Death squad allegations threaten to derail Bush's last Latin ally

[cal04]

Colombia's leader denies using death squads to wipe out opponents

Alvaro Uribe's procession to a second term as Colombia's President hit a stumbling block yesterday as he responded wildly to allegations that his government colluded with paramilitaries to kill civilians. Mr Uribe, the last man standing among Washington's right-wing allies in South America, is riding high in the polls ahead of the presidential election on 28 May. His success is crucial to the White House, which has seen a succession of sympathetic governments defeated in the so-called "pink wave" of left-wing leaders who have swept to power in Latin America. But allegations that have haunted the short-tempered politician since he won the presidency in 2002 have resurfaced.

They involve an alleged conspiracy to assassinate leftists and union leaders, and leaking sensitive information to drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitary groups. President Uribe's tough stance on security has helped to lift him to 64 per cent in the opinion polls. The government's offensive against left-wing rebels, blamed for the cocaine trade, has won him strong backing and huge military aid from the US. But that has not helped him to escape allegations from Colombia's respected news magazine Semana, which includes evidence of a plot by the state security agency to destabilise Colombia's left-wing neighbour, Venezuela.

The fresh round of reports prompted Mr Uribe to launch a diatribe against the publication's editor, Alejandro Santos. "I'm not going to allow accusations to stand that the government assassinated labour leaders or was implicated in a conspiracy against Venezuela or somehow allowed me to steal the 2002 elections," he told a local radio station. The response of the President, who is notoriously bad tempered with journalists' questions, drew criticism from rights groups who have questioned links between his government and far-right paramilitaries.

(snip)
" The President's critics point to his refusal to launch an investigation into the head of the DAS, Jorge Noguera, instead posting him out of sight in Milan after he resigned when the scandal broke last year. Semana interviewed a former DAS official, now in jail on related charges, who confirmed there had been collusion between the security service and paramilitaries. He also alleged Colombian government involvement in a plan to "destabilise Venezuela".

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article358339.ece

[DS1]

1. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone here

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Trolls should be surprised since they believe our goal is to

promote democracy everywhere, but then, their reading list prolly doesn't include books that include uncomfortable facts about the past.

[saigon68]

40. Trolls are friends of the Chimp

[marmar]

2. Wonder if he got any assistance with the death squads?

:think: There's a certain North American country that has a history of supporting death squads to allow right wingers to come into power, or so I've heard. :tinfoilhat:

[dipsydoodle]

4. Not supporting -

traning more like it.

[Judi Lynn]

11. You've got THAT right! Here's a quick look at how involved they are:

April 15, 2002

Protesting U.S.-Sponsored Terrorism in Colombia

by Garry Leech

Thousands of protesters plan to converge on Washington D.C. from April 19-22 to protest the escalating U.S. involvement in Colombia, including the training of Colombian troops at the U.S. army's notorious School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia. According to School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), a non-profit group seeking to shut down the school, the U.S. army has trained more than 10,000 Colombian troops at the SOA and many of its graduates have been linked to right-wing paramilitary death squads responsible for a huge majority of Colombia's human rights abuses.
(snip)

In February 2002, the Bush administration requested $98 million in aid to create, arm and train a Colombian army brigade whose primary purpose would be to protect the risky business investments of a U.S. corporation in Colombia. Specifically, its mission would be to defend the Caño Limón oil pipeline used by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum from leftist guerrilla attacks.
(snip)

In February 2002, the Bush administration requested $98 million in aid to create, arm and train a Colombian army brigade whose primary purpose would be to protect the risky business investments of a U.S. corporation in Colombia. Specifically, its mission would be to defend the Caño Limón oil pipeline used by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum from leftist guerrilla attacks.
(snip)

Below is a list of some of the most notorious army officers among the more than 150 Colombian SOA graduates who have been linked to human rights abuses and paramilitary death squads during the 1980s and 1990s:

• General Farouk Yanine Diaz, involved in 1988 massacre of 20 banana workers in Uraba and the expansion of paramilitary death squads.
  
  
• Colonel Jesus Maria Clavijo, currently under investigation for collusion with paramilitary forces in 160 social cleansing murders from 1995-1998.
  
  
• General Jaime Ernesto Canal Alban, established and supplied weapons and intelligence to a paramilitary group known as the Calima Front, which is responsible for more than 2,000 forced disappearances and at least 40 executions since 1999.
  
  
• General Carlos Ospina Ovalle, accused of maintaining extensive ties to paramilitary groups and whose troops massacred at least 11 people and burned down 47 homes in El Aro in 1998.
  
  
• Lieutenant Pedro Nei Acosta Gaivis, ordered the 1990 massacre of 11 peasants, then had his men dress the corpses to look like rebels and dismissed the killings as an armed confrontation between the army and guerrillas.
  
  
• Major Carlos Enrique Martínez Orozco, implicated in the 1988 massacre of 18 miners in Antioquia. Martínez Orozco was subsequently promoted.
  
  
• Major Luis Fernando Madrid Barón, implicated in the activities of a paramilitary group that killed 149 people from 1987 to 1990. Also accused of being the intellectual author of many of the assassinations.
  
  
• General Mario Montoya Uribe, has a history of ties to paramilitary violence and is believed to be the military official responsible for Plan Colombia.
  
  
  
• Lieutenant Carlos Acosta, accused of executing a group of federal prosecutors and dumping their bodies in a river. According to his brother, "He used to say that a soldier in Colombia has to fight not only guerrillas, but also the human rights groups and prosecutors."
  (snip)

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia109.htm



Prominent Colombian paramilitary leader, Carlos Castaño

[dipsydoodle]

15. ......and here's the whole nasty International Guide..

Check this : http://www.whale.to/b/mcgehee.html

[Judi Lynn]

16. Wow! I'm only down to the E's so far. It's so important for the info.

within it, and for the fact it illuminates names and dates and places which can be used productively for so many searches. It's just wonderful.

It's so worth the time invested in looking it over thoroughly. I just stumbled across this item which is consistant with a lot of other things I've read:

El Salvador. Administration sources said at height of rightist death squad
activity, Reagan administration depended on commanders of right wing death
squads. The U.S. shared some intelligence with them. U.S. intelligence
officers developed close ties to chief death squad suspects while death
squads killed several hundred a month and totaling tens of thousands.
Washington Post, 10/6/1988, A 39 and 43
(snip)

El Salvador. The CIA and U.S. Armed forces conceived and organized Orden,
the rural paramilitary and spy net designed to use terror against government
opponents. Conceived and organized Ansesal, the presidential intelligence
service that gathered dossiers on dissidents which then passed on to death
squads. Kept key security officers with known links to death squads on the
CIA payroll. Instructed Salvadoran intelligence operatives "in methods of
physical and psychological torture." Briarpatch, 8/1984 p. 30 from the
5/1984 Progressive
El Salvador. UGB (Union Guerrilla Blanca) (white warriors union). Headed by
D’Aubuisson, who trained at International Police Academy. D’Aubuisson claims
close ties CIA. Former ambassador White called D’Aubuisson a "psychopathic
killer." Covert Action Information Bulletin (Quarterly), 4/1981, p. 14
(snip)

Salvador, 1980-84. Expatriate Salvadorans in U.S. have provided funds for
political violence and have been directly involved in assisting and
directing their operations. Senate Intelligence Committee, October 5, 1984,
p. 15
El Salvador, 1980-84. Numerous Salvadoran officials involved in death squad
activities - most done by security services - especially the Treasury Police
and National Guard. Some military death squad activity. Senate Intelligence
Committee, October 5, 1984, 15
El Salvador, 1980-89. D’Aubuisson kept U.S. on its guard. Hundreds of
released declassified documents re relationship. Washington Post, 1/4/1994,
A1,13
El Salvador, 1980-89. Declassified documents re 32 cases investigated by
United Nations appointed Truth Commission on El Salvador reveal U.S.
officials were fully aware of Salvadoran military and political leaders’
complicity in crimes ranging from massacre of more than 700 peasants at El
Mozote in 1981 to murder of 6 Jesuit priests in 1989, and thousands of
atrocities in between. Lies of our Time 3/1994, pp. 6-9
(snip)

El Salvador, 1980-89. President Reagan and Vice President Bush instituted
polices re fighting communists rather than human rights concerns. From
11/1980 through 1/1991 a large number of assassinations - 11/27, 5 respected
politicians; 12/4, rape and murder of 3 American nuns and a lay workers; 2
American land reform advisers on 1/4/1981. Archbishop Romero killed 3/1980.
There clear evidence D’Aubuisson’s involvement but Reagan administration
ignored. On TV, D’Aubuisson, using military intelligence files, denounced
teachers, labor leaders, union organizers and politicians. Within days their
mutilated bodies found. Washington had identified most leaders of death
squads as members Salvadoran security forces with ties to D’Aubuisson. With
U.S. outrage at bloodshed, U.S., via Bush, advised government slaughter
must stop. Article discusses torture techniques used by security forces.
Washington Post op-ed by Douglas Farah, 2/23/1992, C4
(snip)

I'm only about 1/5th of the way into the article. It's absolutely necessary to read the entire thing. I'm so glad you posted this for DU'ers. Thanks.

[dipsydoodle]

17. I found such links years some ago.

As an aside :

I've been rooting around this morning for a totally wild one which I recall alleges that in the mid thirties some crackpot (who was still around late forties) even suggested finding a suitable virus to sterilise the entire male population of Puerto Rico ! The United States studied the Nazi eugenics program mid thirties and maybe even shared information. That is not to say that the US would ever have used their experimental methods - at least not until the fifties with LSD for example.

You must get up real early - walkin' the dog ?

[Judi Lynn]

18. I think you might find some DU'ers who know a bit more about the

eugenics activities within the U.S. during that same time period. I think there's probably a whole lot more to it. I've seen it mentioned in sources where I was searching for other material, and I've seen DU'ers discussing it here, from time to time.
Hope one of them will see your post.

Up late due to insomnia, and also the fact days are often so rushed I don't really have any spare time to catch up on reading at D.U. It's a very busy place! Even when you think everyone is sleeping.

Insomnia a problem for you, too?

Uh, oh: I just took a quick look for eugenics in the U.S., found this:

Published on Tuesday, February 15, 2000 in the Chicago Tribune
Yale Study:
U.S. Eugenics Paralleled Nazi Germany
by David Morgan

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. doctors who once believed that sterilization could help rid society of mental illness and crime launched a 20th century eugenics movement that in some ways paralleled the policies of Nazi Germany, researchers said on Monday.

A Yale study tracing a once-popular movement aimed at improving society through selective breeding, indicates that state-authorized sterilizations were carried out longer and on a larger scale in the United States than previously believed, beginning with the first state eugenics law in Indiana in 1907.

Despite modern assumptions that American interest in eugenics waned during the 1920s, researchers said sterilization laws had authorized the neutering of more than 40,000 people classed as insane or ``feebleminded'' in 30 states by 1944.

Another 22,000 underwent sterilization from the mid-1940s to 1963, despite weakening public support and revelations of Nazi atrocities, according to the study, funded by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Merck Co. Foundation.
(snip/...)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/021500-02.htm

This might be helpful, haven't checked it closely:

BUSH CRIME FAMILY LINKS

Eugenics sites (the Bush family are among the world's top
advocates for eugenics)
http://www.notdeadyet.org/eughis.html
http://www.techreview.com/articles/as96/allen.html
http://www.hli.org/issues/pp/bcreview/index.html
http://users.erols.com/straymond/EUGENICS2.htm
http://home.att.net/~eugenics/
http://www.sightings.com/general3/eugene.htm
http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/SG.html

http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/bushcrimefamily.htm

[dipsydoodle]

19. Thanks for those links.

In the meanwhile I found this potted history :
http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/GERM.htm

Still have not found that guy's name though - "must try harder" as was frequently stated in my school reports a very long time ago.

No - not insomnia. I'm on British Summer Time - not surprising really as I'm english.

[dipsydoodle]

20. The guy is mentioned in the link I just sent.

Just noticed it :

1931: The Puerto Rican Cancer Experiment was undertaken by Dr. Cornelius Rhoads. Under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, Rhoads purposely infected his subjects with cancer cells. Thirteen of the subjects died. When the experiment was uncovered, and in spite of Rhoads' written opinions that the Puerto Rican population should be eradicated, Rhoads went on to establish U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama. He later was named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and was at the heart of the recently revealed radiation experiments on prisoners, hospital patients, and soldiers.

What a sicko - considering eradicating an entire population.

[Judi Lynn]

26. Overwhelming list. I've heard of some of these already.

It looks like information far, far more people should hear. The reach of these projects is horrendous, and they've been going on so long, with absolutely no roadblocks. God forbid common sense, and respect for their fellow man would have guided them in a different direction, right?

It would appear as proof that there are a lot of people who embrace destructive power, and find ways to incorporate it in their lives without a struggle. Pure evil.

These schemes have played out, for the most part, in countries with which the "scientists" are not at war, among people who are not a threat to others.

I've heard of experiments on prisoners, on military people, on unsuspecting individuals and groups. I've heard of the Tuskogee experiment. The sheer numbers of people affected is shocking, considering it shouldn't happen to ONE person, in the first place.

Here's an early look at genocide written in a memo from 1897, concerning American designs on Cuba:

"We must destroy everything within our cannons' range of fire. We must
impose a harsh blockade so that hunger and ... disease undermine the
peaceful population and decimate the Cuban army...

"To sum up, our policy must always be to support the weaker against the
stronger, until we have obtained the extermination of them both, in order
to annexe the Pearl of the Antilles", wrote US Secretary of War
Breckenridge on Christmas Eve, 1897.
(snip)

http://www.cpa.org.au/garchive/940cuba.htm

Years later, a Cuban "exile" murderer living in the U.S., on trial for a murder admitted the following:

--1984 Eduardo Arocena, a counter-revolutionary of Cuban origin and head of the Omega-7 terrorist organisation, stands trial in the US accused of the murder of Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a Cuban diplomat to the UN. Arocena confesses to having introduced 'germs' into Cuba as part of the US biological war against Cuba. He affirms that the dengue outbreak was introduced by terrorist groups into the island.
(snip)

http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/CubaSi-January/Bio.html

(Florida "exile" groups contain many members who have worked as CIA operatives all over the world at various times.)

As for Cornelius Rhoads, I'm glad to have learned his name and history. What a sorry legacy he has left. He did NOT make the world a better place, either, did he? Pathetic.

Thank you for posting this information. I hope a lot of other DU'ers will read it and think about it, too.

[ronnie624]

24. Sorry about your insomnia

But I must say, some of us do benefit from it.

Thanks for the links! ;-)

[Judi Lynn]

27. Hi! Very glad if you can use any of this info. We're all learning together

:hi: :hi: :hi:

[Joe Chi Minh]

46. How about funding, intelligence gathering, etc, etc, etc?

[stillcool]

7. something like this?...

SOA/WHINSEC Grads in the News
UPDATE 3/25/05: SOA Graduate Commands Brigade Accused of Massacre of Civilians in Colombia

On February 21-22, 2005, eight members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Urabá, Colombia—including three young children—were brutally massacred. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army’s 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders. General Héctor Jaime Fandiño Rincón is the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army. Fandiño Rincón is a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas.

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=205.

[dipsydoodle]

34. How to be a complete bastard..

Apologies - I meant to write earlier. Yes that is quite a recent event which only goes to show that not too much has changed since the links to earlier events posted above by a couple of us drawing attention to the history of death squads and other misdemeanors. Thanks for your posting.

The particular event you mentioned is one the saddest cases I've come across particularly as children were involved. Hopefully their president will soon, like the parrot in the Monty Python sketch, be no more.

In terms of acts of atrocity I have to say that the US government are not the only ones to show such irresponsibility. The British invented concentration camps at the time of the Boer War and much earlier than that a substantial number of the population of Tasmania were shot for sport.

[Charlie Brown]

5. brought to you by Coca-Cola

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/colombia_2790.jsp

[cliss]

6. Our foreign relations are like a pestilence...

like a pox, wherever we are invited in. it seems the only way to deal with it is with force.....like Hugo Chavez is showing in Caracas. By giving Mr. Brownpile his walking papers.

This article doesn't say when the next elections are. I bet you Washington's last stronghold will wither on the vine.

Amazingly, I just read the most interesting article. Stan Goff had some comments on why Latin America is turning "Left". He said it's because we are so short-handed with our military. We can't back up our oppression down there without people, I guess. They're all in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was so amazed!!! Looks like Washington put all its eggs in one basket.....the oil basket.

Too bad it was the wrong basket!!! Heh heh an easter joke.

[Judi Lynn]

10. The upcoming elections are May 29, I believe. Stan Goff's comments

are very well taken. It would seem American right-wing arrogance expected Latin America to stay submissive after all the years of covert and overt manipulation by American right-wing jerk pResidents, and the unspeakable cost in human lives demanded to kill off as many suspected "leftists" as possible.

Latin Americans deserve a chance to live without the bootheels of idiot right-wing Presidents on their necks, and their sell-out puppet dictators running Latin American countries.

[cliss]

12. Here's his quote about why Latin America

started having free elections. We were distracted elsewhere (Iraq). Here he's referring to how short-handed we really are:

"You are right about how this operation has constrained the US ability to intervene militarily elsewhere. Even in Haiti, they couldn’t send enough Marines to consolidate the February coup further out than a couple of upscale areas in Port-au-Prince. Now they have pushed the Brazilians and a couple of other damn fool governments into doing it for them. This is creating political ripples at home in these Latin American nations, Argentina and Chile are the other two big contingents, and being commander of the MINUSTAH has become about the most unenviable job on the planet. They are talking about sending contingents into the Philippines to assist relief efforts after a hurricane. Right. It just happens to be in an area where the NPA is well-entrenched and well-liked. But a couple battalions of Marines doesn’t cover a lot of territory, and when you add a long logistical tail off of established lines of communication, they become a kind of low-impact, high-maintenance, high-cost black hole.

Iran is more vulnerable to a US invasion than Iraq was, if the US had the assets, which it doesn’t now. That’s because there is a conventional force protecting a conventional state. This is the enemy that US doctrine is designed to defeat, but it has to have the freed-up capacity. It doesn’t.

[Judi Lynn]

14. He has a personal awareness of his subjects. I just found this review

of a book he wrote on Haiti:

Hideous Dream:
A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti
Stan Goff (Master Sergeant, US Army, Special Forces (Ret.)

After a distinguished career in elite Ranger, Airborne and Special Forces counter-terrorist units, Stan Goff refused to turn away from the implications of his own experience. He chose to defy the contradictions between what the foreign policy establishment said and what the US military did. He took sides with Haitian democratic forces over the US supported death squads. Conflict escalated with his men, who were steeped in racist, anti-Haitian propaganda, as well as with commanders who depended on him to "read between the lines" and support a massive campaign of deception aimed at both the Haitian and American people.

Hideous Dream is a revealing look inside US foreign policy, behind the mystique of Special Forces, and inside the racist history of American imperial domination of Haiti. It is also a deeply personal account of a man trapped between his emerging political consciousness and the cynical mandates of his life as a professional soldier.

Stan Goff began his military career in Vietnam as a grunt with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He went to Guatemala, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Venezuela, Honduras, South Korea, Colombia, Peru, and Somalia, with Special Operations Units, before participating in the 1994 invasion of Haiti. He worked in Infantry, Ranger, Special Forces, and Counter-terrorist units, as well as taught at the Jungle Operations Training Center and at West Point.
(snip/...)

http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-887128-63-8

I'm looking forward to reading more by this person.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

30. I read it about 2 years ago. It's very good. n/t

[Bacchus39]

21. Uribe will win in a landslide

n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

52. Are Diebold handling the elections ?

[Bacchus39]

23. I will bet you $100 that you are wrong

Uribe is very popular in Colombia and he will win in a landslide.

[ronnie624]

25. You seem almost giddy

over the prospect of a Uribe "re-election". But even if such an unfortunate occurrence comes to pass, it is only a matter of time before the remaining right-wing, death squad utilizing filth in Latin America falls by the way-side.

Do you find such an eventuality disturbing Bacchus39?

[Bacchus39]

29. Uribe has done well in Colombia

in addressing the war, the crime rate, and the economy. what is the alternative?

It will not be an "unfortunate occurance" when he is re-elected. Again, who is the alternative and what is their platform? the FARC??

If you can tell me what issue is more important than ending Colombia's civil war, and reducing crime in Colombia, I am more than willing to listen.

the paramilitaries have demobilized under Uribe in case you didn't know. The FARC has not.

[ronnie624]

38. I'm sure there are a number of alternatives.

A leftist government with a greater concern for the people of Colombia comes to mind. One thing is for certain: I could never view kindly a regime that is funded by a right-wing U.S. administration (most especially the Bush scum) and fully supported by the CIA; a criminal outfit that is responsible for more destruction and mayhem than perhaps any other.

There will never be peace on this earth until the CIA is disbanded and replaced by a genuine intelligence organization the purpose of which is not to fight covert wars and instigate conflict throughout the world (a tall order no doubt).

[Bacchus39]

39. the US has supported Colombia for years

under President Clinton and before. it is not a new policy. I assume in 08 under a Democratic administration it will continue. I would expect a strong alliance with Colombia to continue. this is a good thing is it not? I am curious as to how when a Democratic president takes over in 09 how Venezuelan-US relations will be though. that will be quite interesting.

not sure what could be more important than seeking an end to the civil war in Colombia. Crime and kidnappings are down. the economy is up. Colombians are pretty high on Uribe. there is little reason for Colombia to change course right now.

The FARC has pretty much eliminated any possibility that a leftist government will take power in the forseeable future unless it is through violent means. a center left government like Chile or Argentina perhaps.

[struggle4progress]

42. U.S. Troops Accused of Arming Colombian Death Squads

Two soldiers arrested in raid Colombians may not be able to prosecute pair under treaty

CARMEN DE APICALA, COLUMBIA -- Colombian police arrested two U.S. soldiers for alleged involvement in a plot to traffic thousands of rounds of ammunition - possibly to outlawed right-wing paramilitary groups, authorities said today.

The two soldiers were detained during a raid Tuesday in a gated community in Carmen de Apicala, 80 kilometres southwest of the capital and near Colombia's sprawling Tolemaida airbase, where the detained soldiers worked and where many U.S. servicemen are stationed.

National police Chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro said officers stopped a suspicious man in the area, who offered a bribe to be allowed to go free. Under threat of arrest, the man led the officers to a nearby house where more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition for assault rifles, machine-guns and pistols were found, officials said.

Shortly afterward, the two U.S. army soldiers - apparently unaware of the police operation - tried to go to the house. Castro said three Colombians were also involved. <snip>

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0505-01.htm


Would you think it a good thing if Colombians were arming death squads in the US?

[Judi Lynn]

44. That title says it all, doesn't it?

From the article:

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on any possible links to paramilitary groups, who are battling leftist rebels in Colombia. Washington has branded the paramilitary umbrella group, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, as a terrorist organization, along with the two rebel groups.

The Attorney General's Office has formally opened an investigation into arms trafficking against those arrested. However, Colombian Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio said the two Americans will not face Colombian justice because they are protected under a 1974 treaty that gives U.S. servicemen working here diplomatic immunity status.

Jairo Clopatofsky, a member of the Colombian Senate's foreign relations committee, said the treaty is allowing U.S. soldiers to commit crimes here with impunity. He is leading a move to amend the pact.

"Colombia's hands are tied by this treaty, which prohibits us from bringing any of these U.S. military members to justice," he said.
(snip)

The U.S. Embassy could clear up a lot of questions by simply stating there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between _Bush's ambassador and the Colombian paramilitary death squads. It's so simple. We're only left with the obvious conclusion.

[Bacchus39]

48. yet you are a cheerleader for Self Defense Forces in Ven

that Chavez is creating.

quite fascinating.

[Runcible Spoon]

51. oh for Christ on a fucking trailer hitchs's sake! There it is!

you were just SQUIRMING and ITCHING to somehow link this to your rabid and frankly obsessive Chavez bashing, weren't you? :eyes:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

53. I think somebody's got a crush. n/t

[Bacchus39]

54. actually its quite amusing and entertaining

how you can decry the existence of one paramilitary group, but cheer the creation of another.

[The Magistrate]

55. It Is Not Difficult To Do, Sir

The objections, after all, are not to the name "para-military", or to the concept of an armed militia. The objections are to the conduct of the arnmed bodies, in this instance, and to the aim of their actions.

The rightist land-owners militias in Columbia carry out a widespread campaign of torture and murder, and do so intending to buttress the position of leading reactionaries against any development potentially benefitting the peasants and workers of Columbia. They make no distinction between armed guerrillas in the field against the government, unarmed sympathizers, reformist leaders, and people who oppose the government politically; indeed, many of their victims are simply people who have the misfortune to live in or near areas opponents of the government have come to dominate. If their actions were closely targetted against the armed bodies of the F.A.R.C. and its like, it would be possible to regard the matter differently, but the fact is that they are not.

The Bolivarian militias of Col. Chavez are bodies of a very different character. Their simple existence may well have some intimidating effect on opponents of his government, but they are not wielded as a brutal tool of repression against them. They do not torture and kill his political opponents; given the propaganda campaigns afoot against Col. Chavez, any such outrages they had committed would have received wide publicity, and the absence of any clamor in this regard may be taken as proof positive they have not done so, sertainly not on any appreciable scale. While it does not seem likely to me there will be any invasion of Venezuela by the United States, the U.S. has organized and assisted a coup attempt in that country recently, and there is at least reason to suspect the U.S. is attempting to procure an invasion of Venezuela by Columbia, on the pretext of various border incidents where guerrilla units operate near their shared frontier. In such a circumstance, a leader would be foolish to refrain from raising and mobilizing armed bodies of a politically reliable nature: the surest way to ward off such actions is to make clear from the outset the place will be a damned tough nut to crack.

[Bacchus39]

57. the militia is in its nascent stages. give it time

The auto defense forces of Colombia were in fact obstensibly created to counter the FARC who have imposed their own share of terror on the civilian populations. the AUC turns around and does the exact same thing that the FARC does.

Guatemala the same. The history of civilian defense forces in latin america is not very prestigious. thus, perhaps you can at least understand my concerns.

I disagree that the US is preparing for an invasion. this is a figment of Chavez's imagination. Certainly not by way of Colombia.

[The Magistrate]

58. Ostensible, Sir, Says It All

The problem is that such reactionary bodies have never been able, or interested, in drawing the distinction between armed actors and progressive dissent: they take a rather wholistic approach to such matters, and always have. From the outset their activities were directed as described above; about the only deterioration in their conduct over time has been their increasing involvement the cocaine trade. It is quite clear the F.A.R.C. is an unsavory body, and my attitude to a force acting in genuine battle against it would be more understanding in consequence. But that is not really what is going on.

The grounds you suggest for decrying Col. Chavez' militias amounts to urging the incarceration of a rowdy six year old boy, on the grounds that many such turn out to be muggers on growing up. You remain unable to adduce any actual serious misconduct by them, and draw all your predictive examples from the history of rightist death squads. Purpose, Sir, matters. The reactionary right, particularly in a quasi-feudal order, has no choice but to engage in brutal repression, for it cannot possibly enjoy a widespread and whole-hearted support among the people, as the system gives just about everyone a very raw deal, that they will not acquiesce in happily. A left populist leadership engaged in reforming or even simply in mitigating the worst effects of such an order, can rely on widespread and whole-hearted support among the mass of the people, and therefore has a variety of tools to work with in solidifying its position. It need not engage in terror, and certainly not in widespread terror.

You may disagree, Sir, but the possibility of an invasion from Columbia, though certainly far short of a certainty, is a distinct possibility. The shared frontier is a wild and woolly place, under full control of neither government, but containing real economic assets, namely an oil pipeline on the Columbian side. Guerrillas operate against this, and pay little attention to the border. There have been a number of accusations made by the Columbian government that Col. Chavez harbors and assists these guerrillas, and such circumstances have throughout history served as triggers and pretexts for hostilities between nations. That the U.S. has a history of utilizing proxies to press its own hostilities with minor powers is a fact, and it is a fact that the U.S. has engaged in proxy action against Col. Chavez recently.

[Bacchus39]

60. your invasion theory is more conjecture than mine

you begin by picking apart my argument because the grounds I laid for suspicion of armed civilian defense forces are based on the history of similar organizations in other countries and not on any actual transgression yet committed in Venezuela. I would however surmise that other auto-defense forces were born without original sin either.

my point, of course, being that simply haven't been around long enough to evaluate their activities.

paradoxically, you criticize my concern over auto-defense forces as supposition while engaging in your own speculation with regards to a US invasion via Colombia. The presence of rebels in Venezuela is not mere accusation, but fact in some cases.

Finally, while your writing is quite good, it would be even more effective if you would spell Colombia correctly.

[The Magistrate]

61. Your Surmise, Sir, Is Incorrect

The force you refer to began as a murder squad, quite explicitly, and has done nothing else throughout its history. Col. Chavez has been in power now for several years, and his enemies remain conspicuously not littered as corpses about the streets and un-disappeared into cellars. That is sufficient warrant to gauge the temper of a popular force he raises.

Among the points you refrain from engaging is the degree to which, in comparing reactionary militias to bodies spnsored by a populist left government, you are comparing apples to oranges. Bodies with widely differing aims and political roots by no means necessarily act in similar manners.

Your difficulty with my raising the possibilty of hostilities between Columbia and Venezuela puzzles me. It is a possibility, and on the suggested grounds. You seem, in fact, to be endorsing one of the floated pretexts for it by stating guerrillas are present on the Venezuelan side, which you will not find me to have denied. Your characterizing my comments as describing a U.S. invasion seems to be some sort of misunderstanding: a thing procured by and assisted by a great power is far from a direct action by its own armed forces.

[Bacchus39]

63. I believe a direct conflict with Colombia is even more remote

unless, of course, it was instigated by El Comandante Chavez.

the fact that there has not been many leftist revolutionary leaders in latin america whose marxist/socialist doctrine is in fact the nation's public policy is hopefully not lost on you.

therefore, examples in latin america may be limited. However, in southeast asia, the vietcong, the former soviet union and eastern bloc I believe had similar types of civilian defenses not particularly reknowned for their humanitarianism.

more importantly, I must point out your own ommission as to explaining the necessity for creating these auto-defense forces in the first place. El Comandante says its to repel a US invasion while you maintain an invasion from Colombia is perhaps more likely. I must note that there are other leftist governments in latin america like Brazil and Chile who suffer from no such delusion as Colonel Chavez. In either circumstance, there is no actual threat.

[The Magistrate]

65. Rallying And Even Arming Popular Support, Sir

Is always a good move. The pretext for it is immaterial. A thing like this is at bottom a form of patronage; it rewards loyal supporters with both social prestige and some extra cash. The real danger for Col. Chavez in the current situation is some renewed attempt at a coup, and a thing like this is an excellent deterent to such plottings, for it establishes clearly in advance that no seizure of key points could suffice to carry the thing to success. In event of an attenmpted coup, a popular militia can be relied on to behave with the necessary fervor and brutality to ensure, at minimum, the result is merely extended civil war, and at best that the thing is quashed utterly. Few seeking gain will willingly hazard either chance.

Your roping in of Communist forces engaged in open revolution, and at war with the capitalist system, is no more applicable than your attempts to set up reactionary bodies raised by landlords as the predictive standard. A closer analogy, if you are serious about pursuing understanding of the matter, might be the early days of Peron, a populist and modernizer although a rightist at heart. By local standards, his was a fairly benign regime, and widely popular.

Your assertion Col. Chavez would commence an invasion of Columbia is quite baseless. It would bring him no benefit, and put him to some hazard. The talk is all on the other side, and such an action might bring some benefit to Uribe, as well as please the current regime in United States. The possibilty is indeed small, but it is real.

[Bacchus39]

66. Yes, I agree the creation of these civilian militias

is measure to ensure the retention of power. Apparently, however, El Comandante needed a different pretext and decided to use an imaginary invasion. So since we are engaging in speculation, it would seem that Chavez is more in fear of internal forces within Venezuela than outside forces.

An invasion by Colombia would provide no benefit to Uribe and is simply not a possibility. That is where we part ways. Colombian armed forces are already quite engaged with the FARC and there is no possibility of creating a vaccuum for the FARC to simply march into Bogota and commandeer the Casa Amarrilla.

Once again let me congratulate you on your persistence in both discussing the issue and continually mispelling Colombia.

[The Magistrate]

67. You Continue To Miss A Few Essential Points, Sir

The danger of a reactionary coup is not reflective of opposition in any quantity, but only reflective of the multiplying powers of money and foreign assistance. The fact that a reactionary clique of wealthy oligarchs opposes someone who threatens their priviledge and power does not demonstrate the person who poses this threat to them is a bad person, or that his or her holding of political power is a bad thing. To me, it indicates rather the opposite. In his conflict with these elements, Col. Chavez has behaved with extraordinary retraint, almost inhuman restraint by local practices.

Uribe faces one extraordinary difficulty that war would be of great assistance in solving. His country is afflicted by a great number of armed young men, rootless and ruthless and inured to violence. This is a tremendous danger to social stability, and must be solved somehow. One of the oldest of traditional statecraft's methods for dealing with such a group is to rope them into uniform and send them pillaging somewhere outside the borders of the state.

[Bacchus39]

68. recall election

while the opposition failed in their attempts at recalling Chavez, I would not describe the opposition as a clique of wealthy oligarchs. Over 40% voted against him and he was running against himself.

Again, the ulterior motive of establishing defense forces because of fear of internal dissent is much more plausible but not as politically expedient as the US bogeyman. Thus, the US will likely remain the cause of every obstacle el Comandante encounters.

there is cerainly no more armed young men in Colombia than in Venezuela. Especially since Chavez is now arming more young men. I find this reasoning quite perplexing especially since the armed conflict, at least on the paramilitay's part, is de-escalating. Social stability is improving in Colombia, it would not seem wise to disrupt what has been achieved recently by engaging in a conflict with a neighboring country, and opening yourself up to overthrow by the rebels in the process.

however, as we have already agreed I believe, the real reason that Chavez is doing this is to consolidate his power, prevent insurrection, and utilize the USA as a pretext since admitting to internal problems would make him appear weakened.

[The Magistrate]

69. My Advice, Sir

Would be to look a little more deeply into the history and theory of political practice more deeply than you evidently ever have done.

Money procures votes, in more and more widely varied ways than the time at my disposal permits cataloguing just now.

If you seriously belive that men who have lived by the gun for years and persons newly recruited into an ordered militia while maintaining their ordinary pursuits are equivalent factors in a social equation, you greatly lessen the weight of any commentary you might make on political questions.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

81. I Greatly Enjoyed Reading This Discussion

It has been a long while. Good to see you, Sir, and I'm glad you are back among the ranks of the Moderators.

:hi:

DTH

[The Magistrate]

86. A Pleasure To See You About The Place, My Friend!

It has been a long time. Best wishes to you and yours!

[Flanker]

82. A few nitpicks

Chavz is a retired Lt Col.

The AUC were from the very begining HR violators of the worst kind starting with Los Pepes.

The territorial guard (ven militia) will not be armed outside of training or emergencies.

Mispelling Colombia is even comon for me :)

[Judi Lynn]

88. I appreciated reading your comments on this thread more than I can express

Very deeply thoughtful, measured, and complete. Far beyond ordinary posting responses. I'm saving the thread for future reference.

[happydreams]

75. As viewed through a Machiavellian prism.

however, as we have already agreed I believe, the real reason that Chavez is doing this is to consolidate his power, prevent insurrection, and utilize the USA as a pretext since admitting to internal problems would make him appear weakened.

You cannot imagine, much less include in your list, the possibility of Chavez being motivated by benevolence. Very sad.

[happydreams]

77. It always depends on why the paramilitary

group was created. The military is like a gun; it's use is no better or worse than the one who controls it.

[mitchum]

73. I wiondered when your habitual anti-Chavez mewling would start

I didn't have to wait long, did I?

[Bacchus39]

47. you mean like drug dealers??

n/t

[struggle4progress]

84. Sorta like payin Capone to whack bootleggers

An Interview with Colombian Paramilitary Leader Carlos Castaño
.. Have you supplied them with the illegal arsenals that came from Bulgaria on the boat “Otterloo?”

This is the greatest achievement by the AUC so far. Through Central America, five shipments, 13 thousand rifles.

With financing from the United States or some other country?

We hope so. We have even been able to buy the boat, and a normal boat costs 2 million dollars. We had to resort to the tax that we collect from the coca producers.

But you announced that the AUC would do without the mafia’s money and you even sentenced three paramilitary leaders…

We accept the money collected from the coca producers, but it is very difficult to set a limit of how far the drug traffic can finance a war. It tends to turn the fighters into mercenaries . This is what happened with the police and it has even happened in the FARC. Once people have been corrupted by the drug trade, nobody can control them. We are looking for the least contemptible way to fund the organization ..

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/648.cfm

Colombia's 'drug barons' in peace talks
By Jeremy McDermott
BBC correspondent in Medellin

.. The AUC likes to portray itself as a group of people who were forced to take up arms to defend themselves against guerrilla kidnapping and extortion in the place of a powerless state.

Others, including the US, see it as little more than a drugs cartel moving some 40% of the 800 tons of cocaine that leave Colombia every year.

Of the 10 AUC negotiators, five have outstanding US extradition warrants and another three are in the sights of the US Drug Enforcement Administration ..

... Carlos Castano who founded the paramilitaries .. "disappeared" in an attack in April this year ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3858749.stm

United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) Indictment

... The indictment charges AUC leader Carlos Castaño-Gil and two other AUC members with five counts of drug trafficking. Also named in the indictment are AUC military commander Salvatore Mancuso and AUC member Juan Carlos Sierra-Ramirez. The United States has requested the extradition of all three of these defendants from the Republic of Colombia, one of our closest international law enforcement partners. They face sentences up to life imprisonment if convicted of all charges.

On September 16, the Washington Post reported Carlos Castaño as saying he would, quote, "go and face the U.S. justice system" if he were indicted by the United States ...

http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/rm/2002/13663.htm

Washington Has Lost Its Way in Colombia
by Eric Fichtl

... The mysteriously vanished former AUC leader Carlos Castaño once admitted that 70 percent of the group’s funding came from the drug trade, and the United States has outstanding drug-related indictments and extradition requests on several of the group’s current leaders ...

On July 28, AUC commanders Salvatore Mancuso, Ramon Isaza, and Ivan Roberto Duque were flown by a Colombian Air Force plane to Bogotá, where government vehicles whisked them to the Colombian Congress so that they could speak, at length, about the “heroic” deeds they had performed for Colombia. The event was sanctioned by President Alvaro Uribe, who granted the trio a two-day safe conduct pass so that they could avoid being arrested on the multiple outstanding warrants and extradition requests against them ...

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia192.htm

[Judi Lynn]

31. In reference to your remark:

a matter of time before the remaining right-wing, death squad utilizing filth in Latin America falls by the way-side.

The world should be so lucky.

It surely seems far more possible now than before, if there's any mercy to be found anywhere. They've paid for this chance with centuries of desperate suffering.

[Bacchus39]

32. death squads will be around as long as corruption and impunity

exist. it does not matter the ideaology of the leadership. look at the rash of kidnappings and murder in Caracas. current and former police officers being implicated in murder.

did you know that the largest paramilitary group in Colombia just disbanded? I didn't catch a post from you on that one. One would think you would be pleased.

[The Magistrate]

62. Are You Seriously Contending, Sir

That rightist death squads are enemies of official corruption, and of the impunity with which the upper classes flout the law in a feudal order?

The fact is that they are leading beneficiaries of both things. In instances where they may act against some official or wealthy person, all that is occuring is a faction fight among the rightists, or an instance where someone has not held up his end of a bribe.

[Bacchus39]

64. I contend no such thing

death squads are often the result of impunity and official corruption.

[happydreams]

76. Why are you afraid to look at the Bush--Cisneros link?

People that engage in selective blindness to uncomfortable truths are also known as cherry-pickers.

[Bacchus39]

85. I am not afraid

and I completely agree with your statement about selective blindness. It is quite endemic here with regards to people like Chavez and Castro.

so what is it about Cisneros do I need to know besides he is really rich.

[happydreams]

91. BULLSHIT!!

[Judi Lynn]

28. Yikes! I didn't get your joke 'til today! I was working with partial

consciousness, it seems, when I read it very, very late last night. Good one! :hi:

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. I would be astounded to ever find out that they didn't utilize death

squads. They would have them here, except that there is just a tad too much freedom of the press to fully get away with it.

[Judi Lynn]

9. This is the most exceptional headline I've seen about Uribe!

How refreshing to see a flash of truth elude the propagandists' control!

I'd like to add some current articles to the thread on the same subject:

Rights group slams Colombia's Uribe over charges
Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:10 AM BST

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch sharply criticized Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for what it called a "wildly improper response" to charges that his government's intelligence service helped paramilitaries kill civilians.

The Columbian press has reported that the Administrative Security Department, or DAS, cooperated with the far-right militias, prompting the famously short-tempered Uribe to accuse reporters of maliciously harming the country's democratic institutions.

"Instead of attacking the news media for reporting allegations of criminal activity, President Uribe should ensure a full investigation of the charges," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement late on Sunday.

Uribe singled out journalists and commentators including Ramiro Bejarano, a lawyer who served on a commission appointed last year to investigate the DAS. "Our investigation showed the paramilitaries had deeply infiltrated the DAS," Bejarano told Reuters.

"This is as serious as if, in the United States, the FBI had been infiltrated by the Mafia," he said. "Uribe's reaction has been not to clean up the agency but to attack journalists covering the story."
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-04-17T041007Z_01_N16366132_RTRUKOC_0_UK-COLOMBIA-RIGHTS.xml&archived=False

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

Last Updated: Monday, 17 April 2006, 11:21 GMT 12:21 UK
Colombia leader hits out at press

~snip~
The latest allegations against Das emerged last week after Semana interviewed a former official, Rafael Garcia, who is in jail charged with deleting files on paramilitary leaders and drug traffickers.

Mr Garcia reportedly said Das, under the direction of Jorge Noguera, had planned to kill leftists and union activists and had plotted to destabilise the Venezuelan government led by Hugo Chavez.

Das officials allegedly carried out favours for paramilitary leaders, including destroying criminal records.

Mr Garcia is also reported to have accused Mr Noguera - one of Mr Uribe's campaign managers for the 2002 election - of obtaining fraudulent votes for the president.

Mr Noguera resigned as Das director last year amid reports of improper links to paramilitary groups - he was then appointed Colombian consul-general in Milan.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4915430.stm

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

More, from the A.P. article:
Colombian President Attacks the Press
April 17th, 2006 @ 3:19am
By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

~snip~
First, why did Uribe name the man at the center of the scandal, Jorge Noguera, to the post of consul-general in Milan, Italy, rather than order a criminal investigation after Noguera was forced to step down as DAS director in October?

Noguera lost the job after the first evidence emerged, in press reports, that DAS agents were providing favors to right-wing paramilitary leaders and drug traffickers, such as the alleged erasing of their criminal records. The paramilitaries are considered a strong base of support for Uribe, who initiated a peace process with them that has resulted in the demobilization of some 28,000 leftist rebels.

Former DAS information systems director Rafael Garcia, in jail on charges he deleted files on paramilitary leaders and drug traffickers, is the source of the damning new allegations against Noguera.

"Yes, there was a plan to destabilize the government of Venezuela and many people in the Colombian government are involved," Semana quoted Garcia as saying in a jailhouse interview.

Garcia refused to offer more details, saying he will tell investigators from the chief prosecutor's office or a foreign government once he's been guaranteed protection for his family.
(snip/...)

http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=176107

[Judi Lynn]

13. Uribe's Cruel Model:Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism

August 19, 2003

Uribe's Cruel Model
Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
By SEAN DONAHUE

The morning that Alvaro Uribe was inaugurated President of Colombia, Yolanda Becerra, the head of a women's group in a city controlled by right wing paramilitaries, said that "We expect to see the consolidation of a totalitarian model with the blessing of the U.S."

A year later, her prediction seems to have come true.

Fascism's first victims are always the poorest, most vulnerable, and most invisible people. In Barrancabermeja, where Yolanda Becerra lives, paramilitaries have been carrying out a campaign of "social cleansing" against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. In the city of Pereira, the first victims were the street vendors.
(snip)

"That is Fascism. It is what Hitler's and Mussolini's people did. It's not just the repression of the state, but the repression of the people who beat and kill people. And this has the support of the state and even part of society."

The beatings in Pereira grew out of an increasing tolerance for state violence on the part of the upper and middle classes and a dramatic escalation in repression.

In the months leading up to the beatings, the military began using paid informants to root out suspected "guerilla sympathizers," taking these hooded informants from door to door in the slums of Medellin to point out people who were immediately dragged away. Disappearances increased by 100% in the department of Cauca. New anti-terrorism laws were passed that were written so broadly that they were used to prosecute nonviolent activists with no ties to the leftist guerillas of the FARC and the ELN. Leaders of the oil workers union were suspended from work and forced to attend "attitude adjustment" classes. Paramilitaries parachuted from military planes into a town in Arauca where they publicly murdered a pregnant teenager and butchered the fetus the ripped from her stomach - and in the wake of the attack U.S. Green Berets continued to provide training and support to the same brigade that flew the paramilitaries in. The military occupied hospitals, telecommunications facilities, and oil refineries to quell unrest in the face of immanent privatization of these state-run facilities and massive layoffs.

In a sense, this is nothing new. For years, the Colombian military has collaborated with illegal right wing death squads to terrorize activists and massacre people who have the misfortune of living on land coveted by oil companies, timber companies, dam builders, cattle ranchers, or cocaine traffickers. But this has happened primarily in the countryside and in the poor areas at the edge of the cities. Mondragon says that Uribe is now "Applying to the cities what had been applied to the countryside." The wealthy and the middle class are no longer shielded from seeing what is done in their name, but they continue to support policies of repression designed to maintain their wealth, power, and privilege.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/donahue08192003.html

[Supersedeas]

37. right up *'s alley

[saigon68]

22. Negroponte happy with Glee

He can't wait to see a few nuns "bite the dust"

[Judi Lynn]

33. "Colombia's Lethal Concoction"

Volume 23 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 25 - Apr. 07, 2006
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE

Colombia's Lethal Concoction

AIJAZ AHMAD

~snip~
death squads

Indeed, the forces that got recruited into the paramilitary units in more recent years, in a clandestine operation conducted but never acknowledged by the Colombian army, arose out of much older structures dating back to the 1960s. At that time the landed magnates organised death squads against the peasant rebels and by the 1980s, those very death squads had been transformed into the private armies of the narco-barons. Reorganised into paramilitary units, they now coordinate closely but secretly with the regular army and methodically kill not only the guerillas but also trade union personnel, peasant leaders, left-wing intellectuals and so on. In fact, these units form a key link between the narco-bourgeoisie and the regular armed forces.

Human Rights Watch, an internationally respected group, compiled a study of human rights violations in Colombia that concluded that half of Colombia's 18 brigade-level army units were directly linked with these paramilitaries in a regime of widespread terror. The report called the paramilitaries the additional "Sixth Division" of the Colombian Army. This covert role of the armed forces has been confirmed by a leading figure in this parallel organisation who told Le Monde Diplomatique: "We were born paramilitaries. The weapons sent to us in June 1983 . . . had government stamps on them."

Colombia no longer has a mass party of the democratic left thanks to this terror. About 4,000 political activists get killed in Colombia every year, a number that includes priests, teachers, journalists, lawyers, indigenous community leaders, directors of agricultural cooperatives, members of women's groups, and members of a wide array of trade unions, from hospital workers to electrical workers. Of all the trade unionists killed around the world each year, two-thirds tend to be from Colombia. Even The New York Times was constrained to say: "Colombia is by far the world's most dangerous country for union members." The war against guerilla armies and political activists has taken perhaps as many as 300,000 lives and has created the third largest refugee problem in the world. It has also displaced over a million people within Colombia itself in addition to over three million peasants displaced from their lands through other means and who now wander through Colombia's cities. It is in this climate of terror and dispossession that hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in guerilla-administered areas.

The U.S.-sponsored counter-insurgency operations have used such forces across Latin America, and indeed across the world, in its operations for over half a century or more. As Noam Chomsky points out, "In 1962, John F. Kennedy in effect shifted the mission of the Latin American military from `hemispheric defence', a residue of World war II, to `internal security', a euphemism for war against the domestic population." Chomsky then goes on to quote the distinguished diplomat Alfredo Vazquez Carrizosa, the President of the Colombian Permanent Committee for Human Rights: "Washington took great pains to transform our armies into counterinsurgency brigades, accepting the new strategy of the death squads," decisions that "ushered in what is known in Latin America as the National Security Doctrine." This was not "defence against an external army, but a way to make the military establishment masters of the game . . . with the right to combat the internal enemy, as set forth in the Brazilian doctrine, the Uruguayan doctrine, and the Colombian doctrine: it is the right to fight and exterminate the social workers, trade unionists, men and women who are not supportive of the establishment."

More recently, President Uribe (the only President in Latin America to participate in Bush's "coalition of the willing" for the invasion of Iraq) has got Colombia's Parliament to pass a Bill which will integrate the paramilitaries into the official structure of the Armed Forces while offering them near-immunity for their murderous crimes and permitting them to keep their loot and drug profits. The U.N. and other organisations have condemned this law. The New York Times has said in its editorials that, "It should be called the immunity for mass murderers, terrorists and major cocaine traffickers law......"
(snip/...)

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:C7GLxeWymvEJ:www.flonnet.com/stories/20060407000905900.htm+%22Colombia%27s+Lethal+Concoction%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1v

March 28, 2006
Colombia's Lethal Concoction, by Aijaz Ahmad

~snip~
The U.S. has trained more officers for the Colombian army than for any other army in Latin America, excluding Israel and Egypt, which are in a class by themselves. Colombia is also currently the largest recipient of U.S. military aid. Under cover of "war on drugs" (President Bill Clinton's ploy) and "war on terror"(more favoured by President George W. Bush), the Colombian state has received massive infusions of foreign largesse since 2000 when Plan Colombia was first devised by the Clinton administration. This has not only come from the U.S., but also from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and so on - totalling between $7 billion and $10 billion, depending on how you calculate it. During this period, U.S. military aid has averaged $500 million per annum and has increased each year. Indeed, 80 per cent of all U.S. aid has been for military purposes, which includes high technology weapons transfers and equipment for an armed force of roughly 270,000, nursing paramilitary squads of the type used previously in Nicaragua and El Salvador, stationing not only the U.S. military but also a large number of privately contracted U.S. personnel for military purposes.

All this is ostensibly for controlling the traffic in narcotics and defeating the domestic insurgencies. However, Colombia, which shares a porous 1,370-mile border with Venezuela, has also served as the staging-ground for infiltration and destabilisation attempts in that country. It is quite clear that, if and when the U.S. decides to invade Venezuela, Colombia shall serve as a key advance base.

Funding the Colombian state is the other face of the existing and potential role of transnational corporations in the Colombian economy, not to speak of the converging interests of Colombian and transnational traffickers of heroin and cocaine. In an indifferently industrialised country, the U.S. foreign direct investment already amounts to about $5 billion and the roster of the transnational corporations, mostly American, which are active in Colombia includes Exxon-Mobile, Occidental Petroleum, Canon-Limon, Birmingham-Alabama, Coca-Cola (with 17 plants), Chiquta, Dole and Del Monte, as well as British Petroleum.

U.S. military aid alone provides immense profit-making opportunities for U.S. companies. Early in 2003, the U.S. Department of State reported that there were 17 primary contracting companies active in supplying for military and biochemical operations in Colombia, initially receiving $3.5 billion. Among these, DynCorp, a U.S. military contractor and a Fortune 500 company, has a $600 million contract for aerial spraying to eliminate coca crops, the source for cocaine - an activity that also contaminates food crops and leads to skin diseases among the population in affected areas. The herbicide that is sprayed is manufactured by Monsanto.
(snip/...)

http://www.pscelebrities.com/alice/2006/03/colombias-lethal-concoction-by-aijaz.html

[Bacchus39]

35. what a load of bull!!!

Colombia did NOT participate in the Iraq disaster. on the other hand El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic did. who wrote this article?? Jason Blair?

here are the countries who are currently and previously participated in Iraq. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_willing

"More recently, President Uribe (the only President in Latin America to participate in Bush's "coalition of the willing" for the invasion of Iraq) has got Colombia's Parliament to pass a Bill which will integrate the paramilitaries into the official structure of the Armed Forces while offering them near-immunity for their murderous crimes and permitting them to keep their loot and drug profits. The U.N. and other organisations have condemned this law. The New York Times has said in its editorials that, "It should be called the immunity for mass murderers, terrorists and major cocaine traffickers law......"

[dipsydoodle]

36. Here's the link you may have missed

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:C7GLxeWymvEJ:www.flonnet.com/stories/20060407000905900.htm+%22Colombia%27s+Lethal+Concoction%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1v

Somethings are a matter of degree and it's possible that wikiwhatever overstates the situation.

[Judi Lynn]

41. Thanks for posting a functioning link. It seems it must have been missing.

There are a few posts on this thread which read as "ignore" on my screen. I didn't know the links weren't working. I appreciate your help.

[Bacchus39]

49. the link contains the exact same untruth

"More recently, President Uribe (the only President in Latin America to participate in Bush's "coalition of the willing" for the invasion of Iraq)..."

I love how the article goes out of its way to stress a point that is completely false.

[struggle4progress]

43. Colombian Death Squads Target Volunteers

Published on Saturday, February 10, 2001 in the Guardian of London
Gunmen threaten workers from international aid groups as president tries to halt slide towards civil war

by Martin Hodgson in Bogota

<snip> Paramilitary gunmen have warned members of Peace Brigades International (PBI) that they are now considered a "military objective" because of their work with community groups in the northern town of Barrancabermeja.

PBI teams - which include British, Canadian and Australian volunteers - provide unarmed escorts for community activists, trade unionists and human rights workers who are often targets of the rightwing militias.

Two gunmen burst into the offices of the Popular Women's Organisation (OFP), a local women's group, during a peace demonstration on Wednesday. <snip>

OFP runs soup kitchens for war refugees in Barrancabermeja, an industrial town of 200,000 people which has become a battleground for the warring factions. <snip>

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0210-01.htm


How glorious to have such patriots in the army, eh?

[Judi Lynn]

45. You may well remember the name of that town from a Paul Wellstone visit.

Undoubtedly you'll remember the bomb found right where his car was to stop a little later:

Published on Saturday, December 2, 2000 by the Associated Press
Senator Paul Wellstone Takes The Lead Against 'Plan Colombia'
by Andrew Selsky

BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia (AP) - Hard-eyed men with Uzis stood guard as Sen. Paul Wellstone stepped out of a helicopter and into a bulletproof car and drove to a meeting with human rights activists. Hours earlier, police said they discovered a bomb along the airport road.

U.S. and Colombian authorities Friday downplayed the possibility that Wellstone and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, who accompanied the Minnesota Democrat, were the intended targets of the bomb. Their visit marked the first time a U.S. lawmaker or ambassador had come to the deadliest town in all the Americas - a sweltering cluster of cinderblock homes on the banks of the muddy Magdalena River.

There was heavy security for the U.S. officials during their three-hour visit Thursday. But Barrancabermeja's 195,000 residents have no such protection: this year alone, 470 of them have been slain in politically motivated attacks, human rights workers say. Massacres are commonplace, and the killers are rarely caught.

Wellstone said he made the perilous journey to show support for the human rights activists, who face immense risk.

``I don't know whether I was targeted, but I certainly know that the human rights activists are targeted,'' Wellstone told an airport news conference on his return to Minneapolis on Friday.
(snip/...)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/120200-01.htm

[drduffy]

50. I want to see the end of the American Empire,

the demise of the CIA, curtailment of the FBI as a tool for political purposes and the dismantling of the Homeland Security Gestapo.
And let Columbia sort itself out without our involvement.
To Hell with the Empire - which is surely where it and we are headed.

Long live the Republic (if there ever was one) .... I think there was one there before the corporations were allowed to grow.

[happydreams]

79. I think its happening, and can't wait to see what happens

afterwards.

[Roland99]

56. Anyone catch IndependentLens on PBS this week? About Colombia's....

paramilitaries.

I was only half-watching. Hope to catch a rerun of it again soon. But, one of the paramilitary guys (looked to be about 19 or 20) said he now just wanted to spend time w/his newborn son and gave a very profound statement. Something along the lines of:

"No one ever gains by hurting others."

[Roland99]

70. Here it is: La Sierra >>>>>>>>>>

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/lasierra/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

71. Oh, jeez. That photo of the young man and his wife and kid says it all.

They are horrendously poor, living from hand to mouth, in a tiny, cramped apartment. I had read in another article that paramilitary recruiters can get their membership by offering them a gun, a cell phone, and $150.00. Looks like the kid has both his phone and his gun, standing by his window.

Preying on the young and poverty stricken to harvest killers is so cold. As long as Latin America has an unlimited number of desperately poor people, users like wealthy right-wingers will always have resources to use against the very people who are fighting for the defense of the very same, exploited victems. Astonishing.

Thanks for the news this program is out there. I have no doubt we can look for a re-run this year.

[Roland99]

72. Check your local listings. It's been running this week.

It's all in Spanish with subtitles (at least what I saw)

[Judi Lynn]

74. Oh, Jeez. I just gained the brilliant idea to check your link

to the Independent Lens program, La Sierra, for future times.

I'm in luck. It is being show in my area again Sunday morning at 3:00 a.m., and I can tape it.

Now we're cooking! Really looking forward to seeing this. Thank you so much.

[leftchick]

78. regarding Hugo Chavez and Coup Attempt number four....

have you seen this yet Judi?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12788.htm

[Judi Lynn]

80. No, I haven't seen it yet! I'm glad I peeked in here before dinner.

I'll come back and read it late tonight when I have some time to really read it closely. It looks GREAT. I noticed this remark, which is very sound:

....the dominant media is so corrupted and complicit with US policies hostile to the public interest and welfare here and abroad that we have a desperate need for an effective antidote to their poison.

Thanks for putting this link here for Venezuela-watching DU'ers!

[Judi Lynn]

87. Great article.Answered questions, confirmed suspicions I've had.

It's good to know the author is watching the situation intently, also. It was great seeing what he had to say about Eva Golinger's evidence of _Bush's attempts to organize anti-Chavez groups in other Latin American countries. That doesn't surprise you at all, does it?

You may remember Colin Powell went to Brazil or Argentina and told the President to shun Hugo Chavez. Condoleeza Rice and Rumsfeld have conducted non-stop gibbering at Chavez, also.

Sure glad to see your article. Looks like we can expect a ton of rough stuff before that election coming up at the end of the year. Something worth considering he mentioned: how would the country feel knowing Russia or China was conducting elaborate, menacing large scale exercises only 30 miles off shore here? Damned creepy.

Only the ones who don't keep up have to wonder about why they're forming a militia.

Thanks a lot, leftchick!

[leftchick]

90. very creepy indeed Judi!

Yes I do remember Colin's trips to SA, not unlike a Michael Corleone visit to Vegas! These people are so corrupt and criminal it is just mind boggling!

Hugo would be crazy not to form a militia! Viva Hugo!

peace,
lc

[caligirl]

59. Negroponte in Hondura's and similar things happened:

http://www.mayispeakfreely.org/index.php?gSec=doc&doc_id=10
During Negroponte’s tenure in Honduras, the United States was using the country as a base of operations for the Contra war in Nicaragua and the larger war against Communism in Central America. In the name of “national security,” Honduran security forces — including members of the CIA-trained military intelligence Battalion 3-16 — were committing serious human rights abuses against civilians who were supposed subversives. These violations of international law included kidnapping, torture and murder.

The Honduran press published hundreds of stories of illegal detentions and abductions, Honduran citizens and human rights groups sought help from the justice system to locate missing persons, and families of the disappeared and at least one Honduran politician made direct requests for Negroponte's assistance. Nevertheless, the ambassador consistently denied — both to Congress and in the international press — that officially sanctioned abuses were taking place.

The failure to report these violations undermined one of the embassy’s critical obligations: to inform Congress of events that might bear on foreign aid and policy decision making. Federal law requires the State Department to provide annual reports to Congress on human rights practices in countries receiving U.S. foreign assistance, and the State Department relies on U.S. embassies to provide the bulk of the information for these reports. Yet Negroponte and other high-level embassy officials reportedly encouraged their underlings to refrain from reporting on rights abuses.

Rick Chidester, a junior embassy official in Honduras, told The Baltimore Sun that he was directed by his superiors to omit from his 1982 human rights report information he had gathered on military abductions and torture. (He later said the Sun had misquoted him.) The resulting sanitized State Department report contains inaccurate statements such as: "Student, worker, peasant and other interest groups have full freedom to organize and hold frequent public demonstrations without interference. ... Trade unions are not hindered by the government." In fact, it was these groups that had been targeted as so-called subversives and were suffering the brunt of abuses.

A declassified 1997 CIA inspector general’s report gives further evidence of efforts within the embassy to suppress information.

[killbotfactory]

83. Aren't you glad we are spending millions down there?

"Fighting drugs" with Plan Columbia... :mad:

[Blue_Tires]

89. ttt n/t