Colombia's Uribe Said To Hinder Militia Probes (Bush ally)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Colombia's Uribe Said To Hinder Militia Probes
Rights Group Cites Legislative, Other Moves
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 17, 2008; A22

BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 16 -- Far from pressing to uncover the truth, President Álvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed government has hindered investigations into links between paramilitary groups and the country's political establishment, a leading human rights group said in a report released Thursday.

Human Rights Watch, which has documented ties between Colombia's army and paramilitary death squads since the 1980s, said in a 140-page report that officials have made important strides in investigating the illegal, anti-guerrilla paramilitary groups that terrorized this country until they were demobilized in 2006.

But the report accused Uribe of trying to obstruct the probes, instead of supporting them as he claims in his frequent trips to Washington. It also highlighted how Uribe and his aides have tried to tarnish the Supreme Court, which is carrying out an assertive probe that has already found ties between dozens of members of Congress and paramilitary groups.

"President Uribe's and his cabinet members' repeated verbal attacks, bizarre public accusations and personal phone calls to members of the court create an environment of intimidation," the report said.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603613.html?nav=rss_world/southamerica

[Judi Lynn]

1. You can be sure this Washington Post article by this former NY Times reporter,

Juan Forero, only scratches the extreme surface of the surface.

If anyone outside Colombia finally gets the information out about what has been happening there (it most likely won't be from Colombian reporters, after many of them have been killed, many have fled the country, and many remaining have stated they "self-censor," for survival's sake) there will be an upheaval in the kind of "support" the US has been giving this government in order to maintain it as THE South American ally.

Anyone keeping track should have noticed it has been almost a constant stream of Republican politicians making frequent trips there. Paul Wellstone went there, a man completely opposed to Plan Colombia, even though Bill Clinton helped ennact it, and he and his companions were "accidently" DRENCHED in chemicals by a plane used to destroy plant life in their attempt to kill coca plants, and at another location he was surprised to learn that right before his car arrived, and parked at a scheduled event, the Colombian government just happened to have found and removed a "bomb" they said had been placed where he was going to be stopping. Barrancabermeja was the town.

You may remember that Republican Congress thing, and Schwarzennegar campaign chairman, David Dreier, made a lot of Colombian Senators fairly disgusted when he decided to give them all a thrill by parking his butt on the lecturn while making a speech to them.



Why so formal, David?

He was all the rage, literally. They were insulted, and it's easy to see why. Apparently since they're from a small country, he didn't have to treat the event with any seriousness, in his view.

Nice work, jackass.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Adding photos of Miami Cuban Republican Congresscritters on trip to Colombia:

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, red jacket, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, gesturing, with brother, Mario Diaz-Balart beside him as they talk to Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian Defense Minister.



Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Danny Hastert visit their Colombian ally.



The lovely senators Graham, McCain, and Lieberman, Los Tres Amigos tour Colombia.

[a la izquierda]

3. Shocker!!!!

I'm stunned, really.
I'd post more..but I can't put a coherent thought together in English. Just quick smoking, and have been thinking and speaking in Spanish all day long...ahhhh. But this is not at all a surprise.


However, John McCain will be tickled pink, I'm sure.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombia: Hurdles for Militia Inquiry

Colombia: Hurdles for Militia Inquiry

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: October 16, 2008

The government of President Álvaro Uribe, left, has tried to undermine investigations of paramilitary gangs by a group of Supreme Court justices and prosecutors, Human Rights Watch said in report released Thursday. Mr. Uribe’s administration, a staunch ally of the United States, has been highly critical of members of the Supreme Court and has proposed amending the Constitution to remove the investigations from the court’s jurisdiction, the report said. Still, Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York, said progress was being made in the inquiries, with more than 60 lawmakers, nearly all of them supporters of Mr. Uribe, coming under investigation for ties to the paramilitary militias, which have killed thousands.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/world/americas/17briefs-HURDLESFORMI_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=login

[Judi Lynn]

5. COLOMBIA: Indigenous Groups in Danger of Disappearing

COLOMBIA: Indigenous Groups in Danger of Disappearing
By Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Jul 28 (IPS) - The Permanent People’s Tribunal warned in its final statement on Colombia of "the imminent danger of physical and cultural extinction faced by 28 indigenous groups," adding that 18 of the communities have less than 100 members, "and are suspended between life and death."

The 28 groups in question are the Nukak, Shiripu, Wipibi, Amorúa, Guayabero, Taiwano, Macaguaje, Pisamira, Muinane, Judpa, Yauna, Bara, Ocaina, Dujos, Piaroa, Carabayo, Nonuya, Matapí, Cacua, Kawiyarí, Tutuyo, Tariano, Yagua, Carapaná, Chiricoa, Achagua, Carijona and Masiguare, who live in different parts of this civil war-torn country.

"Their disappearance from the face of the earth would constitute, in the 21st century, not only a disgrace for the Colombian state and for humanity as a whole, but genocide and a crime against humanity because of action or failure to act by the institutions of the state in order to help these peoples who are on the verge of disappearing," says the ermanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) statement, issued last week.

Of Colombia’s 43 million people, 1.4 million are indigenous, according to the latest census, from 2005, which counted 87 different native groups, although Colombia's National Indigenous Organisation (ONIC) identifies 102 distinct communities. The difference is accounted for by the fact that the census grouped linguistic families as a single ethnic group.

The PPT, which investigates and tries human rights violations around the world, is the successor to the Russell Tribunal, which in the 1960s investigated war crimes committed during the 1965-1975 Vietnam War, and in the 1970s investigated crimes against humanity committed by U.S.-backed dictatorships in Latin America.

Also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, the Russell Tribunal was named for its organiser, British philosopher, activist and pacifist Bertrand Russell.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43343

[ronnie624]

8. Genuine monitors of human rights violations

get little or no coverage in the mainstream press.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Brutal Crackdown on Indigenous Protest in Colombia

Brutal Crackdown on Indigenous Protest in Colombia
Posted: 2008/10/17

More than 75 people were injured and at least one was killed in a crackdown on indigenous protests being held in different areas of Colombia.

by Helda Martínez
(IPS)

BOGOTA - The protests began Oct. 12, Día de la Raza (Day of the Race -- which marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas), in La María, an indigenous reserve in the southwestern province of Cauca.

Demonstrators participating in the National Mobilisation of Indigenous and Popular Resistance, convened by indigenous organisations, blocked the Pan American highway, the main north-south artery in Colombia, a branch of which communicates the country with Ecuador. To clear the road, the army and police went in with helicopters and armoured vehicles, and opened fire with live ammunition.

"It was terrible, and so unfair. We had no weapons. We only have our ceremonial staffs which symbolise authority. At this moment (midday on Wednesday) they are still shooting, although they have removed us from the Pan American highway," Manuel Rozental, a spokesperson for local indigenous groups, told IPS.

More:
http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=609081

[Judi Lynn]

7. Miami Herald: Colombia hinders paramilitary prosecutions, rights group says

Posted on Thursday, 10.16.08
Colombia hinders paramilitary prosecutions, rights group says

BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY
Special to The Miami Herald
BOGOTA -- The government of Colombia is thwarting efforts to prosecute paramilitaries and their accomplices, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released Thursday.

President Alvaro Uribe's actions have posed serious obstacles toward uncovering and dismantling what the Washington-based group calls the ''mafia-like networks'' created by paramilitaries with politicians, military officers, business leaders and landowners.

''Colombia's justice institutions have made enormous progress in investigating paramilitaries and their powerful friends,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental organization. ``But the Uribe administration keeps taking steps that could sabotage these investigations.''

Right-wing paramilitary groups were created in the 1980s by landowners and drug traffickers to battle leftist rebels. They are responsible for some of the most gruesome crimes in Colombia's four-decade-old conflict, including massacres with chain saws, often with the direct involvement of active military officers. The paramilitaries then consolidated their power through alliances with local and regional political leaders and economic power brokers. Some 30,000 paramilitaries have demobilized since 2003 as part of a deal negotiated with the government.

Colombia's Supreme Court has vigorously investigated more than 60 members of the Colombian Congress accused of collaborating with the paramilitaries, the great majority of whom are Uribe supporters. Some of the evidence against them has come from former paramilitary commanders who have testified as part of the demobilization deal about associations with politicians, as well as the military.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/728595.html

[Judi Lynn]

9. Uribe accused of obstructing paramilitaries investigation

Uribe accused of obstructing paramilitaries investigation
Article published on the 2008-10-17 Latest update 2008-10-17 14:53 TU

US-based campaign Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's government of sabotaging investigations into politicians' alleged links with paramilitaries. The Colombian administration immediately dismissed the report as "ridiculous" and "full of lies".

"The government of President Uribe, in our opinion, has become an obstacle for the advancement of justice," said HRW's Americas director José Miguel Vivanco at a press conference presenting the organisation's annual report on Colombia.

The campaign's report, Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia, focused on probes into past activities of the recently demobilised United Self-Defense Group of Colombia (AUC) and its alleged links to officials in the Uribe administration and legislators in the ruling coalition.

It accuses Uribe of undermining the Supreme Court's investigation of accusations against members of the Colombian Congress.

More than 60 members have been under investigation, almost all from Uribe's coalition.

Human Rights Watch says Uribe has repeatedly tried to discredit the Supreme Court through public attacks on the court and its members and attempts to remove the "parapolitics" probes from its jurisdiction.

More:
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/106/article_1890.asp

[EFerrari]

10. K&R