Politicians linked to death squads

[Judi Lynn]

Nov. 17, 2006, 1:51AM
Scandal in Colombia
Politicians linked to death squads
Paramilitary fighters and their victims in Sucre begin telling their stories


By JOHN OTIS
South America Bureau

SINCELEJO, COLOMBIA — Fearing reprisals, people in northern Sucre state would only whisper about dark alliances between Colombian politicians and paramilitary death squads.

In exchange for support from the outlawed militias, they said, everyone from members of Congress to village mayors collaborated with the paramilitaries — gunmen who slaughtered civilians, smuggled cocaine and stole government funds.

But with more than 30,000 of the militiamen now disarmed under a government peace initiative, accounts from some former fighters and their victims as well as incriminating documents are finally emerging. As a result Colombia's Supreme Court has taken the unprecedented step of ordering the arrests of three national Congress members from Sucre, alleging that they helped to fund, organize and arm the militias.

President's reputation on the line
The rapidly unfolding scandal, which also has touched a former governor, a former congresswoman and the former chief of the investigative police, has rocked Colombia and battered the reputation of President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4341685.html



Colombia's President Uribe and friend

[lapfog_1]

1. Where was Negroponte between his Central America days and his Iraq days?

Wherever he goes, death squads suddenly pop up.

He is the Johnny Appleseed of human misery.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I think the answer is the Philippines.

Ambassador to the Philippines from 1993 to 1996 overseeing this no doubt :

The report highlights the role played by the United States in shaping a national policy environment conducive to the WTO agenda. According to Bello The main byproducts of membership has been the erosion of national sovereignty, as the US government took a direct hand in overhauling the Philippine legal system to make it WTO-consistent."

He further adds that strong US influence was exercised either through constant pressure from the US Trade Representatives Office and US Embassy or directly via consulting groups such as the USAID-funded AGILE program. The latter was especially the case in the areas of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs).
>
The report however shows that not only have the promised benefits not materialized, the local economy has been worse off under the WTO. Practically all the disadvantages that opponents of WTO membership for the Philippines warned against during the ratification debate in 1994 have come about, even as those who led the country into the organization remain unaccountable for the consequences of their misguided advocacy. adds Bello.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7268

Maybe read as "how to give American Corporations cheap manufacturing facilities"
Simple example here :
In Cavite, Philippines, regular shifts last from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. A few nights a week workers have to work until 2 a.m. According to the official rules of the Philips factory (which produces for Nike and Reebok), "Refusal to render overtime work when so required" is an offense "punishable with dismissal." In China workers sometimes have to work three day shifts, and are forced to sleep under their machines. In Mexico, factories producing for Panasonic, General Electric, General Motors and Fruit of the Loom don't want to pay workers enough to raise children, so they harass pregnant women to make them quit; they require them to work the night shift or take long hours of unpaid overtime and physically strenuous tasks, and they refuse them time off for doctor visits. A Human Rights Watch study reports " pregnant worker is forced to choose between having a healthy, full-term pregnancy and keeping her job."
http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/kids2.htm

[bullimiami]

2. this has branches growing in the cia, neocons and this WH.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombian government shaken by lawmakers' paramilitary ties

Colombian government shaken by lawmakers' paramilitary ties
Investigation sends shock wave through Congress
By Juan Forero, Washington Post | November 21, 2006

BOGOTA -- The government of President Alvaro Uribe is being shaken by its most serious political crisis yet, as details emerge about members of Congress who collaborated with right-wing death squads to spread terror and exert political control across Colombia's Caribbean coast.

Two senators, Alvaro Garcma and Jairo Merlano, are in custody, as is a congressman, Eric Morris, and a former congresswoman, Muriel Benito. Four local officials have been arrested, and a warrant has been issued for a former governor, Salvador Arana. All are from the state of Sucre, where the attorney general's office has been exhuming bodies from mass graves -- victims of a paramilitary campaign to erode civilian support for Marxist rebels in Colombia's long conflict.

The investigation, which has revealed how lawmakers and paramilitary commanders rigged elections and planned assassinations, has shaken Colombia's Congress to its core. One powerful senator from Cesar state, Alvaro Araujo, has warned that if he is targeted in the investigation, it would taint relatives of his in the government and, ultimately, the president, whom he has strongly supported.

The arrests and disclosures about the investigation, which is focusing on at least five more members of Congress, come weeks after prosecutors leaked a report revealing how paramilitary fighters have killed hundreds of people, trafficked cocaine to the United States, and sacked government institutions while negotiating a disarmament with Uribe's government. Mario Iguaran, the attorney general, said the crisis is worse than the scandal that tarnished former president Ernesto Samper, who in the 1990s was accused of having used drug money to fund his political campaign.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2006/11/21/colombian_government_shaken_by_lawmakers_paramilitary_ties/