Retired Colombian army general 'behind plot' to assassinate Bogota mayor .

[Judi Lynn]

Retired Colombian army general 'behind plot' to assassinate Bogota mayor .
Monday, 09 July 2012 08:26 Esteban Manriquez

A witness confirmed there was a plot to assassinate high-profile ex-senator Piedad Cordoba and the Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro earlier in 2012, reported Colombian newspaper La Opinion Sunday.

The two officials were the targets of an assassination plot in May, the unidentified source told the newspaper from his refuge in Venezuela, where he is in hiding for security purposes.

According to the source, the attack was scheduled to take place in the city center of Nieva, located in the heart of the southwestern province of Huila. The plan involved two men and a women, including the witness. One of the assailants was supposed to throw a grenade to create a diversion.

The witness identified a retired army sargent, Hernando Medina Comacho, who reportedly approached the trio with an offer of more than $500,000 to carry out the hit.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/24983-plot-to-assassinate-mayor-and-ex-senator.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Both of these leftists have had to depend upon bodyguards for a long time, living under threats.

Gustavo Petro:

Bogotá elects former guerrilla as mayor
Colombians install anti-corruption crusader Gustavo Petro as mayor of Bogotá after peaceful end to volatile elections
Associated Press and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 October 2011 09.20 EDT

A former leftist rebel and anti-corruption crusader has been elected mayor of Bogotá, the first time an ex-guerrilla has won Colombia's second most important elected office.

~snip~
...Like many prominent Colombians unafraid to speak their minds, he has been targeted by death threats and has long been assigned a phalanx of bodyguards. He told Associated Press in 2007 that he had learned of two organised attempts by the extreme right to kill him, one of which forced him into temporary exile.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/31/bogota-elects-former-guerilla-mayor

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Regarding former Senator Piedad Cordoba:

Colombia: Piedad Córdoba says trial proves links between government and paramilitaries

Colombian defender of human right Piedad Córdoba said on Friday that the public trial of former subdirector of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS – Administrative Security Department), José Miguel Narváez, demonstrates the truth of charges she has made for years concerning links between paramilitaries and the government.

“The link between the paramilitaries and the government, through DAS, is confirmed, there is overwhelming proof,” Córdoba declared in an interview granted to TeleSUR.

She added, “I participated in a series of meetings where paramilitary chiefs, like Don Bernán, for example, admitted who had ordered my kidnapping.”

~snip~
The human rights defender stated as well that all these actions are intended to cause the disappearance of the Colombian democratic left.

More:
http://lo-de-alla.org/2011/01/colombia-piedad-cordoba-says-trial-proves-links-between-government-and-paramilitaries/

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~snip~
In 1999 Carlos Castaño, leader of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), kidnapped Senator Córdoba. After several weeks she was freed and exiled with her family in Canada. After one year and 2 months in exile and reports by Colombian authorities that security had improved, Córdoba returned to Colombia, leaving her family behind to resume her political duties. She has been the victim of two assassination attempts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedad_C%C3%B3rdoba

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A Chilling Crime Network Rears Its Head in Colombia
Latin America: Tactics used by the powerful group La Terraza recall the days of the Medellin cartel.
March 16, 2000|JUANITA DARLING | TIMES STAFF WRITER

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Sen. Piedad Cordoba knew she was a target. As chairwoman of the Senate Human Rights Committee in this country where politicians are regularly kidnapped or assassinated, she had alienated guerrillas, right-wing private armies and even members of the government.

Still, Colombians were shocked when she and her bodyguard were surrounded by 15 armed people in uniforms of national investigative police at a clinic in the fashionable El Poblado district of this violent city. With so many powerful enemies, who had pulled off the audacious midday kidnapping?

Nine months after the senator was released unharmed by paramilitary leader Carlos Castano, prosecutors think they have the answer. They believe that Castano had hired the job out to La Terraza, the most powerful criminal organization operating in Colombia since drug baron Pablo Escobar was gunned down by police in 1993.

The kidnapping was the first firm link between urban organized crime related to drug trafficking and Castano's rural federation of seven right-wing anti-insurgency forces, which have an estimated strength of 11,000 troops and their own narcotics ties.

More:
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/16/news/mn-9425