Colombia inquiry into deaths linked to trial of ex-governor

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Irish Times

Saturday, February 7, 2009
Colombia inquiry into deaths linked to trial of ex-governor

CHRIS KRAUL in Bogota

THE SPECIAL prosecutor’s office of Colombia says that it is investigating the deaths of 10 people linked to the killing of a mayor weeks after he had complained of being a marked man to President Alvaro Uribe.

A spokesman for prosecutor Mario Iguaran confirmed the inquiry on Thursday, in a statement three days after the death of Greys del Carmen Tirado. She was the latest victim tied to the trial of former Sucre governor Salvador Arana, accused of ordering the killing of mayor Eudaldo Diaz.

~snip~
Dr Diaz (47), the mayor of El Roble in northern Sucre state, told Mr Uribe before a community meeting in February 2003 that he feared paramilitary groups would carry out their threat to kill him.

Dr Diaz had resisted the militias’ efforts to take control of El Roble’s treasury and health system for fear they would loot them, according to his son, Juan David.Dr Diaz also denounced Mr Arana before Mr Uribe, saying the then-governor backed paramilitary fighters.

Despite the warnings, Dr Diaz was kidnapped, tortured for five days and killed in April of that year. The mayor was on his way to a meeting supposedly to reconcile with Mr Arana when he was abducted.

Read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0207/1233867926411.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. This is NOT the Irish Times. This is the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post--

and both are VERY untrustworthy sources. Judi, please identify the actual news source, not just a paper that picks up the story and reprints it. You could do this in your comment, for an LBN story. I know DU rules are that you have to cite Irish Times, if you're quoting Irish Times. But this is not an Irish Times story, and that is important to know. It would also be useful to know if the LAT or WaPo printed their own 'news' service story. I know of at least one instance of an Associated Press story, that was sympathetic to Hugo Chavez, never appearing in U.S. corpo/fascist papers, which normally print AP stories. So, in some cases, reporters are being censored--their stories edited or 'disappeared' if the reporter writes anything that doesn't serve their corporate masters.

Chris Kraul, however, has been so bad on prior stories out of South America that we really must vet every story of his for ulterior motives and service to the corpo/fascist agenda.

All news stories about Colombia in our corpo/fascist press are driven by our multinational corporations' desire to achieve a "free trade" deal (free fire zone against union leaders and leftists) in Colombia, and to defeat the peaceful, democratic, leftist movement that has swept the rest of South America.

One of their problems on the Colombia "free trade" deal is that Colombia has one of the worst human rights records on the planet. Because the fascist atrocities in Colombia are so well known--due to the work of human rights groups, and U.S. labor unions--stories that seem to disclose the truth--for instance, this one--are needed, in order to create the impression that it's all being cleaned up, by Colombian courts and prosecutors, that Colombia is "reforming," and that Colombia has viable democratic institutions. What Clinton has in mind, I believe, is selling the "free trade" deal to Congress (where labor Democrats have been holding it up), with on-paper-only labor and environmental protections, as with the Peru "free trade" deal. It's a harder sell, re Colombia. So Colombia's "reform" has to look convincing. Apparently, this is going to include a cosmetic change of presidents. Uribe has been conniving for a third term. That appears to have been nixed. (These things are controlled directly from Washington.) It could be that Uribe is going to be 'thrown to the wolves.' He is filthy on the death squads and drug trafficking. But I tend to think he will be protected, because the Bushwhacks are equally filthy in Colombia, and Obama and his team seem committed to protecting the biggest criminals in the Bush Junta. Exposing Uribe means exposing the Bush Cartel.

Secondly, scandal-cleanup, scandal-cleanup--that is the pattern of these 'news' stories on Colombia--but the "cleanups" (scandal disclosures, prosecutions) never result in any change in the basic situation: Colombia is a narco-state with an out-of-control military and closely tied death squads. I have no doubt that Colombian prosecutors and judges are doing their jobs as best they can, in very difficult and dangerous circumstances. But the death squad activity, and vast corruption, are on-going and endemic. They are furthermore related to the $6 BILLION in U.S. (Bushwhack) military funding of Colombia's security forces, with no decline in the cocaine trade nor in extrajudicial killings.

The problem is U.S. support for this narco-state--with the Obama administration apparently intending to continue that support, and Hillary Clinton (I have little doubt) determined to get a "free trade" deal with the worst government in the hemisphere. These goals are exactly the same as Donald Rumsfeld's, who wrote of it, in 12/1/07, in the WaPo: "The Smart Way to Defeat Tyrants Like Chavez". The "smart way" is the Colombia "free trade" deal. But he also urges "swift action" by the U.S. in support of (Bushwhack) "friends and allies" in South America--a hint at a Rumsfeldian war plan for splitting off the oil rich provinces of Venezuela and Ecuador, with fascist insurrections (civil war, secession) such as the one we saw unfold in Bolivia, this last September, funded and organized out of the U.S. embassy (which failed). It is fairly certain that Clinton is committed to the first part of this Rumsfeld plan--"free trade" for Colombia's fascist elite and U.S.-based multinationals. It is unclear whether she (or Obama) are in on the second part (Oil War II: South America).

Corpo/fascist reporters understand the "talking points" that need to be made, to create the false narratives that accompany corporate profiteering activities and horrors (such as the Iraq War), and if they don't understand their job, they will find themselves out of work. I strongly suspect that that is what is going on with this story: an impression is being created that, while, oh dear, yes, some bad things happen in Colombia, it's all being exposed now, and people are being held to account.

'News' stories by the likes of Mr. Kraul also sometimes contain hidden disinformation items that somebody thinks are important. This item jumped out at me:

"Mr Lopez had been in rebel custody since an April 2002 raid on the Cali statehouse, during which he and 11 other state legislators were taken prisoner. The other legislators were killed in June 2007, apparently by the leftist rebels in reaction to what they thought was a government rescue operation." (emphasis added)

"Apparently," huh? I wonder where he got that "talking point" (for what was more likely a rightwing death squad massacre, blamed on "leftist rebels"--as we have seen before in Colombia).