Colombia offers to free rebels in hostage swap

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Colombia offers to free rebels in hostage swap
Government seeks release of ailing ex-presidential candidate Betancourt
updated 1 hour, 40 minutes ago

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia will free hundreds of guerrilla fighters if rebel leaders release politician Ingrid Betancourt, who is in ill health after being held hostage for years in secret jungle camps, the government said.

President Alvaro Uribe signed a decree late Thursday allowing the massive release of guerrillas from jail if French-Colombian Betancourt, kidnapped during her 2002 presidential campaign and ailing from hepatitis B, is set free, Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told reporters.

The decree was a bid to speed up efforts at swapping rebel-held politicians, police and soldiers for jailed guerrillas after months of haggling over conditions.

"The immediate release of Betancourt would be enough for us to consider the humanitarian exchange underway, in that we would conditionally suspend the sentences of guerrillas who are part of the agreement," Restrepo said.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23840045/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia soldiers face arrest for machete massacre (WITH DEATH SQUAD MEMBERS)

Struggle4progress has broken this story, you won’t want to miss. It’s a big one. It’s posted in the Latin America forum:

Colombia soldiers face arrest for machete massacre
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x3081

Soldiers Face Arrest for Machete Massacre
Former paramilitary Jorge Luis Salgado described the long-suspected role played by the army in the massacre

Colombian soldiers accused of massacring 11 people in 2005, including three children, have been ordered arrested based on long-awaited evidence from a right-wing paramilitary who helped carry out the killings.

The massacre near the banana-growing town of San Jose de Apartado in northwest Colombia captured international attention because of accusations that the army cooperated with the drug-running paramilitaries.

The attorney general's office said on Thursday the arrest orders against 15 soldiers were based on testimony from former paramilitary Jorge Luis Salgado, who said the illegal militias guided the army on patrols around San Jose de Apartado.

In testimony published on Thursday, he described the long-suspected role played by the army in the massacre.

"The children were under the bed. The girl, about five or six years old, was very nice and the boy was smart as well," Salgado told government prosecutors.

"We suggested to the army officers that we leave the kids at a house nearby, but they said they were a threat, that they would turn into guerrillas in the future," Salgado said.

He then told how one of the officers, known as 'Cobra', took the girl by the hair and cut her throat with a machete.

The government as recently as last year suggested the massacre was the work of Colombia's biggest left-wing rebel group, known as the FARC.

More:
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=135557

Published: March 28, 2008 09:32h

[Peace Patriot]

2. Interesting. Colombian/French relations must be REALLY bad--

--after Uribe went and killed the chief FARC hostage negotiator that Sarkovy was in contact with--to have produced this action--agreement to free FARC prisoners. And the heat from the rest of South America must be getting to Uribe.

But he is a treacherous little fascist worm. It's unwise to put any hopes in him--as Chavez did, initially. I think Chavez is cured of that mission (saving Uribe's soul). Uribe was clearly in on a Bushite plot to "get" Chavez and Correa as "terrorist lovers," and to make war on them. Now he's trying to cop the credit for all their work. What a shit he is!

I am, of course, overjoyed by people getting out of captivity or prison. But I don't expect a good outcome, ultimately, from anything Uribe does.

I think Donald Rumsfeld's war plan is still on track. Uribe's just trying to get the Colombian "free trade" deal through a reluctant Democratic Congress (--just about the only thing our Democrats have stood fast against). Rumsfeld sees this "free trade" deal as a tool for economic warfare against Venezuela* (to be added to items like Exxon Mobil's effort to freeze $12 billion in Venezuela's assets). And, following that, "swift" U.S. "action" in support of "friends and allies" in South America. Whatever could he mean? Could mean "swift actions" like the U.S./Colombia bombing/incursion against Ecuador. But they've also been stoking the white separatists in Bolivia, and I think intend to cause a major fracas in South America, this May, when those fascists declare the "independence" of the gas/oil-rich eastern provinces and request Bush-U.S. support for their "independence." That could easily lead to a civil war in Bolivia, with the U.S./Colombia supporting the fascist side, and Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and others supporting the central government of Evo Morales.

I think the South Americans can avert it--as they deftly averted war between Colombia and Ecuador (--a Rumsfeldian war trap, if I ever saw one). But there could be more grief coming, as the Bushites try to create "chaos and opportunity" (a Rumsfeld specialty). Their ultimate goal, of course: regaining global corporate predator control of Venezuela and Ecuador's oil (--and smashing democracy and social justice in South America).

-----

* "The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. No doubt at all you are RIGHT. Here's a later article from AFP:Will Release FARC Rebels For Betancou

Colombia Government: Will Release FARC Rebels For Betancourt -AFP

BOGOTA (AFP)--Colombia's government has offered to release leftist rebels from its prisons if the FARC guerrilla group they belong to immediately frees ailing French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Bogota is prepared to drop several of the conditions it had placed on a long- sought prisoner swap, in a bid to jump-start the deal and secure freedom for Betancourt and other hostages in poor health, Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said.

"It's enough that Ingrid Betancourt be immediately released for us to consider the humanitarian deal is on, enabling us to conditionally suspend the sentences of members of the rebel group," Restrepo said late Thursday.

Asked how many rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, would be freed, Restrepo said Bogota wasn't placing a limit on the number and had "reduced to a minimum" its conditions for the swap.

"There is no limit as to the crime committed, or the type of sentence received," he told reporters at the presidential palace here.

More:

http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200803281340DOWJONESDJONLINE000814_univ.xml

[otherlander]

4. I hope

that Betancourt gets out, runs for president, and beats the shit out of Uribe or whoever runs as his party's candidate.

[Judi Lynn]

5. That would be heavenly! Uribe will be running: he already has his supporters

lobbying for an unprecidented third term, right after he had their legal system adjusted to allow him to run for an unprecidented second term.

No doubt Betancourt would have a tremendous support base.

[otherlander]

6. She was a good senator.

She's definitely one of the people who wants to steer Colombia in a more socially just direction. If the FARC were really "fighting for the people", they'd realize that that was her goal, and realize that they would be better off with her free and fighting the Uribe regime, but they're not. They're just a bunch of thugs who think their own goddamn ideology is more important than human life.

[Judi Lynn]

7. I'm far more concerned that clowns don't take the time to admit their own right-wing death squads

have been conducting atrocities beyond human understanding forever, and, according to human rights organization, have managed to inflict the vast majority of the murders, including chainsaw tortures and murders of entire villages.

Now THAT'S something anyone civilized would condemn. Instead, right-wingers applaud this filth, approving the wholesale slaughter of their political opponents.

As a marcher in the recent parade March 6 told a reporter, the death squads don't take the time to kidnap their victims, ordinarily: they cut them into pieces, instead. We are very well aware that your kind of President launched an assault on these marchers, and some of them were murdered immediately after he targeted them, by death squads, as discussed in by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and written in an open letter to Álvaro Uribe from Amnesty International in the last week or so.

It's only a matter of time before far, FAR more people manage to see through the deceit, and filthy attempt to keep concealed the most vicious administration in the Western Hemisphere.

Many of us CAN'T WAIT to see Colombia removed from the gravy train straight to the pockets of the American taxpayers who've been forced to financially support this vile, massive criminality against humanity.

[Judi Lynn]

8. {Progressive Senator Cordoba) Colombian drawing fire for efforts to free hostages

Colombian drawing fire for efforts to free hostages
mcclatchy-tribune
March 30, 2008
BOGOTA, Colombia

Sen. Piedad Cordoba emerged from the Senate chamber on a recent night, clutching her side.

"My stomach hurts," she told an aide. "It's all this stress."

No wonder. Ten bodyguards accompany her around Colombia after a series of death threats. People on the street insult her, and she must wait in a secure place for other passengers to board an airplane before she gets on, after a verbal altercation at Bogota's airport in January.

A kidnap victim herself who has long worked on behalf of Colombia's dispossessed, Cordoba has been in the headlines over the past three months for her work to secure the freedom of six hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla group known as the FARC.
(snip)

"They've always tried to shut me up," Cordoba told The Miami Herald during several interviews that started in Bogota and ended in Caracas. "I'm against the Establishment. Many people on the left don't want to rock the Establishment and not be invited to cocktail parties. Nobody invites me. The only list I'm on is of those to be killed."

Cordoba said she has already survived eight attempts on her life. One killed two of her police guards, while another maimed her driver.
(snip)

In 1999, right-wing paramilitaries kidnapped her, but public appeals secured her freedom 16 days later. She took a leave from the Senate and fled to Montreal, where she went to work for the United Nations. She returned to Colombia two years later and was re-elected to the 102-member Senate.
(snip)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.colombia30mar30,0,3819626.story?track=rss







Senator Piedad Cordoba meeting Nancy Pelosi and Jim McGovern

You may recall Senator Piedad Cordoba was deeply involved in securing the release of the first two prisoners.

[Judi Lynn]

9. "A Lawmaker Whose Nation Dislikes Her Friends," according to NY Times Simon Romero

(Simon Romero has been a relentless corporate media mouthpiece in true Judith Miller fashion, focused on Latin America, and anti-leftist leaders, pro-Bush's Uribe)

A Lawmaker Whose Nation Dislikes Her Friends



Scott Dalton for The New York Times
“I suppose I’m somewhat unique. But Colombia will just have to get used to me because I’m not going away.” Piedad Córdoba

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: March 1, 2008

~Like Mr. Uribe, Ms. Córdoba is a lawyer; both are from Antioquia, the economically vibrant province that has Medellín as its capital. But the similarities end there, with Ms. Córdoba emerging as one of the most outspoken critics of Mr. Uribe, the scion of a powerful landholding family.

Ms. Córdoba said her propensity to speak out originated during her childhood in Medellín as the daughter of a black man and a white woman, both teachers.

“My family and I were considered extraterrestrials,” she said. “I understand what it’s like to be different, which is why I defend homosexuals, women, blacks, anyone I can.”

While at college in Medellín, Ms. Córdoba said she was attracted to the theater and revolutionary ideas, but she avoided the guerrilla groups gaining momentum at the time, defining herself as a pacifist. Later, she got her start in politics as the private secretary of a former mayor of Medellín, William Jaramillo Gómez, emerging as his protégée.

YET while Ms. Córdoba has won recognition for supporting Colombia’s minorities, her warm ties with the country’s leftist guerrillas go too far for many Colombians, even if they privately acknowledge she may be one of the only people who can win the release of the FARC’s captives.

Ernesto Samper, the former Colombian president, said he got a sense of the emotions Ms. Córdoba elicits when he recently entered a barber shop in Bogotá where two women were arguing about politics. One of the women hated Ms. Córdoba, Mr. Samper said, while the other one loved her.

“It’s a mistake to think her political career is over,” Mr. Samper said in a telephone interview.

And so Ms. Córdoba presses ahead with this new phase, which has her spending about as much time in Caracas, in the corridors of Mr. Chávez’s palace and the Meliá, as she does in Bogotá. Asked about comments in Colombia that she should simply stay in Venezuela, Ms. Córdoba flashed a smile and said she had no plan to do so.

“It’s not surprising,” she said, laughing. “In Colombia, with my face, my turban, my words, I’m Public Enemy No. 1.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/world/americas/01cordoba.html?_r=1&em&ex=1204520400&en=bb9dc23c9398bec8&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

[Judi Lynn]

10. Propagandizing human rights in Colombia

Source: Colombia Journal

Date: 31 Mar 2008
Propagandizing human rights in Colombia
by Garry Leech

It happens time and time again. Following the killing of Colombian peasants, the government immediately blames guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the mainstream media in both Colombia and the United States dutifully report the allegations. In most cases, evidence later emerges showing that the Colombian military or its right-wing paramilitary allies were the actual perpetrators of the crime. The media, however, rarely reports the new evidence with the same vigor with which it reported the original claims holding the FARC responsible—if they report the new findings at all. Consequently, the Colombian government's propaganda campaign has successfully created the impression in many people's minds that the FARC are responsible for a majority of Colombia's human rights abuses despite the fact that statistics released by human rights organizations year after year contradict popular sentiment.

The disconnect between what people believe and the human rights reality in Colombia has again been made evident by the recent issuance of arrest warrants for Colombian soldiers responsible for the February 2005 massacre of eight peasants in the peace community of San José de Apartadó. Immediately following the massacre, community members had claimed that the Colombian army was operating in the area at the time. The Colombian Defense Ministry immediately denied these claims, stating that the army was not involved in the killings and that 'no army troops were closer than two days' distance' from where the massacre occurred.

Vice-President Francisco Santos then quickly sought to shift blame for the massacre to the guerrillas by stating, 'The Government has evidence that leads to the FARC as authors of this horrible crime.' According to this alleged evidence, the victims were FARC collaborators who were killed for trying to leave the guerrilla group. And then, several weeks after the massacre, President Alvaro Uribe accused leaders of the peace community of San José de Apartadó of 'helping the FARC' and 'wanting to use the community to protect this terrorist organization.' By publicly aligning the victims with the guerrillas—a common strategy of the Colombian government—the president sought to redirect attention away from the possible perpetrators and onto the victims by holding them responsible for their own deaths.

While the mainstream media dutifully reported all of the government's accusations, the fact that the massacre occurred in San José de Apartadó posed a problem for the Uribe administration. The peace community has achieved a relatively high profile with international solidarity and human rights organizations over the past decade, which led to the mainstream media in this particular case also reporting claims by community members that the Colombian army was involved in the massacre.

Finally, last week—more than three years after the massacre—Colombia's attorney general's office issued arrest warrants for 15 soldiers accused of perpetrating the killings. The warrants were issued following testimony given by a demobilized paramilitary fighter named Jorge Luis Salgado. According to Salgado, he and other paramilitaries acted as guides for the Colombian army patrol that committed the massacre in the hamlet of Mulatos in San José de Apartadó.

In his testimony, Salgado described the massacre: 'The children were under the bed. The girl, about five or six years old, was very nice and the boy was smart as well. We suggested to the officers that they be left in a nearby house, but they said they were a threat, that they would become guerrillas in the future.' Salgado then claimed that an army officer, who went by the nickname Cobra, 'grabbed the (five or six-year-old) girl by the hair and cut her throat with a machete.'

More:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KKAA-7DA7WU?OpenDocument