"Georgetown University Welcomes Colombia’s Ex-Pres. Uribe"

[VioletLake]

By John Dear
Excerpt:

Georgetown’s appointment of Uribe is “shameful,” Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino said last week in El Salvador. “Uribe is a symbol of the worst that has happened in the tragic conflict in Colombia. There is a great deal of blood involved here, a very great deal. ”

“Does this appointment reflect the mission and the Catholic and Jesuit identity of Georgetown?” Fr. Dean Brackley, a Jesuit professor at the UCA in El Salvador, writes. "This will, literally, cause scandal. The U.S. Congress has held up passage of the trade agreement with Colombia because it is a place where the government, under Uribe, has consistently failed to defend labor unionists from death squads. Uribe is widely accused of having had direct links to the paramilitary groups who have massacred countless innocents. Whether or not those charges are true, he has irresponsibly and cruelly accused human rights activists in Colombia of collusion with ‘Communist terrorists,’ endangering their lives."

A few years ago, I traveled to Colombia to see for myself. There I learned about the U.S.-backed war against the poor waged by Uribe under the guise of a “war on drugs.” I learned how the repressive Colombian government, under the democratically elected but dictatorial President Uribe, a drug benefactor and close friend of George W. Bush, killed some ten thousand people a year, leaving 200,000 dead in the last twenty years. This war isn’t about drugs but about expropriating Colombia’s rich land and natural resources, from the indigenous people to the U.S. and multinational corporations.

In Bogota, Colombia, I met one of the world’s leading voices for human rights, Fr. Javier Giraldo, a Jesuit priest whose institute has documented all the killings and massacres in Colombia. For his efforts, he’s suffered countless death threats, especially under the Uribe regime. Last week, my friend Fr. Giraldo wrote to me about the situation, and I share his letter here, so we can all learn about Colombia and the disgrace of Georgetown’s hiring of Uribe:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/07-0

[Ken Burch]

1. I'm guessing the "Free Speech Zone" will be somewhere outside Newark

:eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

7. Saw they call it "Red Square" there!

This link was posted in the Latin America forum by DU'er Downwinder:

Protest Uribe at Georgetown Wednesday
Tue, 09/07/2010 - 16:54 — AP
Georgetown is lending itself to the legitimization of Uribe, whose murderous policies led to untold numbers of deaths and displacements, and which have accelerated the U.S. State Department-led re-militarization of Latin America. Unfortunately, it is all too common for universities to provide cover and legitimacy to murderers and their apologists. My university, for example, has hired Paul Bremer to teach this semester, and gave golpista former Honduran ambassador Roberto Flores Bermúdez the position of "ambassador in residence" while he illegally worked as an unregistered foreign agent, lobbying for Micheletti's de facto military regime while receiving a full salary from the military coup-installed government (carried out by officers trained at the same School of the Americas where Uribe sent so much of his military to learn how to become domestic terrorists).

So DCians: come out in solidarity with the people of Colombia and all of Latin America to say Adios Uribe, tomorrow September 8th at 11:30am at Red Square in Georgetown's main campus. (You can get to Red Square if you enter the campus at 37th and O St, NW, and head right from Healy Lawn). Red Square is (get ready for this) the principle "free speech zone" at Georgetown.

To find out more, check out http://uribe-georgetown.org
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x41265#41293

[IndianaGreen]

2. Uribe's death squads have killed religious people that backed the peasants

Shame!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Uribe's history is absolutely hideous against the poor, the helpless, the indigenous,

the righteous, against union workers, human rights workers, journalists, and any political activists courageous enough to take on what they know will be a death sentence as soon as their names, faces become recognizeable.

His name is lethal, and his father's before him.

They were BOTH listed in a report drawn up by the Defense Department in 1991, naming them both as connected to Colombian narcotraffickers. Horrid.

This is clearly a political situation: someone in government pressured this invitation into being at Georgetown. Uribe is under investigation now in Colombia for more crimes than you can name, probably, on a sheet of paper in very small type.

He's been bad for a long time, going all the way back to his time as a governor, before he assisted narcotraffickers like Pablo Escobar as a Senator.

He opened the gate WIDE for U.S. forces to take over, assume position throughout his country, to use Colobia as a "land-based carrier" for future pressure on the rest of the Americas. It will be hard as hell for any Colombian President to restore the country's honor, and deliver respect and security to its own massive poor population which has been exploited, and terrorized for EVER by their very tiny elite, and outside political/economic players.

[Ken Burch]

8. And yet, he's had DEFENDERS here at DU.

It's incomprehensible that anyone here, anyone who claims to NOT be a total reactionary, would ever support a monster like Alvaro Uribe. All the man has ever brought to Colombia is death.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Recommending. This information NEEDS to be made public. It is important. n/t

[Doctor_J]

5. What a disgrace this country has become

unbelievable

[Judi Lynn]

6. Controversial Georgetown gig for Colombia's Alvaro Uribe

Controversial Georgetown gig for Colombia's Alvaro Uribe
September 8, 2010 | 12:19 pm

The arrival of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at Georgetown University is sparking campus debate on the two-term leader's legacy in security and human rights. Uribe starts work this semester as a "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership" at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, where he will conduct seminars and other programs, the university said.

"We are thrilled that has identified Georgetown as a place where he will share his knowledge and interface with Washington, and I know that our students at the School of Foreign Service will benefit greatly from his presence," said the Georgetown school's dean, Carol Lancaster, in a university statement.

But not everyone in the Georgetown community is reacting with such enthusiasm. In comments on the personal site of university professor Anthony Clark Arend, one commenter identified as Charity Ryerson, a Georgetown law student, wrote:

I am a student at the law center and have worked extensively with the Colombian human rights community. While he was Governor of Antioquia, Alvaro Uribe was instrumental in the creation of the Convivirs, private self defense organizations that later morphed into the Colombian United Self Defense Forces, a paramilitary organization that has killed tens of thousands of Colombian civilians with the support of the Colombian state. As recently as 2006, the paramilitaries and the Colombian military ate together at the same military bases and carried out joint operations.

He routinely publicly denounced human rights defenders in his country, falsely claiming that they had ties to the guerrilla organizations in order to undermine their work. His party continues to work with illegal armed groups in the country, a situation which he, at a minimum, tolerated. He spied on opposition leaders and human rights defenders. His own DAS (similar to the FBI) passed hit lists to the paramilitaries containing names of trade unionists and human rights defenders, many of which were later killed.

More:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/09/uribe-colombia-georgetown.html

[Dr.Phool]

9. Didn't they also welcome Doug Feith a couple of years ago?

Maybe him and Uribe are really good basketball players.

[VioletLake]

10. Take Action - Send a letter to Georgetown University

Take Action - Send a letter to Georgetown University to oppose the hiring of state terrorist and Colombian ex-President Alvaro Uribe

Please join in solidarity and memory with all the victims of human rights abuses under Uribe's Presidency in Colombia. Georgetown University has recently announced that former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe will be named a "distinguished scholar in the practice of global leadership," and will soon begin giving seminars at the university's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS). Uribe has said it is a “great honor” for him, and that his “greatest wish and happiness is to contribute in the continuous emergence of future leaders.”

Please help us in denouncing Uribe's presence at Georgetown and send him back to Colombia where he must undergo the criminal investigation that is needed for justice.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4711

[VioletLake]

11. Human Rights Watch:

Colombia: Obama Should Press Uribe on Rights
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/26/colombia-obama-should-press-uribe-rights-0