Colombia arrests 32 politicians over paramilitary ties (U.S. South American right-wing ally)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Colombia arrests 32 politicians over paramilitary ties
AFP
August 29, 2014, 4:22 am

Bogota (AFP) - Colombian authorities have arrested 32 local politicians for alleged ties to right-wing paramilitary groups that fueled the country's 50-year conflict before being disbanded a decade ago, prosecutors said Thursday.
Current and former mayors, ex-town councilors, civic leaders and former Senate candidates were among those arrested in the region of Uraba in the violence-torn country's northwest.

~snip~
Rendon is accused in the killings of 4,301 people during a wave of massacres and violence that swept the Uraba region in the 1990s and 2000s, when paramilitary groups waged a campaign of terror aimed at intimidating local voters.

The groups, originally formed in the late 1980s to fight Colombia's leftwing guerrilla groups, ended up forging an alliance with like-minded politicians and turning on the local population.

~snip~
The Colombian conflict, the longest in Latin America, has killed 220,000 people and caused more than five million to flee their homes since it erupted as a left-wing guerrilla uprising in the 1960s.

Read more: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/24843468/

[villager]

1. You mean in some countries, war criminals are *arrested!?*

I'd like to see that, someday.

[Judi Lynn]

2. There are some U.S. Americans, like Henry Kissinger, they would love to visit

in Latin America, too, as in this earlier attempt in Chile, by the family of a high-ranking officer who had remained loyal to his government, and elected President Salvador Allende:

~snip~
Assassination[edit]

After the 1970 Chilean presidential election, a plot to kidnap Schneider was developed. "Neutralizing" Schneider became a key prerequisite for a military coup; he opposed any intervention by the armed forces to block Allende's constitutional election. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) supplied a group of Chilean officers led by General Camilo Valenzuela with "sterile" weapons for the operation which was to be blamed on Allende supporters.[1]

~snip~
On September 10, 2001 Schneider's family filed a suit against Henry Kissinger, accusing him of collaborating with Viaux in arranging for Schneider's murder.[3] While declassified documents show the CIA, displeased with the communist victory, had explored the idea of supporting Viaux in a coup attempt, they also show that the agency decided on tracking down other members of the Chilean military, deciding that a Viaux coup would fail. On October 15, 1970 Kissinger allegedly told U.S. President Richard Nixon that he had "turned off" plans to support Viaux, explaining that "Nothing could be worse than an abortive coup."[4] The U.S. government claims it did not intend for Schneider to be murdered, only kidnapped. When Alexander Haig, Kissinger's aide, was asked "is kidnapping not a crime?" he replied "that depends."

The lawsuit against Kissinger was eventually dismissed in the federal district court, and the dismissal was subsequently upheld by the D.C. Court of Appeals. A petition for a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court was denied.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Schneider

[villager]

4. "suit dismissed." Of course. Our war crimes aren't really war crimes, y'see..

That, or we have to "look forward."

Good fucking thing this lot wasn't in charge after WWII.

[The Magistrate]

3. Damn, Ma'am: That Is Some Cheerful News

[Sunlei]

5. all local gov officials, no higher gov officials?

[Judi Lynn]

6. As high as you can get, without a doubt.

Here's where they were in 2008:

Cousin of Colombian President Arrested in Death Squad Probe
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia, April 22 -- Authorities on Tuesday arrested former senator Mario Uribe, a cousin and close ally of President Álvaro Uribe, for alleged ties to death squads in a widening inquiry that has implicated nearly a quarter of Colombia's Congress.


The arrest of the former senator, who built a formidable political movement that helped his cousin win the presidency in 2002, comes during an institutional crisis that has tarnished a country closely allied with the United States.

As the result of investigations that began in 2006, 32 members of Congress have been arrested and about 30 others are being formally investigated for ties to paramilitary groups that killed thousands of civilians, infiltrated state institutions and trafficked cocaine to the United States. Preliminary investigations have begun against dozens of others, including the president of Congress, Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez, who was implicated last week.

With the legitimacy of Congress at rock bottom, lawmakers have been locked in a series of heated debates over how to reform the 268-member body and punish those parties whose members have been linked to paramilitary groups.

"What we've seen happen is a de facto alliance between powerful economic interests and narco-traffickers, and the motives were to co-opt institutions and convert Colombia itself into a criminal enterprise," said Sen. Gustavo Petro, who has publicly denounced ties between his colleagues and paramilitary members. "Congress is one of the institutions that's been co-opted."

In the case of Mario Uribe's party, Democratic Colombia, five of six members who held seats in Congress have been accused of collaborating with paramilitary groups, with one member, Sen. Álvaro Garcia, charged with helping to organize a massacre.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042201144.html

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Ordinary story from last year:

13 October 2013 Last updated at 08:05 ET
Colombian governor Kiko Gomez charged with murder

A regional governor in Colombia has been arrested on charges of murder and conspiracy, prosecutors say.

The governor of La Guajira province, Juan Francisco 'Kiko' Gomez, is accused of murdering political rivals.

He is also accused of links to right-wing paramilitaries and criminal gangs.

Local reports say the governor's supporters tried to prevent his arrest when police came for him during a festival in his home town of Barrancas, in north-eastern Colombia.

Colombia's deputy attorney general, Jorge Fernando Perdomo, said Kiko Gomez was linked to the assassination of a Barrancas town councillor, Luis Lopez Peralta, in 1997.

He has also been charged in connection with the murder of Luis Alejandro Rodriguez, and Rosa Mercedes Cabrera in 2000, said the prosecutor.

'Resisted arrest'

Kiko Gomez is also accused of criminal involvement with paramilitary groups in La Guajira, on Colombia's border with Venezuela.

More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-24512161

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Last year:

45 Colombian congress members convicted over paramilitary ties since 2006
Dec 10, 2013 posted by Taran Volckhausen

Colombia’s Supreme Court said it has convicted 45 congressmen and 7 governors for connections to paramilitary organizations since investigations into an ongoing “parapolitics” scandal broke in 2006.

Parapolitics refers to the ties between now-disbanded paramilitary umbrella organization AUC, who earned revenue fighting left-wing guerrillas and trafficking drugs, and Colombian lawmakers and public officials.

The hunt for parapolitics in Colombia’s congress began in 2005 after Vicente Castaño, a late leader of the AUC, bragged to magazine Semana, “paramilitary groups count more than 35 percent of the Congress as friends.”

This pronouncement opened a public debate over paramilitary politics.

Following the 2006 confiscation of a computer belonging to demobilized paramilitary warlord “Jorge 40,″ widespread investigations into the paramilitary involvement were initiated in Congress and public society, implicating over 11,000 Colombians and reaching as far as former President Alvaro Uribe.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombia-congress-members-convicted-parapolitics/

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Paramilitary Ties Implicate Colombia's Political Elite
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 18 -- In what has been heralded as a decisive moment in Colombia's shadowy, decades-long conflict, a powerful paramilitary commander is to appear in a special court Tuesday to account for crimes that include massacres and assassinations. Salvatore Mancuso's testimony will be the first by a top death-squad leader in a Colombian courtroom, and it is being touted by the administration of President Álvaro Uribe as evidence that the wheels of justice are turning.

Rather than rejoicing, however, the Uribe government has found itself in the awkward position of being implicated in the wrongdoing. Over the past several weeks, Colombians have been gripped by revelations of ties between paramilitary fighters and several congressmen close to the president, as well as some officials in his administration. The scandal now threatens to unravel his authority.

Uribe won reelection in May after cultivating his reputation as a workaholic technocrat -- someone who would be relentless against corruption and illegal armed groups. But lately, he has joined a cast of lawmakers, intelligence service operatives and mid-level government bureaucrats in publicly denying ties to the paramilitary groups, which for a generation the military used as a proxy force to battle guerrillas.

"The government's smokescreen is becoming transparent," said Venus Albeiro Silva, a congressman from the left-leaning Alternative Democratic Pole party. "What's happening now is they cannot put the lid on this. That's why we're telling the president to come out and say the truth."

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/18/AR2006121801374.htmld

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
New story tonight:

Uribe’s brother promises not to leave country amid criminal investigations
Aug 28, 2014 posted by Victoria McKenzie

Santiago Uribe sent a letter to Colombia’s Prosecutor General Wednesday promising not to skip the country while he is under criminal investigation for founding a paramilitary group.

Uribe, the younger brother of former president Alvaro Uribe, is accused of creating and leading a paramilitary group called “Los 12 Apsosteles,” associated with the AUC, which operated for almost 20 years in the north of Colombia.

Although the investigation opened one year ago, the Prosecutor General has not yet decided whether to hold Uribe in custody pending trial.

In May, the key witness in Uribe’s case refused to continue cooperating with authorities until the Prosecutor General’s Office guaranteed his safety.

Retired National Police Major Juan Carlos Meneses, who openly admits to being involved with Los 12 Apsosteles while acting as police chief, repeatedly accused Santiago Uribe of links to the former paramilitary organization.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/uribes-brother-promises-leave-country/

[Judi Lynn]

7. For anyone interested in knowing how the right-wing paramilitaries (death squads)

got revved up in Colombia, please consider the following posted in Wikipedia:

Paramilitarism in Colombia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia are the parties responsible for most of the human rights violations in the latter half of the ongoing Colombian Armed Conflict. According to several international human rights and governmental organizations, right-wing paramilitary groups have been responsible for at least 70 to 80% of political murders in Colombia per year, with the remainder committed by leftist guerrillas and government forces. Paramilitary groups control the large majority of the illegal drug trade of cocaine and other substances together with the main Colombian drug cartels, especially in terms of trafficking and processing activities.

The first paramilitary groups were organized by the Colombian military following recommendations made by U.S. military counterinsurgency advisers who were sent to Colombia during the Cold War to combat leftist political activists and armed guerrilla groups. The development of later paramilitary groups has also involved elite landowners, drug traffickers, members of the security forces, politicians and multinational corporations. Paramilitary violence today is principally targeted towards peasants, unionists, indigenous people, human rights workers, teachers and left-wing political activists or their supporters. The paramilitaries claim to be acting in opposition to revolutionary Marxist-Leninist guerrilla forces and their allies among the civilian population.

~snip~
Plan Lazo[edit]

In October 1959, the United States sent a "Special Survey Team", composed of counterinsurgency experts, to investigate Colombia's internal security situation, due to the increased prevalence of armed communist self-defense communities in rural Colombia which formed during and after La Violencia.[1] Three years later, in February 1962, a Fort Bragg top-level U.S. Special Warfare team headed by Special Warfare Center commander General William P. Yarborough, visited Colombia for a second survey.[2]

In a secret supplement to his report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yarborough encouraged the creation and deployment of a paramilitary force to commit sabotage and terrorist acts against communists:

A concerted country team effort should be made now to select civilian and military personnel for clandestine training in resistance operations in case they are needed later. This should be done with a view toward development of a civil and military structure for exploitation in the event the Colombian internal security system deteriorates further. This structure should be used to pressure toward reforms known to be needed, perform counter-agent and counter-propaganda functions and as necessary execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents. It should be backed by the United States."[3][4][5]

The new counter-insurgency policy was instituted as Plan Lazo in 1962 and called for both military operations and civic action programs in violent areas. Following Yarborough's recommendations, the Colombian military recruited civilians into paramilitary "civil defense" groups which worked alongside the military in its counter-insurgency campaign, as well as in civilian intelligence networks to gather information on guerrilla activity. Among other policy recommendations the US team advised that "in order to shield the interests of both Colombian and US authorities against 'interventionist' charges any special aid given for internal security was to be sterile and covert in nature."[1][5][6] It was not until the early part of the 1980s that the Colombian government attempted to move away from the counterinsurgency strategy represented by Plan Lazo and Yarborough's 1962 recommendations.[7]

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramilitarism_in_Colombia

[kelliekat44]

8. Sometimes humans are capable of doing the right thing!! nt

[Adrahil]

9. Glad to hear it! NT