Ex-President of Colombian Congress Jailed

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agencia EFE

Caracas,
Friday
September 24,2010

Ex-President of Colombian Congress Jailed


BOGOTA – A senator and former president of the Colombian Congress has been jailed for alleged collusion with far-right paramilitary organizations, judicial officials said.

Sen. Javier Caceres was arrested last week and ordered jailed on Wednesday by the Supreme Court, which found cause to continue the investigation.

Caceres, who was president of Congress from July 2009 to July 2010, is being investigated for his “alleged ties to illegal armed groups.”

The arrest order was issued following statements by Edward Cobos Tellez and Uber Banquez, ex-heads of a bloc of the AUC federation of right-wing militias, which ostensibly demobilized more than 31,000 fighters between the end of 2003 and mid-2006 as part of a peace process with former President Alvaro Uribe’s administration.

The paramilitaries said in statements to judicial authorities that Caceres held “meetings and pacts” with them for help in winning elections.

Read more: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=367971&CategoryId=12393

[Judi Lynn]

1. Earlier: 'Parapolitics' senator rushed to hospital .

'Parapolitics' senator rushed to hospital .
Wednesday, 15 September 2010 06:52 Kirsten Begg

http://colombiareports.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/politics/javier_caceres.jpg

Senator Javier Caceres was rushed to a Bogota hospital Tuesday following his arrest for alleged paramilitary links. He was reportedly at risk of entering a diabetic coma.

Osvaldo Barrera, director of the Bogota clinic that attended to Caceres, said that that while the former senator had a sugar imbalance, the condition should not prevent him from cooperating with authorities and the judicial process could proceed as normal.

"He is conscious, obviously the imbalance is evident and if it continues to progress there could be serious problems. This is a process that depends on his body, but it can be controlled with medicine and a rigorous diet," Barrera said.

Caceres will remain in hospital for at least two days, which means that his arraignment hearing, which was scheduled for Wednesday, will have to be postponed.

Caceres, who was Senate president from July 2009 to July 2010, was arrested in Bogota Tuesday over allegations that paramilitary group "Heroes de Montes de Maria" financed his election campaign. He maintains his innocence.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11843-arrested-senator-rushed-to-hospital.html

[rabs]

2. "Not an isolated case"

"This country's justice makes me ill."

(Cartoon by Vladdo of Semana magazine hits the mark; some of the corrupt, parapolitician-uribistas are having to face justice at last.)

Btw. Obama to receive JM Santos today (Friday) in New York. Should be a love-fest, now that Mono Jojoy has been killed.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Terrific cartoon. He probably never expected to be anywhere near a trial,

as long as he had both friends in high places and violent friends everywhere in Colombia, almost.

The meeting between the Presidents should be high-spirited, having that successful bombing strike on Colombian peasant fighters under their belt.

Found an article from IPS on it:

Devastating Blow for FARC Rebels
By Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Sep 23, 2010 (IPS) - The death of guerrilla commander Luis Suárez, aka Jorge Briceño or "Mono Jojoy", is a "devastating blow" for Colombia's FARC insurgents, military affairs analyst Ariel Ávila told IPS. Briceño, who was killed in a bombing raid on his camp Wednesday by government forces, was a member of the Secretariat of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), which were founded in 1964. His death was announced Thursday. He commanded the Eastern Bloc in southeastern Colombia, which covered nearly 40 percent of the territory of this South American country of 1.1 million square kilometers.

The raid by government forces, which involved 700 to 800 troops and heavy bombing, began Sunday and continued through Thursday. In the attack on Briceño's camp, U.S.-made smart bombs were dropped from Super Tucano war planes purchased from Brazil. The missiles were apparently guided by a chip that had been smuggled into the rebel leader's camp in an intricate intelligence operation that may have involved informers or infiltration of the guerrilla forces. The bombing raid took place in a valley between the towns of La Macarena, La Uribe and Vista Hermosa, in the Sierra de La Macarena National Park in central Colombia, one of the birthplaces of the FARC.

Sources on the ground described the bombing as "brutal" and "devastating," and said "they burnt everything." Some 50 bombs were reportedly dropped. "Even if you combine the deaths of (Manuel) Marulanda, Raúl Reyes and Iván Ríos -- all three together weren't as heavy a blow as this," said Ávila, the head of the Armed Conflict Observatory of the Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, a Bogota think tank, referring to a series of losses of FARC leaders in March 2008.

That month, FARC founder and top leader Marulanda died of a heart attack at age 78; the group's international negotiator Reyes was killed in a bombing raid similar to this week's, across the border in Ecuador; and Ríos was betrayed and killed by his own men.

Briceño's death is "a devastating blow," Ávila repeated, "in first place because he was well-loved within the FARC: he was the legendary leader who replaced Manuel Marulanda" in the esteem of the campesinos who make up the troops of the left-wing rebel group. Marulanda was succeeded by Alfonso Cano, an anthropologist at the National University in Bogota who, according to Ávila, "is seen as a city man" by the rank-and-file.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52953