Backlog of Colombian human rights cases pose a test for new president, the U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Backlog of Colombian human rights cases pose a test for new president, the U.S.
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 25, 2010; 4:12 PM

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The verdict this week was a milestone: A distant court affiliated with the Washington-based Organization of American States held the Colombian government responsible for the 1994 assassination of a prominent senator.

Lion of a radical political party whose members were slain by the hundreds, Manuel Cepeda was shot dead in an operation partly organized by Colombia's army. But the 16-year-old case is no anomaly in a country suffering from a simmering, half-century-old guerrilla conflict. Hundreds of cases of murder and massacres, old and new, are coursing through the inter-American justice system.

As President ?lvaro Uribe prepares to leave office in August after eight years in power, investigators at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a branch of the OAS, are grappling with many of these cases. The most recent have triggered a firestorm here and as far away as Europe: the army's systematic killing of peasant farmers to inflate combat kills and revelations that Uribe's secret police spied on opponents, foreign diplomats and rights groups.

"If you put all of this together, the extrajudicial executions, the espionage of human rights defenders, it's all really a constant over the years," Santiago Canton, an Argentine who has headed the rights commission for nine years, said by phone from Washington. "That's very dangerous."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062503704.html

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[fascisthunter]

2. killing in the name of greed

pro-business types are the reason for the killings.... the right wing has always been used by an authoritarian class to do their dirty work. This is how the right wing treats the left, but if the left were to say.... oh, shut down a business for committing a corporate crime, "OH MY" as if we slowly tore the arms and legs of a person.

We get death for protesting, they get a slap on the wrist even when they kill us.

[The Magistrate]

3. It Certainly Does, Ma'am

[Peace Patriot]

4. The Washington Pest sometimes reveals things in order to conceal other things

as do the other 'Associated Pukes.' Understand that they (and pretty much the entire corpo-fascist press corps) prints nothing that is not vetted by the CIA (if not written in Langley). So what is the corpo-fascist purpose in this article? A rare 'friend' of the U.S. in Latin America killing union leaders, peasant farmers, human rights workers and others is of no moment. Look what our own military has done--slaughtered a hundred thousand innocent Iraqis in the first weeks of bombing alone, to steal their oil, deliberate creation of chaos throughout the entire society, random roundups, imprisonment and torture, and on and on--and what it IS doing in Afghanistan--a bloody 'turkey shoot' every week, including the murder of many civilians. Really, THEY DO NOT CARE about the poor or their advocates getting offed in Colombia. In fact, that is what the U.S. "war on drugs" is FOR.

So-o-o-o, what is going on here? I think that the problem of Murder, Inc., running Colombia is so bad that they need a cover story. Note the next paragraph (after the cited text):

"The backlog of cases and what they say about Colombia's history of rights violations pose a test for Uribe's successor, Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister elected Sunday. Among his priorities is winning U.S. congressional approval of a free-trade pact, which would eliminate tariffs on Colombian exports. So far, the effort has stalled because of Democratic concerns about rights being violated with impunity here." --Washington Pest (my emphasis)

"...pose a test for." The CIA has dumped Bush's boy, Uribe, in favor of an actually worse criminal, Manuel Santos, who was Defense Minister during much of the extrajudicial slaughter over the last decade, committed by the Colombian military (about half) and its closely tied rightwing pararmilitary death squads (the other half) (stats from Amnesty International and the UN). "Pose a test for"? Santos was in charge of this slaughter! Coloring this horror as "a test" for Santos is a journalistic trick to MINIMIZE the horror of what SANTOS was in charge of, and to set up the narrative for a COSMETIC shoving of all these rotting bodies under the rug. The "test" is something like this: How successfully can Santos stab others in the back, to throw blame off himself? How successfully will he manipulate his death squads, to silence those who know too much about him and to throw some red meat to the investigators?

"...a test." Jeez.

But there may well be something even worse behind all this (the dumping of Uribe, the installation of Santos). Before they dumped Uribe (as too dirty; former Medellin Cartel; failed the "test" as to keeping his ties to the death squads under the rug), they extracted a provision in the U.S./Colombia military agreement, negotiated in secret and signed in secret last year, for "total diplomatic immunity" for all U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors' in Colombia. That's one possibility--that the U.S. military was using the opportunity of the U.S.-exacerbated mayhem in Colombia to train special forces with 'turkey shoot' practice for Afghanistan, and those crimes need a stronger U.S. operative than Uribe to cover them up. I suspect this in the case of the massacre in La Macarena, Colombia, nearby to a U.S. military base (up to 2,000 bodies found in a mass grave of recent vintage, late last year). The Washington Pest cover up in this case (U.S. military involvement in 'extrajudicial' killings) would be to frame the situation as one bad guy, Uribe, against a 'lesser' bad guy (better cosmetics), Santos--and all of it, a) a Colombian problem, and b) "a test" for Santos (will he be able to swim in this ocean of blood)? Uribe might have pointed the finger at the Pentagon or associated operatives (Blackwater, the CIA, the Bush Cartel), say, to save his own skin. Santos is more completely Washington's tool.

Another possibility--even worse--is that the Pentagon's Oil War II plan targeting Venezuela is now operative. Uribe had some loyalty to Latin America as a region, and exhibited noticeable conflict, at times, in taking his orders from Washington. Santos has no such reservations. He is totally the Pentagon's boy. With Uribe, they had to extract violations of Colombian sovereignty--such as "total diplomatic immunity" for all U.S. personnel, and U.S. military use of SEVEN bases in Colombia and ALL civilian infrastructure--in secret and probably with threats. Santos is more than happy to sell out his country and his region to the Pentagon. He is, indeed, chafing at the bit to topple the Chavez government, kill all the leftists (as he has been doing in Colombia) and hand Venezuela's oil over to Exxon Mobil and Chevron. He wants to be "emperor" of Latin America.

Leon Panetta himself went to Colombia, a few months ago, amidst rumors of a possible Uribe coup (to stay in power). The way I see it, he had to take the word directly to Uribe that Uribe was being dumped in order to guarantee SOMETHING. What was it? Protection of Bush, Jr.? I believe that's one of Panetta's missions at the CIA. He was, after all, a member of Daddy Bush's "Iraq Study Group," which likely saved Jr's skin from the CIA, after the outing of their WMD counter-proliferation agents all over the world, and also likely ousted Rumsfeld and de-fanged Cheney, for their mad plan to nuke Iran (circa 2006). Or was Panetta's mission to Colombia worse even than this--to "heal" the war between the CIA and the Pentagon by joining with the Pentagon on their new war plan? Uribe would be iffy as to a move against Venezuela. Santos would not be.

I know that there is a lot of speculation in these comments, but that is what we are reduced to as citizens of the New Roman Empire. Guessing. Nobody tells us about the next corpo-fascist war. Nobody in Washington cares what we think, or what we want done, about Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld's many horrible crimes or those of the Colombian military paid for by you and me ($7 BILLION in U.S. military aid!). And with rags like the Washington Pest--and all the rest of propagandistic press--we must learn to read between lines, because they are never going to tell us the truth, ever. And they ALWAYS have MOTIVES in what they publish and how they frame things.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Former AUC boss 'HH' pleads guilty of murder

Former AUC boss 'HH' pleads guilty of murder
Friday, 25 June 2010 12:22 Camilla Pease-Watkin

Former paramilitary boss Ever Veloza Garcia, alias "HH," pleaded guilty to the murder of thirteen people in the Colombian departments of Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Antioquia between 2001 and 2002, reported Colombian media.

'HH', who is currently in prison in the United State, accepted the charges brought against him, which were read by human rights prosecutors via video link-up between Colombia and New York.

Alongside charges of murder, 'HH' is also accused of burning several homes during the 2005 massacre of eight people in the San Apartado peace community.

The massacre caused great outrage since the peace community was established in March 1997 with the intention of staying neutral in Colombia's conflict. The community was under protection of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/10486-former-auc-boss-hh-pleads-guilty-of-murder.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. San Jose Apartado Massacre: The Murder Of Colombia's Peace Community

San Jose Apartado Massacre: The Murder Of Colombia's Peace Community
First Posted: 03-16-10 02:50 PM | Updated: 03-16-10 05:52 PM

By Nadja Drost

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The bodies of seven civilians were dumped in shallow graves and strewn by a riverbank in northern Colombia five years ago. Most had been disemboweled and sliced with a machete. Four were children.

The brutality of the massacre shocked even a war-weary country accustomed to atrocities. The victims were members of San Jose de Apartado, a self-declared "peace community." Not wanting to be a military target, the community had tried to establish neutrality by refusing entry to all armed groups, including guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary forces and the Colombian military.

Now 15 army officers are charged with murder and a trial for 10 of them is set to resume today. At stake is blame for the gruesome massacre and accountability for the army in a country where military crimes are often met with impunity and many killings go unpunished. U.S. interest in the trials also runs high -- the U.S. has given more than $6 billion in military aid to Colombia since 2000, including to units implicated in the massacre.

~snip~
The massacre

A pile of stones lies in the center of the village of San Jose de Apartado. Each time a community member is murdered, their name is painted on a stone and added to the mound. There are more than 160 stones.

The community was founded in 1997 by Luis Eduardo Guerra, an internationally known peace activist. On Feb. 21, 2005, the 35-year-old Guerra was returning home from harvesting cocoa, residents told human rights groups and investigators. At his side were his 17-year-old companion Beyanira Areiza and his 11-year-old son Deiner.

As Guerra and his family walked along the Mulatos River, they came across armed men who proceeded to interrogate them, testified commander Uber Dario Yanez of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

The paramilitary fighters were patrolling with army soldiers as part of a joint operation to go after rebels from the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Marxist insurgency that has been fighting the Colombian government since the mid-1960s. The army had hired the paramilitary fighters to guide them in unfamiliar territory -- despite the fact that the AUC was an illegal armed group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Dario Yanez said army Capt. Guillermo Gordillo and four AUC commanders decided they "had to finish them off or kill these people because supposedly they were informants of the guerrilla."

In the days following the disappearance of Guerra and his family, more than 100 community members embarked on a journey by foot and mule to find them. They discovered the boy's skull and vertebrae cast aside on the riverbank away from the rest of his body. Areiza's green sweatpants were pulled down to her knees and her body slung over those of Guerra and his son. There was not much left of their bodies, wrote Jesus Abad, a photographer from El Tiempo newspaper who accompanied the group. A machete lay among weeds.

Community members watched over the bodies, throwing rocks at vultures throughout the night and the following day to prevent them from further devouring the bodies until a helicopter with army and police officers arrived.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/san-jose-apartado-massacr_n_501243.html

~~~~~
Massacre in Colombian Peace Community
Once again, the trail of blood leads to the SOA:
SOA graduate commands accused brigade

"We have always said, and in that we are clear, that until this very day we are resisting. And our work is to continue resisting and defending our rights. We don't know until when, because the truth we've lived in our story is this: today we are here talking; tomorrow we may be dead. Today we are here in San Jose de Apartado; tomorrow the majority of people here could be displaced because of a massacre." -- Luis Eduardo Guerra, in an interview on January 15 of this year, 37 days before he was assassinated by the Colombian military

On February 21-22, 2005, eight members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community in Uraba, Colombia -including three young children, were brutally massacred. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army's 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders.

Among those killed was Luis Eduardo Guerra, an internationally recognized peace activist and a co-founder of the Peace Community. In November 2002, Luis travelled from Colombia to Fort Benning, Georgia to speak out against the School of the Americas and to give a first hand testimony about the brutal impact that SOA training and US foreign policy have on the dire situation in Colombia.

General Hector Jaime Fandino Rincon is the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army. Like Luis Eduardo, Fandino Rincon also travelled to the School of the Americas -- not to speak out for justice and peace like Luis, but to attend the "Small-Unit Infantry Tactics" course in order to become "familiar with small-unit operational concepts and principles at the squad and platoon level, receive training in planning and conducting small-unit tactical operations." Fandino Rincon is a 1976 graduate of the notorious School of the Americas. In December of 2004 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

Since the massacre, the Colombian administration of Alvaro Uribe has done little to investigate the murders. No investigation into the military or the 17th or 11th Brigade has begun. All the focus now of the government agencies intervening in the situation is to force the community members to testify at risk of their lives' instead of focusing on the military that was in the area at the time of the murders.

Police and military forces have flooded San Jose against the wishes of the Peace Community, which has taken a fundamental stance against any and all armed actors. Since the massacre, all but five of the 100 families that formed the Peace Community have been forced to leave their homes and land.

Those killed on February 21 and 22 included Luis Eduardo, his partner Bellanira and their son, Deiner, 11. Also massacred were Alejandro Perez, Alfonso Bolivar Tuberquia Graciano, his partner, Sandra Milena Munoz Pozo and their young children, Santiago, 18 months, and Natalia, 6 years old. (Click here for more background information).

The Peace Community sent a delegation to locate and identify their bodies. They found a gruesome scene, with Alejandro, Alfonso, Sandra, Santiago and Natalia in a communal grave. They had all been killed with machetes, with their heads and extremities severed. The community found Luis, Bellanira and Deiner's bodies thrown near a river. They had been beaten badly and had their throats cut.

More:
http://www.soaw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1024

[The Magistrate]

7. People Need To Look These Thing In The Face, Ma'am

[Judi Lynn]

8. It will never make sense that they will spend forever gibbering about nationalized (compensated)

companies, but completely ignore the systematic torture, mutilation, long, drawn out public murders, unforgiveable levels of cruelty practised by both the military and paramilitaries (very much alive still, despite goverment claims they have been successfully demobilized) in the country right next door to Venezuela.

Beyond all logic, certainly beyond conventional ideas of morality, they gather around reports of remarks, and legal actions by the elected President of Venezuela, and attach no importance whatsoever to the constant bloodbath in the US-allied, HEAVILY subsidized by U.S. taxes, country next to Venezuela.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Leader of Deathsquads Wins Colombian Election

Leader of Deathsquads Wins Colombian Election
by James Petras / June 28th, 2010

Juan Manuel Santos, notorious Defense Minister in the regime of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and closely identified with high crimes against humanity “won” the recent Presidential elections in Colombia, June 2010. The major electronic and print media CNN, FOX News, Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the once liberal Financial Times hailed Santos election as a great victory for democracy. According to the FT, “Colombia not Venezuela is (the) best model for Latin America.”1 Citing Santos “overwhelming” margin – he garnered 69% of the vote, the FT claimed he won a “strong mandate.”2 In what has to be one of the most flagrant cover-ups in recent history, the media accounts exclude the most egregious facts about the elections and the profoundly authoritarian policies pursued by Santos over the past decade.

The Elections: Guns, Elites and Terror

Elections are a process (not merely an event) in which prior political conditions determine the outcome. During the previous eight years of outgoing President Uribe’s and Defense Minister Santos’ rule, over 2 million, mostly rural poor, were forcibly uprooted and driven from their homes and land and displaced across frontiers into neighboring countries, or to urban slums. The Uribe-Santos regime relied on both the military and the 30,000 member paramilitary deathsquads to kill and terrorize entire population centers, deemed “sympathetic” to the armed insurgency, affecting several million urban and rural poor. Over 20,000 people were killed, many, according to the major Colombian human rights group, falsely labeled “guerrillas”. Santos, as Defense Minister, was directly implicated by the Courts in what was called “false positives”. The military randomly rounded up scores of poor urban youth, shot them and claimed a resounding victory over the FARC guerrillas.

Several of the most important captured paramilitary deathsquad leaders testified that over 60 of the congress people backing Uribe – Santos were on their payroll and they “ensured” votes from regions under their control. Faced with damaging testimony, Uribe-Santos double-crossed their narco-deathsquad comrades and “extradited” them to the U.S. where the judicial process excluded evidence linking them to the mass killings at the behest of Uribe-Santos.

Over two thousand trade unionists, human rights activists, journalists and congress — people critical of Uribe-Santos — were murdered by deathsquad hit-men serving the regime. The world’s major trade union confederations have sent missions and published reports condemning Colombia as the most dangerous country for workers’ representatives.

In other words, all the social sectors with social and political grievances against the regime were terrorized, many of their local opinion leaders, killed, displaced or driven into exile … undermining the possibility of sustained independent socio-political organization.

More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/06/leader-of-deathsquads-wins-colombian-election/