Former leftist rebel, anti-corruption crusader in Colombia wins election for Bogota mayor

[Judi Lynn]

Former leftist rebel, anti-corruption crusader in Colombia wins election for Bogota mayor
By Associated Press, Published: October 30

BOGOTA, Colombia — Voters on Sunday elected former leftist rebel and anti-corruption crusader Gustavo Petro as mayor of Bogota, the first time an ex-guerrilla has won Colombia’s second most important elected office.

Petro, 51, has been a key player in Colombia’s recent history and ran a “zero corruption” campaign in the nation’s capital, whose last elected mayor is jailed in a bid-rigging scandal.

Five years ago, his denunciations as a senator of close ties between national and regional politicians and right-wing death squads spurred the so-called “parapolitics” scandal that has landed dozens of lawmakers in prison.

Short, slim and bespectacled, Petro is deliberate in speech and favors tweed and Nehru jackets. Like many prominent Colombians unafraid to speak their minds, he has periodically been targeted by death threats and has long been assigned a phalanx of bodyguards.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/former-leftist-rebel-in-colombia-holds-lead-in-early-vote-counting-for-bogota-mayors-race/2011/10/30/gIQAd9yxWM_story.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Beware, beware of Associated Pukes and Washington Psst articles!

One thing I noticed in this excerpt (--I don't "click" on these rat turds) is the Bush-cleansed history of "national and regional politicians and right-wing death squads" and "the so-called 'parapolitics' scandal that has landed dozens of lawmakers in prison."

The approximately eighty "lawmakers" who are under investigation or already in prison for ties to the death squads, drug trafficking, bribery, election fraud, ponzi schemes and other crimes are ALL tightly connected to Alvaro Uribe, the Bush Junta's mafioso (former) 'president' of Colombia--a criminal who is still running around free and was thickly engaged in these elections, under Obama administration protection (probably because of what he knows about Bush Junta crimes in Colombia, which likely include direct aid to Uribe's vast, illegal, domestic spying operation and Pentagon use of lawless, blood-soaked Colombia for 'training' death squads to use elsewhere in the world). SEVEN BILLION of our tax dollars were larded upon these malefactors in Colombia. The result? Wanton murder--many massacres as well as targeted assassinations of labor union leaders and other advocates of the poor, massive land theft (5 MILLION peasant farmers brutally displaced from their farms, with state terror--THE worst human displacement crisis on earth)--and other prep for U.S. "free trade for the rich."

Now re-read this sentence:

"Five years ago, his denunciations as a senator of close ties between national and regional politicians and right-wing death squads spurred the so-called 'parapolitics' scandal that has landed dozens of lawmakers in prison." --from the OP

There are several disinformation techniques at work here. One is to present this vast corruption and horror in Colombia--funded by the U.S., with hand-picked local operatives (Uribe and his cronies and their military/paramilitary crime network)--as a passive sort of phenomenon (corruption and horror just sort of happen). Another is to present it as the opinion of one politician ("his denunciations") and a third is to fail to mention WHOSE crime network this was. Someone or other, associated by a single leftist politician with the "right-wing," committed some crimes, got caught and are being punished.

That thousands of murders by Uribe's military/paramilitary crime network remain unsolved--indeed, virtually all rightwing death squad murders are unsolved--that Uribe (chief crime boss) remains free (and a clear threat to Colombia's future), that his spy chief absconded to Panama, that both appear to have the protection of the U.S. government, and that all this crime and terror had the tacit approval of the Bush Junta with evidence that they aided and abetted it, is smothered over and suppressed.

The real relationship between Colombia and the U.S. is also smothered. Colombia is, in every sense of the phrase, a "U.S. client state." When Colombian military were murdering youngsters and dressing up their bodies like FARC guerrillas, they were not only doing so to up their "body counts" to earn bonuses and promotions, they were doing it to PLEASE "Washington"--where their FUNDING comes from--and possibly to please their "trainers," the U.S. military. The same when they or their death squads entered a village and slaughtered everyone in sight, or identified targets for U.S. "drone" strafings. Similarly, the massive land theft was not only to reward the criminals running the government and their pals, it was to CLEAR the peasants out for the likes of Monsanto, Chiquita, Drummond Coal, Exxon Mobil, et al, and for the favored, protected drug lords.

And the cocaine just keeps on flowing out of Colombia. Interesting, isn't it?

This is what I mean by "cleansing" the story. No mention of massive U.S. funding of Uribe's government and its military and their death squads. No mention of the waste and ill use of billions of our tax dollars. No mention of U.S. support of fascist politicians. No mention of so many things that are pertinent to this story and that the people of the U.S. ought to be informed of.

Another disinformation technique is to cleanse the "lede" sentences (the beginning of the article) so that 'news' consumers who just glance at headlines and "ledes" (probably most readers) get the impressions that our corporate rulers/war profiteers want them to get. (This technique is often applied to the titles of articles as well.) They might provide some limited and highly selective "depth" way down in the article but only a few will read it (or read between the lines to "get" it), thus the IMPRESSION most people will get is that all is well in Colombia. Purpose: to disinform and shut us up while our own malefactors loot us blind and prepare to reap the benefits of all the horror in Colombia.

The New York Slimes is most guilty of this latter disinformation technique (publishing a long article, with the disinformation up front and the background/context needed to make sense of events buried at the bottom (also "cleansed" and often distorted but sometimes with a few clues for careful readers as to reality). The Psst is pretty much just a CIA rag for pushing the latest propaganda headlines/ledes, and the Associated Pukes are nothing but that--it's all they do, push the latest, short propaganda points. As I said above, I don't "click" on these propagandists, so I don't know what else they said--but my guess is not much.