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...and to covering up very ugly realities. Example:
"Colombia has had to endure an unending tug-of-war between heavily militarized, rival political factions, ravaging a democratic system long fraught with corruption, often marked by human rights violators on all sides; persistently enhanced by external forces (the U.S. government notwithstanding).
As leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups leave the countryside drenched with civilian bloodshed, cocaine distribution maintains virtual 'shadow governments' either in league with, or in spite of, traditional local law enforcement. Any and all outside attempts to evolve these truisms ceaselessly serve to only further exacerbate the seemingly insurmountable chaos that is life in Colombia."--from the OP
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Let me just recite a couple of facts that get in the way of this breezy narrative: According to Amnesty International, 92% of the murders of trade unionists in Colombia have been committed by the Colombia military (about half) and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads (the other half). Only 2% have been committed by the FARC guerrillas. (The rest are common murders.) According to a recent UN human rights report, 75% of all extrajudicial murders in Colombia (trade unionists and all others) were committed by the Colombian military and its death squads (in about the same proportion).
So, when a writer says, "As leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups leave the countryside drenched with civilian bloodshed...," he is leaving out very important facts as to the carnage in this 40+ year civil war--facts that indicate that the Colombian military and its death squads are responsible for MOST of it. He equalizes the bloodshed. The bloodshed is not even close to being equal--and he leaves out the Colombian military entirely.
Further, the fact of $7 BILLION in U.S. taxpayer funding of the Colombia military, under the Bush Junta, is muffled as a mere policy matter and is downplayed as a trifle to the Obama administration in a "shifting" political landscape in which domestic politics are primary--yet this lavish expenditure on a country with one of the worst human rights record on earth is going to continue.
"Obama displays no desires to stop funding the Colombian military, and has 'doubled down' on the social programs initiated by Bush II prior to leaving office. With that being said, no one should expect the Americans not to utilize the $46 million approved for restoring the Palanquero military base, quietly passed by Congress last year with little fanfare."
This $7 BILLION in military aid and Bush Junta policy in Colombia is a very, VERY troubling matter. For instance, it has recently emerged that Blackwater has been conducting allegedly unauthorized "trainings" of Colombian military personnel for Iraq and Afghanistan, while under contract to the U.S. State Department in Colombia--that is, with OUR money. What were these "trainings"? What were they "training" Colombians to do in Iraq and Afghanistan? And how were they "training" them?
Just prior to this, the 2,000 bodies at the La Macarena mass grave were discovered, in a region of particular interest and activity by the U.S. military and the USAID (which designed the "pacification" program during which these murders occurred). The Colombian military says that the bodies are of FARC guerrillas. Local people say that the bodies are of local 'disappeared' community activists and other community members. This recent mass grave may be where the Colombian military was dumping "false positives" (bodies of civilians they murdered then dressed up as FARC guerrillas to up their "body counts," to earn bonuses and promotions in the military that is receiving $7 BILLION from U.S. taxpayers). Or, they may be something else--victims of U.S. "turkey shoot" practice for Afghanistan and Iraq. I suspect the latter.
The U.S./Colombia military agreement that Uribe and Bushwhack ambassador William Brownfield negotiated IN SECRET last year contained a provision for total diplomatic immunity for all U.S. soldiers and all U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia, and its secrecy and suddenness raises the question of WHY the U.S. military and its 'contractors' needed a SIGNED immunity. The promoters of this agreement argued that it merely ratifies existing arrangements. Uribe, on his own, had guaranteed total diplomatic immunity to U.S. solders/'contractors,' but they needed it SIGNED? Why? What took place in these secret negotiations--kept secret from the Colombian legislature, the Colombian courts, the Colombian people, all the other leaders of Latin America, and--not incidentally--the American people?
In asking us, at the end of the article, to applaud the Obama administration for, apparently, gearing down the Colombia/U.S. provocation of and threats against Venezuela, the writer appears to me to be missing something very important, indeed, and that is that the Obama administration has treated all Bush Junta crimes in this way--as if they were nothing, as if torture, mass murder and mayhem were nothing, were mere matters of a "shift" in policies, and the crimes of those who are too powerful to be prosecuted, or even investigated, are merely swept under the Oval Office rug. "We need to look forward not backward."
What I think this writer is omitting is, a) the sheer horror of Colombian military activities, funded by us, and overseen by the previous and current presidents of Colombia, both close U.S. allies, and b) the smell of more Bush Junta war crimes for which the most serious criminals--those who authorized these crimes, those whose policies were being implemented in Colombia--have clearly been given immunity by the Obama administration. They put Uribe on a prestigious legal committee (to investigate Israel's violations of international law by firing on the aid ships to Palestine). Georgetown U. just granted him a prestigious teaching sinecure. SEVENTY of this man's closest political associates, including family members, are under investigation, indicted or in jail for a range of crimes including their ties to rightwing death squads. Yet he is welcomed in Washington DC with open arms? Honored by the White House? Has acquired sufficient CIA protection to get invited to Georgetown?
Obama's APPARENT new policy in Colombia may be a coverup, or at least involve a coverup--a cleansing of the Bushwhacks' bloody tracks in yet another country. I think there is enough of a smell to the situation to warrant some tough investigative reporting, with tough questions being asked. Anyone who has followed the situation closely should catch this odor and not promote a superficial, pollyanna view that the U.S. ought to be applauded. Those 2,000 decaying corpses in La Macarena--which made local children sick from the drinking water--and others like them, buried around Colombia--some already discovered, some yet to be discovered--are sending out their tragic and putrid message.
This is a U.S. client state, funded with $7 BILLION of U.S. taxpayer money, where HORRIBLE things have occurred at the hands of this U.S.-funded government and military, where the president called everyone opposed to him "terrorists," and was spying on everybody and made up "lists" of trade unionists and others for targeting by death squads, and where the current president was defense minister while these and other horrors took place--including the displacement of five MILLION peasant farmers, by state terror. Putting a "Smiley Face" on this situation is not good journalism. It's certainly okay to breathe a sign of relief that the U.S. may not be going to instigate a war against Venezuela, yet. But to imply that the U.S. military buildup in Colombia and the region is not a matter of importance and does not pose a threat to Venezuela and the region, and to assert that Colombia is going to become "democracy-fed" country, are unfactual and absurd.
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