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including...
--more confirmation that trade unionists continue to be murdered under the Santos regime: This leader of the 80,000 member he National Unified Agricultural Trade Union Federation (Fensuagro), reports that 22 trade unionists were murdered in the first 75 days of the Santos government. Other alternative sources have said that the total is now 50 for the year (under Uribe, then Santos).
--new information: 7,500 political prisoners in Colombian jails! (And confirmation of the number of disappeared: 38,255.) Odd how thousands of political prisoners in Colombia is of no interest to the U.S. government and the corpo-fascist press which makes such a fuss about Cuba. (Could it be that they have a different standard for a country run by leftists where everybody has food on the table, shelter, medical care, free education through university and a job--and a country run by fascists with one of the worst rich/poor ratios in the world, one of the worst human rights records in the world, and THE worst displacement crisis in the world, and where dissidents are murdered and 'disappeared' in the thousands? The latter gets a pass because...why?)
--more confirmation of the magnitude of the displacement crisis. Fensuagro leader Parmenio Poveda puts the number at 4.5 internally displaced. These are poor peasant farmers subjected to murder and terror by the Colombian military and its death squads, who have been driven off their farms into urban squalor. Their lands are stolen and given to rich fascists, the big, protected drug lords and corporations like Monsanto and Chiquita. Human rights groups now total it a 5 million people. About a half a million have fled over the border into Venezuela and Ecuador for refuge.
--organization of plantation workers, small landowners, landless peasants, internally displaced people and small coca growers is on-going in Colombia, despite U.S. supported state terror--showing amazing courage and persistence. These are the sort of groups that have transformed the political landscape in other Latin American countries, most especially in the core Bolivarian revolution countries--Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, where leftist governments have been elected with their support--but also in countries that do not yet have majority governments, such as Mexico and Peru. (The left came very close to winning the presidency in both cases.) Overall, these are most revolutionary groups in the western hemisphere, not just on typical social/political issues, but on GREEN issues. They are fighting the good fight for ORGANIC farming! And this is the first news I've had of them in Colombia. I've been wondering how such movements could get off the ground in Colombia, since advocates of the poor are routinely murdered in Colombia. Here is the answer: extraordinary courage. They ARE getting organized despite U.S./Colombia "Murder, Inc."
--new information: 1500 members of Fensuagro have been assassinated since it was set up (1976).
--more confirmation that 5,000+ leaders/members of the Patriotic Union (UP) were assassinated after the peace settlement in 1985. The government lured the FARC leftist guerrillas into laying down their arms and joining the political process. Many ran for office; others supported their campaigns. 5,000 were cut down by Colombia's rightwing death squads. The FARC re-armed and returned to the jungle. Thus we have the situation today--an on-going 70 year civil war which has given the Colombian military (with $7 BILLION in U.S. military funding) the excuse to massacre anybody who disagrees with the fascist government, whether armed or not. Trader unionists, human rights workers, teachers, community activists, journalists, et al. Uribe said that all who oppose him are "terrorists." Santos has scaled down the rhetoric but such murders continue.
--new information for evaluating Santos. Now that the Uribe- and Bush Junta-connected death squad witnesses have been extradited to the U.S. and buried in the U.S. federal prison system, out of the reach of Colombian prosecutors, by completely sealing their cases (U.S. federal court, Washington DC) and Bushwhack ambassador William Brownfield (left in place by Obama until recently) got his Uribe-signed "total diplomatic immunity" for all U.S. soldiers and U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia, Santos and the Obama/Clinton administration are making a concerted effort to smear democracy cosmetics over Colombia's bloody doings, in order to get a U.S./Colombia "free trade for the rich" bill through the U.S. Congress. They needn't have bothered. Diebold/ES&S has given them a Congress that won't give a fuck about the murder of trade unionists or other dissenters in Colombia. Drummond Coal, Exxon Mobil, Chiquita, Monsanto, et al, Dyncorp, Blackwater and other war profiteers, and the Bush Cartel-connected drug lords will have clear sailing in this Congress. "Free trade for the rich," enforced by the Pentagon--the Bushwhack plan for Colombia and the U.S. "circle the wagons" region (Central America, Caribbean and the northern rim of South America--Colombia and Venezuela's northern oil provinces and Caribbean oil coast) is on. Obama couldn't stop it even if he wants to (and I don't think he wants to).
Parmenio Poveda explains more about the democracy cosmetics. Santos has acquired bought-and-paid-for trade unionists to decorate his regime with labor mouthpieces, to create the appearance of the fascists' willingness to, um, not be fascists any more. He also mentions Gustavo Petro and the PDA party as having approved the continued carnage of the 70 year civil war (crushing the leftist guerrillas with the U.S. funded and "trained" military) thus losing many peace votes (which went to the Green party). I don't know if this is just typical leftist factionalism and in-fighting or if there is truth to his accusations against Petro. But sometimes leftist in-fighters have a legitimate basis for opposing compromsing leftists, and given the vast billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars poured into Colombia for propping up this filthy, blood-soaked, fascist oligarchy, nothing would surprise me as to the U.S. buying local operatives. We need more information about this.
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There is one other thing that Poveda says that I question, and it is this:
“We have to understand that the Colombian oligarchy, historically, is the most repressive and reactionary oligarchy in the region”, Poveda said. He said this was why Colombia was bucking the continental trend towards electing left-wing and progressive governments. --from the OP
I'd say that Chile, Brazil, Argentina and many other countries in the region are candidates for having "the most repressive and reactionary oligarchy," historically. Colombia certainly has the worst one now--but this is NOT "why Colombia" is "bucking the continental trend towards electing left-wing and progressive governments," in my opinion. U.S. FINANCIAL AND MILITARY SUPPORT is why. Colombia's oligarchy has the money, the weaponry and the U.S. "war on drugs"-corrupted system to kill off thousands of leftist leaders, compliments of us U.S. taxpayers.
Perhaps this omission is just an artifact of the interview process. If asked, Poveda would likely agree that U.S. interference and $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid represent overwhelming influence in Colombian affairs. Also, having been the victim of Colombia's fascist oligarchy (1,500 Fensuagro members assassinated!), and likely living with death threats every day of his life, Fensuagro's leader, Poveda, may mis-perceive Colombia's oligarchy as the worst ever. It's understandable. But their persistence, in the face of a leftist democracy sweep of the region, is not just due to their perversity. They are getting more direct aid from the U.S. than the other fascist oligarchies ever received. They have the U.S. military ensconced at more than seven military bases in Colombia, and likely far more than $7 billion--if we knew the CIA's, the NSA's, the DEA's and other secret budgets-- being used to insure fascist control of the country.
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