Death-Squad Scandal Circles Closer to Colombia’s President

[struggle4progress]

Source: New York Times

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: May 16, 2007

CALI, Colombia, May 15 — President Álvaro Uribe, the Bush administration’s closest ally in Latin America, faces an intensifying scandal after a jailed former commander of paramilitary death squads testified Tuesday that Mr. Uribe’s defense minister had tried to plot with the outlawed private militias to upset the rule of a former president.

Speaking at a closed court hearing in Medellín, Salvatore Mancuso, the former paramilitary warlord, said Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos had met with paramilitary leaders in the mid-1990s to discuss efforts to destabilize the president at the time, Ernesto Samper, according to judicial officials.

Mr. Mancuso also said that Vice President Francisco Santos had met with paramilitary leaders in 1997 to discuss taking their operations to the capital, Bogotá.

A spokesman for the Defense Ministry said the minister would not comment. The spokesman said a meeting did take place in which Mr. Santos, the defense minister, discussed an effort to reach a peace plan between two guerrilla groups and the paramilitaries. ~snip~

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/americas/16colombia.html?ref=world

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is amazing. Sure hope the death squad leader can get his testimony tendered before they kill

him. You can be sure there are some people there who will be desperate to get rid of this man.
All those years of squeezing billions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayers could be lost down the drain in one fell swoop if this administration finally loses all cred with the American public and they start pressing Congress even more to stop propping up this violent, fascist government.



Pool photo by Luis Benavides

Testifying in a closed hearing, Salvatore Mancuso, center, a jailed former paramilitary warlord
in Colombia, told of plotting in the 1990s between the paramilitaries and the current defense
minister and vice president.

(They really should consider handing him a helmet, too!)

[maddezmom]

2. Colombia admits wiretapping operation

Colombia admits wiretapping operation By DARCY CROWE, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 15, 6:01 PM ET



BOGOTA, Colombia - An illegal police wiretapping operation against journalists, opposition figures and government members included the man President Alvaro Uribe defeated in the last election, his defense minister acknowledged Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos insisted that the Uribe administration was unaware of the police spying operation. "We don't know who ordered these interceptions and the government has never learned what they contain," he said.

Santos refused to reveal all the known victims of the wiretapping, but he did acknowledge that Carlos Gaviria of the Polo Democratico Alternativo party, who finished second in May 2006 presidential elections, was spied on. "That's as much as I'm going to say. I saw others but I don't think it merits giving the names," he told a news conference.

The wiretapping didn't surprise Gaviria, who told The Associated Press that it "all formed part of the dirty campaign against me."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_scandal;_ylt=An5g50S2j5JXmqtKtmQlaKRw24cA

[Judi Lynn]

3. That's really a hot one! The Uribe administration wants us to believe

that although it wiretapped Uribe's last Presidential Campaign opponent, they themselves had no knowledge of it, didn't gain from it, are completely innocent in every possible way!

Oh, yeah! They don't call Uribe "Little Bush" in Colombia for nothing!

[maddezmom]

4. more: Colombia's Uribe defends ministers, denies wiretaps

BOGOTA, May 16 (Reuters) - Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe furiously defended his government on Wednesday over suspected ties with illegal paramilitaries and the clandestine wiretapping of foes that some are dubbing a local "Watergate".

The president's response came after a jailed former top paramilitary commander testified that he met Uribe's vice president and his defense minister in the 1990s, and police admitted agents bugged officials, politicians and journalists.

The news broke at a sensitive time for Uribe as he seeks to persuade U.S. Democrats in Congress to approve a free trade deal and renew a multimillion dollar military aid package for Colombia to help counter a left-wing insurgency.

"I have every confidence in this office, in the honesty of the vice president of the Republic and my companions who make up the national government," Uribe told local Caracol radio.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16199573.htm

sounds like a * mini-me

[donkeyotay]

5. Thank the deities that could never happen here

An illegal police wiretapping operation against journalists, opposition figures and government members included the man President Alvaro Uribe defeated in the last election, his defense minister acknowledged Tuesday.

We only use our illegal spying capabilities for good.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Colombia's leader defends administration

Posted on Wed, May. 16, 2007
Colombia's leader defends administration
By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer



Luis Benavides, Pool / AP Photo

Former far-right paramilitary leader Salvatore
Mancuso looks on during a court appearance in
Medellin, Colombia, Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Alvaro Uribe defended his battered administration Wednesday against a flurry of new blows: a wiretapping scandal, the jailing of more congressional allies and a paramilitary warlord's claims that two high-ranking officials conspired with far-right militias.

Salvatore Mancuso, in an explosive judicial hearing, affirmed what human rights organizations have long claimed: that Colombia's top military commanders systematically colluded with the illegal militias.

Since Uribe's 2002 election, Colombia's armed forces have forced leftist rebels to retreat into Colombia's thick jungles and Andean highlands, spurred by more than half a billion dollars in mostly U.S. military aid each year.
(snip)

Meanwhile, leading Democrats are asking tough questions in Washington, where Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., expects Congress to review foreign aid to Colombia in June.

"What I'm hoping is that there will be less military aid and more aid for social and economic development," McGovern said. "To be blunt, I wouldn't trust this military to tell me the correct time given what's been revealed in the past few months."
(snip/)

http://www.miamiherald.com/691/story/108308.html

[tom_paine]

7. Loyal Bushies sure do love their Right-Wing Death Squads

I'm not 100% sure they aren't doing the same thing here on a much smaller, more targeted scale.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Some background which you may REALLY appreciate, considering the news vacuum we've been handed

on this right-wing U.S. ally:

Wednesday 16 May 2007
The crisis of Colombia’s state
The intimate connection between paramilitary groups, state-security institutions and politicians in Colombia is corroding the foundations of Álvaro Uribe’s rule, says Jenny Pearce.

The editor-in-chief of the Colombian weekly, Semana, is driven around in an armoured car with several bodyguards. Semana is a key source of some extraordinary political revelations over the last few months in a country with extraordinary politics. At the same time, it should be said that the "news" about connections between paramilitary groups and politicians in Colombia - which on 14 May 2007 led to the arrest on criminal conspiracy charges of twenty politicians and business leaders, including five congressmen, almost all political allies of Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe - only confirms what many observers have known for a long time.

In 2005, I visited Sincelejo in the northern department of Sucre, and found a town in the grip of fear. Locals talked about a new form of politics: narcoparamilipolismo (rule by an alliance of paramilitary, politicians and drug-traffickers). Nearby in San Onofre, they were digging up the remains of some 500 victims of the local paramilitary boss known as Cadena (Chain), whose henchman had just spilt the beans on a mass grave on El Palmar farm. It was from here that a group of paramilitary set off on 17 January 2001 to massacre twenty-seven peasants in El Chengue village.
(snip)

The wave of exposures is politically of great significance. Colombia’s attorney-general has publicly stated that they are more serious than the most severe political crisis of Colombia’s recent history, unofficially known as the "8,000 process", when Ernesto Samper was investigated for the partial funding of his presidential electoral campaign of 1994 with drugs-cartel money. The Washington Post is now talking about "Paragate". The speculation is whether President Álvaro Uribe - in his second term of office and despite the scandal, while being buoyed by a 72% approval rating in the four main cities of the country - will manage to distance himself from the scandal, even though most of the politicians involved are his supporters.

But the questions at stake are not so conjunctural. Colombian politics are a labyrinthine world. The thread of continuity is the intransigent resistance to democratising and pluralising political change and socio-economic reform on the part of key sectors of the Colombian elite. To them, supping with the devil of private armed groups and drugs mafias has been an acceptable cost for the pacification of the country and its insertion into global economic markets. At stake are big issues that affect the lives of millions of Colombians: what kind of peace is being created in Colombia, what kind of democracy, and what kind of economic development - and for whom?

The revelations began, following the impounding in 2006 of the computer of the paramilitary leader known as "Jorge 40". The computer revealed in great detail the formal agreement made in 2001 between northern regional and local political elites and the paramilitary, now known as the "Ralito accord". Following judicial investigations, nine congressmen and a provincial governor, all supporters of President Álvaro Uribe from the Atlantic coast region of the country werein prison even before the 14 May arrests.And the net is extending further. Detailed research conducted by the NGO Nuevo Arco Iris, the Javeriana University and others found that at least 30% of the present congress won their seats through illegitimate deals with the paramilitary and no less than sixty congressional representatives and a good number of governors, mayors and councillors might end up in prison.

More:
http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=6078

[Judi Lynn]

9. Ex Colombia Paramilitary Tells All

Ex Colombia Paramilitary Tells All

Bogota, May 17 (Prensa Latina) The financing by transnational and Colombian companies of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) is due to focus former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso s statements at the Attorney s office in Medellin, Colombia.

Mancuso, with nearly 500 murders under his belt, launched on Wednesday new accusations against a long list of politicians linked to the AUC.

Mancuso mentioned former senator Eleonora Pineda, now in prison, as his link between paramilitaries and political leaders.

In his statements, the former militia chief involved at least 15 congress people and former legislators, as well as 28 mayors from the department of Cordova, among others.

~~~~ link ~~~~

[Eugene]

10. Second governor jailed in Colombia militia probe

Source: Reuters

Second governor jailed in Colombia militia probe
Thu May 17, 2007 2:17PM EDT

BOGOTA, May 17 (Reuters) - The governor of a Colombian province
handed himself over to prosecutors on Thursday shortly after he was
ordered arrested as part of an investigation into ties between
politicians and paramilitary death squads.

Hernando Molina is the second governor jailed in the probe that is
forcing President Alvaro Uribe to defend his government over charges
some of his allies once conspired with militia commanders before they
demobilized under a peace deal.

Prosecutors have so far imprisoned 13 lawmakers on charges they
colluded with rightist paramilitaries who massacred and controlled
swaths of Colombia in the name of countering rebels who are still
fighting Latin America's oldest insurgency.

"The presumption of innocence is one guarantee of fundamental rights
and so here I am," Molina, governor of northern Cesar province, told
reporters as he surrendered at the attorney general's office in Bogota.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN17341870

[Judi Lynn]

11. Second governor jailed in Colombia militia probe

Second governor jailed in Colombia militia probe
17 May 2007 18:17:48 GMT
Source: Reuters

BOGOTA, May 17 (Reuters) - The governor of a Colombian province handed himself over to prosecutors on Thursday shortly after he was ordered arrested as part of an investigation into ties between politicians and paramilitary death squads.

Hernando Molina is the second governor jailed in the probe that is forcing President Alvaro Uribe to defend his government over charges some of his allies once conspired with militia commanders before they demobilized under a peace deal.

Prosecutors have so far imprisoned 13 lawmakers on charges they colluded with rightist paramilitaries who massacred and controlled swaths of Colombia in the name of countering rebels who are still fighting Latin America's oldest insurgency.

"The presumption of innocence is one guarantee of fundamental rights and so here I am," Molina, governor of northern Cesar province, told reporters as he surrendered at the attorney general's office in Bogota.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17341870.htm



Gobernador con las reinas
Gobernador del Cesar Hernando Molina con las Reinas en el desfile de la Señorita Colombia en el Club Valledupar. Foto tomada por Valledupar.com



From Wikipedia:

Hernando César Molina Araújo (born August 28, 1961 in Valledupar) is a Colombian politician, son of Hernando Molina Céspedes and Consuelo Araújo, he studied at the Colegio Nacional Loperena in Valledupar and later studied Law in the Antonio Nariño University, but dropped out. He declares himself a self-taught person. Molina was governor of the Colombian Department of Cesar for the period 2004 - 2007, period which he did not complete due to his involvement in the Parapolitica scandal. he was called to testify on May 17, 2007 at the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia.<1>
(snip)

Governorship
See also: 2006–2007 Colombian para-political scandal
In 2003 Molina ran for the Cesar Department governorship without contestants after a highly influential AUC paramilitary leader in the region named Jorge 40 allegedly mounted pressure over the other two candidates to make them renounce their candidacies. These raised questions about Molina and his possible involvement with illegal paramilitary groups. <2>
(snip)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_Molina_Ara%C3%BAjo

[Eugene]

12. Colombian militia boss says took U.S. banana payoffs (Dole, Del Monte)

Source: Reuters

Colombian militia boss says took U.S. banana payoffs
18 May 2007 02:57:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Recasts through with details on U.S. fruit companies)

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA, May 17 (Reuters) - A former Colombian paramilitary commander
said on Thursday his illegal organization took payoffs from local operators
for U.S. fruit firms, including Dole and Del Monte, witnesses at a hearing
said.

-snip-

Mancuso has already accused scores of politicians and two Colombian
drinks companies of ties to his armed group. He is testifying under an
accord granting militia bosses short prison terms for handing over
weapons and confessing.

"He talked about ties to the banana companies, most of the companies
that operated in his area of influence," Carlos Ivan Lopera, a lawyer
for a victim's rights group who attended the hearing, told Reuters.

Reporters were not allowed in the testimony at Medellin attorney
general's office. But a judicial source and another representative of
victims of paramilitary violence allowed into the hearings confirmed
details of Mancuso naming Dole and Del Monte and other local fruit
companies.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17404594.htm

[Judi Lynn]

13. It would be interesting to learn why reporters are not being allowed to hear

the testimony of this death squad commander. Apparently it's easier than letting them cover it, then having them killed before they can write it.

Colombia has one of the worst records for violence against journalists in the entire world, and I don't mean putting agents working for foreign governments posing as journalists in jail. They SLAUGHTER journalists in Colombia.

They have done such a convincing, thorough job, the journalists have been censoring themselves for a long time now, to avoid their own violent deaths.

It's truly a wonder ANY news gets out of that country. The news coming out recently is astonishing!



Colombian congressman Miguel Alfonso De la Espiella(C)
is escorted by Colombian special police in Bogota,
Colombia May 14, 2007. Colombia's Supreme Court on
Monday ordered five congressmen arrested on charges
they colluded with paramilitary death squads.
REUTERS/ho



Former paramilitary commander Ernesto Baez talks to
the media while Colombian High Peace Commisioner Luis
Carlos Restrepo listens at the high security prison
in Itagui, Colombia May 14, 2007. Colombian government
said on Monday it was investigating a report of recorded
telephone conversations of some paramilitary bosses
organizing crime from their jail cells and the Colombia's
Supreme Court on Monday ordered five congressmen arrested
on charges they colluded with paramilitary death squads.
REUTERS/FREDY AMARILES

[Judi Lynn]

14. More on the U.S. companies in Colombia: Fruit firms paid militias, warlord says

Posted on Fri, May. 18, 2007
Fruit firms paid militias, warlord says
A jailed militia warlord testified that three multinational banana companies helped finance Colombia's bloody illegal militias.
BY DARCY CROWE
Associated Press

BOGOTA -- A paramilitary warlord said Thursday that U.S. multinationals who buy Colombia's bananas financed illegal right-wing militias that killed thousands of people in a more than decade-long reign of terror.

In testimony to investigators, jailed warlord Salvatore Mancuso named Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte as financing the militias, according to Jesús Vargas, a lawyer for victims of paramilitary violence who was present at the hearing, to which the press was barred.
(snip)

Chiquita Brands International Co., under a deal with the U.S. Justice Department, has acknowledged paying paramilitaries $1.7 million over six years. Chiquita paid a $25 million fine for that case in Washington.

Chiquita says the payments were made to protect the safety of its workers but Colombia's chief prosecutor has said companies that made such payments shared the responsibility for paramilitary murders.

Mancuso didn't say why the companies paid the militias.

But labor rights activists accuse companies of paying the paramilitaries to act as union busters, killing labor leaders and making this country the most dangerous in the world for organized labor.
(snip)

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/110757.html