Colombia’s ambassador to Austria resigns over ‘false positives’ accusation (murders)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Colombia’s ambassador to Austria resigns over ‘false positives’ accusation
posted by Daniel Freeman
Oct 4, 2013

Colombia’s local media announced on Friday that the former commander of its armed forces had resigned as ambassador to Austria after he was accused of being involved in the killings of thousands of Colombians.

Freddy Padilla, the acting Commander General of Colombia’s Military Forces between 2006 and 2009, publicly announced his resignation as the ambassador to Austria after being accused of being responsible for the so-called ‘false positives’ scandal, in which the Colombian military, in league with paramilitary forces, killed an alleged 3900 civilians and dressed them up as enemy combatants in order to boost their reported ‘combat kills’ throughout the 2000′s.

In August, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) sent a dossier about Padilla to all of the countries that the ambassador represented demanding that they designate Padilla a ‘persona non-grata’ and remove his diplomatic immunity. These countries included Austria, where Padilla was Colombia’s ambassador, as well as the Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary, where he acts as a diplomatic representative of Colombia.

This past week, the ECCHR publicly released the dossier, which contained accusations and evidence against Padilla claiming that the ex-general was “presumably responsible for international crimes committed by his subordinates, because he knew of the crimes, but neither prevented, nor punished the wrongdoers.”



Read more: http://colombiareports.co/ambassador-to-austria-resigns/

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Freddy Padilla with US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace[/center]
As investigations increased against Colombia government and military personel, the Colombian President opted to designate Freddy Padilla as the ambassador to Austria.

[Judi Lynn]

1. George W Bush's aly, Alvaro Uribe, appointed Padilla his Defense Secretary

when he started attracting too much heat for his "false positives."

From an earlier post:

Armed Forces commander becomes new Defense Minister
Saturday, 23 May 2009 07:58

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe assigned current Armed Forces commander General Freddy Padilla de Leon as successor of Juan Manuel Santos as Defense Minister. Padilla will combine his job as Minister with that of ultimate chief of the Armed Forces.

Uribe announced the decision Friday evening together with the official acceptance of Santos' resignation. Uribe asked Santos "to continue to help Colombia."

The Defense Minister resigned Monday to allow him to run for the 2010 Presidency in case his boss Alvaro Uribe decides not to or is not allowed to.

Padilla de Leon led Colombia's Armed Forces since August 2006.

http://colombiareports.co/chief-of-staff-becomes-new-defense-minister/

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Freddy Padilla meets Bush's ambassador William Brownfield

From thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x15527

[formercia]

2. The only thing St. Peter has missing on his uniform is his Knight's Cross.

He would surely wear it if it were allowed, but then, that might let the cat out of the Bag as to whom he really works for.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Good thing that mass murder didn't occur in Chavez's Venezuela.

Then we might have been concerned.

Seriously, what a double standard! Some guy gets killed in a street brawl in Caracas, and it's a sign of the Venezuelan government's dictatorial tendencies. But the Colombian government murders thousands, and...meh.