US helped subvert Colombia’s congress on military ‘escalation’ deal, cable shows

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Raw Story

US helped subvert Colombia’s congress on military ‘escalation’ deal, cable shows
By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 -- 11:45 am

A year before the United States and Colombia announced an enhanced military cooperation agreement, the US embassy in Bogotá was working with the administration of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez to dodge congressional approval of the deal, which saw US troops stationed in the nation and inflamed regional tensions.

The revelation was made in a confidential US diplomatic cable composed in Nov. 2008, given to secrets outlet WikiLeaks and republished on Dec. 18. It was forwarded with priority to US embassies in Brasilia, Caracas, Lima, Panama, Quito and to officials in Washington, DC and the US Southern Command. The document specified that by renaming the multilateral agreement, "a major escalation in US engagement" would become "simply an extension of our existing cooperation."

~snip~
Amid negotiations with US officials, the Colombian administration issued a counter-proposal which the US embassy in Bogotá analyzed to make recommendations for Washington strategists. The document it produced noted that the administration wanted to avoid "use of the word' base'" in describing US installations. They also insisted upon finding a way to "place the agreement under the umbrella of existing bilateral and multilateral accords to avoid the need for Colombian congressional approval."

In order to do that, Colombian officials engaged in wordplay, renaming a US proposal for a "Defense Cooperation Agreement" to the much-less descriptive "Supplemental Agreement for Cooperation and Technical Assistance." The rephrasing shows that both US and Colombian officials knew their deal would not fall within the boundaries of standing agreements without significant alterations to its framing.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/cablegate-helped-colombia-avoid-congressional-approval-military-installation/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Important to see last line of this article:

...Another diplomatic cable released last week revealed that Colombia's last administration also pushed the US to engage in a public campaign to discredit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

[boppers]

3. Oddly enough:

The linked article from that line:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013665722_wikichavez13.html

Does not have the word "discredit" anywhere in the text. It has "counter", and "marginalize", but not "discredit".

[Judi Lynn]

4. I just checked my source, it's the way I copied and posted it, still. n/t

[boppers]

7. Fair enough.

I was just highlighting the editorial stance taken by the characterization.

[boppers]

2. Well, this adds more information to the discussion...

Now we know some deeper background on how they wanted this to be perceived, regardless of the actual details of implementation.

Of course, the wording didn't change the debate much in the long run, people still argued that the US was setting up "bases" anyways.

[Arctic Dave]

5. The fact that the US is trying to usurp the elected government

didn't even register with you did it?

[boppers]

6. Nope. I don't consider narcotics a legitimate source of authority, either.

Regardless of how many votes they can buy.

This isn't a case of good vs evil, it's a case of evil vs. less evil.

[Arctic Dave]

8. If the US was really interested in diminishing the power of narcotics

they would turn the focus on themselves and change drug policy.

However, what the US is doing down there has jack to do about that. It is the same type of argument the gullible say when asked why we are in Afghanistan, because we care about women's rights.

[boppers]

12. Oh, I forgot, we're really there to open the bowels of hell and release evil unto the world.

The whole "narco" thing is just a front, people aren't killed and terrorized daily, life is just wonderful. There are no Cartels, no drug money in government, the whole US plan is really meant to stop the heroic socialism that has brought peace and happiness to all of the citizens of Venezuela.

[Judi Lynn]

13. US interests in Latin America used to fall under the banner of "fighting commies."

You may recall that was the reason for fighting the oppressed poor of Latin America who were being wildly exploited and abused going back forever.

During Reagan's time he enjoyed pointing out we had to get dirty in Central America because the commies had to be beaten to death there since they could get in their jalopies and easily drive to the U.S. in no time at all.

After Reagan officially ended the Cold War, that was the end of the "commie threat" and they had to switch all the hostility over to people they accuse of narcotrafficking now, since they officially have defeated "commie-"nism, and it's getting too damned easy for more well educated people to see a lot of the people they've been calling "commies" are nothing more than "leftists" or "progressives" or people who want to defend their countries from the multinationals who destroy their countries, corrupt their governments, and exploit the people brutally.

[fascisthunter]

9. Uribe, the fascist punk who does our bidding

[Peace Patriot]

10. This is quite an interesting question--whether or not the U.S./Colombia military agreement merely

ratified existing arrangements or started something new.

It is my belief that the "total diplomatic immunity" that this secretly negotiated agreement granted to all U.S. military personnel and all U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia is the item that Brownfield (U.S/Bushwhack ambassador) badly wanted a presidential signature on, last year. Informal agreement to "total diplomatic immunity" was not sufficient protection in view of what I think that the Bush Junta was using Colombia's murderous and lawless conditions (stoked by $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid) to do.

Recently, the U.S. State Department "fined" Blackwater (Xe) for "unauthorized' "trainings" of "foreign persons" (don't know who) IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq Afghanistan."

I suspect that the word "unauthorized" is a lie and a coverup.

The U.S. military was already present in Colombia, with about 600 personnel (admitted number) "advising" and providing technical assistance (so they said) to the Colombian military, long before this secretly negotiated agreement. I think the agreement doubled the number of personnel to about 1,500 and added seven more bases where the U.S. military would be present. But the La Macarena massacres (500 to 2,000 unidentified bodies found late in 2009, deaths were circa 2005-2009) was in a region of special interest and activity by the U.S. military and the USAID (with an Afghanistan-like "pacification" program, involving military force to wipe out local political leadership followed by USAID methods of installing "friendlies.") The details of this particular situation point to more than "advice" and "technical assistance." So does the bombing/raid on Ecuador's territory in March 2008. 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" were dropped with precision, at nighttime, on a temporary hostage-release camp of FARC commander Raul Reyes, slaughtering 24 sleeping people. The Ecuadoran military reported that the Colombian military does NOT have the capability to do that. The bombs, the plane, the pilot and the surveillance expertise for precision bombing were likely U.S. military (and/or its 'contractor' Dyncorp).

I do think that there is a Pentagon war plan to use Colombia as a proxy or "front" military in a war to reconquer Venezuela's (and Ecuador's) oil and to smash up the new leftist alliance in South and Central America (involving Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and others). Eva Golinger uncovered a USAF document that projected a plan for "full spectrum" military activity in Latin America, to deal with "drug trafficking," "terrorism" and "countries hostile to the U.S." And, until the new CIA Director Leon Panetta gave Uribe the hook (my opinion), this war looked imminent. Up to his last days in office, Uribe was trying to start a war. (And the 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" on Ecuador's territory, back in 2008, was also likely intended to spark a war--and, at the least, to stop all talk of peace in Colombia's 70 year civil war). And, suddenly, there was peace. The new president of Colombia--Uribe's former Defense Minister--is now in charge, I think fully vetted and approved by the CIA, and immediately invited Chavez to a peace pow-wow.

Hard to know what U.S. intentions are, currently--perhaps to play "softball" for a while. The U.S./Colombia military agreement was declared unconstitutional by the Colombian supreme court, precisely because it was never approved by the congress, and it appears to be dead, although U.S. military personnel and 'contractors' could conceivably still use it as a defense, since it has a presidential signature on the immunity. Uribe has been given extraordinary protection from prosecution, by direct U.S. action, as well as rewards and honors here. I figure he knows something about Bush Junta authorization of war crimes in Colombia.

[justinaforjustice]

11. Colombian Supreme Court Disagreed, Rejected U.S. Agreement without Approval of Their Congress.

Thankfully, the Colombian Supreme Court wasn't taken in by the U.S. - Uribe subterfuge on the U.S. military bases agreement. They have ruled that the Agreement is not valid unless ratified by Colombia's Congress. No vote has been taken as yet, so for the time being, U.S. plans are thwarted.

Would that we could be confident that our own Supreme Court would be so free of corporate - Military-Industrial co-optation. Justice Kennedy unpredictable votes is the only thing that gives a quivering ray of hope to the preservation of U.S. Supreme Court independence.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Uribe opens Twitter attack on journalist

Uribe opens Twitter attack on journalist
Monday, 20 December 2010 07:43 Adriaan Alsema

Following a critical column about the business of Alvaro Uribe's son Tomas, Colombia's former President on Sunday accused a journalist of receiving money from a drug trafficker.

Uribe responded to a column published by Daniel Coronell wherein the journalist wrote about the Uribe's son Tomas' alleged mediation in Panama with a company that is under investigation for bribing Colombian officials to be granted public works. This accusation was made earlier by Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald.

Coronell's article led to numerous Tweets by Uribe and his sons Tomas and Jeronimo, who accused the journalist of having ties to Pastor Perafan, a drug trafficker who is currently in jail in the United States.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/13464-uribe-opens-twitter-attack-on-journalist.html

http://jmrg.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/02/correa-y-uribe.jpg

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe gives a public demonstration
of combing the human hair, as Ecuador's President Rafael Correa
acts as his spotter to make sure of his safety at all times.

[No Elephants]

15. Interesting to see how many nations seem to feel very free to ask/tell the U.S. to fight

a third nation. "Hey, Uncle Sam, how about you fight this guy I don't like?"

I'm thinking they feel so free because it's been done many times.

[Judi Lynn]

16. COLOMBIA: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS THREATENED

COLOMBIA: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS THREATENED
Source: Amnesty International (AI)

Date: 22 Dec 2010

Paramilitaries have threatened to kill four women human rights defenders working in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca in south-western Colombia. Members of other human rights organizations and a trade union were also threatened.

On 11 December Martha Lucía Giraldo, a member of the Valle del Cauca Branch of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, MOVICE), which campaigns on behalf of victims of human rights violations, received a text message on her mobile phone which read: "You are the ones that do not allow development in this country, supporting families of guerrillas and depressing them with those stupid ideas of freedom; therefore you are on our death list" (Ustedes son los que no dejan que este país progrese apoyando a familias de gerrilleros y a los que depimen con esas ideas estúpidas de libertad por lo tanto son declarados objetivos de muerte nuestros)

The message, signed by the paramilitary group Black Eagles New Generation (Águila Negras Nueva Generación), also threatened the human rights organizations Social Research and Action Association (Asociación de Investigación y la Acción Social, NOMADESC), Committee of Solidarity for Political Prisoners (Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos, FCSPP), and other human rights NGOs and Indigenous leaders.

Cristina Castro of the FCSPP also received a death threat on her phone, again signed by the Black Eagles New Generation. Similar death threats were also sent to the mobile phones of NOMADESC director Berenice Celeyta, and Ayda Quilcué, a former leader of the Cauca Indigenous Regional Council (Concejo Regional Indígena del Cauca, CRIC). One of the text messages also threatened the Colombian University Workers and Employees Trade Union (Sindicato de Trabajadores y Empleados Universitarios de Colombia, SINTRAUNICOL).

More:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MCOI-8CEKAK?OpenDocument

[Judi Lynn]

17. Disappearances in Colombia on a Scale Never Imagined

Posted: December 9, 2010 11:36 AM
Disappearances in Colombia on a Scale Never Imagined

~snip~
More than 51,000 people are registered by the Colombian government as disappeared or missing. Those who were forcibly disappeared -- what we might think of as political disappearances -- range in official statistics from over one quarter of that total to more than 32,000, as detailed in the report, Breaking the Silence: In Search of Colombia's Disappeared, just released for Human Rights Day by the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) and the U.S. Office on Colombia (USOC). But the real total is likely to be much higher, as new and old cases are entered into a consolidated government database. And many cases are never registered at all.

~snip~
These are just numbers. But the disappeared are people, with mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters. Human rights defenders, trade unionists, Afro-Colombian and indigenous people, and young men and teenage girls in rural conflict zones are among Colombia's missing. They had names. Names like Nydia, Angel, Claudia, Nelsy, Mónica, Gerardo, Humberto... The mystery over their loss adds another level of pain. "Without seeing the body, no one can give a loved one up for dead," says Colombian scholar Alfredo Molano. "To the torment of absence is added the sorrow of doubt."

Who disappeared them? All armed actors, including the Colombian armed forces, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas, are responsible for forced disappearances, but the paramilitary role in this crime is especially pronounced. Paramilitaries often destroyed the bodies of their victims, burning them or cutting them with chain saws, sometimes alive, burying the bodies in unmarked graves on ranches, riverbanks or cemeteries, or throwing them into rivers.

The highest number of forced disappearances in Colombia occurred from 2000 to 2003, the first four years of U.S.-funded Plan Colombia, according to Colombian government statistics. Many of those were committed by paramilitaries, but the U.S.-trained and -funded military aided and abetted these abuses. Another gruesome kind of forced disappearance escalated from 2005 through 2008. All over Colombia, army soldiers detained people, then killed them and dressed them in guerrilla uniforms and claimed them as killed in combat. Cases involving more than 3,000 people disappeared and killed allegedly by soldiers are now winding their way slowly through Colombia's civilian justice system. Those U.S. policymakers, military leaders and analysts who paint a pretty picture of Colombia's security progress in the past decade might want to search their souls about this somber cost. And remember it the next time the U.S. government considers escalating aid and training to another abusive military force.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-haugaard/disappearances-in-colombi_b_794054.html