Senator admits backing militias (3rd largest U.S. aid recipient Colombia)

[Judi Lynn]

Senator admits backing militias
From Times Wire Reports
November 27, 2006


A member of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's congressional coalition has admitted supporting illegal right-wing militias, deepening the worst political crisis to hit the Andean country in years.

In a newspaper interview, Sen. Miguel de la Espriella became the first member of Congress to admit dealing with the militias, which are accused of atrocities in Colombia's civil war. Three other congressmen from Uribe's coalition have been charged with financing and organizing the groups.
(snip/)

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-briefs27.4nov27,1,2761989.story?coll=la-news-a_section



Colombian senator admits right-wing militia link
26 Nov 2006 21:12:55 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov 26 (Reuters) - A member of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's congressional coalition has admitted to supporting illegal right-wing militias, deepening the worst political crisis to hit this Andean country in years.

In a newspaper interview published on Sunday, Senator Miguel De la Espriella became the first member of Congress to admit to dealing with the militias, fueling a scandal over long-suspected links between cocaine-smuggling paramilitaries and public officials.
(snip)

One of the arrested lawmakers is charged with being involved in a paramilitary massacre of peasants.
(snip)

Asked if Uribe has any direct links to the paramilitaries, De la Espriella responded: "Uribe, like all human beings, can make mistakes ... What I can be sure of is that he is an honest president."

The scandal could be getting closer to the president, said political commentator and paramilitary expert Mauricio Romero.
"If not, why did the senator not give a straight answer to the question about Uribe?" Romero said.
(snip/...)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26463541.htm

[Kire]

1. You might want to put the word Columbian in the title

The second article uses it, so I suggest using that. Just my two cents.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Gotcha. n/t

[Robbien]

3. "The crises has hurt Uribe's ability to drive through economic reforms"

I cannot say how happy this makes me. If the militias didn't kill the peasants, these fta's with the US certainly would.

[John Q. Citizen]

4. What has been general knowledge for years finally makes the papers.

The Columbian Military and the rightwing drug running paramilitaries have been working hand in glove for years.

And we pay for it with our tax dollars!

[Judi Lynn]

5. DU has had at least one determined poster who has fought like a wild man to keep the lie alive

that it's the leftists who are slaughtering the Colombian villagers, year after year after year.

Our right-wing absolutely doesn't want the country to understand we've been supporting Colombian death squads for years, and they do this by trying to keep everyone confused about who's who.

With any luck at all, the whole truth is FINALLY going to become completely obvious.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. I know a guy from my local chapter of CAJA

(Community Action for Justice in the Americas ) who spends many months of every year in Columbia documenting the atrocities committed jointly by the military and the right wing militias.

The FARC has done some terrible things, but the rightwing drug running militias work side by side with the military and when they force peasants off their land, burn their homes, disappear people they always accuse the people they oppress of being "leftwing" sympathizers."

We are spending hundreds of millions a year to eradicate food production, because when the arial spray the 5 and 10 farm acre plots of small farmers they spray everything, including livestock and people.

We are paying for terrorism and chemical warfare against the peasants of Columbia.

[Judi Lynn]

8. You may recall the news coming out that they found paramilitaries disguised dead villagers as rebel

fighters in order to cover up massacres.

That's a very low pursuit. Here's one of many articles pointing out the far heavier responsibility which falls upon the paramilitaries for the atrocities:

Their Names, At Least
By JUSTICIA Y PAZ


Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Vélez opened negotiations with the country's right-wing paramilitaries almost as soon as he took office in August 2002. The paramilitaries -- currently grouped in a national federation called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) -- have been responsible for the majority of murders and forced displacements of civilians in Colombia's tragic armed conflict for many years. Over 3 million Colombians have been uprooted from their homes and communities -- "displaced" -- since 1985, and tens of thousands more have been murdered. The paramilitaries' signature terror methods include slow torture, dismemberment, and the use of chainsaws. When guerrilla groups participated in the formation of new political parties in the 1980s as part of an attempt to resolve the decades-old war between the government and guerrillas, paramilitaries exterminated over 3,000 members of these new parties.

In a proposal announced in June called the "Justice and Peace" law, Uribe seeks to offer the paramilitaries immunity from any serious punitive consequences for their crimes. Under Uribe's proposal, they will not have to turn over the land and wealth they have acquired to victims (or even the government); tell the truth about their crimes to victims, survivors, or the society; or serve more than a few years in jail.

Uribe is the George W. Bush administration's only significant remaining ally in South America............
(snip)

http://www.counterpunch.org/cryan07012005.html

[thingfisher]

11. Uribe is the George W. Bush administration's only significant remaining ally in South America.......

Birds of a feather....

[Joanne98]

6. They're not militias they're NAZI's...

[Judi Lynn]

10. They're Nazi's who kill journalists, too!

November 27, 2006

Censorship, Hegemony and the Media in Colombia

by James J. Brittain

Shedding light on issues of government corruption, state officials indirectly involved in the violation of its own citizens’ rights, or sectors of the nation’s elite hiring killers to eliminate their adversaries would, in many countries, be on the front pages of any press or be a headline story on any television news channel; however, this is not necessarily the case within the country of Colombia. Rather than seeing these issues presented in the media or awards given to those involved in such investigative journalism, Colombian journalists experience dismissal, incarceration or even death when exposing information that places the Colombian state or the elite in a critical light.

While Colombia has the highest number of journalists killed by paramilitary death squads in the world, it was the Colombian state that recently acted against one well-known journalist. On the evening of November 19, Colombia’s secret police (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS) detained Freddy Muñoz Altamirano, a Colombian-based journalist and correspondent for teleSUR, a multi-state-owned news channel located in Caracas. Recognized throughout Latin America for his investigative reporting on the forced displacement of Colombian civilians at the hands of state and paramilitary forces, Muñoz was arrested on charges of “rebellion and terrorism” relating to “terrorist attacks” in Cartagena and Barranquilla during 2002.

Since its appearance in the fall of 2005, teleSUR has presented critical reports on the Uribe administration’s security policies within Colombia garnishing widespread attention across Latin America. However, the actions of the Colombian state and the DAS have undoubtedly eroded the channel’s regional legitimacy as an information medium outside the Western/US-dominated services (e.g. CNN, FOX News, etc.). Dan Feder, editor of the Narco News Bulletin, goes a step further and argues that the state’s actions depict an even larger “attack on the independent and critical press” due to the fact that such charges open the door to state and extra-state violence:

Being publicly accused of ‘terrorism’ is often an invitation for assassination attempts in Colombia, where armed paramilitary groups rush to take out anyone who can be portrayed as an ‘insurgent.’ At the very least, the Colombian government, in allowing the press to discover the accusations against Muñoz has made a very heavy-handed attempt to discredit an accomplished journalist who has exposed the ugly side of the Colombian and US government’s war against leftwing rebels.
(snip/...)

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia248.htm

[Judi Lynn]

9. ANALYSIS-Colombian scandal weakens push for economic reform

ANALYSIS-Colombian scandal weakens push for economic reform
27 Nov 2006 14:56:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

More By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The arrest of three congressmen from President Alvaro Uribe's coalition on charges of supporting right-wing militias is weakening his push for reforms meant to ensure Colombia's long-term solvency.

Uribe, popular for cutting crime as part of his U.S.-backed crackdown on Marxist rebels, started his second term in August with apparently strong support in Congress.

But investigations into long-suspected links between lawmakers and drug-running paramilitary groups is weakening Uribe's Wall Street-backed effort to expand Colombia's tax base and attract investment.

"It is quite a distraction, which increases uncertainty about what bills can get passed," said Santiago Castro, an Uribe ally and senior ranking member of the lower house's economic affairs committee.

The president wants to cut income taxes, sell part of the state oil company and limit the money Bogota sends to provincial governments in a bid to spark economic growth.

The markets had expected he would have a honeymoon with Congress after parties allied to him swept March legislative elections. He started his second term vowing to sign politically difficult measures such as expanding the value-added tax to include more basic foods and services.
(snip/...)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27459511.htm

[Judi Lynn]

12. Colombia: army kills community leader

Colombia: army kills community leader
Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 11/27/2006 - 22:59.

On Oct. 24, Colombian army troops opened fire on community leader Lever Castrillon Sarmiento and his eight-year-old son as the two were fishing near the village of Norosi, Rio Viejo municipality, in Bolivar department. The group of 40 soldiers from the Nueva Granada Battalion of the army's Fifth Brigade were seeking to ambush a guerrilla column, and apparently mistook Castrillon and his son for rebels. Castrillon was killed by a bullet to the chest, while his son was treated in a local hospital for a bullet wound in the knee and was declared out of danger. The local attorney general's office in Rio Viejo has opened an investigation into the incident. (Vanguardia Liberal, Bucaramanga; El Tiempo, Bogota, Oct. 26)
(snip/)

http://ww4report.com/node/2845