Bogota theater groups protest death threats

[gbscar]

Bogota theater groups protest death threats
Wednesday, 31 August 2011 10:54
Natalie Dalton

An estimated 1,500 artists and supporters united in protest Tuesday against the death threats sent to 12 theater groups one week ago in Bogota, reported Colombian media.

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The threats, made public last week, allegedly told the groups that they were a target because "of being human rights defenders through (their) artistic activities" and that they should leave the Colombian capital immediately. The letters were directed at groups in Bosa, Kennedy, Tunjuelito, and Cuidad Bolivar, reported Luis Vicente Estupiñan from the Teatro la Disidencia theater group. The group responsible for sending the threats was allegedly the neo-paramilitary group "Aguilas Negras."

Santiago Trujillo, director of the Instituto Distrital de las Artes (Idartes), said that the Bogota mayors office is "volunteering the security for these groups, because artistic expression is a manifestation of liberty and critical thinking that we should respect and conserve, and we cannot permit that they are threatened."

The Colombian Ministry of Culture also responded to the threats stating "these organizations, through their word and their artistic and creative proposals...contribute to the construction of politics of peace and co-existance, rejecting violence in all of it's forms. Therefore, it is contradictory that they are a target of death threats."

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http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/culture/18685-bogota-theater-groups-protest-death-threats.html

[flamingdem]

1. talk about pathetic thugs, threatening theatre troupes? jeez nt

[rabs]

2. The honeymoon is over .for Santos

Threats like this are now happening on his watch.

Guess you saw the big shakeup this week. Santos' defense minister quit. He promply was appointed ambassador to the European Union in Brussels.

Santos' new defense minister is a civilian, who Santos said was fully suited to the job because of his background; his father was a military officer and he is married to the daughter of another military officer.

Great qualification to conduct the long conflict with FARC/ELN and against the narco-paramilitaries.

[gbscar]

3. I can agree with your 1st point, but note that Pinzon was also Vice-Minister of Defense under Santos

I would actually consider his family's personal background as a potential negative, at least in this context, but I understand highlighting that aspect is essentially a rather transparent attempt to tone down the rightwing's continued criticism and slandering of the previous Defense Minister, Rodrigo Rivera, who had neither experience nor tradition on his side. Logically enough, even the military itself prefers people from "inside" rather than "outside" their circle. In that sense, it's simply a slightly politically useful rhetorical device.

Then again, the most important set of facts lies elsewhere. For better or for worse, Pinzon has been a close associate of Santos for a number of years and he isn't entirely ignorant of security affairs either. As Santos also mentioned, he does have some relevant administrative experience and strategic education. And, unlike what Rodrigo Rivera was initially considered to be, Pinzon is apparently not much of an Uribe loyalist. What's more, he did choose to take a different career path instead of following the family tradition and only eventually ended up working as a civilian Vice-Minister and then Minister within the field, which may be less of a problem than the alternative.

Why? Because, to be quite honest, I don't trust the Colombian military establishment myself and believe that having a civilian Defense Minister is, in spite of everything else, inherently better than appointing active or retired military officers to the position. Civilians may lack experience about how to fight a war, generally speaking, but they're also usually removed from the darkest side of Colombian military culture. As an institution, the military has historically been rabidly conservative, reactionary and anti-opposition, often actively serving the interests of the murderous extreme right with little or no complaints. In fact, they do so quite willingly.

I don't completely trust military establishments anywhere in the world, to say the least, but in Colombia even post-Cold War era U.S. training and indoctrination has played a very important role in promoting intolerance, political persecution and murder.

Hell, the Colombian military was openly involved in sabotaging the peace process under the Belisario Betancur administration, back in the day, to say nothing of all the other abuses and violations of human rights that have continued to date.

Of course, this doesn't mean every single soldier is a murderer or every single civilian is clean. Many non-military sectors of the Colombian elite can be just as bad or worse, for obvious reasons, and there have been relatively progressive or at least reasonable military commanders at specific points in time. Generalizations tend to ignore such details. But, taken as a whole, I don't think the Colombian military can even slightly pretend to police itself without any civilian oversight.

As past history can tell, serving as a civilian Defense Minister is often extremely difficult in Colombia, whether or not the individuals responsible are trying to hinder abuses instead of promoting them, but that doesn't mean the alternative would be better. Which is, incidentally, why I am also in favor of reducing the jurisdiction of military courts even further, as far as cases of human rights violations are concerned, and salute the brave judges or prosecutors who have literally put their lives at risk by investigating such crimes.

Whether or not Pinzon's appointment helps move things in the right direction is, naturally, too early to tell.