Latin America
Related: About this forumUribe is ‘Colombia’s best-ever president’ say neo-paramilitaries in mass death threat
Uribe is Colombias best-ever president say neo-paramilitaries in mass death threat
Oct 23, 2014 posted by Craig Corbett
Neo-paramilitary group the Aguilas Negras sent a death threat to 99 human rights workers and politicians, while praising Colombias best-ever president, Senator Alvaro Uribe.
In the letter 99 people are named, including 35 woman from various human rights and social welfare organizations, NGOs and political parties. The letter was sent directly to Corporation Nuevo Arco Iris, a Colombian conflict analyst group on Wednesday afternoon.
Previous threats from Aguilas Negras have been received via human rights group Redepaz.
The letter explicitly threatened Senator Ivan Cepeda, who the group claimed be an enemy of the people and of Uribe, who they viewed as the best Colombian president ever.
It is high time that we help those Communists pigs, who have screwed our country, to retire from politics and save their pig lives, people like Ivan Cepeda, notorious for persecuting and slandering the best president of Colombia of all times, Alvaro Uribe, the letter signed by the Central Command of the Aguilas Negras said.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/neo-paramilitaries-say-uribe-best-president-ever-yet-another-death-threat-human-rights-defenders/
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The U.S. has poured over nine billion dollars into Colombia's government and military since 2000. Largest foreign aid recipient outside the Middle East.
Ivan Cepeda's father, also a Colombia senator was assassinated by Colombian right-wing henchmen.
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)wonder why it is.
Judi Lynn
(160,555 posts)or "forward operating base."
Keeping Colombia under US control allows the US to set up operations there, and enable the US to move in any direction easily in both South and Central America if it's believed other countries want some help. Uh-huh. It also allows closer scrutiny and involvement with US personnel stationed permanently right there.
From an earlier post at D.U.:
Enrique
Tue Aug-04-09 08:57 PM
Original message
US official vows 'good explanation' for Colombia bases
US official vows 'good explanation' for Colombia bases
By Yana Marull (AFP) 4 hours ago
BRASILIA US President Barack Obama's national security advisor said Tuesday Washington will give a "good explanation" for plans to deploy US military units to bases in Colombia, after unease expressed in Latin America.
Retired general Jim Jones told reporters after meeting Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim in Brasilia that the goals of the agreement being negotiated allowing the use of the bases would be detailed.
The matter "will have a good explanation and a satisfactory outcome," he predicted to reporters as he began two days of talks with Brazilian officials on that and other defense issues.
Brazil and other Latin American nations, including Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile, expressed alarm at the announcement last month that the United States military would use and expand bases in Colombia.
Bogota had initially said three air bases would be used for the US fight against drug trafficking.
But the head of the Colombian military, General Freddy Padilla, said Tuesday two army bases and two navy bases would also be given US access under the deal, bringing the total to seven military facilities.
US General Douglas Fraser, in charge of US Southern Command operations covering South America, stressed after a meeting with Padilla in Cartagena, Colombia, that no deal had yet been struck.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4000840
EX500rider
(10,849 posts)U.S. Total Economic and Military Assistance FY 2012,
$US millions
Afghanistan 12,885.50
Israel 3,100.10
Iraq 1,940.10
Egypt 1,404.00
Pakistan 1,214.90
Jordan 1,135.30
Ethiopia 870.10
Kenya 749.20
Colombia 644.30
Haiti 510.4
Gaza/W Bank 457.4
Afghanistan is in central Asia, Kenya and Ethiopia are in Africa. Colombia gets slightly more then Haiti and Gaza.
Sources: U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, U.S. Bureau of Census (BUCEN) International Database
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_foreign_aid
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)Former President Alvaro Uribe on Sunday was elected the greatest Colombian in history in a poll organized by the History Channel.
The controversial former head of state won convincingly and obtained 30.3% of the votes.
Uribe won the contest in which the audience was allowed to vote for the most important Colombians in the categories of history and politics, arts and journalism, science and sports.
According to newspaper El Espectador, more than a million votes were cast in the popular election.
Great Colombians
1.Alvaro Uribe (30.3%)
2.Jaime Garzon (17.5%)
3.Manuel Elkin Patarroyo (4.85%)
4.Gabriel Garcia Marquez (4.78%)
5.Antonio Nariño (4.7%)
http://colombiareports.com/alvaro-uribe-elected-greatest-colombian-in-history/
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p.s. Its your post.
Judi Lynn
(160,555 posts)I would suggest to any conscientious person looking for the truth about a man treated as a great US ally (until his Supreme Court (upon whom he spied) ruled he couldn't run for the presidency again) even receiving from George W. Bush the US Medal of Freedom, you could gain a far CLEARER picture, not to mention far more honest view from diving right into the internet for research on Uribe's paramilitary ties, which go back for decades and decades.
The paramilitaries (death squads) have been proven in court, through trials already completed, to have had deep ties throughout to Colombian politicians, and most certainly to the Colombian military, operating as a proxy militia, even doing massacres jointly with the Colombian military, as per testimonies. Some of the witnesses have been assassinated since their testimonies. The paras were said to have been "demobilized" yet even paramilitary leaders (war lord narcotraffickers, huge time killers) have indicated there was chicanery involved and a lot of acting. Even high-ranking Colombian government officials have been tried and convicted for their part in pulling off these charades showing demobilization exercises of turning in weapons, etc.
As human rights groups such as Amnesty have all said, the paras have been responsible not only for the larger scale narcotrafficking, they have committed the "lion's share" of the massacres, extreme violence in Colombia. After they seemed to "demobilize," they simply regrouped into more groups, smaller groups, and renamed themselves with names like "Rastropos" and "Aguilas Negras" (Black Eagles).
Don't take anyone's word for it, please start your search for the truth on what has been happening in Colombia. It's a very long, violent, hideous road which only now may be starting to lead to peace, FINALLY, under President Juan Manuel Santos. It has been constant violence since the great upheaval after a great progressive Presidential candidate was assassinated, and it kicked off a decade known as "La Violencia" long ago.
Teflon President? Noose Tightens around Uribe as Former Death Squad Leaders Spill the Beans
by Tom Burghardt / October 21st, 2012
Last months capture of Colombian drug lord Daniel El Loco Barrera by Venezuelan police was hailed as a victory in the war on drugs.
Barrera, accused of smuggling some 900 tons of cocaine into Europe and the U.S. throughout his infamous career, was described by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who announced the arrest on national television, as the last of the great capos.
But what of the capo who enjoyed high office, is wined and dined by U.S. corporations and conservative think-tanks, owns vast tracks of land, is a visiting scholar at a prominent American university (Georgetown) and now sits on the Board of Directors of Rupert Murdochs News Corporation?
When will they be brought to ground?
A Family Affair
To clarify the questions above, one need look no further than the kid-gloves approach taken by the media when it comes to former Colombian President, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Álvaro Uribe.
Accused by human rights organizations over his role in the forced disappearance of thousands of Colombians during two terms in office (2002-2010), Uribe may still land in the dock as a result of ongoing investigations by Colombias Supreme Court into official corruption, drug trafficking and mass murder.
Recent arrests by Colombian authorities and revelations by the presidents former allies however, are beginning to draw a circle around Uribe and the U.S. secret state in some of the hemispheres worst human rights abuses of previous decades.
More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/10/teflon-president-noose-tightens-around-uribe-as-former-death-squad-leaders-spill-the-beans/
[center]
Proud ceremony, receiving the Medal of Freedom. [/center]
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)The paras will still be there even if peace is reached. I see nothing wrong with disbanding the paras unless you would prefer to have the AUC still around.
But I'll step back from the dialogue you are having with yourself.