Colombia investigates plans to kill key 'para-economy' witness .

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Colombia investigates plans to kill key 'para-economy' witness
Tuesday, 12 June 2012 17:00 Olle Ohlsen Pettersson

Colombian prosecutors have said there exists a plot to kill a key witness in investigations against top businessmen and sons of former President Alvaro Uribe, newspaper El Espectador reported Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, the Prosecutor General’s office began an investigation after having received information about the alleged murder plot of Jose Gelves Albarracin, alias "El Canoso."

The demobilized paramilitary, a former commander of the AUC, is considered one of the most important witnesses in the so-called para-economy scandal, which ties top politicians and businessmen from the north of Colombia to paramilitary death squads.

Additionally, the former paramilitary commander has accused Tomas and Jeronimo Uribe of having had private and commercial relations with high-ranking paramilitaries.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/24547-colombia-investigates-plans-to-kill-former-paramilitary.html

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. If only Uribe had worn a red beret or something this might get some notice.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Downright puzzling, isn't it? Not a peep from these citizens ever concerning the death squads,

astonishing government corruption, bloody history of military figures working WITH the death squads in joint operations, and Colombian politicians already proven to have direct connections to the narcotrafficking death squads who have helped them get into office through voter intimidation, and contract murders of their opponents.

Morally horrifying and repuslive beyond endurance as it is, that government couldn't be finer in the eyes of U.S. politicians who see no downside to it whatsoever, and a must-have for US corporations, and militarily for keeping a forward operating base going in South America, no matter WHAT the citizens want.

Things haven't gone well at all for Colombian leftists trying to work in office since at least 1948:

On April 9, 1948, populist Colombian presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was shot down in the street outside of his office in Bogotá. The poor of the city, who saw him as a savior, went berserk, rioting in the streets, looting and murdering. This riot is known as the “Bogotazo” or “Bogotá attack.” When the dust settled the next day, 3,000 were dead, much of the city had been burned to the ground. Tragically, the worst was yet to come: the Bogotazo kicked off the period in Colombia known as “La Violencia,” or “the time of violence,” in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary Colombians would die.

More:
http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofcolombia/p/bogotazo.htm

[bobthedrummer]

3. K&R n/t