Colombian town still without water after 22 months .

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian town still without water after 22 months .
Tuesday, 19 March 2013 00:00 Narayan Buckley

While politicians on Monday played the blame game, residents of the small Colombian town of Yopal are close to breaking point, as they approach the two year mark without running water.

Colombia's Housing Minister German Vargas Lleras hit back at alleged claims made by the mayor of Yopal, Willman Enrique Celemin, that the national government had failed to provide financial support to assist in solving the town's water crisis.

"The departmental and municipal governments manage resources of some $930 million which they could use to invest in water, and in three years they have not made a single investment in this regard," said Vargas.

Vargas also said that his ministry had been waiting since June of 2012 to receive a final project proposal from the departmental and municipal governments in order to allocate funds for a solution to the problem, but had yet to receive anything.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/28583-colombian-town-still-without-water-after-22-months.html

[Demeter]

1. Colombia, Gem of the Ocean

the example for the whole of Latin America...of how the US would like them to live...

God forbid.

[ocpagu]

2. Wow! 22 months!

Without WATER?

I'm speechless.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It may be these people prefer NO water to the water in Macarena, Colombia

Blog:

Mass grave found in Colombia
By Peter Krupa | Published: January 29, 2010

Sweet Jesus. A mass grave containing 2,000 bodies was discovered outside a Colombian town, 200km south of Bogotá. The town’s residents say it’s been there since 2005. While the military says the bodies are guerrillas killed during fighting, the townspeople told El Nuevo Heraldo that they suspect many murder victims are among the dead as well.

Human rights activists say at least 63 people have been forcibly disappeared in the Macarena region, where the grave is located. The grave contains so many bodies, it’s contaminating the water supply. The Colombian media apparently first reported on the grave in early December. So far, the government doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about picking through and identifying the bodies.

http://www.latamdaily.com/2010/01/29/mass-grave-found-in-colombia/

[center]~~~~~[/center]
Colombian Mass Grave Of More Than 2000 May Be Civilian Trade Unionists, Not Military Casualties
Colombia is currently the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists, and the U.S. is likely implicated in the murders.

August 5, 2010 | If you want to understand what’s behind the recent tension between Colombia and Venezuela, think “smokescreen,” and then go back several months to some sick children in the Department of Meta, just south of Bogota. The children fell ill after drinking from a local stream, a stream contaminated by the bodies of more than 2,000 people, secretly buried by the Colombian military.

According to the Colombian high command, the mass grave just outside the army base at La Macarena contains the bodies of guerilla fighters killed between 2002 and 2009 in that country’s long-running civil war. But given the army’s involvement in the so-called “false positive” scandal, human rights groups are highly skeptical that the dead are members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, the two insurgent groups fighting the central government.

“False positive” is the name given to the Colombian armed forces operation that murdered civilians and then dressed them up in insurgent uniforms in order to demonstrate the success of the army’s counterinsurgency strategy, thus winning more aid from the U.S. According to the human rights organizations Comision de Derechos Homanos del Bajo Ariari and Colectivo Orlando Fals Borda, some 2,000 civilians have been murdered under the program.

The bodies at La Macarena have not been identified yet, but suspicion is that they represent victims of the “false-positive” program, as well as rural activists and trade unionists. The incoming Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, was defense secretary when the murders were talking place. Santos also oversaw a brief invasion of Ecuador in 2008 that reportedly killed a number of insurgents. The invasion was widely condemned throughout Latin America.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/world/147728/colombian_mass_grave_of_more_than_2000_may_be_civilian_trade_unionists,_not_military_casualties

[center]~~~~~[/center]
~snip~

“No to the promulgation of war. No to the moving of the Manta base to Colombia.” Political graffiti found on a wall in Colombia depicts a skull spewing forth guns. Stencil: Communist Youth of Colombia.

On April 1st, the Huffington Post printed a story by Dan Kovalik on the discovery of a mass grave containing 2,000 bodies in the Macarena region of Colombia, located near a military base staffed by US advisors. The grave was found only because the pile of rotting flesh contaminated the local water supply and children started getting sick. The Procuraduria General, a Colombian government agency tasked with uncovering corruption, verified the existence of the grave. On March 15, 2010, Jhonny Hurtado, a key witness in exposing the mass grave, was assassinated. The Colombian military admits responsibility for this grave. The discovery only adds to the “false positives scandal,” which the Colombian military has tried to cover-up. The false positive scandal refers to a practice within the Colombian military of killing civilians and dressing them in FARC uniforms to claim them as guerilla kills.

More:
http://www.peacecouncil.net/pnls/10/794/794columbia.htm#ursula

[ocpagu]

4. They certainly do.

Colombia's war on poors is so sick. Thanks for the info.

[Bacchus4.0]

5. the existence of the mass grave was proven false

No mass grave in La Macarena, Colombia
Development: On 7 September, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR) released a report in which it denied the existence of a mass grave containing 2,000 bodies in the La Macarena cemetery, in the Meta department.

http://www.latinnews.com/component/k2/item/42479-no-mass-grave-in-la-macarena,-colombia.html

and the town's water treatment plant was destroyed by a landslide.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Why don't you provide the article here from your source,

since it is by subscription only, and I don't want to give my personal info. to an organization you might be working for.

Go right ahead, get that info., or use the sources it quotes to post here.

Looking forward to see the mountain of information available which many DU'ers have read get debunked by your right-wing source.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. I know you are not interested in the truth but I have a great source

www.google.com


In other news it was determined that dead people are buried in cemeteries.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Ah, google? Fine resource. Here's another article published after your article:

Foreign Policy in Focus / By Conn Hallinan
Colombian Mass Grave Of More Than 2000 May Be Civilian Trade Unionists, Not Military Casualties

Colombia is currently the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists, and the U.S. is likely implicated in the murders.

August 5, 2010 |

If you want to understand what’s behind the recent tension between Colombia and Venezuela, think “smokescreen,” and then go back several months to some sick children in the Department of Meta, just south of Bogota. The children fell ill after drinking from a local stream, a stream contaminated by the bodies of more than 2,000 people, secretly buried by the Colombian military.

According to the Colombian high command, the mass grave just outside the army base at La Macarena contains the bodies of guerilla fighters killed between 2002 and 2009 in that country’s long-running civil war. But given the army’s involvement in the so-called “false positive” scandal, human rights groups are highly skeptical that the dead are members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, the two insurgent groups fighting the central government.

“False positive” is the name given to the Colombian armed forces operation that murdered civilians and then dressed them up in insurgent uniforms in order to demonstrate the success of the army’s counterinsurgency strategy, thus winning more aid from the U.S. According to the human rights organizations Comision de Derechos Homanos del Bajo Ariari and Colectivo Orlando Fals Borda, some 2,000 civilians have been murdered under the program.

The bodies at La Macarena have not been identified yet, but suspicion is that they represent victims of the “false-positive” program, as well as rural activists and trade unionists. The incoming Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, was defense secretary when the murders were talking place. Santos also oversaw a brief invasion of Ecuador in 2008 that reportedly killed a number of insurgents. The invasion was widely condemned throughout Latin America.

Diverting attention is what outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is all about. While his foreign minister, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, was laying out photos and intelligence claiming that Venezuela was hosting upwards of 1,500 Colombian insurgents, a group of Latin American NGOs were uncovering a vast scheme by Uribe’s Department of Administrative Security (DAS) to sabotage the activities of journalists, judges, NGOs, international organizations and political opponents. Some of these “dirty tricks” included death threats.

Because the U.S.—which has pumped more than $7 billion in military aid to Colombia—supplies the DAS with sophisticated surveillance technology, Washington may end up implicated in the scandal.

The U.S. may also be tarred with the murder of Colombian trade unionists. According to Kelly Nichollas of the U.S. Office on Colombia, testimony at the trial of former DAS director Jorge Noguera indicated that the U.S. trained a special Colombian intelligence unit that tracked trade unionists.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147728/colombian_mass_grave_of_more_than_2000_may_be_civilian_trade_unionists,_not_military_casualties

[center]~~~~~


[font size=1]
Dialogue: Man in red says, "Look William, a mass (or common) grave."
Man in gray responds, "yes…common and ordinary""[/center]

[Bacchus4.0]

11. the order of the calendar goes July-August-September

my article is from September 2010 which is after both of your articles. My article is also AFTER the UN commission visited the site and made their report while yours simply talk about allegations.

There are 12 months a calendar year beginning with the month of January and ending in December. Its not my responsibility to find the answer for you. Simply google "calendar" or "months of the year"

[naaman fletcher]

12. I thought they had stopped with that canard

[Bacchus4.0]

13. no, the one who still struggles with the calendar sequence delights in

presenting false information. You'll note that the multitude of stories about the supposed mass grave are all prior to September 2010 and then nothing afterward. That is because the UN commission's report found no evidence of a mass grave. They did find over 400 unmarked graves in the cemetery.

However, it could just be a confusion over semantics. I picture a mass grave like the old WWII clips where the nazis dumped all the holocaust victims. She may be simply referring to a cemetery.

[naaman fletcher]

14. I think mass grave

Means multiple bodies in one hole in the ground usually. I think a more likely scenario is the right wing plot to make it appear that September comes after July.

[Bacchus4.0]

15. yep, thats what the UN report said, no common mass grave

they found several hundred unmarked graves. That means to me several hundred individual grave sites.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Here's an Agence France Presse report written AFTER your link which should work

in case you don't make it back with a good cut and paste representation of your article debunking all the information the rest of us DU'ers who were here when they came out already read:

International team confirms mass grave in Colombia with at least 2,000 bodies


Deaths attributed to army and paramilitaries

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for July 24 based on dispatches from Agence France Presse and Notimex.]

Bogotá, July 23 –In a public hearing on Friday with residents of La Macarena, in the department of Meta, a delegation from the United States and Europe confirmed the existence of a mass grave containing some 2,000 unidentified bodies whose deaths they attribute to rightist paramilitaries and the Colombian army.

The delegation was headed by six Members of the European Parliament (MEP), who denounced that “the army is killing its own people.” Ana Gómez, an MEP in the Commission on Human Rights, said the grave is an abnormality she cannot understand, since the armed forces exist to protect the people and not to act against them.

“They’re not there to kill the people; there is a horrible perversion in these acts in which innocent youths, men and women, area taken by members of the armed forces who turn them into false positives and are rewarded for it,” she said in reference to civilians who are executed extrajudicially and displayed as guerrillas killed in battle.

Colombian opposition legislators Piedad Córdoba and Iván Cepeda, who were also present, demanded an investigation into statements by residents of the area concerning the common grave, which is located in a cemetery in La Macarena, and concerning which the government of President Álvaro Uribe acknowledges the existence of only 450 unidentified bodies.

More:
http://lo-de-alla.org/2010/07/team-confirms-mass-grave-in-colombia/

[Bacchus4.0]

10. Actually my link was from September 2010 and yours July 2010, September comes after

July in the Roman calendar used in the Western world. I googled that I found that to be true. I suggest you follow a similar approach. The UN High Commission on Human Rights visted the site and found no evidence of a mass grave. The "mass grave" is the town cemetery.