Breach widens between Colombia high court, Uribe (Bush's ally meets setbacks)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Breach widens between Colombia high court, Uribe
02 Aug 2007 00:13:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
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Background
Colombia displacement
More (Updates with court statement)

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Colombian judges rallied around the Supreme Court on Wednesday as the president tried to bypass a ruling he says could derail peace talks with far-right paramilitaries by banning them from running for public office.

The fight between conservative President Alvaro Uribe and the high court threatens to unravel an accord in which 31,000 former paramilitary fighters have turned in their guns in exchange for pardons and the right to hold public office.

The court issued a joint statement with other magistrates telling Uribe to stop second-guessing its decisions after the president accused it of torpedoing the peace deal.

Last month the court decided that demobilized paramilitary fighters must be charged with common crimes like drug trafficking and murder rather than with sedition.

The ruling shook the foundation of the peace deal, which promises that many paramilitaries will face only political charges, which can be pardoned, in connection to their 20-year struggle against left-wing rebels.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01618975.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. You've got to read further down in this article to really understand it.

The issue is whether or not these rightwing paramilitary thugs, who have been terrorizing the countryside, will be able to RUN FOR OFFICE. If they're convicted of murder and/or drug trafficking, they won't be able to. If they are merely convicted of sedition, then Uribe will be able to pardon them and install them in public office!

----------

"The 'paras' were formed in the 1980s to help cattle ranchers, drug lords and other rich Colombians fight leftist rebels. **They soon started exploiting the country's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade and became notorious for massacring peasants suspected of leftist sympathies.** (emphasis added)

"Several former militia fighters say they plan to run in October provincial elections, sparking concern that paramilitaries may not only get away with the crimes they committed, but might end up running parts of the country."

--Reuters

----------

These are the people who have been chainsawing union leaders, peasant farmers and political leftists, and throwing their body parts into mass graves! And Uribe wants them to have PUBLIC OFFICE! The "truth and reconciliation" process would be made into a farce. It would be like having...oh, say, George Bush and Dick Cheney (mass murderers! a criminal mafia!) doling out public favors, making policy and controlling government contracts. We know what that's like, here. Uribe is trying to replicate that in Colombia.

We need to realize that it is the U.S.-funded (billions of our taxpayer dollars in military aid) rightwing Uribe government and the rightwing paramilitaries that it is very closely tied to, that have been responsible for almost all of the carnage in Colombia, as well as major drug trafficking.

The people whom the U.S./Bush are directly supporting are the BAD GUYS. The "leftist guerrilla" violence is negligible by comparison. And most of the people these "paras" torture and kill are NOT "rebels"!

[Judi Lynn]

2. I started running across articles in research which revealed these death squads (paramilitaries)

were in the habit of dressing up the dead Colombians they killed as "leftists" in order to conceal the fact they were murdering great numbers of ordinary peasants.

Here's a quick grab from a recent article I have in which an Colombian Army officer describes the fact that he, as an Army officer, was given the duty of "legalizing" these victims to make sure they looked just like "rebels," to conceal their real identity:

Guzman goes on to say in a deposition attached to the filing that Rodriguez told him his Colombian Army unit "had no business" interfering with AUC's military activities. Guzman says in the deposition he planned to "ambush" AUC units on his turf, but that Rodriguez approached him in a black sport-utility vehicle and told him to lay off.

(page 2)

Guzman goes on to say he was then relieved of his position as platoon commander and placed in a macabre new position.

"It was at this time that I personally began to work in `legalizing' civilian victims of the paramilitaries ... meaning we would plant guerrilla uniforms on and weapons in civilians that AUC killed in order to make the killings appear legitimate," Guzman says in the deposition.
(snip/...)

http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/1177488950215900.xml&coll=2&thispage=2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vital report on these paramilitaries, and how we have been misled:

Mainstream Media an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy

Colombia Journal
February 14, 2006
by Garry Leech

The media's continued over-reliance on official sources, despite being fully aware of a long history of lying and manipulation by those sources, suggests that the corporate media is quite content to operate as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy by providing disinformation and outright lies to the U.S. public. A sequence of events transpired over the past few days that perfectly illustrate the mainstream media's role as propagandists for the U.S. and Colombian governments. The massacre of six family members in Colombia and the release of a United Nations human rights report made the propagandistic nature of the media evident for all to see.
On February 12, the European-based /Reuters/ and the Spanish news agency /EFE/ reported that leftist rebels belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had massacred six members of a family, including an 80-year-old woman. The entire story, as is so often the case in such instances, was based on the statements of a single Colombian government official. As usually occurs in Colombia, the U.S.-backed government immediately blamed the FARC for the massacre despite a clear lack of evidence. The media, without any further investigation, obediently published articles regurgitating the official accusation that the FARC were responsible.

U.S. media outlets, including the /Houston Chronicle/ and /ABC News/, immediately and unquestioningly began publishing the wire service story about the massacre. The FARC—Washington's principal enemy in the wars on drugs and terror in Colombia, despite the fact that pro-government forces kill more civilians and right-wing paramilitaries are more involved in drug trafficking than the guerrillas—was duly vilified in the eyes of the U.S. public.

As has so often occurred in Colombia, it was later revealed that the FARC were not in fact responsible for the massacre. While it usually takes weeks for the truth to be revealed in such instances, on this occasion a government official came clean two days after the initial reports of the massacre were published. The interior minister of the department of Antioquia, Jorge Mejía, acknowledged that following an initial investigation into the killings, "The method of operation indicates {the perpetrators} to be paramilitaries who have demobilized but have remained in the region."

The mainstream media's willingness to simply regurgitate any statement issued by government officials without further investigation is the normal /modus operandi /for foreign correspondents based in Colombia—and elsewhere around the world. Government officials are fully aware that this provides them with an excellent opportunity to propagandize on current events and that the truth, when finally revealed, will rarely be reported. In other words, officials know that the media will not hold them accountable for their lies.
(snip/...)

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/colombia/3754.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As it occurs again and again in researching, it becomes clear how widespread this practice is when you learn that the Colombian Army was even involved in helping to cover up the indiscriminate slaughter of peasants, done to terrorize the rural populations enough to make them completely compliant, make them leave their lands, and to become part of the homeless which has been designated by the United Nations as the world's largest humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and 2nd only to the Sudan.

[Robert_Loblaw]

4. No Kiddiing!!! Read this

from Human Rights News

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2001/07/10/colomb78.htm

[Judi Lynn]

5. Here's one of my favorite HRW statements:

Letter to President Álvaro Uribe

May 2, 2007

President Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidency of the Republic of Colombia
Palacio de Nariño
Bogota, Colombia

Dear President Uribe,

~snip~
Overall Killings

You state that the overall official homicide rate in Colombia has declined substantially since you assumed office—a fact you attribute to your Democratic Security policies. We recognize that the security situation in several major cities and highways has improved, and that your government appears to have pushed the FARC guerrillas out of many regions, such as San Vicente del Caguán, where they were committing abuses.

However, the official homicide rate, which lumps together deaths from common crime as well as killings committed by all sides in the conflict, is too broad to serve as a useful indicator of human rights abuses. To focus only on this general number masks several very troubling trends.

The number of extrajudicial executions committed by the Army, for example, is skyrocketing—a fact that your own Minister of Defense admitted in meetings with me and other colleagues. The United Nations has a list of over 150 cases of extrajudicial executions of civilians committed by the Army throughout the country in the last two years. The Colombian Commission of Jurists, one of Colombia’s most respected human rights organizations, is reporting over 200 cases a year. In many of these cases the civilian has been killed, and later dressed up as a combatant, apparently to inflate the official enemy body count of the military unit in question.

The number of selective killings committed by paramilitary groups is also cause for alarm. Starting in 2000, according to official statistics, the number of massacres by paramilitary groups started to decline sharply. As described to us by paramilitary commanders themselves in Medellin, this decline reflected a shift in tactics by paramilitaries, who had already taken over control of vast regions of the country, and were starting to focus on consolidating that power. In their view, enforcement of their control no longer required large–scale massacres, but rather only selective killings of persons who they considered enemies.

Thus, the number of paramilitary massacres has dropped substantially. However, the number of selective killings attributable to paramilitaries has remained virtually unchanged for more than a decade, since 1996, despite your demobilization program. According to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, to this day paramilitary groups commit between 800 and 900 selective killings per year.
(snip)

Once again, we want to help Colombia to confront the grave threat that paramilitary power is posing to its democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Given the high stakes involved, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to adopt the many recommendations we have made—such as blocking communications between imprisoned paramilitary leaders and their mafias and extraditing to the United States those commanders who fail to turn over assets and cease their criminal activities—to ensure the effective dismantlement of paramilitary groups.
(snip/)

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/02/colomb15833.htm

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's an interesting statement from Amnesty International. For some reason,

we never hear about this:

Amnesty International’s human rights concerns in Colombia:

• impunity;
  
• internally displaced;
  
• human rights defenders;
  
• violence against women in armed conflict;
  
• torture,
  
• “disappearances”
  
• and political killings by military and security forces, paramilitary groups, and guerrilla forces.

For more than two decades Colombia has suffered from a human rights crisis. The Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe has recently argued that there are less killings and that it is taking action against paramilitary forces. Amnesty International has documented that there has been no substantive improvement in the human rights situation, that human rights conditions have worsened in several conflict zones, and that collusion between the armed forces and illegal paramilitary groups continues.

Colombians suffer a dire human rights situation because the country has been embroiled in a civil conflict that has lasted for over 40 years. In Colombia, leftist guerrillas fight the state and illegal right-wing paramilitary organizations, which often collaborate with sectors of the Colombian armed forces. All of the parties to the conflict are responsible for human rights violations. Armed opposition groups, including the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (National Liberation Army) have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including high-profile kidnappings. Paramilitary forces carry out massacres, often with the acquiescence of the armed forces. The Colombian government routinely fails to bring to justice military officials who have collaborated with these illegal paramilitary groups as they carry out atrocities.Civilians caught in the crossfire between these armed groups suffer the majority of the casualties.

Human rights defenders, women, farmers, unionists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities among others face constant threats to their security. In rural communities, these individuals are often terrorized by guerillas and paramilitaries alike. They are forced to choose between supporting one of the armed groups for protection, or fleeing to the relative safety of urban areas where they add to the mass of urban unemployed and under-employed, swelling the ranks of the desplazados (displaced persons). As a result, an estimated 2.7 million Colombians live as internal refugees.

According to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, the human rights situation has worsened in the past two decades. In 1988 there was an average of 10 politically motivated killings per day. By the year 2003, it was close to 20 a day.

Despite this grave situation, Colombia has a host of active community leaders, peace activists and human rights defenders who are bravely working toward a peaceful end to the conflict. These individuals face constant threats and have been subject to torture and murder, and many have been forced to leave the country. Your work can help to provide greater security for these human rights defenders and for all Colombians.

Amnesty International USA has been calling for a complete cut off of US military mid to Colombia for over a decade due to the continued collaboration between the Colombian Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies as well the failure of the Colombian government to improve human rights conditions.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/Colombia/More_on_Colombia/page.do?id=1011310&n1=3&n2=30&n3=885

[Judi Lynn]

7. Another great report from Human Rights Watch:

Colombia: Uribe Must End Attacks on Media
Government Should Investigate Charges of Extrajudicial Executions, Fraud
(New York, April 17, 2006) - Instead of attacking the news media for reporting allegations of criminal activity in a Colombian intelligence agency, President Álvaro Uribe should ensure a full investigation of the charges, Human Rights Watch said today.

Over the last two weeks, major news media have extensively reported on allegations of paramilitary infiltration of the Colombian executive branch's intelligence agency (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, or DAS), targeted killings of labor union leaders and academics, and electoral fraud in the 2002 presidential elections. President Uribe has reacted by charging the news media with being dishonest and malicious, and with harming Colombian democratic institutions.

"Journalists are obliged to cover these alarming allegations of corruption and human rights abuses by the presidency's intelligence service," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "President Uribe's aggressive response raises suspicion about whether he actually wants the truth known, and has a chilling effect on the exercise of freedom of expression."
(snip)

According to García's statements to prosecutors and journalists, for approximately three years the DAS worked in extremely close contact with several paramilitary groups, particularly the "Northern Block" led by paramilitary commander "Jorge 40." He claims that these links were established by Jorge Noguera, then director of the DAS and currently the Colombian Consul in Milan. Among García's many detailed allegations, which have received extensive coverage in Colombia, are:

• Extrajudicial executions of labor union leaders: García states that during this period the DAS provided the paramilitaries with lists of labor union leaders and academics, many of whom were subsequently threatened or killed.
  
  
• Electoral fraud: According to García, Noguera collaborated with the paramilitaries to carry out massive electoral fraud when he was Uribe's campaign director in Magdalena state during the 2002 presidential elections. García alleges that the fraud resulted in 300,000 additional votes for Uribe. A similar plan, he claims, had also been implemented in congressional elections in several northern states. If proven, his allegations would confirm recent studies attributing highly unusual voting patterns in the 2002 congressional elections to electoral fraud.
  
  
• Political assassination in Venezuela: García recently said in an interview that the DAS collaborated with paramilitaries in a plot to assassinate several Venezuelan leaders, including President Hugo Chavez and a prosecutor, Danilo Anderson. More than 100 alleged paramilitaries were arrested near the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, and a few months later, Anderson was killed. Based on testimony by one of those arrested, Venezuelan authorities have charged former DAS director Noguera with knowledge of the alleged plot.
  (snip)

In response to this admission, Bejarano published a newspaper column in which he asked why the government would have authorized Noguera to meet with a paramilitary commander, and, if the meetings were unauthorized, whether the government had ordered an investigation.

In a subsequent interview Uribe surprisingly admitted that he had twice personally met paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso, who has been convicted of human rights abuses and is wanted for extradition to the United States for drug-trafficking. The president said that Bejarano "better not come out saying" that Mancuso is Uribe's friend, as that would distort his statement.

"Instead of complaining about columnists asking legitimate questions, Uribe should explain his own meetings with Mancuso," said Vivanco.

In the last few days, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia announced the establishment of a special team of investigators to verify García's charges. It also announced that the Attorney General, Mario Iguarán, would directly oversee the cases related to the DAS. Human Rights Watch emphasized the importance of a thorough, efficient, and independent investigation by the attorney general's office.
(snip/...)http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/17/colomb13196.htm

[Judi Lynn]

8. HRW knew about the connection between the U.S., Colombian Gov't, military, paramilitaries long ago.

Here's a tremendous report:

COLOMBIA'S KILLER NETWORKS

The Military - Paramilitary Partnership and the United States

The junior and mid-level officers who tolerated, planned, directed, and even took part in paramilitary violence in Colombia in the 1980s now occupy senior positions in the Colombian military. To be sure, a few, linked to well-publicized cases, have been forced into retirement or dismissed, but many more have been awarded medals for distinguished service and lead Colombia's troops. As commanders, they have not only promoted, encouraged, and protected paramilitary groups, but have used them to provide intelligence and assassinate and massacre Colombians suspected of being guerrilla allies. In fact, many victims - community and peasant leaders, trade unionists, and human rights monitors among them - have no ties to guerrillas, but have been trapped in a conflict where few wear uniforms or admit their rank.

Human Rights Watch has obtained evidence, including the heretofore secret Colombian military intelligence reorganization plan called Order 200-05/91 and eyewitness testimony, that shows that in 1991, the military made civilians a key part of its intelligence-gathering apparatus. Working under the direct orders of the military high command, paramilitary forces incorporated into intelligence networks conducted surveillance of legal opposition political figures and groups, operated with military units, then executed attacks against targets chosen by their military commanders.

Human Rights Watch has also documented the disturbing role played by the United States in support of the Colombian military. Despite Colombia's disastrous human rights record, a U.S. Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency team worked with Colombian military officers on the 1991 intelligence reorganization that resulted in the creation of killer networks that identified and killed civilians suspected of supporting guerrillas.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

GLOSSARY

I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

II. THE HISTORY OF THE MILITARY - PARAMILITARY PARTNERSHIP

III. THE INTELLIGENCE REORGANIZATION
The New Structure
The Barrancabermeja Network

IV. THE CONTINUING PARTNERSHIP
The Northern Magdalena: A Case Study
Unconvincing Denials

V. IMPUNITY
The Strategy of Impunity
Impunity in Cases of Military-Paramilitary Actions
1. Segovia
2. La Honduras/La Negra
3. Trujillo
4. Riofrío
5. Meta
6. El Carmen y San Vicente de Chucurí

VI. THE U.S. ROLE

VII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

APPENDICES
A. Colombian Armed Forces Directive No. 200-05/91
B. Colombian Police Report on the Puerto Patiño massacre of 1/95
C. "List of FY 96 Deployments for USMILGP Colombia
D. March 11, 1996 Letter from Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense
Frederick Smith to Senator Patrick J. Leahy

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/killertoc.htm

[Judi Lynn]

3. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick: