U.S. Advises Security Apprenticeships in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Advises Security Apprenticeships in Colombia
Written by Belen Fernandez
Friday, 23 April 2010 20:40

During his visit to Bogotá last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced:

"Colombia's success against terrorists and narco-traffickers does offer a lot of opportunities for them to share their expertise. We certainly would like to see . . . other countries take advantage of Colombia's strengths."

Gates noted that Peru and Mexico were already taking advantage of Colombian strengths in the area of military training but failed to note the current presence in Colombia of a delegation of mayors and vice-mayors from 26 different cities in Honduras, accompanied by Honduran Interior Minister Áfrico Madrid.

The Honduran visit comes in response to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe’s brief stopover in Tegucigalpa following the January inauguration of Pepe Lobo and legitimization of last year’s coup d'état against Mel Zelaya, whose desire to enable the national Constitution to be rewritten in accordance with the interests of the majority of the populace threatened the political and financial domination of the country by 10 families. Uribe and Lobo signed a security cooperation agreement, a commitment that was reinforced in the Colombian government communiqué regarding the April 13 meeting between the Colombian leader and his Honduran guests.

According to the communiqué, Honduran Municipal Association president Carlos Miranda Canales confirmed that the excursion to Bogotá was an “educational trip” and cited “common problems” faced by the two nations. Gates identified three such problems in the region—“insurgents and narcotics and crime”—and declared that Uribe’s expertise in combating them made him “a great hero.”
The Defense Secretary’s description of the president’s abilities stands in stark contrast to a Defense Department report compiled in 1991, when Uribe was a senator and Gates director of the CIA. The report describes Uribe variously as “dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín cartel at high government levels,” “linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the US,” “a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria,” and “one of the politicians… who has attacked all forms of the extradition treaty .”

Uribe’s improved cooperativeness vis-à-vis the U.S.—as evidenced in the U.S.-Colombia Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2009, authorizing U.S. use of Colombian military bases—has not, however, relieved him of dubious affiliations. The parapolitics scandal, for example, has revealed paramilitary ties to a number of Uribe’s allies in the national Congress and to other pro-Uribe politicians.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2463-us-advises-security-apprenticeships-in-colombia

[Peace Patriot]

1. Oh, man, this bad! This is very, very, VERY bad!

This is a repeat of the horrors of the Kissinger/Reagan eras, with the U.S. actively funding and organizing death squad decimation of the political left across several Latin American countries. It is mind-bogglingly disgusting for Gates to be recommending Colombian "security" methods. What this really means is La Macarena, for instance, where up to 2,000 bodies were recently found in a mass grave (with grave dates through 2009, but no names), whom local people say are the bodies of 'disappeared' local community activists (union leaders, teachers, human rights workers). The mass grave is nearby to one of the SEVEN U.S. military bases in Colombia, in a region of particular interest and activity by the U.S. military and the USAID, and was discovered because local children got sick drinking the water that had been polluted by the many corpses.

"Colombia's success against terrorists and narco-traffickers does offer a lot of opportunities for them to share their expertise. We certainly would like to see . . . other countries take advantage of Colombia's strengths."--U.S. 'Forever War' Secretary Robert Gates

Why don't you help purify the water in La Macarena, Gates, before you start instigating--or is it making?--more mass graves elsewhere? Hm? You can at least understand the purity of the water issue, no?*

-------------------------------

*(I.e., "precious bodily fluids," USAF Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," by Stanley Kubrick, 1964.)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Creates a whole different idea of the term "precious bodily fluids," absolutely.

Very glad you made that connection. It's so savagely true, under such appalling circumstances. It will stick in the mind a long time.

You know there are some true monsters at work in these Colombian/U.S. wars against the Colombian people when this kind of thing can ever happen.

[IndianaGreen]

2. If Uribe is a 'great hero' then Josef Mengele was a great doctor!

American imperialism must die the ignominious death it rightfully deserves after so many innocents have been slaughtered to protect US corporate interests in Latin America.

[Judi Lynn]

4. They have served such similar masters. What a shame. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

5. k