Colombian court orders arrest of 5 more congressmen

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Colombian court orders arrest of 5 more congressmen
The Associated Press
Published: May 14, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the arrest of five more congressmen for backing a reign of terror by illegal right-wing militias, and a former congresswoman supportive of the paramilitares was arrested. All six had signed a 2001 pact with militia leaders pledging to support them.
(snip)

The new warrants bring to 14 the number of congressmen and senators charged with criminal conspiracy for allegedly benefiting from close ties to paramilitary bands that have committed some of Colombia's worst massacres.

All are accused of winning office with the backing of the gangs, which the U.S. State Department branded as foreign terrorist organizations in 2001.

Eight members of Congress, all allied with President Alvaro Uribe, had been jailed prior to Monday's warrants in a snowballing scandal that has badly tarnished the government.


Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/14/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Paramilitary-Scandal.php

[Judi Lynn]

1. Excellent interview: The Para-Scandal and the Bush Visit in Colombia

The Para-Scandal and the Bush Visit in Colombia
An interview with Jorge Robledo
by Jorge Robledo
and Justin Podur and Manuel Rozental
March 10, 2007

~snip~
Manuel Rozental: You mentioned the chief of the secret police, DAS, Jorge Noguera. We know that Noguera is very close to the President, and that the charges against him are very damning of the President and of the US. Can you talk about this?

JR: This is, in the midst of a massive scandal, one of the most scandalous pieces of information. The director of the nation’s secret service, DAS, Jorge Noguera, is in prison for his participation in paramilitary crimes. This is a real scandal because the charges include electoral fraud, assassinations of unionists, academics, activists, the use of president’s own car used for paramilitarism. Noguera was chief of Uribe’s electoral campaign in Magdalena. Uribe has stayed at Noguera’s house various times. These two people are very close. When the charges were coming to light Uribe tried to get Noguera a post with the Colombian Embassy in Italy. When the press challenged him, Uribe became very intemperate, as he often does.
(snip)

JP: Your political work has been devoted to opposing the “free trade agreement”. Can you explain this work and, are there any connections between “free trade” and the “para-scandal”?

JR: From before I got to congress, in the 1990s, I was organizing against neoliberalism, which is now called “free trade”. For nearly five years since I have been in congress we opposed the free trade agreement. The free trade agreement is not to integrate the economies of Colombia and the US, but to annex Colombia’s economy to US monopolies and multinationals. This is easy to demonstrate. It is the same model that the US imposes on all countries. In the text of the free trade agreement, the White House declares its interests, and they are imposed on countries like Colombia. This imperialist imposition makes us a colony. It has practically ruined our agriculture and industry. It is responsible for much of the barbarity, corruption and horror we have experienced. It is responsible for the deterioration of labor rights, the environment, poverty, and unemployment, for the past 17 years since the economing ‘opening’ in 1990.

This whole “para-politica”, is a project of the Right. The Right is the agent of neoliberalism, close to White House, close to Washington. The Right in Colombia’s congress has supported all the neoliberal reforms, since they ruined the economy with the ‘opening’ of 1990, privatizating state enterprises, giving privileges to foreign investors. As the economy has been devastated, the paramilitaries and the ‘para-politicos’ have seen their fortunes grow. Their wealth doesn’t come from the national economy, but from kidnapping, crime, the seizure of land.

MR: They would have us believe that Colombia is unique for the level of violence it faces and the paramilitary strategy. But if you look at Latin America’s history you see the same strategy was used with the death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala or the Contras in Nicaragua. The strategy goes beyond paramilitarism and the US is always behind it.

JR: Everything happening in Colombia has to do one way or another with Washington. We’re in the orbit of the emprie, by way of Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia of 2000 did more than just impose a way of managing ‘narcotrafficking’. There were also 20 pages of small type in the Plan that detailed the reorganization of Colombia’s economy.

So if Plan Colombia imposed an economic, political, and military model on us from the US, then we wonder how it is possible that the US Embassy and State Department don’t know about paramilitarism in this country. How can paramilitary crimes be so pervasive without the US knowing about it, or being involved? We’d like to know how the US is involved, and we’ll know more when large numbers of Americans demand that their government assume responsibility for paramilitarism.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12314

[Judi Lynn]

2. Court seeks Colombian lawmakers in growing scandal

Court seeks Colombian lawmakers in growing scandal
Mon May 14, 2007 3:39PM EDT

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's Supreme Court on Monday ordered five congressmen arrested on charges they colluded with paramilitary death squads in a widening political scandal entangling allies of President Alvaro Uribe.

Uribe is under fire from critics at home and Democrats in the U.S. Congress who are skeptical about approving a free trade deal and a military aid package for Colombia because of suspected ties between pro-Uribe lawmakers and militia commanders.

Eight congressmen have already been jailed on charges they cooperated with paramilitary bosses who carried out massacres, murders and kidnappings in the name of combating guerrillas until they reached a 2003 peace deal with Uribe.

Authorities said the names of five lawmakers appeared on a document signed with paramilitary leaders in 2001 at the Santa Fe de Ralito militia stronghold when the commanders took over swathes of countryside in a counter-insurgency campaign.
(snip)

Top paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso has promised this week to give evidence about politicians, army commanders, business leaders and foreign companies who collaborated with the warlords before their demobilization.
(snip/)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1431452820070514



They are going to need to give total protection to this former death squad leader if they expect him to give the information they seek connecting Colombian right-wing politicians and death squads, massacres, targeted assassinations, election fraud, etc.

The following painting portrays a village massacre by Mancuso's people, by Colombian painter Fernando Botero, in his characteristic style:
http://www.elpais.es/recorte.php?xref=20040504elpepucul_8&id=LCO&type=Ies

Here he is with one of his many Abu Ghraib paintings:



http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,462350,00.jpg

More:
http://images.google.com/images?q=Fernando+Botero&ndsp=20&svnum=10&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en&start=0&sa=N

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Wow. What an example!

[Judi Lynn]

4. More allegations of Colombian conspiracy

May 15, 2007, 12:14AM
More allegations of Colombian conspiracy
Uribe's message to U.S. may be lost over militia ties

By JOHN OTIS
South America Bureau



Legislators Eleonora Pineda, center,
and Juan Manuel Lpez, right, are
escorted to the prosecutor's office
in Bogota, Colombia. Three other
legislators have warrants for their arrest.
JOHN WILSON VIZCAINO: EL TIEMPO

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Authorities issued arrest warrants Monday for five members of Colombia's Congress accused of conspiring with paramilitary militias, while a magazine reported that jailed leaders of the groups were ordering murders and trafficking cocaine from their prison cells.

The developments were another blow to President Alvaro Uribe, who has been pushing to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid and trade benefits amid growing concerns in Washington about ties between his government and outlawed paramilitary gunmen.

So far, more than 30 current or former government officials, including Uribe's intelligence chief, are in prison or face charges of conspiring with the militias. Another two dozen lawmakers — among them Sen. Mario Uribe, Uribe's cousin — are under investigation.
(snip)

One of Uribe's top priorities has been to demobilize the 31,000 fighters. The process has led to embarrassing revelations for his government.
New information has emerged on how legislators, governors, mayors and town council members — many of whom are political allies of Uribe — collaborated with the gunmen to influence elections, steal state funds and, in some cases, plan massacres of suspected guerrilla sympathizers.

The five members of Congress charged on Monday attended a meeting with paramilitary leaders in 2001 where they signed a document promising to work with the militias to re-establish "our fatherland" and "build a new Colombia."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4804050.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. More notable work from the paramilitaries: another killing at "peace community"

Colombia: another killing at "peace community"
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 05/14/2007 - 22:29.
On May 14 at 7 AM, Francisco Puerta, a leader of the Colombian "peace community" of San José de Apartadó, was assassinated by paramilitaries outside the bus terminal in the town of Apartadó, the municipal seat. Two para gunmen approached him in the store where he sitting and fired several times—then calmly walked away and escaped, despite the presence of numerous police in the vicinity.

Puerta was humanitarian coordinator for the vereda (hamlet) of Miramar, one of the outlying communities in the hills around of San José de Apartadó. San José, some 25 miles from Apartadó town, has declared itself as a "peace community," refusing to collaborate with any armed actors in Colombia's civil war. Most peace community supporters have been forced by threats and violence from San José over the past two years, and have taken refuge in a small settlement they have established outside the village, called San Josesito.

The killing of Puerta comes after paramilitary gunmen had been spotted on the road to Apartadó in recent days. On May 9, armed men who identified themselves as members of the Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) paramilitary group, briefly detained three campesino women at Mangolo, a settlement on the road. A merchant from Apartadó who came to San Josesito to sell piglets May 13 warned that paramilitaries were gathering in the town to prepare a new massacre of peace community followers. (San José de Apartadó Peace Commmunity statement, May 14)

http://ww4report.com/node/3841

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Public statement from the Peace Community where the citizen was murdered yesterday, in Spanish:
http://cdpsanjose.org/node/45