Colombia U.S. bases up for court review

[Judi Lynn]

Source: UPI

Colombia U.S. bases up for court review
Published: Aug. 4, 2010 at 3:48 PM

BOGOTA, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. forces' use of military bases in Colombia in the war on gangs supplying narcotics to North America is under scrutiny in the country's Constitutional Court ahead of the Saturday's inauguration of Juan Manuel Santos as Colombian president.

Outgoing President Alvaro Uribe signed the agreement last year despite opposition criticism and fiercer condemnation from populist neighbors like Venezuela, who saw the military pact as a preparation for war, a charge dismissed by both U.S. and Colombian officials.

Critics say the pact remains controversial and must be reviewed by the new Santos presidency and probably revised so much as to bar U.S. forces from using the Colombian military bases. One counter-criticism is that the joint Colombian-U.S. military cooperation to fight the drug overlords is a product of the South and Central American states' failure to stem the outflow of narcotics to North America and beyond.

Colombia embarked on a $4 billion upgrade of its military in 2009, buying equipment from France, Israel, Russia and the United States. Included in the acquisition program are aircraft, naval vessels and submarines, armored vehicles and small arms and ammunition and training aircraft assembled in Colombia.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/08/04/Colombia-US-bases-up-for-court-review/UPI-63261280951316/

[Arctic Dave]

1. The US losing Colombian bases would be a huge victory for the people who

wish to see CA and SA free from imperial domination.

[Wilms]

2. Good. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. U.S. needs to reevaluate Plan Colombia

U.S. needs to reevaluate Plan Colombia
Colombia gets a new president this week, but more is required to bring change. We cannot continue to celebrate a so-called success story that has had disturbing human rights and humanitarian repercussions.
By Milburn Line

August 5, 2010

Colombia inaugurates a newly elected president on Saturday: the former minister of defense, Juan Manuel Santos. Amid saber-rattling by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez following Colombian allegations that he is supporting FARC rebels, Santos is likely to follow outgoing President Alvaro Uribe's policy of attempting to defeat Colombia's insurgencies and its drug trade through military means. The Obama administration, however, should support a renewed effort for a peace process. This, and more focused leadership by the U.S., would give our Colombian partners a better chance of resolving a 40-year conflict in which we have invested billions over the last decade, as well as helping to defuse tensions between Colombia and its neighbors.

Recent visits by U.S. officials to Colombia have only scratched the surface of the challenges that nation faces. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meeting with Uribe in June, focused on the promotion of free trade, the war on drugs and democratic transition, though she at least raised the issue of ongoing human rights violations. Before that, in April, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates addressed agreements that allow for a U.S. military presence on seven Colombian bases, another source of tension with Colombia's neighbors. His lauding of the Colombian "success story" was front-page news in Bogota.

After 10 years and $7 billion of the U.S.-supported Plan Colombia, the Colombian government has had only marginal success in the war on drugs and in defeating the FARC and other Marxist guerrillas. A new report by a U.S. advocacy organization, the Washington Office on Latin America, details the staggering human costs of Plan Colombia, a U.S. package of assistance established during the Clinton administration and overwhelmingly directed to the Colombian security forces.

Colombia, with a population of 45 million, suffers up to 20,000 violent deaths a year, down from almost 30,000 a year at the beginning of the decade. (By contrast, Mexico's much-covered drug violence resulted in 6,500 deaths last year.) Colombia's population of 3.3 million internally displaced people, who have fled conflict and persecution and live in impoverished squatter camps around urban centers, is second only to Sudan's.

Human rights violations persist. In 2008, the Colombian military was caught recruiting, then killing 11 young men from a poor neighborhood of Bogota, and presenting them as guerrillas killed in combat. Almost 2,000 cases of civilians allegedly killed by the military are now being investigated by the Colombian courts. After a 2005 plea-bargaining scheme to demobilize nearly 30,000 paramilitaries, many accused of massive human rights violations, none have been convicted. Stolen property has not been returned to their victims, and sexual violence committed against thousands of Colombian women has gone unpunished.

Homicide statistics indicate that Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. Up to 20,000 minors have been forcibly recruited into the various armed factions. A scandal recently described by human rights advocates as "worse than Watergate" has exposed the principal security agency, which reported directly to Uribe, of harassing Colombian human rights defenders.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-line-colombia-20100805,0,3435586.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fprintedition%2Fopinion+%28Los+Angeles+Times+-+Editorials%2C+Op-Ed%29

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombia: SOA Watch protests at Tolemaida military base

Colombia: SOA Watch protests at Tolemaida military base

Submitted by WW4 Report on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 01:32. Nine US human rights activists are holding a vigil at the Tolemaida military base near Bogotá with a 12-foot banner that reads "U.S. MILITARY OUT OF COLOMBIA." The Tolemaida base is one of seven in Colombia to which the US military has been granted access for 10 years under the US-Colombia Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2009.

The agreement has been met with opposition by Colombian and international human rights groups. It caused tensions in the region after a US Air Force document became public that revealed that the US military is planning to use the seven Colombian bases for "full spectrum operations throughout South America" against threats not only from drug traffickers and guerilla movements, but also from "anti-US governments" in the region.

Father Roy Bourgeois, SOA Watch founder and Purple Heart recipient, is leading this delegation of activists. Most of them have served federal prison terms for civil disobedience actions demanding closure of the School of the Americas (SOA), now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).

"The bases agreement operates from the same failed military mindset that has given rise to the School of the Americas," said Father Roy Bourgeois. "The purpose of the bases and the purpose of the SOA/WHINSEC are the same: to ensure US control over the region through military means."

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/8907





http://mundofleko.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/09/us-imperialism-latuff-latin-america-racism.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

5. U.S. Activists Call for American Troops to Leave Colombia

Caracas,
Thursday
August 5,2010
U.S. Activists Call for American Troops to Leave Colombia

BOGOTA – U.S. activists with the non-governmental organization SOA Watch demonstrated outside a Colombian army base “to demand the U.S. military leave Colombia,” a protest organizer told Efe.

The 10 activists “came directly to Colombia for the protest and will spend a week” in the Andean nation, the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said by telephone.

Tuesday’s protest at the Colombian army’s Tolemaida Base near the central town of Melgar was one of “several vigils” that will be held to “demand the end of the U.S. military presence in Colombia,” the activist said.

The protest began Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. and ended three and a half hours later, the SOA Watch member said.

The activists, who are to be joined by representatives of Colombian human rights organizations, have planned a similar six-hour sit-in starting at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

“It’s a peaceful vigil” outside the Tolemaida Base, the activist said, adding that the Colombian military thus far has allowed the protest to be staged “without any problem.”

The demonstration “is not against the bases, but rather against the U.S. Army’s influence over the Colombian” army, the activist said.

“We want the U.S. government to know that we don’t agree with the (U.S. troops’ use) of the Colombian military bases,” the activist said, referring to a bilateral agreement that was signed last October with the aim of combating drug trafficking and terrorism.

More:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361809&CategoryId=12393