Mothers demand answers on fate of disappeared

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Mothers demand answers on fate of disappeared
Tuesday, 30 November 2010 06:42
Teresa Welsh

http://colombiareports.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/victims/disappeared_victims.jpg

Some 50,000 Colombians have gone missing over the past decades. In a series
on the tragedy that has destroyed many families, Colombia Reports focuses first
on a group of mothers demanding to know what happened to their loved ones.

Every Friday afternoon at 2PM in front of the Church of Our Lady of La Candelaria in downtown Medellin, a strong, low litany of voices can be heard: “We want them alive, free and in peace. We want them alive, free and in peace.” The refrain is repeated over and over again by women holding large banners full of faces, names and dates. The dates correspond to the time the person was last seen, some as long as 20 years ago.

The voices belong to the Asociacion Caminos de Esperanza Madres de la Candelaria (Association for the Paths of Hope Mothers of the Candelaria), an organization of women who have had family members "disappeared" as a result of Colombia’s armed conflict. The organization, which was started in 1999 as a response to the number of forced disappearances, kidnappings and murders in Colombia, gathers each Friday to hold a vigil in front of the church. Las Madres seek to increase the visibility of the problem of the disappeared in Colombia, as well as to find out the truth about what happened to their family members, and support others going through the ordeal. The organization won the National Peace Prize in 2006.

Teresita Gaviria co-founded Las Madres in 1999 after her 15-year-old son disappeared on the road between Medellin and Bogota in 1998. He was traveling by car with two other people when the driver stopped to get breakfast. Gaviria’s son and his friend continued walking on the road, and have not been seen since. Her son is the fourth person her family has lost, after her father was killed by paramilitaries and a brother and nephew also disappeared.


Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/13150-mothers-demand-clarity-on-fate-disappeared-loved-ones.html

[defendandprotect]

1. And wondering what our vile CIA might have to do with all of this ...!!

[laughingliberal]

2. I'm not wondering at all. Same as it ever was. nt

[flyarm]

4. Plenty ..as well as our banks! eom

[flyarm]

3. Mothers, Check with the American Drug Cartels in our government!

and our banks that are too big to fail!

[laughingliberal]

5. K & R nt

[Judi Lynn]

6. Disappearances in Colombia on a Scale Never Imagined

Disappearances in Colombia on a Scale Never Imagined
Lisa Haugaard Executive director, Latin America Working Group
Posted: December 9, 2010 11:36 AM

"Disappearances." When you mention the word in the Latin American context, most people think of Argentina, where 30,000 people were disappeared during the dirty war, or Chile, where 3,000 people were killed or disappeared. But the magnitude of the tragedy in Colombia may be even greater.

More than 51,000 people are registered by the Colombian government as disappeared or missing. Those who were forcibly disappeared -- what we might think of as political disappearances -- range in official statistics from over one quarter of that total to more than 32,000, as detailed in the report, Breaking the Silence: In Search of Colombia's Disappeared, just released for Human Rights Day by the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) and the U.S. Office on Colombia (USOC). But the real total is likely to be much higher, as new and old cases are entered into a consolidated government database. And many cases are never registered at all.

~snip~
Who disappeared them? All armed actors, including the Colombian armed forces, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas, are responsible for forced disappearances, but the paramilitary role in this crime is especially pronounced. Paramilitaries often destroyed the bodies of their victims, burning them or cutting them with chain saws, sometimes alive, burying the bodies in unmarked graves on ranches, riverbanks or cemeteries, or throwing them into rivers.

The highest number of forced disappearances in Colombia occurred from 2000 to 2003, the first four years of U.S.-funded Plan Colombia, according to Colombian government statistics. Many of those were committed by paramilitaries, but the U.S.-trained and -funded military aided and abetted these abuses. Another gruesome kind of forced disappearance escalated from 2005 through 2008. All over Colombia, army soldiers detained people, then killed them and dressed them in guerrilla uniforms and claimed them as killed in combat. Cases involving more than 3,000 people disappeared and killed allegedly by soldiers are now winding their way slowly through Colombia's civilian justice system. Those U.S. policymakers, military leaders and analysts who paint a pretty picture of Colombia's security progress in the past decade might want to search their souls about this somber cost. And remember it the next time the U.S. government considers escalating aid and training to another abusive military force.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-haugaard/disappearances-in-colombi_b_794054.html

[Judi Lynn]

7. 2010 most violent year since paramilitary demobilization: Report

2010 most violent year since paramilitary demobilization: Report
Thursday, 09 December 2010 15:29 Hannah Stone

Colombian investigative website Verdad Abierta says that 2010 is the most violent year since the demobilization of the paramilitaries in 2006, due to the rise of emerging criminal groups.

Summarizing information released by NGOs Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Indepaz, and the government's National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (CNRR), as well as from police sources, Verdad Abierta analyses the emerging criminal groups. Massacres are up 25% to 153 cases so far in 2010, and murders are up 16%, according to the website. Estimates on the number of members in these groups range from 2,200, according to government security agency DAS, to 10,200, according to HRW.

Verdad Abierta lists a number of "similarities" between the criminal groups and the officially demobilized paramilitaries, as noted in CNRR report; that the groups use the same tactics, committing massacres, carrying out forced disappearances, and targetting community leaders and displaced people.

Another similarity, according to the CNRR, is that the emerging criminal groups are funded through similar ventures to the paramilitaries, specifically narco-trafficking, extortion, gambling, and currency exchange offices. The groups also have branches and interests that reach across the country and sometimes internationally. Many members of the groups were in paramilitaries, some of whom failed to demobilize and some of whom returned to crime after demobilizing.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/13345-new-criminal-groups-make-2010-most-violent-year-since-demobilization-report.html