Immunity for rape in Colombia

[rabs]

Sgt. Michael Cohen and U.S. military contract employee César Ruiz, accused of raping a child in Colombia on Aug. 27 2006. (Photos Semana)

Tuesday night there was a debate in the Colombian Senate over the seven U.S. military bases. The accords originally stipulated immunity for U.S. military personnel and civilian contract workers (although Colombian armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla has said it is not so.)

An opposition senator and fierce Uribe critic, Gustavo Petro, tried to get Olga Lucía Castillo, the mother of the child (then 12) who was raped three years ago to speak on the Senate floor about her daughter's ordeal. The child was raped near a Colombian air force base in Melgar, Tolima, Colombia where the two gringos were assigned to Plan Colombia.

The uribista faction in the Senate blocked her from speaking and the session was ended because of a lack of a quorum. Two uribista senators, Gloria Inés Ramírez and Elsa Gladys Cifuentes, objected to the mother speaking so as not to turn the debate into "something pornographic and a violation of intimacy."

Petro said he wanted to point out the dangers of permitting the stay of more U.S. military personnel in Colombia. Petro said he would try again to have the mother speak on the Senate floor next Tuesday.

Sgt. Cohen and Ruiz, a U.S. civilian contract worker were accused of raping the child. They were never punished.

Semana article (Spanish)

http://www.semana.com/noticias-justicia/revive-caso-nina-habria-sido-violada-militares-eeuu-melgar/127321.aspx

(Have not seen this story in any English-language media.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. And we WON'T see this in any English-language paper, either. This is so evil.

Sure hope Gustavo Petro will win and get this testimony in. Those Uribistas have no interest whatsoever in preserving the privacy of the child and mother. Baloney. They wouldn't support Uribe if they had any sense of protectiveness toward the Colombian non-elite population.

Someday something MUST be done about demanding complete immunity for troops based in countries all over the world. This practise should have been withdrawn the first time, so many crimes ago, when they discovered there are criminals in the service who abuse this blank check and prey on the population of the occupied countries.

The helpless citizens trying to survive in this world deserve better than having to cope with murderous, rapacious monsters roaming around their neighborhoods completely beyond the reach of any law at all, other than the law which forbids them to leave the service before their enlistment expires.

Thanks, rabs. This m.akes a person so sick, so damned angry. USAmercans need to find a way to get these activities made serverely punishable. It's the only decent behavior from a country which thrusts its military into the lives of innocent people of other countries.

"They envy us for our freedoms!" signed, George W. Bush.

[romy]

3. English link

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/930/68/

Also, several Colombian congress people are working to not give US soldiers immunity to Colombian justice. Though this remains to be written into the deal, something that the US might not accept.
http://www.semana.com/noticias-relaciones-exteriores/no-habra-inmunidad-para-militares-extranjeros-bases-colombianas/127335.aspx

[rabs]

4. Thanks romy for the article and the new details

Cocaine, ammo sales (probably to sell to the paramilitaries), and porno.

The money from Plan Colombia seems to have spun off new opportunities for corrupt U.S. military people.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Sgt. Michael Cohen, burn in hell. The sooner the better. n/t

[gatitakutait]

5. Thank you!

Thank you for covering this information too!
I also wrote an article about it. Looks like we are the only ones, cheers to that!
Michelle
Check it out @:
http://www.examiner.com/x-19327-Salem-Foreign-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Rape-of-a-Colombian-child-by-US-soldier-sparks-more-debate-over-military-bases

[rabs]

6. Glad you also wrote about the story

and was pleased to see that a native of Colombia is providing English-language readers about events in in that country. (I do not confide in the gringo AP, Reuters, NYT, Wash. Post, L.A. Times reporters.)

My thinking is that the more readers are aware of what is happening under the Uribe regime, the more they will understand if/when U.S. troops come under fire from the FARC, the paras (who will then blame the FARC), and who knows what other sicarios.

You may have seen the El Tiempo interview (published Monday Aug. 17) of U.S. Ambassador Brownfield in which he said the additional U.S. troops at the seven bases will be going directly after the FARC. That portends a major escalation.

---------------


'Farc serán blanco de misiones conjuntas realizadas en nuevo acuerdo militar': William Brownfield

The nut grafs of the interview:

El Tiempo: Si en esa lucha contra los agentes del narcotráfico está la guerrilla, la perseguirán?

Brownsfield: Aceptamos la realidad histórica. El hecho establecido durante los últimos 10 a 20 años es que una de las organizaciones (sino la organización) más importantes en el tráfico de droga ilícita en este momento se llama las Farc. No se puede hablar de esfuerzos contra la droga ilícita sin hablar de las Farc también.

Si me preguntas si las misiones que van a aprovecharse de este acuerdo en el futuro van a incorporar a las Farc en su zonas de blanco, la respuesta es sí, sin duda alguna.

-----------------------

There is a lot more in the interview for you to explore for another story.

http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/politica/farc-seran-blanco-de-misiones-conjuntas-realizadas-en-nuevo-acuerdo-militar-william-brownfield-_5883208-1

P.S. If you still can edit your story, the rape of the child was on Aug. 27, 2006, and not last August as your lede says.

Felicidades to you too and glad you have discovered the DU Latin America forum.

rabs

[Judi Lynn]

7. Mother wants U.S. military to allow justice for girl's rape

Posted on Saturday, 09.05.09
Mother wants U.S. military to allow justice for girl's rape

The alleged rape of a girl at the hands of a U.S. officer on a Colombian military base has rekindled the anger and frustration of her mother, who also was raped 12 years ago and faces major hurdles in her quest for justice.

BY GONZALO GUILLEN AND GERARDO REYES
El Nuevo Herald

Olga Lucía Castillo could never bring to justice the men who raped her in Bogotá when she was pregnant with her daughter. Twelve years later, she is putting up the fight of her life to have a U.S. Army officer and a Mexican-born contractor indicted because, according to her, they raped her daughter at the military base in Melgar.

The older of her two daughters was sexually abused at a military base in this city, 62 miles from Bogotá, in August 2007, according to a criminal charge filed by Castillo at the Colombian prosecutor's office.

The suspects are U.S. Army sergeant Michael Coen and Mexican-born contractor César Ruiz, whose arrest was ordered by prosecutors following testimonies. There is no forensic evidence to implicate them, and after both suspects were taken out of the country under diplomatic immunity, the investigation could not move forward.

`I WILL NOT STOP'

Castillo is outraged and does not want the crime to go unpunished this time, as it happened in her case. She remembered bitterly that her husband had left her at the time, arguing that she had let the men rape her.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1218573.html