Colombian paramilitary leader killed

[Say_What]

Uh oh, Bush pal Uribe is getting desparate. After so much rhetoric about the paras bringing all their political ties to light, he has them moved to maximum security prisons--including his pal Salvatore Mancuso. Now an execution of one of Mancuso's men. See the article that follows about Uribe and his shinanighans.

<clips>

BOGOTA, Colombia - Gunmen shot and killed a paramilitary leader as he was dining at a restaurant in the western Colombian city of Medellin, police said Thursday.

Jaime Andres Angarita, 33, was considered the right-hand man of warlord Salvatore Mancuso, the architect of a 2003 peace deal with the government that has led to the demobilization of 31,000 militia fighters.

Police in Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, said Angarita was shot late Wednesday by two gunmen who escaped on a motorcycle. Authorities did not speculate on a motive.

Mancuso and other paramilitary leaders have complained of receiving death threats in recent months, purportedly to prevent them from revealing secrets about their ties to Colombia's political elite.

On Dec. 19, Mancuso became the first major militia commander to give closed-door testimony before a tribunal established to examine the paramilitaries' role in some of Colombia's worst atrocities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_paramilitary_killed

==================================================================

What does the Colombian president want?

<clips>

Just as several paramilitary commanders appeared ready to tell the truth about their links with the political power, the government of Álvaro Uribe arranged for their removal to the Itagüi maximum-security prison.

The ramifications of "parapolitics" continue to surprise all of Colombia, to the point that federal prosecutors ordered the arrest of the former president of the Deportivo Pereira soccer club, Ramón Ríos.

The prosecutors also interrogated soccer players Rafael Castillo and Luis Felipe Chará to find out if money-laundering operations by the paramilitary organizations are behind the sale of soccer players to foreign teams.

...On many occasions, President Uribe has emphasized the need for all State functionaries to "bring to the light" all irregularities, so the Colombian people may see the real magnitude of the links between the political power and the paramilitary forces.

However, barely a few days before the main AUC commanders were to testify in court, the president arranged for their transfer from the La Ceja recreational center to the Itagüi maximum-security prison. According to the government, the step was taken because the paramilitaries allegedly were planning to escape. Also, according to official sources, the men may have been responsible for the deaths of some of their aides, to keep them from making compromising statements to the prosecutors.

Uribe himself warned Salvatore Mancuso and company that if they "misbehaved" he might withdraw the legal benefits they enjoy thanks to the peace agreement signed in April 2002. That announcement led the governments of the U.S. and Italy to express interest in the extradition of the main leader of the AUC, who was sentenced in Colombia to 40 years' imprisonment for the deaths of several peasants.

http://www.rprogreso.com/index.php?progreso=Matias_Mongan&otherweek=1166680800

[Redstone]

1. Uh, it's Colombian, not Columbian. The name of the country is Colombia.

Redstone

[Say_What]

2. Typo fixed... easy mistake to make even IF one knows how to spell

COLOMBIA :shrug:

[Redstone]

3. that's a typo we ALL make. Like not being able to keep the "u" out of "Iraqi."

Redstone

[WhiteTara]

4. Wheaties in your undies?

Bad day? We're all just trying to report the world as we see it here, but good for you to see the error and correct it.
Big :grouphug: 'cause it is such a difficult season and you seem grumpy.

[Redstone]

5. Nah, I'm not grumpy. Just the usual aggs, thanks for asking.

Not a difficult season for me at all this year; we had a good Christmas.

Redstone

[Say_What]

6. Senator son of slain Colombian cartel fighter proposes drug legalization

<clips>

BOGOTA, Colombia: A Colombian senator and son of a presidential candidate assassinated by a drug kingpin has called for a congressional debate on the taboo subject of drug legalization.

"The current repressive approach against drug trafficking hasn't worked despite the huge amounts of blood we Colombians have shed," Sen. Juan Manuel Galan, of the opposition Liberal Party, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It's time to look at different options, together with other drug-production nations, as a way to break the back of the drug traffickers."

Any serious discussion of drug legalization has long been off-limits in Colombia, in part because the United States leans heavily on the Andean nation — the world's largest supplier of cocaine — to eliminate drug trafficking at its source. Colombia has received more than US$4 billion in mostly military U.S. aid since 2000 — more than any country outside the Middle East.

Although politicians have backed legalization before, Galan's proposal for a congressional debate on the issue carries additional weight because of the high esteem in which Colombians hold his father, Luis Carlos Galan, who was shot and killed while campaigning in 1990 for the presidency.

The respected, charismatic candidate was all but assured victory when his assassination in Bogota was ordered by Escobar, head of the defunct Medellin cartel, as part of a campaign of terror to prevent his extradition to the United States, a move he feared that Galan would support if elected.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/28/america/LA_GEN_Colombia_Drug_Legalization.php

[Judi Lynn]

7. So GLAD to see this information. People have been talking openly FOR YEARS AND YEARS

about Alvaro Uribe's connection to the paramilitaries, as well as his deceased father's, including information coming from people who have lived there, as you know.

It's almost reason to hope it's finally all going to blow up in Uribe's face, with just a little bit of luck, after his years of running a country with the world's highest record of per capita journalists' murders, union workers' murders, not to mention the wildly vicious attacks on human rights workers, etc. by _Bush's friend, of course.

Saw an article in the last couple of weeks which said that paramilitaries who are in prison now are afraid to eat their meals as they are convinced that Uribe's government might be trying to poison them to shut them up.

There was that computer which was found recently with the information linking 33 Colombian Senators to the paramilitaries, even having sworn an oath of loyalty to them which really blew the roof off the outhouse.

They are convinced Uribe wants them all dead. He might want them all dead so no one can implicate him.

I want to find out as much as I can about this news you've posted tonight, when I get some time later on. Did you hear that they found the body of Carlos Castaño in the last few months, and then learned that he had been killed by a hit his brother ordered?



Here's Salvatore Mancuso, mentioned in your Progreso article:

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/auc.htm

Thanks for the new info. Looks like a lot of reading ahead to get up to date on this stuff! Hope it leads to some breakthroughs of the righteous kind!

[Say_What]

8. Uribe's Convivir and Mancuso...

I didn't hear about Castano's murder--a hit ordered by his brother? YIKES!!

This was posted to another board, but a friend from Colombia pointed out the following:

"The only error that the author wrote is about the name of Gaitan. Although it's true that Colombia had in 1948 a charismatic liberal leader named Julio Cesar Gaitan (my dad shed tears every time you mentioned his name) , who was assassinated in said year. However, I guess the author of the article refers to the Liberal candidate Luis Carlos Galan, who was assassinated for Pablo Escobar. I imagine the mistake came up due to the similarity in both last names."

====================================================================

Colombian society is not very transparent. Saying one thing, and
doing another is the rule, rather than the exception. the Colombian
bourgeoisie are past masters at deceit and betrayal, including among
themselves. They are not unified, except in their desire to maintain
the rule of their class. Revenge is a major motive in everything that
happens here, including within the ruling class. Vendettas can go
unnoticed and unacted upon for years.

Uribe is the President of Colombia, but he is not the only powerful
individual, and the Presidency is not the only powerful institution.

Uribe was also the founder of Convivir, the semi-legal paramilitary
movement set up in Antiochia (the department where Medellin is) when
he was governor of the Department. Convivir was one of the major
components which ended up forming the more recent paramilitary
movement. Salvatore Mancuso began his paramilitary career in
Convivir. Convivir was trained by the Israeli miiltary, and was
supported by the United States.

Within every political sector in Colombia there is a conflict related
to illegal drugs. For example, within the US embassy and the State
Department there are some people who really believe that suppressing
the cultivation, production and export of cocaine and heroin should
be the heart of US policy in Colombia, but there are others who are
totally indifferent to the "war on drugs" who think that its only use
is as a pretext for killing off the FARC and ELN. This kind of
conflict opens the door wider to the corruption which is already
possible in a situation where illegal economic activity produces
great wealth.

The same kind of conflict exists in every Colombian political
organization from the paramilitaries to the FARC and the ELN, and of
course to the traditional political organizations. It is especilly
acute within the traditional landowning families who stand to reap
enourmous profits if they use even a small portion of their land to
produce illegal drugs. Some of them clearly do so, and some of them
don't.

In the case of the paramilitaries, which were set up to "protect"
traditional landowners from unions and the guerrilla organizations,
since they were illegal from the beginning it was only natural that
would move into the most lucrative illegal activities, and that
within their patrons they would become most closely allied with the
drug producers among the traditional landlords.

It was also only natural that they would assasinate their opponents
within the ruling class, given that their whole nature was outside of
the framework of bourgeois law. the murder of Gaitan, (Liberal Party
Presidential candidate) was only the most high profile of these
disputes.

The vendettas from those past actions still are there, and still run
deep, even if they are not on the front page fot he newspapers.

Uribe's apparently contradictory actions and policies probably are
closely related to the tightrope he walks among the hidden land mine
of old but still active vendettas. He has an enourmous, elaborate,
and so far effective security apparatus, but he also has two high
profile high society sons who do not always stay within the limits
that their security guards set. Uribe fears for his life, and for the
lives of his family members. Not just because of his vendetta against
the FARC, but because there are probably dozens of his enemies within
his own party, and many more within his own class, who would not mind
seeing him dead.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Wow! Really good. Do you remember the time the pResident went to visit him in Colombia?

They had so many boats crowding the waters, the air thick with helicopters, soldiers everywhere, and they also claimed there had been a death threat or a bomb threat or something against _Bush. It must have cost a king's ransom for _Bush to make that trip.

Meanwhile, you may remember the trips made by Paul Wellstone which actually attracted REAL threats:

Past assassination attempt on Wellstone in Columbia

Paul Wellstone was the subject of two previous attacks — one health-endangering, the other an assassination attempt. Both occurred in Colombia. Wellstone was an aggressive critic of the Plan Colombia, which called for the massive spraying of areas suspected to be coca, the plant used to make cocaine. Wellstone went to Colombia to see what was going on firsthand and make a report.

Shortly after arriving in Colombia, police found two bombs planted in the road along Wellstone's intended route. While there, Wellstone was "accidentally" sprayed by gfyphosphate, an herbicide — at least he was told it was glyphosphate. However, another herbicide that has also been used in Colombia is agent orange ... known to cause multiple sclerosis. Wellstone was diagnosed with MS in 2002.
(snip)

http://www.unknownnews.net/cdd1120.html

and more:

~snip~
Toward the end of the year 2000 and before the $election of GW Bush, our Right Wing controlled Congress passed an aid plan that gave the Columbian (SA) government 1.3 billion dollars to fight the so-called war on drugs. This aid plan, a pet project for the Colombian President, Andres Pastrana, gave the Colombian government money to spray herbicides, buy helicopters, etc. for use to remove coca plants from the Colombian fields. Congressional Repuglicans in their usual deceptive selves told those who were contemplating not voting for this aid plan that if they voted against it they were actually voting in favor of drugs in our U.S. public schools! (Wow, imagine that!)

Well guess who, among a few others, voted against it? Yep, Paul Wellstone. Paul Wellstone rightfully wondered whether or not we would be able to win the fight against the narcotics trade as long as the people in Colombia and the countryside do not have other alternatives for making a living. He also questioned the Colombian government's human rights abuses, reportedly carried out in the war on drugs.

In the last week of November 2000, Paul Wellstone took a trip to Colombia to get a glimpse for himself what was really going on in our so-called war on drugs. Before his arrival and after his vote against the aid plan, the Colombian press widely and aggressively reported Paul Wellstone's dissent. Sound familiar? Well this got my little conspiracy thinking gears turning! After Paul's arrival two strange things happened: A bomb was placed in the only road leading into the city of Barrancabermeja, exactly where Wellstone was heading and Paul Wellstone and his staff were sprayed with herbicide! After the bomb was discovered, Colombian police had mixed explanations regarding the incident, some said it was an assassination attempt on Wellstone others said it was a coincidence! The spraying of herbicide they said was an accident, the wind did it! After explaining to Paul Wellstone how they were going to show him an exercise in "smart fumigation" they (accidentally?) sprayed him and his staff with a herbicide they claim is harmless to humans. The Colombian officials allowed Wellstone and his staff no opportunity to wash the substance off, and they were unable to do so until they returned to their rooms later that evening.

After these two incidents, Colombian police took Wellstone to another site where they wanted Wellstone to get off the helicopter to watch them blow up and destroy a runway used by drug traffickers. Paul Wellstone, probably instinctively, declined.

In my research I also ran across an article that speculated that Paul Wellstone was planning on running for President in 2004!
(snip/...)

http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/2002/11/01.html

[Say_What]

11. Colombia Reveals Plot to Assassinate Bush

From the Guardian

<clips>

Colombian rebels plotted to assassinate George Bush during his brief stopover in the port of Cartagena last week, according to the country's defence minister.

Jorge Alberto Uribe told reporters: "We knew that various members of Farc had been instructed to attack the US president."

Mr Bush made an unexpected visit to Colombia while returning to the US from last weekend's Asian Pacific Economic Conference in Chile.

Security during the four-hour stopover was unusually tight, with helicopters hovering over the motorcade surrounding his armoured four-wheel drive vehicle, which replaced the usual limousine, as it drove through the port. Some 15,000 soldiers were deployed.

Mr Uribe gave no indication as to whether any actual attack was attempted. "This shows the world that today Colombia is a country that is calm," he said. "Our security forces did very well."

...Mr Bush used his trip to Colombia to support President Alvaro Uribe. A conservative with close ties to the White House, Mr Uribe has made a military assault on the Farc rebels, who have been fighting the government for 40 years. His father was killed resisting a Farc kidnapping in the 80s, and he survived a car bomb two years ago.

Mr Bush pledged during the visit to add funds to a $3.3bn (£1.7bn) security and anti-drug package for Colombia launched under Mr Clinton and the former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana.

Colombia is the largest recipient of US aid outside the Middle East; it produces 90% of the cocaine and 50% of the heroin consumed in the US.

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-28-2004-62256.asp

[Judi Lynn]

10. Don't forget the ghoulish filthy lies the right-wing para. scum tell, using the bodies

of helpless victims:

Colombians said to mask civilian deaths
By Hugh Bronstein, Reuters | February 14, 2006

BOGOTA -- Security forces have killed civilians, and have covered up the killings by dressing up the bodies as Marxist guerrillas, according to testimony in an annual United Nations human rights report released yesterday.

Last year, UN investigators said, they saw an increase in allegations of extrajudicial executions that, the report said, attributed to soldiers and police.

Those officials often presented the killings as deaths of guerrillas in combat, said a report, which was issued by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report covers the year 2005.

''Cases were recorded in which commanders themselves had allegedly supported the act of dressing the victims in guerrilla garments to cover up facts and simulate combat," the report said.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2006/02/14/colombians_said_to_mask_civilian_deaths/

[Judi Lynn]

12. Colombian Official Denounces Murder Plot

Colombian Official Denounces Murder Plot
Colombian Official Denounces Murder Plot
By JAVIER BAENA, The Associated Press
Dec 30, 2006 12:31 AM (4 days ago)

BOGOTA, Colombia - The murders of several paramilitary fighters is part of a conspiracy to silence testimony about the right-wing militias' ties to Colombia's political elite, the interior minister said Friday.

Carlos Holguin said Wednesday's murder of Jaime Andres Angarita - the right-hand man of warlord Salvatore Mancuso - "wasn't an isolated case."

"It's part of plot to eliminate specific people within the paramilitary structure," Holguin told Caracol Radio.

Angarita was shot and killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle while dining at a restaurant in the western city of Medellin.

Holguin noted there had been similar killings of at least four other fighters who were expected to testify before a special tribunal about alleged government-militia ties. The tribunals grew out of a 2003 peace deal that demobilized 31,000 fighters.

Holguin noted there had been similar killings of at least four other fighters who were expected to testify before a special tribunal about alleged government-militia ties. The tribunals grew out of a 2003 peace deal that demobilized 31,000 fighters.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_paramilitary_killed