20 candidates in Colombia's local elections assassinated so far

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

20 candidates in Colombia's local elections assassinated so far
Sunday, 24 July 2011 11:09
Adriaan Alsema

Twenty candidates in the local elections held in Colombia in October have been assassinated so far, the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) announced Sunday.

According to the NGO, another 32 candidates have received threats, four have been kidnapped and seven survived assassination attempts.

~snip~
According to the MOE, the violence takes place because of a variety of motives. In some cases illegal armed groups are trying to influence the elections. In other cases illegal armed groups seek to exercise control over where elections take place. Some violence is related to the national government's policy to return land by illegal armed groups to its original owners.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/17833-20-candidates-in-colombias-local-elections-assassinated-so-far.html

[Fuddnik]

1. A good free trade agreement will cure that.

And maybe stop the slayings of Unionists too.



:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: Which should be unnecessary, but you never know anymore.

[wayne fontes]

3. The Victims

The conservative party and Partido de la U, which is a right of center party, suffered the majority of the murders.

The free trade agreement was favorable to the US and should have been ratified. We currently face higher tariffs than we impose. It would put us on an even playing field and promote job growth in the US. Colombia has signed agreements with Canada, Korea, Brazil and others which has enabled those countries to eat into American market shares.

Exactly how do you think equalizing tariffs between the US and Colombia will influence the suppression of unions in Colombia?

[HankyDubs]

5. ask the CATO institute

"Exactly how do you think equalizing tariffs between the US and Colombia will influence the suppression of unions in Colombia?"

CATO always explains that "free" (laugh track) trade agreements lead to more freedoms.

[Judi Lynn]

6. The right-wing death squad creeps in Colombia are known to commit atrocities

upon people and claim the FARCs are responsible. Even the right-wing military officers have been caught doing car bombs, as on Uribe's first innauguration day, and claiming it was FARC doing.

As for encouraging the suppression of unions in Colombia, why on earth do you imagine they have been begging people in the U.S. Congress to decline this FTA until human rights atrocities are prosecuted, and the government no longer looks the other way?

[wayne fontes]

7. C'mon

The right wing is killing it's own candidates to blame it on Farc. That's your theory? Any evidence to support that theory? If you have any why didn't post a link when you opened this thread?

I think the proper role of the US government is to strike the best deal for the US. I don't want us to intervene in the affairs of a another country. I don't think it's unfair to say you have voiced the opinion multiple times in this forum.

[Judi Lynn]

9. I was wrong, the bomb was set on the eve of Uribe's 2nd inauguration, instead.

SOA Graduates Implicated in Bombings
Written by John Lindsay-Poland, FOR

A director of Colombian military intelligence and another officer implicated in a series of false attacks and a bombing that killed a civilian and injured 19 soldiers in Bogotá in 2006, attended the SOA.

The Colombian Public Ministry is investigating Colonel Horacio Arbelaez, former director of the Army’s Joint Intelligence Center; Major Javier Efrén Hermida Benavides; and Captain Luis Eduardo Barrero for orchestrating the placement of bombs in a Bogotá shopping mall and other sites in July 2006, on the eve of President Uribe’s inauguration for his second term. At the time of the bombing and false attacks, they were attributed to guerrillas of the FARC. In most cases, the bombs weren’t detonated, but were denounced by the accused officers and deactivated to demonstrate the FARC threat and show military intelligence was doing its work.

Hermida took two courses at the School fo the Americas, including a three-month military intelligence intensive in 2000, while Arbelaez took an infantry course at the School in 1981. A statistical study by sociologist Katherine McCoy found that the more courses Latin American officers took at the School, the more likely they were to commit abuses. In addition, the Army Joint Intelligence Center that Arbelaez directed receives US aid, according to a State Department list of units vetted to receive assistance.

The officers reportedly collaborated with a FARC deserter on placing the bombs, according to tapes, videos and documents. Hermida, who claims his innocence, told a Colombian radio station that the operation at the shopping mall was carried out with knowledge of high military officials. Hermida and Barrero also face criminal charges for the false attacks, five of which had been united into one case by the Prosecutor General’s office.

More:
http://www.soaw.org/presente/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=74

~~~~~
As you know the Colombian government doesn't persue assassinations, attacks on union workers, native people, etc., etc., etc. Hardly any cases ever been investigated and prosecuted. How could there be evidence when the government doesn't even look for it?

Perhaps it would be discussed in the newspapers? As most reporters who've ever been questioned have admitted, the remaining journalists left in Colombia almost all tend to "self-censor" for survivial.

[wayne fontes]

12. Couldn't help but to notice

that that article you linked to said the Colombian government was investigating the people responsible. Your assertion that "As you know the Colombian government doesn't persue assassinations, attacks on union workers, native people, etc., etc., etc." was added to the article which clearly stated the Colombian government was investigating the outrage.

Just saying.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Lotsa information available to those who take the time to search:

Posted: April 1, 2010 09:22 AM
U.S. and Colombia Cover Up Atrocities Through Mass Graves

The biggest human rights scandal in years is developing in Colombia, though you wouldn't notice it from the total lack of media coverage here. The largest mass grave unearthed in Colombia was discovered by accident last year just outside a Colombian Army base in La Macarena, a rural municipality located in the Department of Meta just south of Bogota. The grave was discovered when children drank from a nearby stream and started to become seriously ill. These illnesses were traced to runoff from what was discovered to be a mass grave -- a grave marked only with small flags showing the dates (between 2002 and 2009) on which the bodies were buried.

According to a February 10, 2010 letter issued by Alexandra Valencia Molina, Director of the regional office of Colombia's own Procuraduria General de la Nacion -- a government agency tasked to investigate government corruption -- approximately 2,000 bodies are buried in this grave. The Colombian Army has admitted responsibility for the grave, claiming to have killed and buried alleged guerillas there. However, the bodies in the grave have yet to be identified. Instead, against all protocol for handling the remains of anyone killed by the military, especially those of guerillas, the bodies contained in the mass grave were buried there secretly without the requisite process of having the Colombian government certify that the deceased were indeed the armed combatants the Army claims.

And, given the current "false positive" scandal which has enveloped the government of President Alvaro Uribe and his Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, who is now running to succeed Uribe as President, the Colombian Army's claim about the mass grave is especially suspect. This scandal revolves around the Colombian military, most recently under the direction of Juan Manuel Santos, knowingly murdering civilians in cold blood and then dressing them up to look like armed guerillas in order to justify more aid from the United States. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pilay, this practice has been so "systematic and widespread" as to amount to a "crime against humanity." And sadly, when Ms. Pilay made this statement, she literally did not know the half of it.

To date, not factoring in the mass grave, it has been confirmed by Colombian government sources that 2,000 civilians have fallen victim to the "false positive" scheme since President Uribe took office in 2002. If, as suspected by Colombian human rights groups, such as the "Comision de Derechos Humanos del Bajo Ariari" and the "Colectivo Orlando Fals Borda," the mass grave in La Macarena contains 2,000 more civilian victims of this scheme, then this would bring the total of those victimized by the "false positive" scandal to at least 4,000 --much worse than originally believed.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/us-colombia-cover-up-atro_b_521402.html

~~~~~
Media silent on Colombian atrocities
Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 11:00
By Les Blough

Apparently, the corporate media doesn't consider this to be newsworthy: the confession to a Colombian prosecutor of 30,000 murders by paramilitaries linked to the regime of President Alvaro Uribe.

As of February 25, Associated Press, Reuters and their contracted media outlets remain silent on the news.

If it had taken place in Somalia, China, Syria, North Korea, Iran or any other country Washington sees as its enemy, we would be seeing it on a CNN special report, backed up on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

The last prominent NYT article on Colombian paramilitary death squads, in January 2007, provided Uribe with cover, stating: "Senior members of Mr. Uribe's government and Mr. Uribe himself have said that anyone shown to have had illegal ties to the paramilitaries, which terrorised Colombian cities and the countryside in the nation's internal war, which has gone on for decades, and made fortunes in cocaine trafficking, should be prosecuted in courts of law…

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/43308

~~~~~
Democratic Reps., Steelworkers Oppose Colombia Trade Deal
By: Michael Whitney Thursday April 7, 2011 10:34 am

~snip~
The reality on the ground in Colombia has not changed since the agreement was first signed. A record 52 unionists were killed in Colombia last year. Since 1986, only five percent of more than 2,800 union killings have been prosecuted, making impunity the standard for justice in the killings. This year alone, six unionists have been killed in Colombia, including two in the past week, even as the U.S. and Colombia were finalizing their new accord over the FTA.

More:
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/04/07/democratic-reps-steelworkers-oppose-colombia-trade-deal/

[Judi Lynn]

14. More to consider: Colombia: Crisis in a climate of impunity

(Sad the prediction in this snippet was proven wildly off course)

Damning connections

A damning article, 'Colombia political scandal imperilling US ties' by Indira A R
Lakshmanan of the Boston Globe, published widely earlier this year, outlined a number of
worrying connections. They include the facts that, first, last year, Uribe's foreign minister was
forced to resign after her brother, a senator, was jailed for colluding with the paramilitaries in a
series of murders and kidnappings; second, that, in the same month, the head of Colombia's secret
police, who also served as Uribe's campaign manager, was arrested for 'giving a hit list of trade
unionists and activists to paramilitaries, who then killed them'; and third, that 14 of Uribe's closest
congressional allies sit behind bars for colluding with paramilitary death squads. At the time of
writing, 62 of Uribe's political allies are being investigated for allegedly collaborating with these
death squads.

As if all this wasn't bad enough, journalists who have questioned Uribe on his past or present
links with paramilitaries have subsequently received death threats and, in many cases, have been
forced to leave the country. In October last year, for example, Gonzalo Guillen, a reporter for the
Miami Herald's Spanish language newspaper El Nuevo Herald, fled Colombia because of death
threats he received after Uribe publicly criticised him three days earlier. Guillen explained that
he was leaving Colombia after receiving 24 death threats in 48 hours. In the light of this, it is not
surprising that journalists are reluctant to investigate Uribe's regime.

Even so, despite the danger to journalists, news of the Uribe regime and its role in Colombia's
human rights crisis does filter out. Last year in the US, Democrat Senators cited General
Montoya's alleged links to the death squads when freezing $50 million of US military aid to
Colombia. And Al Gore, the former US vice president, recently refused to share a platform with
President Uribe, reportedly because of concerns over allegations linking the Colombian leader to
the paramilitaries.

It appears, then, that the political tide in the US is turning against wholehearted support for
Uribe's regime and that if the Democrats win the presidency, the US policy towards Colombia
might come under review.

More:
www.twnside.org.sg/title2/resurgence/213/cover7.doc

~~~~~
Are British taxpayers helping to fund civil war killings in Colombia?
By Mike Power
Last updated at 3:31 AM on 3rd October 2010

~snip~
Often they dressed the bodies in FARC uniforms and planted guns on their corpses. Sometimes the dead would be dressed in new boots four sizes too big; right-handers clutching guns in their left, shot in the chest or back while their uniforms had no bullet holes. Some were executed at point-blank range.

The ‘False Positives’ scandal, as it was known, broke when 11 young men from Soacha, a poor suburb of Bogotá, were enticed away from their homes by men offering them work, then found dead hundreds of miles away, near the border of Venezuela, dressed in FARC fatigues.

~snip~
‘The justice system in Colombia doesn’t work, particularly when it comes to investigating violence perpetrated against state opponents - trade unionists, political opponents, community leaders and journalists. Without international pressure on the Colombian regime, it is unlikely that a proper investigation will be carried out into what has happened at La Macarena.’

More:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1316777/Are-British-taxpayers-helping-fund-civil-war-killings-Colombia.html

~~~~~
Posted: February 11, 2011 01:06 PM
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Rules out Free Trade Agreement

President Obama is being pressed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and corporate interests to advance a free trade agreement with Colombia that he campaigned against when he ran for president. The agreement's potential economic benefits are uncertain but certainly small, while its importance to U.S. foreign policy is enormous. Passage of the Colombia free trade agreement would mark the administration's abandonment of concern about human rights and labor rights among our trade partners. In particular, the president would be turning his back on unions here, in Colombia, and around the world.

~snip~
Nothing will change until the killings are investigated and the murderers prosecuted. Most of the unionists' murders have never even been investigated. The Colombian attorney general is investigating only 800 cases in the union\human rights groups' database of murdered trade unionists.

Fewer than 10 percent of the unionists' murders have been successfully prosecuted, and many of them were trials in absentia, where the killer was not in custody and has not been punished.

In most cases, the person who ordered or authorized the killing was not prosecuted. The powers behind the violence largely have been untouched, including the military units responsible for extrajudicial executions.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-eisenbrey/colombias-antiunion-viole_b_820629.html

[wayne fontes]

17. My Bad

I thought you were looking for some evidence to support assertion that the right wing candidates who have been murdered died at the hands of their ideological allies. I thought it would be important to you to do the research to back your assertion up.

[wayne fontes]

15. Your research only goes in one direction Judy

You never mention how Farc finances itself. The article you linked to states the left has committed more murders of political candidates than the right. Did you even read it? Why don't you try to figure out why the militias have suppressed Farc so easily. It's not much of a contest; where the militias are Farc can't operate.

[Judi Lynn]

16. I was looking for material on the Colombian government not prosecuting atrocities, right?

Not a font of information for every topic. That's what the internetS are for.

It's also appropriate for anyone seriously pursuing the truth to try to get the whole picture and grasp whether he/she is reading truthful information, disinformation, and ruminate over the fact that the active Colombian reporters have either been killed or driven away trying to avoid assassination after many death threats, like Hollman Morris, who was offered a Nieman Fellowship, Colombia's most courageous journalist who was also DENIED a visa he needed in order to accept, DENIED by our own Democratic President's State Department until enough protest gathered they were pressued into allowing this man into the country:

Reversed: Colombian journalist Hollman Morris is free to come to Harvard as a Nieman Fellow
By Joshua Benton

~snip~
United States reverses decision and grants visa to Colombian journalist

Hollman Morris to join Nieman class of 2011

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The U.S. State Department has reversed its decision to deny a visa to leading Colombian journalist Hollman Morris. He is now free to travel to the United States, where he will begin a yearlong fellowship at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

~snip~
Last month a U.S. consular official in Bogota told Morris that he was being denied a visa under the terrorist activities section of the Patriot Act. That decision was widely condemned by individuals and groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and others, many of whom lobbied on behalf of Morris.

An independent television journalist, Morris has reported extensively on his country’s civil war and resulting human rights abuses. His television show “Contravía” has been critical of alleged ties between the administration of outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s right-wing paramilitary groups and the Colombian armed forces. Uribe once called Morris “an accomplice to terrorism” for building contacts with the country’s FARC rebels in the course of his reporting. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s largest rebel group, is on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Many journalists and human rights activists view efforts to link Morris with FARC as the Colombian government’s way to discredit his work. Last year, reports surfaced showing that Morris was one of many high profile critics of the government who were subjected to illegal wiretapping and surveillance by Colombia’s intelligence agency.

More:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/07/reversed-colombia-journalist-hollman-morris-is-free-to-come-to-harvard-as-a-nieman-fellow/

[Bacchus39]

19. here is another one of your threads on the Colombian gov prosecuting an atrocity

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x54061

[Bacchus39]

18. you post on the latin american all the time about the Colombian government pursuing assassinations

here is one of threads about arrests of soldiers for murdering civilians

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x54126

[Judi Lynn]

20. That NEVER happened in Colombia until the Democrats in Congress started fighting

against allowing any new FTA's UNTIL the Colombian government started prosecuting thes flagrant, grotesque tortures and assassinations.

It wouldn't be happening NOW if they didn't know everything depended upon it.

Thanks for paying such close attention to my posts. I post as much as I can in the time available concerning evil treatment of human beings, as in MURDER, TORTURE, DEATH THREATS. It means everything that the U.S. once will become as decent and humane as it claims, and support ONLY the governments which treat their people with compassion.

[Bacchus39]

21. you have posted numerous times on the COlombian government prosecuting crimes

go ahead and start crab walking, I am enjoying this. there are plenty more where that came from. Colombia doesn't have a FTA with the US now, although they do have a trade agreement with Ven. COlombia will be allright with or without the FTA.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Feel free to start posting those links to my previous posts. That's fine. n/t

[Bacchus39]

23. sure, here is yet another one. everyone gets the idea now

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x54067

[Judi Lynn]

25. What point are you attempting to make, anyway? This is perplexing.

As I said, there wouldn't be a push now to prosecute if certain Congressional Democrats had not exerted enough pressure, along with U.S. unions, standing in defense of Colombian workers, to slow down any possible chance of adopting a new FTA years ago, during the _Bush pResidency.

At one time, I also posted the information Alvaro Uribe had several U.S. P.R. companies working for him, trying to sell the image of Colombia he wanted to the U.S. in order to mold public perception here enough to make it harder for the Congressional Democrats and the unions to get attention for the truth, itself.

Please do go right ahead. All the attention you can draw to this hideous evil problem, the better it will be.

[Bacchus39]

28. here is another one just from Saturday

in NOT one of these links that you posted do you or the story make any reference to Colombia's aggressive prosecution of human rights abusers being the result of US Democrats pressure.

it simply isn't true. if anything, its the entire aid package the US gives to Colombia.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x54333

[wayne fontes]

24. I like this bolded section form one of your quotes:

The Colombian attorney general is investigating only 800 cases in the union\human rights groups' database of murdered trade unionists.

Just 800 from a government that (in your words) "As you know the Colombian government doesn't persue assassinations, attacks on union workers, native people, etc., etc., etc. Hardly any cases ever been investigated and prosecuted." Plus the other prosecutions that you posted!

A simple question Judy; how will adjusting the tariffs between the US and Colombia affect the persecution of union members in Colombia?

[Judi Lynn]

26. Stop tryring to screw around with me. This year already many union people have already been harmed.

I don't have time for childish baiting.

As one of the statements from a union I posted said, you CANNOT reward a government which allows this to happen.

The unions here, the union workers there, certain conscientious Congressional Democrats STILL believe this should be taken up ONLY after profound changes are made.

Don't try to bait me. I am attempting to keep an eye on DU while still having an evening with my husband. I don't have time to do errands running for more links for you.

I'm sure the other poster will be pitching in lots of links trying to prove I'm full of hot air. Don't have time for it.

Will check back from time to time.

[wayne fontes]

27. The unions don't have a dog in this fight

We export grain and high tech to Colombia. They export fruit, oil and lingerie to us. Holding up the agreement is an empty gesture that won't influence Colombia. The tariffs are not in our favor so we should move to adjust them.

Allowing unions to grandstand on an issue and in the process screw other sectors of the economy is a stupid policy that should be reversed.

I'm not screwing with Judy, you are free to defend your statements at any time. I think it's your own links that are screwing you.

[No Elephants]

29. We face higher tariffs than we impose where we do have trade agreements as well.

[Judi Lynn]

10. There are protestors, of course, but our own corporate media don't want us to worry our pretty heads

Monday, July 11, 2011
Arrest at Colombia trade deal protest at White House today

A protest against the proposed trade deal with Colombia is going on right now. (Chances aren't great you'll read about it in the mainstream media, so we'll rely on twitter to keep us apprised.)

We probably don't need to tell you why another job-killing trade deal is a horrible idea, but we will note that Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist.

More:
http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/07/arrest-at-colombia-trade-deal-protest.html

~~~~~
July 11, 2011
White House Rocked by Protests Against Unfair Colombia Trade Deal

Today, hundreds of activists gathered at the White House for a demonstration against the U.S.-Colombia FTA. These representatives of faith, labor, human rights and consumer organizations called for the Obama administration to drop its push to pass the Bush-signed trade pact. Fifty one coffins were laid in front of the White House to symbolize the murders of that number of Colombian unionists last year. Five activists were arrested as an act of civil disobedience, including Rick Chase, Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

More:
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2011/07/us-and-colombian-labor-faith-afro-colombian-and-human-rights-activists-hold-white-house-demo-against.html

~~~~~
Colombia: workers, students protest FTA, privatization

Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 10:56. In Colombia's largest demonstration since President Juan Manuel Santos took office last August, tens of thousands of unionists, students and teachers demonstrated throughout the country on April 7 to protest a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US and proposed changes in the education system that they say will lead to privatization. The Unitary Workers Central (CUT), Colombia's main labor federation, estimated turnout at 1.5 million. Demonstrations took place in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Bucaramanga, Santa Marta, Barranquilla and other cities.

The national day of action coincided with a visit by President Santos to Washington, DC, where he met with US president Barack Obama to push for the US Congress approve a trade accord that Colombia and the US signed in 2006, during the administration of George W. Bush (2001-2009). The FTA has never been approved by Congress, in part because of opposition from US unions and activists over Colombia's record of human rights abuses and repression of unions. But Santos is looking for ratification now that the agreement has Obama's support. "We've worked for five years seeking approval for this to go to Congress," Santos said, "and today we received this green light."

The CUT strongly opposes the FTA, which would threaten "labor rights, food sovereignty and the possibility for development," according to Diógenes Orjuela, a CUT leader. The unionists were also protesting labor flexibility practices, such as the use of provisional contracts.

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/9768

~~~~~

http://assets.usw.org.nyud.net:8090/releases/usw-news.jpg
April 07, 2011

USW Joins Colombian Unions in Opposition to Proposed FTA

Pittsburgh -- The USW is both disappointed and outraged to learn that the Obama Administration has apparently reached an agreement with Colombia over a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The USW has opposed the FTA with Colombia ever since President Bush signed it with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe back in 2007.

The reality on the ground in Colombia has not changed since the agreement was first signed. A record 52 unionists were killed in Colombia last year. Since 1986, only five percent of more than 2,800 union killings have been prosecuted, making impunity the standard for justice in the killings. This year alone, six unionists have been killed in Colombia, including two in the past week, even as the U.S. and Colombia were finalizing their new accord over the FTA.

These two most recent victims, Hector Orozco and Gildardo Garcia of the agricultural union known as Association of Peasant Workers of Tolima, were killed in a heavily militarized zone and were in fact threatened by the official Colombian army just before their killing.

USW President Leo W. Gerard decries the proposed Colombia FTA as a shameful reflection on America’s values. “These most recent killings put into grave doubt whether the Colombian government and its military are truly prepared to reform as the Administration presumes. The fact is, despite the newly negotiated ‘Action Plan,’ the situation in Colombia has not changed, and therefore, should not be rewarded with a Free Trade Agreement.”

More:
http://www.usw.org/media_center/releases_advisories?id=0377

[bluesmail]

2. That's a screaming truth, don't run for elected office or DIE.

Hat tip to all those who have suffered for their beliefs.

[HankyDubs]

4. at least they don't have a "dictator"

ah the splendors of US-supported "democracy."

[Judi Lynn]

8. Like that lovable U.S. supported President Karimov, in Uzbekistan,

who lightly BOILS his political prisoners.

http://www.world-crisis.com.nyud.net:8090/images/uploads/bush_karimov_1.jpg http://www.world-crisis.com.nyud.net:8090/images/uploads/karimov_terror_1.jpg http://www.sourcewatch.org.nyud.net:8090/images/7/74/Uzbekispin.png

[unkachuck]

11. wall street and our corporate fascists are salivating....

"Twenty candidates in the local elections held in Colombia in October have been assassinated so far,..."

....alright, now that's a sleazy, worthless, fascist state we could do business with....

[No Elephants]

30. 20? Good grief.

[gbscar]

31. If, as the article says, most of those killed are candidates from openly pro-government parties...

...then that is surely something we should give more than a moment's thought to considering.

It is true that there have been a number of bomb attacks in the recent past and other murders blamed on FARC which the rebel group probably didn't do. It is also true that most political violence in Colombia has been carried out by the right, not the left.

But to assume or imply this means FARC has never assassinated any right-wing candidates or politicians -whether we are talking about the past, present or future- is both highly questionable and very unreasonable. It is, on the contrary, worth discussing.

Particularly when that wouldn't even be a "new" tactic by FARC. In fact, it is a rather old one and it has been publicly acknowledged by human rights organizations, long before the Uribe administration (and its most recent round of "false positives") ever entered the picture.

"Both killings and kidnappings are used against civilians to spread terror, a violation of Article 13 (2), which prohibits "acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population." In the months leading up to October 1997 municipal elections, FARC guerrillas killed, threatened, and kidnapped dozens of mayors, town council members, and candidates, who were told to resign or face death. Among the departments most pressured were Antioquia, Bolívar, Caquetá, Cundinamarca, Guaviare, Huila, Meta, Nariño, Putumayo, and Tolima.

The FARC threat was so determined, in fact, that the group felt obliged to issue a confirmation via the Internet. "The position of the FARC-EP in relation to the upcoming elections continues irrevocably to be the same: complete sabotage," which in practice consisted primarily of killing and threatening civilians who were candidates or outgoing officials."

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,HRW,,COL,,3ae6a7e30,0.html

Even in our particular case, the potential existence of some "false flag" operations by right-wing paramilitaries doesn't automatically eliminate at least the partial involvement of both guerrillas and other armed factions in the current round of political violence.

[christx30]

32. I guess

Elections are not about who is right, just about who is left.

[Judi Lynn]

33. Colombian gangs eye bigger role in local vote - group

Colombian gangs eye bigger role in local vote - group
By Jack Kimball | Reuters – 16 hours ago

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's criminal gangs are seeking to expand their influence in an upcoming local vote and could reverse a decade-long trend of falling electoral violence, the International Crisis Group think tank said on Monday.

Thousands of candidates will vie for city council, mayoral and provincial posts, including governors in the South American nation's 32 departments, on Oct. 30 in the first electoral test for President Juan Manuel Santos since he took office in August 2010.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report that the elections mark the first real opportunity for the quickly evolving criminal gangs to distort local politics.

~snip~
The government calls these gangs Colombia's major new security threat. While their exact composition and number is hotly debated, they are seen mainly to be linked to demobilized and former right-wing paramilitary gangs and former drug cartels.

More:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/colombian-gangs-eye-bigger-role-local-vote-group-161854744.html

[Bacchus39]

34. yep, killing candidates is certainly criminal

"As you know the Colombian government doesn't persue assassinations, attacks on union workers, native people, etc., etc., etc. Hardly any cases ever been investigated and prosecuted. How could there be evidence when the government doesn't even look for it?"




15 army members accused of 5 north Colombia 'false positive' killings

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x53954

[Judi Lynn]

35. Colombia: teachers flee paramilitary threat

Colombia: teachers flee paramilitary threat

Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 09:33. All 44 teachers at the public high school in Las Delicias, a village in Tierralta municipality in the northern Colombian department of Córdoba, sought refuge in Montería, the department's capital, on July 22 after being threatened by a paramilitary group. According to Domingo Ayala Espitia, president of the Córdoba Teachers Association (Ademacor), the paramilitaries sent the teachers text messages demanding 15 million pesos (about $8,535). More than 1,100 students attended the abandoned school.

The threats reportedly came from members of the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, said to be a group of drug traffickers. Various armed groups--which the government and the media now call "bacrim," short for "bandas criminales" (criminal gangs) --are described as successors to the far-right United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary group whose members were demobilized from 2003 to 2006, during the administration of former president Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010).

The Las Delicias displacement is the second such incident in the department; last year 12 teachers fled a rural high school in Montelíbano municipality. Four teachers have been killed in Córdoba so far this year, and at least 197, including the Las Delicias teachers, have received threats. (EFE, July 23, via Univision; InfoBAE, Argentina, July 24)

http://ww4report.com/node/10159

[Judi Lynn]

36. Political Candidate, Driver Slain in Colombia

Caracas,
Tuesday
July 26,2011

Political Candidate, Driver Slain in Colombia


BOGOTA – A city council candidate and his driver were slain in a rural area of the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca, authorities said.

The double homicide was committed by unknown persons in the hamlet of Quinamayo, according to the mayor of the nearby town of Toribio, Carlos Alberto Banguero.

He told radio stations in Popayan, the provincial capital, that the candidate Alfredo Hernan Rios was found dead near his car.

The body of his driver William Cote was discovered nearby.

Rios belonged to the Liberal Party and was head of the neighborhood committee in one section of Toribio.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=410332&CategoryId=12393