One of Colombia’s most prominent leftist leaders loses US visa

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

One of Colombia’s most prominent leftist leaders loses US visa

written by Jack Norman April 12, 2016

The United States has denied a visa renewal application from prominent Colombian politician Piedad Cordoba, she said Tuesday.

The former senator told Caracol Radio she tried to renew her US visa in order to attend meetings in Washington DC of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a branch of the Organization of American States.

Cordoba, 61, has long been a defender of minority rights and a major supporter of peace negotiations between the government and leftist FARC guerrillas.

In 2010, Colombia’s Inspector General removed her from the senate and banned her from public office for 18 years over accusations she had ties to the FARC, a designated guerrilla group. These accusations were never proven in court.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/one-colombias-prominent-leftist-leaders-loses-us-visa/

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Piedad Cordoba, visiting with Nancy Pelosi and James McGovern during the Bush occupation. [/center]

[Judi Lynn]

1. Really, really sad to learn we've actually regressed, as both these people have been back & forth

to the US repeatedly!

From the article:

US visa policy has come under criticism recently from both the political right and left. From the right, critics say there is not enough scrutiny of visa applicants to ensure no terrorists are given entry. From the left, critics say that activists are sometimes denied visas because of false allegations of ties to terrorist groups.

In 2010, the US denied a visa to Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, who needed it in order to accept a year-long Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University. Morris was also a strong critic of a US-backed military offensive targeting guerrillas.

US officials said at the time his visa was denied because of his alleged involvement with terrorist groups, but later revoked the decision to deny the visa.

Hollman Morris was in so much danger in Colombia, as well as his brother, getting frequent death threats from the right-wing paramilitary death squads (proven to be allied with the Colombian military and many, MANY Colombian politicians up to the President's administration and family) that he had to use armored cars, and have his children taken to school by body guards, of which he required multiple guards, himself.

Yet, the US chose to bar his first attempts to come here even when he had been invited.

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Free Speech Groups Ask Secretary Clinton To Review Exclusion Of Colombian Journalist

July 13, 2010
(Updated 7/13/2010)

U.S. Should Not Ban People On Ideological Grounds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [phone]; [e-mail]

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union, American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center today sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing alarm over reports that prominent Colombian journalist Hollman Morris was denied a visa to travel to the United States. Morris was one of 12 international journalists selected to participate in the Nieman fellowship program at Harvard University during the 2010-11 academic year. However, when he applied for a visa in order to attend the program, he was informed by the U.S. embassy in Bogota that he had been found permanently ineligible for a visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to today's letter, the exclusion of Morris limits the ability of his "colleagues and hosts to exercise fully their First Amendment rights," and is out of step with "this administration's stated commitment to fostering a free exchange of information and ideas between the U.S. and the world."

Earlier this year, Clinton signed orders effectively lifting the exclusion from the United States of prominent scholars Adam Habib and Tariq Ramadan.

The full text of the letter is below and online at: www.aclu.org/national-security/letter-secretary-state-clinton-regarding-ideological-exclusion-colombian-journalis

More:
https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech-groups-ask-secretary-clinton-review-exclusion-colombian-journalist

[Peace Patriot]

2. Good journalists in Colombia are a threat to Obama's & Clinton's protection of...

...Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld from exposure for their crimes IN COLOMBIA, which include aiding and abetting illegal domestic spying (by the fascists against judges, political leaders, labor leaders and others), the targeting of people for assassination using the illegal spying, the massacre of a FARC peace camp on the Ecuador border, the unleashing of Blackwater to "train foreign persons for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, IN COLOMBIA," possible complicity in the scandalous "false positive" murders (boys recruited by the U.S.-funded/trained Colombian military, with offers of jobs, were then murdered and their bodies dressed up like FARC guerrillas, to up their "body counts," earn bonuses and impress U.S. senators), and probably big time drugs and weapons trafficking.

Also, their buds at Chiquita and Drummond Coal were using death squads to solve their labor problems in Colombia. Chiquita got protected directly by the Bush junta (with Eric Holder as their attorney--yup, THAT Eric Holder), and Drummond Coal got protected by Hillary Rodham Clinton, when plaintiffs wanted a deposition from Bush pal, Alvaro Uribe, former president and probably still mafia boss of Colombia. Sec of State Clinton intervened with the judge who denied the deposition request. Uribe ended up with cushy academic sinecures at Harvard and Georgetown, and other perks.

Harvard is where they teach young lawyers that we "must look forward not backward" on the crimes of the rich and powerful.

[Judi Lynn]

7. All this gets slipped right by the US American people, too, who remain in the dark.

Eric Holder had already made a name for himself protecting Chiquita against workers' families whose loved ones had been assassinated at work. Hearing President Obama had appointed him nearly made me swallow my tongue. It didn't seem possible a moderate, even, would do that. Unbelievable.

Then it got even worse! Our own coup in Honduras. One evil blatant, violent event which keeps on torturing, and murdering Honduran people.

[LiberalLovinLug]

3. Whew. Obama is doing his part in saving America from...

What the hell? I know you don't like liberal "fucking retards", but this is ridiculous Barack.

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. FARC is an actual terrorist organization

Just ask Ingrid Betancourt.

[LiberalLovinLug]

5. yeah so?

Piedad Cordoba was involved in initiating peace negotiations with FARC and the government. She is not a member of FARC. And if you want to demonize FARC for human rights abuses, you can't overlook the governments paramilitary thugs abuses.

She dared to oppose the brutal and failed scorched earth policy against FARC by the powerful military, boosted by the US, and pushes for peace talks. What a radical!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Ask yourself why you don't know the paramilitary death squads and the military are responsible

for "the lion's share" of the murders in Colombia, according to the human rights organizations?

It has been known for ever that the AUC (narco-trafficking paramilitary death squads) who used chain saws in some villages to dismember living people to strike terror into the citizens' hearts & minds and paralyze them with fear, even worked in tandem with the Colombian military, as testified in court by military members and paramilitaries alike.