Murder of Catholic Priest in Colombia Greeted With Collective Silence

[Judi Lynn]

Murder of Catholic Priest in Colombia Greeted With Collective Silence
Posted: 9/7/11 03:18 PM ET

Last night, I received an email from the Colombia Support Network about a Catholic priest who was assassinated in Colombia. His name was Father Jose Reinel Restrepo, and he was killed in the midst of his campaign against the threatened incursion of a Canadian mining operation, Medoro Resources, into an area which will require an entire town (that of Marmato) to move and which will destroy the livelihood of more than 2,000 independent small miners who mine gold for a living as their families have done since the time of the Spanish Conquest. As is many times the case, the identities of Father Restrepo's killers -- armed men traveling by motorcycle -- are not known and may never be known for sure. However, given Father Restrepo's activism against a multinational concern, and given the modus operandi of the assailants, there is a good chance that they were right-wing paramilitaries linked to the Colombian military -- the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the Western Hemisphere.

The news of Father Restrepo's death was particularly upsetting, though, for one involved in solidarity work with Colombia, it is the type of news one receives on an almost daily basis. And so, this year alone, I have received the news of the 22 union leaders (many of them teachers) killed so far; of the human rights and indigenous leaders killed; of the Colombian Air Force bombing entire villages; of union and human rights leaders arrested; of the three prisoners in Valludepar's high security prison killing themselves because of the deplorable conditions -- conditions which the last person who killed himself (on September 1) referred to as "a living death."

What is so infuriating about all this is the fact that this death and carnage goes virtually unreported by the mainstream U.S. press, and does not alter the status of Colombia as the closest U.S. ally in the hemisphere. Indeed, I think about the coverage of the press, including my local paper, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which ran front page stories about prison riots in Venezuela over poor conditions there. Yet, the murder of a Catholic priest in Colombia -- much less horrible prison conditions in Colombia which have elicited suicides as well as protests including prisoners sewing their own mouths shut -- apparently warrant no coverage at all.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/murder-of-catholic-priest_b_950504.html

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x625618