‘Open and brazen cooperation’ between govt and paramilitaries: Colombia Vice-President
‘Open and brazen cooperation’ between govt and paramilitaries: Colombia Vice-President
posted by Charlie de Rivaz
Sep 23, 2013
Colombia’s Vice-President has admitted that the government did not stop paramilitary forces committing massacres during years of “open and brazen” cooperation.
Angelino Garzon was speaking on Friday in Bucaramanga, northeast Colombia, during an event to mark the 1987 massacre of 19 people by alleged government and paramilitary forces in the Puerto Boyaca region of Boyaca department, near to Bogota. He said that such massacres would have been avoided if the government had acted.
At the time of the massacre Garzon was a union leader in the area. According to news website El Heraldo, Garzon described himself as a “witness” to the “open and brazen” cooperation between the government and the AUC in the area. “I saw how (the AUC) threatened us in the presence of state officials, I saw with my own eyes the cooperation between the local government, the army and the police with the paramilitaries in Puerto Boyaca.”
~snip~
Ten members of the AUC and two soldiers are currently serving sentences for their part in the massacre, in which the tradesmen were tortured, murdered, then thrown in a stream.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/open-brazen-cooperation-govt-paramilitaries-colombia-vice-president/
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