COLOMBIA: Torture as a ‘Side Effect’ of Forced Disappearance, Killings

[Judi Lynn]

Source: IPS News

COLOMBIA: Torture as a ‘Side Effect’ of Forced Disappearance, Killings
By Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Jul 22 (IPS) - The body of trade unionist Guillermo Rivera, who was missing since April, was finally found after 84 days of desperate searching by his family and friends.

The forensic experts reported that the body showed "clear signs of torture," Jorge Gómez, the widow's lawyer, told IPS.

The 52-year-old Rivera was last seen when he took his daughter to her bus stop on the morning of Apr. 22. A witness said she saw him arguing with the police as they handcuffed him and shoved him into a police car. "Why are you taking me?" she heard him ask the officers.

Security cameras located near Rivera’s home on the south side of Bogotá "showed that several police cars were present at the time and place where the gentleman disappeared," a source at the Attorney General’s Office told IPS.

IPS was able to confirm that there were four police cars and several motorcycles.


Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43277

[Judi Lynn]

1. Struggle4progress posted the first article on this story, with good links:

Body of missing Colombian labor leader found in dump
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3398899

[Arctic Dave]

2. Yet, * wants nothing more then to get into

a business relationship with these thugs.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Ah, me, it's easier to think and write about these atrocities as statistics.

39 union leaders murdered by the rightwing death squads in Colombia this year alone.

When you learn a name and the circumstances....you just want to weep.

The Bush Junta has fostered torture, has made it more permissable, has illegally committed it, has funded it, has infected our military with it, and haunted the minds of those trying to serve honorably with endless nightmares, and has made it the signature of swagger and domination, to our endless shame as a nation. And it's no wonder that Colombia is their favorite country, where death squads with close ties to the government run rampant.

Guillermo Rivera.

Guillermo Rivera.

I cannot imagine your pain without hurting inside. I cannot imagine the rage and sorrow of those who loved you in this life, and now have to live every day with what was done to you before your death.

Guillermo.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombia: Bogotá unionist found dead

Colombia: Bogotá unionist found dead
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 02:13.

The body of Colombian unionist Guillermo Rivera Fuquene was found buried in a garbage dump in a rural area of Ibague, Tolima department, on July 15. Rivera Fuquene, an economist in the Bogotá Controller's Office and the president of the Public Services Union of Bogotá (Sinserpub), disappeared on April 22 after putting his daughter on a school bus in the Tunal section of the capital. According to his wife, Sonya Betancur (also given as "Sonia Betancourt"), the last news she heard after his disappearance was that he had been detained by the police. The center-left Democratic Alternative Pole (PDA), of which Rivera Fuquene was a member, said it had indications from a witness and videotapes that the Bogota police were involved. The authorities in Ibague determined that Rivera Fuquene was strangled and then buried on April 28.

In a press conference in Bogotá on July 15 after Rivera Fuquene's body was identified, members of the Unitary Workers Confederation (CUT) charged that the government was carrying out a "dirty war" against members of leftist groups. The CUT demanded an investigation into the murder and said "the facts demonstrate that, contrary to the official propaganda, there still aren't sufficient guarantees on the part of the state" for leftists "to exercise constitutional rights to life, liberty and union organizing and participation." (Notice from Confederacion de Trabajadores de Colombia, July 15; El Tiempo, Bogotá, July 17; TeleSUR, July 18)

http://www.ww4report.com/node/5833

~~~~~~~~~~
Glad the Democratic Congress is mindful of the violent repression of union workers in Colombia, and has resisted all pressure by the _Bush administration and right-wing loons to blow the victims off, and approve the FTA.