Judge rejects delay tactics of former presidential advisor

[Judi Lynn]

Judge rejects delay tactics of former presidential advisor
Thursday, 11 August 2011 12:03
Natalie Dalton

Judge Elva Lucia Perez moved the slander trial of ex-Vice President Francisco Santos and former presidential adviser Jose Obdulio Gaviria forward to September 14.

According to RCN Radio, the new date was agreed upon after the defense lawyer for Gaviria presented the excuse that the mother of Gaviria is undergoing chemotherapy treatment and should be accompanied by her son. Judge Perez said it "it is already strange" that each time they attempt to move forward with the case the defense has responded with various personal reasons to postpone the hearing of witnesses.

The case is related to alleged accusations made by the ex-government employees against former President Alvaro Uribe, whom they supposedly claimed assisted guerrilla groups.

In the case of Santos, the prosecutor claimed that in a union meeting that took place in the city of Quito in July 2007, Santos had approved to help insurgent movements throughout the country. As for Garivia he is being investigated for his opinion article in which he made serious accusations against unions. Before that, both Garivia and Santos were linked to a emerging paramilitary group called the "Black Eagles," asserted Vanguardia News.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18262-judge-rejects-delay-tactics-of-former-presidential-advisor.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Very confusing article. Who is slandering whom? Which side is "the prosecutor" on?

I clicked on it, and there are only a few more sentences--which just add more confusion.

Is the prosecutor charging these guys with slander? Is Uribe? How does the union fit in?

I really can't figure it out and I don't know the background.

Use of the term "guerrilla groups" is also confusing. "Guerrillas" is usually used to describe the FARC (leftist guerillas). "Paramilitaries" (or "rightwing paramilitaries" or "paras") is usually used to describe groups that Uribe would be associated with (the AUC, the "Black Eagles").

Whatever this case is about, I can understand anyone who is making accusations against Uribe wanting to delay trial, forever if possible. Four members of the legislative committee investigating Uribe just resigned, with two of them admitting that they resigned because of death threats (with death threats the probable reason for the other two).. Numerous people involved in investigating Uribe--prosecutors, judges, journalists--have received death threats. Uribe's Mob is still very active. And it looks like he intends to be restored to power. The U.S. government has been doing all kinds of things to protect him and "launder" his image (possibly because of Bush junta complicity in Uribe's crimes in Colombia), and I've got the willies that he knows something we don't about Diebold/ES&S's intentions next year re putting the Bushwhacks back in power here, which means that the Miamia mafia will be running U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. And this has me worried again about the next Oil War (the one Rumsfeld was designing, with Colombia as the "forward operating location").

[gbscar]

2. The article has a confusing and sloppy translation, but the gist of the incident is...

...that Jose Obdulio Gaviria and Francisco Santos, both former Uribe administration officials, are being prosecuted for statements that slandered union workers back in 2007.

Basically, the unionists attended a left-wing seminar in Quito and these two men practically accused them of being terrorists or FARC members because of a declaration released at the end of the event, which included a general statement of support for "the insurgent movement in Colombia" and, in another paragraph, also endorsed "all forms of struggle" by praising the "organized violence of the masses" as the only method that will bring about the final defeat of bourgeoise imperialism. This last part was a generic argument, by the way, and not talking about any concrete situation.

You can read the entire declaration here (in Spanish):

http://www.voltairenet.org/XI-Seminario-Internacional

Both FARC and ELN, though apparently they didn't openly participate in the event, are included among the list of participants at the end of the document. I imagine they either went there in secret or otherwise expressed their support through e-mail or other means.

The Colombian unionists themselves say they didn't actually sign any declaration and had left Quito two days earlier, according to their plane tickets, which is why they later requested that the names of their union organizations should be removed from the list of participants found in that document. As you can see, the current version of the text doesn't include them.

After the comments by Gaviria and Santos, which criticized and insulted the workers, they were threatened by paramilitaries from the Black Eagles. As a result, the unions have denounced that such actions have put them in danger and also formally accused Gaviria and Santos of slander.

Now, the defense is apparently resorting to delays in order to either slow the case down to a crawl or make the legal terms expire.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

So they are accused of being part of Uribe's witch hunt against everyone who opposes him. From everything we've seen about Uribe, an accusation like this--Uribe officials accusing these labor leaders of attending a forum that the FARC had even the remotest participation in--could easily have gotten the labor leaders assassinated by the "Black Eagles," a rightwing death squad. This wasn't just slander. This was fingering them for death.

And do I understand this correctly, then? The officials themselves, Gaviria and Santos, had ties to the "Black Eagles" and have accused Uribe of fostering the "Black Eagles." ?? Gaviria and Santos are being tried in a civil suit brought by the union leaders, which charges these former Uribe government officials, Gaviria and Santos, with slander (slander that could have gotten them murdered). Gaviria and Santos have, in turn, accused their Mob boss--President Uribe--of fostering the "Black Eagles."

If this is correct, do you know on what occasion Gaviria and Santos accused Uribe of fostering the "Black Eagles'? Had they been prosecuted for their own ties? And did the labor leaders bring the slander suit against them because they had gotten off too lightly (perhaps in exchange for their testimony against Uribe?)? I can understand the labor leaders' desire to clear their names of any connection to the FARC--since Uribe's Mob is still operating in Colombia. That would be reason enough to file this suit. But is the background an official investigation/prosecution--by state prosecutors--of Gaviria, Santos and Uribe?

This situation makes me shudder to think of Uribe regaining power in Colombia. He "hit list" must be very long by now, of people--including many of his own people--who have accused him of very serious crimes. And it makes me even more outraged at the U.S. government protection and coddling of Uribe.

[gbscar]

4. Neither of them have accused Uribe. In fact, both are some of his strongest supporters even today

Jose Obdulio Gaviria himself is almost tragically comical in his devout rhetorical and intellectual defense of all things related to Uribe and particularly his "doctrine," while similarly attacking those who question his idol's "superior intellect." You may think I'm exaggerating here, but not by much. He really is quite transparent in his propaganda. So it seems the person who translated the article also made a mistake there, since neither of them would ever dream of accusing Uribe of anything, or at least not for the time being.

The "Black Eagles" are only mentioned in the referenced Vanguardia news report as having threatened the unionists after Gaviria and Santos criticized their participation in the Quito event, not in direct relation to Uribe or either man. Of course, the sequence of events itself does indicate that isn't a coincidence.

You can check this out yourself below (in Spanish), but here's a quick translation of the paragraph:

Gaviria's <judicial> situation corresponds to an opinion column published under the title: "All sins begin with thinking," where he raised serious accusations against the unionists. They were later threatened by an emerging paramilitary gang called "Black Eagles."

http://www.vanguardia.com/actualidad/colombia/116680-juez-rechaza-maniobras-dilatorias-de-abogados-de-jose-obdulio-gaviria