitted to orchestrating the killing of more than 300 people, as well as a document made public on Friday implicating more than a dozen politicians in the pact with paramilitaries, have injected fresh detail into a slow-burning scandal that has caused Colombia's elite political class to shudder.

Senior members of Uribe's government and Uribe himself have said that anyone shown to have had illegal ties to the paramilitaries, which made fortunes trafficking cocaine and terrorized Colombia during a decades-old internal war, should be prosecuted.

The scandal has touched Uribe's Cabinet, with Sen. Alvaro Araujo, the brother of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo, under investigation for collaborating with militias.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-hcolombia21jan21,0,2765513.story

[Judi Lynn]

45. The para leader's laptop shows peasants were paid to act like paramilitaries

March 5, 2007

Bush Continues to Support Colombia’s Para-State

by Garry Leech

~snip~
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the laptop contained evidence that unemployed peasants in northern Colombia were paid to act like paramilitary fighters and to participate in the demobilization process while the real paramilitaries continued committing crimes. These crimes, according to information on the laptop, included the killing of 558 individuals in just one region of northern Colombia during the cease-fire that the paramilitaries were required to implement in order to participate in the demobilization talks. The laptop also contained evidence of paramilitary links to local and national politicians as well as state security forces. It is this evidence found on Jorge 40’s laptop that spawned the para-politics investigation, not confessions or evidence obtained under the Justice and Peace Law.

President Uribe has responded to legislators who have used the revelations to criticize his government’s links to the paramilitaries by accusing them of being terrorists. The legislator most critical of the government’s collusion with paramilitaries is the Polo Democratico’s Senator Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla who demobilized more than 15 years ago. In a recent reference to Petro and other former guerrillas-turned-legislators, Uribe claimed that they “simply went from being terrorists in camouflage to being terrorists in business suits.” Such an inflammatory accusation is not the sort of response one would expect from a president who was intent on getting to the bottom of the country’s democratic crisis.

Three paragraphs in a recent Boston Globe article clearly illustrate the enormity of the democratic crisis in Colombia. The article lists the most significant fallout from the scandal so far:

Eight pro-Uribe congressmen have been arrested for collaborating with paramilitaries, and dozens of national and regional politicians, some who have apparently fled the country, are under investigation. ... A decorated colonel has been relieved of his post, and other former military officials are under investigation.
(snip)

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia252.htm