U.S. 'integrates' with ally Colombia on mass murder: 'an infinity of bodies' found (d. 2005-2010)

[Peace Patriot]

Found this at BoRev in the comments: http://www.borev.net/2010/01/more_terrible_death-video_from.html#comments

January 28, 2010

Miami’s El Nuevo Herald and Spain’s Público have run stories in the past two days about a shocking find in La Macarena, about 200 miles south of Bogotá.

Residents say that after it entered the strongly guerrilla-controlled zone in the mid-2000s, Colombia’s Army began dumping unidentified bodies in a mass grave near a local cemetery. The grave may contain as many as 2,000 bodies.

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Público reports:

"Since 2005 the Army, whose elite units are deployed in the surrounding area, has been depositing behind the local cemetery hundreds of cadavers with the order that they be buried without names. …

"Jurist Jairo Ramírez, the secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia, accompanied a delegation of British legislators to the site several weeks ago, when the magnitude of the La Macarena grave began to be discovered. 'What we saw was chilling,' he told Público. 'An infinity of bodies, and on the surface hundreds of white wooden plaques with the inscription NN and dates from 2005 until today.'

"Ramírez adds: 'The Army commander told us that they were guerrillas killed in combat, but the people in the region told us of a multitude of social leaders, campesinos and community human rights defenders who disappeared without a trace.'"

http://www.publico.es/internacional/288773/aparece/colombia/fosa/comun/cadaveres

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El Nuevo Herald reports:

"A spokesman of the Prosecutor-General’s Office (Fiscalía) in Bogotá revealed to El Nuevo Herald that a mission from that institution’s Technical Investigations Corps (CTI) has already gone to the cemetery and confirmed the existence of 'a large number' of cadavers in the grave, though it only made a few excavations.

“'We became the site for the depositing of the war dead,' declared Eliécer Vargas Moreno, mayor of the municipality. …

"Residents of La Macarena interviewed over the phone by El Nuevo Herald, under the promise that their identities would not be revealed, expressed their suspicion that among the bodies are relatives who disappeared during the last four years. They denied that the bodies are those of guerrillas and asked for the chance to prove it.

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/america-latina/colombia/story/640282.html

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Colombia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office will make its first excavations at the site in mid-March. While we are not jumping to conclusions, we will be watching this case closely.

La Macarena, the site of the grave, has been a very important site of U.S.-aided military operations since the mid-2000s. In this area, the U.S. government supported and advised the Colombian Army’s 2004-2006 “Plan Patriota” military offensive, and since 2007 (the U.S.) has supported the “Plan for the Integral Consolidation of La Macarena” or PCIM, part of the new “Integrated Action” framework (LINK) that is now guiding much U.S. assistance.

http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1303

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Jeez.

[EFerrari]

1. This is so horrible, I don't even know what to say.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bush-era mass murder. Hideous. Cipcol's last paragraph has facts that won't be disproven.

NOT all related to the civil war, considering all the civilian, non-guerrila victims.

Here's a google translation from Nuevo Diario:

A 200 kilometers from Bogota
Found mass grave with 2 thousand bodies

Saturday January 30, 2010 | At La Macarena, area of operations against the guerrillas, the army buried people.

Bogota. Just 200 miles south of Bogota, in a jungle hamlet called La Macarena (Meta department), the Army of Colombia since 2005 could be creating the largest mass grave in Latin America.

According to the residents themselves, in testimony corroborated by human rights organizations, in an open area between the base and the airport, some 2,000 bodies buried without identification. The military say they are all "guerrillas killed in combat." But in La Macarena believe that the grave could hold the hundreds of disappearances that have the town, located in hot runner in the war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Jairo Ramirez's attorney, secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, joined in early December last year to La Macarena to a mission of British MEPs interested in the situation of people living in war zones. The visit promises to be rich in information because the town is in the area of operations of Task Force Omega, who at 21 thousand men chasing Jorge Briceno, alias "Mono Jojoy", military leader of the FARC. MEPs did not leave disappointed. "The villagers told us that many farmers, trade unionists and social leaders have gone," Ramirez told. The mayor of La Macarena, Eliecer Vargas Moreno, estimates that in the mass grave could have between 1,500 and 2,000 corpses and report that her people "became the site of the disposal of war dead.

Excess bodies per square meter is polluting the water they supply to La Macarena, according to complaints received by the Ombudsman.

http://www.nuevodiarioweb.com.ar/nota/153861/Mundo/Colombia:_Hallan_2_mil_cad%C3%A1veres_fosa_com%C3%BAn.html

~~~~~~~~

A grave containing FOUND TWO THOUSAND CORPSES IN THE JUNGLE TO THE SOUTH OF BOGOTA
NN Tombs in the heart of Colombia

At La Macarena, area of operations against the FARC, the army buried unidentified peasants and social leaders.
By Federico Rivas Molina29/01/2010

http://criticadigital.com.nyud.net:8090/fotos/CR_9.jpg

Nameless dead. Confirmed the number of corpses in La Macarena,
the pit will be the largest in Latin America.
______

Just 200 miles south of Bogota, in a jungle hamlet called La Macarena (Meta department), the Army of Colombia since 2005 could be creating the largest mass grave in Latin America. According to the residents themselves, in testimony corroborated by human rights organizations, in an open area between the base and the airport, some 2,000 bodies buried without identification. The military say they are all "guerrillas killed in combat." But in La Macarena believe that the grave could hold the hundreds of disappearances that have the town, located in hot runner in the war against the Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Jairo Ramirez's attorney, secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, joined in early December last year to La Macarena to a mission of British MEPs interested in the situation of people living in war zones. The visit promises to be rich in information because the town is in the area of operations of Task Force Omega, who at 21 thousand men chasing Jorge Briceno, alias "Mono Jojoy", military leader of the FARC. MEPs did not leave disappointed.

"The villagers told us that many farmers, trade unionists and social leaders have disappeared, but when we place the army chief told us they had no knowledge of missing persons. The community then took us to a cemetery that is between the base and the airport and there we find that in the back there were hundreds and hundreds of white wooden plaques with numbers supposedly belonging to NN, "Ramirez told a Critique Argentina.

The mayor of La Macarena, Eliecer Vargas Moreno, estimates that in the mass grave could have between 1,500 and 2,000 corpses and report that her people "became the site of the disposal of war dead. Excess bodies per square meter is polluting the water they supply to La Macarena, according to complaints received by the Ombudsman.

"We're talking about an unthinkable number of deaths," said Ramirez. Across Colombia, there are about 3,500 graves with 52 thousand missing from 80, but each no more than 15 or 20 bodies. So far an area not known to house 2,000 bodies. The main concern of the jurist is that "many of those bodies arrived here during 2009" and could be cases of "false positives", ie bodies of innocent people who passed through the Army guerrillas to meet the goals of efficiency imposes a policy of "democratic security" of the government of Álvaro Uribe.

Prosecutors in Colombia and was informed of the existence of the mass grave, but exhumations conducted "between 9 and 21 March," past the elections. Meanwhile, the Army insists that the bodies are buried in La Macarena guerrillas killed in combat. General Javier Florez, commander of the Rapid Deployment Force, attached to the Omega Force, said even his men "do no lifting" of corpses, but leave that task to the Judicial Police (DIJIN).

However, the Army's version does not match the story he heard Ramirez manager of burying the dead in La Macarena. "The gravedigger told us that military helicopters arrive with dead bodies deposited in a box next to the grave. Two or three days after the bodies rot and he has to bury them and place them a number. "

http://criticadigital.com/index.php?secc=nota&nid=36745

~~~~~~~~
Thanks for spotting this BIG story. It involves the lives of thousands and thousands of people. It's enormous. It's a vast crime against humanity.

They are delaying further investigation of this until mid-March. Probably by then, they will have developed a good cover story for it.

Shocking, and yet, considering who's involved, perhaps we shouldn't be shocked, by now.... so damned evil.

[Peace Patriot]

5. The Colombian human rights group said the dates were from 2005 to TODAY.

So this is not just Bush-era.

They were referring to grave markers they saw with dates but no names ("2005 to TODAY"). The date of article in Jan 28, 2010. Today. Some of these murders are very recent. Obama-era.

Also, Cipcol points out that this is a "very important site" **SINCE 2007** for UNITED STATES MILITARY 'integration' with the Colombia military. Their implication is that the U.S. military was involved in these murders and that it is an on-going "integration" program.

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From the Cipcol article:

"La Macarena, the site of the grave, has been a very important site of U.S.-aided military operations since the mid-2000s. In this area, the U.S. government supported and advised the Colombian Army’s 2004-2006 'Plan Patriota' military offensive, and since 2007 (the U.S.) has supported the 'Plan for the Integral Consolidation of La Macarena' or PCIM, part of the new 'Integrated Action' framework (LINK) that is now guiding much U.S. assistance."

---

On-going "integrated" action with the U.S. military.

I've been wondering about the reported 1,600 U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors' mentioned in the new Colombia/U.S. military agreement and why the Colombian fascists have granted them total diplomatic immunity. Is this why? Does the U.S. have Blackwater (Xe) death squads not just in Afghanistan but also in Colombia murdering civilians. Was this an Xe "turkey shoot"? Target practice? Training mercenaries or soldiers to be robot killers? Random civilian targets? Was the purpose generalized terror? And/or, was this specifically targeting union leaders, community organizers, teachers, human rights rights workers, political leftists, uppity peasant farmers or peasant farmers who are in the way of something (as has often been the case with Colombian military/death squad killings--eliminating the opposition)? Whatever the purpose--'training,' generalized terror or specific targets--what are they preparing La Macarena FOR? And WHO did it?

The purpose of total diplomatic immunity for U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors' could be for U.S. forces to take care of some of the "dirty work" in Colombia, and then fade away anonymously into the protection of the U.S. military and/or 'contractor' corporations, TO FOIL COLOMBIAN PROSECUTORS, some of whom have been courageous in pursuing past atrocities.

The "diplomatic immunity" really bothers me. It is just like Iraq, and Afghanistan. Local people might some day be able to find out who, in their own region or country, murdered their relatives or friends. But if the assassins are the anonymous agents of the U.S. government, their chances of ever finding out who did it, let alone prosecuting them, are greatly reduced.

Further, the implication here is that the U.S. government has greatly expanded the terrain of its "war on terror" to include not just tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis or Afghans, or other Islamic or Arab people--the "collateral damage" of the "hunt for terrorists" that never ends--but they have spread it to WHOLLY UNRELATED conflicts with entirely new civilian populations now being targeted for U.S. terror and/or at risk of becoming "collateral damage" as U.S. global corporate predator and war profiteer goals are pursued. Any political conflict, anywhere--where U.S. corporate/war profiteer interests are involved--could be (is being?) folded into the "war on terror" with ANY political opponent of fascist government or U.S. interests--from a local teacher or peasant farmer organizing a union, to the presidents of countries--would be at risk of assassination from anonymous, unaccountable U.S. agents.

If what Cipcol seems to suspect, and what I suspect, is true, the lawlessness of the U.S. government has taken a quantuum leap.

This is not an easy feat to accomplish--spreading U.S. terror to political conflicts that are unrelated to Islamic terrorists. The chaos that the U.S. has created in Iraq and Afghanistan has made it easy in those places. The U.S. routinely assassinates anybody they goddamn please in those countries, with total immunity. And if you look at Colombia with open eyes, you see that similar chaos has been the U.S. goal for some time--for instance, larding the Colombian military--a military with one of the worst human rights records on earth--with $6 BILLION in U.S. military aid, is a prescription for chaos. The Colombian military and its closely tied death squads and their displacement of some 3 MILLION peasant farmers--hundreds of thousands of whom have fled over the borders to Venezuela and Ecuador--is a prescription for both internal and border chaos. These chaos producing activities, in turn, make targeted assassinations and generalized terror all the easier. Enter the U.S. military and its 'contractors' with total diplomatic immunity for whatever they do in Colombia.

I was very worried about this when the Bushwhacks added the FARC guerrillas (Colombia's 40+ year civil war) to the U.S. "war on drugs" as the justification for "Plan Colombia" (i.e. $6 BILLION in military aid). This on-going massacre in La Macarena may be the first concrete evidence of what that addition to "Plan Colombia" was all about: **U.S.** participation in the death squads.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Only slightly before your story broke: Paramilitaries suspected of 150,000 murders

Paramilitaries suspected of 150,000 murders
Monday, 18 January 2010 08:20 Adriaan Alsema

Former members of demobilized paramilitary organization AUC have confessed to 30,000 murders so far, and prosecutors suspect them of a total 150,000 killings, newspaper El Tiempo reported on Monday.

Some 2,000 paramilitaries, whose organizations were founded in the mid-1980s to counter left-wing guerrilla attacks, made confessions as part of a settlement with the government that gives them milder punishments in exchange for the truth about their crimes.

However, another 1,200 paramilitaries have still not responded to requests by investigators to make statements.

Paramilitary fighters taking part in the demobilization program have so far confessed to the murders of 30,000 Colombians, but, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, this leaves a further 120,000 murders of which paramilitaries are suspected still unsolved.

Luiz Gonzalez, boss of the Prosecutor General's Justice and Peace Unit, stresses that his office will revoke benefits granted to the 30,000 demobilized paramilitaries if they are found guilty of committing crimes to which they did not voluntarily confess.

The apparent lack of will of paramilitaries to fully cooperate with the authorities is not the only thing obstructing the finding and identifying of tens of thousands of the paramilitaries' victims; Colombia's clogged judicial system is delaying the interrogation and investigation of hundreds of paramilitaries who have expressed their wish to cooperate, Gonzales said.

So far, investigators have exhumed 2828 victims from 2316 graves. The remains of 721 victims of paramilitary violence have been returned to their families, but thousands of mass graves are still waiting to be opened.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7711-demobilized-paramilitaries-confess-150000-murders.html

[amyrose2712]

4. Sick F's. Thanks for posting. nt

[Peace Patriot]

6. I've posted this topic in GD (expanded version)

"Is the U.S. military involved in mass murder in Colombia?"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7623513