New armed drug-trafficking groups menace Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

12 September 2010 Last updated at 02:18 ET
New armed drug-trafficking groups menace Colombia

Armed groups of drug-traffickers have overtaken left-wing rebels as Colombia's main source of violence, local think tank Indepaz says.

The groups have emerged since the demobilisation of the illegal United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries.

The think tank says they are present in 29 of Colombia's 32 provinces.

It based its findings on its own field work as well as data from government agencies and the media.

The demobilisation of the AUC in 2006 was one of the main successes of former President Alvaro Uribe, who left office in August.

But Indepaz said a dozen or so new narco-paramilitary groups had quickly replaced the AUC in much of Colombia.

Extreme violence

With names like the Black Eagles and Rastrojos, they combine control of cocaine production and smuggling with extreme violence, though with less of a political agenda.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11274221

[Downwinder]

1. Sound like SOA names. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's all so phony! The news came out, when they arrested a major para leader,

and it was revealed through his information that they had hired men to stand in as paras, go through the motions of surrendering their arms, for the demobilization. In the meantime, all the real paras were still functioning, other than some of the major crime bosses who did get picked up, then, instead of standing trial for massacres, etc., the _Bush administration stepped in and requested extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, and they never had to reveal their massacres, or where they buried the victims, which the families and loved ones in Colombia wanted DESPERATELY to know. They can go pound sand, apparently, because this deal got these murderous monsters outta Colombia where people could ask them those questions.

Also, remember the records of these clowns _Bush brought to the U.S. have subsequently been SEALED.

So just about all the old players remain in Colombia.

Here's a reference to the information supplied by the laptop belonging to the AUC leader, "Jorge 40":

DECEMBER 2006

Colombia’s Peace Processes: Multiple
Negotiations, Multiple Actors

Cynthia J. Arnson, Jaime Bermúdez, Father Darío Echeverri, David Henifin,
Alfredo Rangel Suárez, León Valencia

INTRODUCTION

by Cynthia J. Arnson 1

~snip~
Some of the most damning evidence of paramil-
itary duplicity in the peace process emerged from a
seized laptop computer belonging to paramilitary
leader Rodrigo Tovar (alias “Jorge 40”). According
to police reports leaked to the press, the computer
detailed cocaine smuggling routes; the names of
sympathetic members of the Congress, the military,
and the police; and Tovar’s involvement in ordering
the murder of 558 trade unionists, shopkeepers, and
suspected guerrilla sympathizers in northern
Colombia. The computer also contained e-mail
messages written by Tovar in which he instructed
his troops to recruit peasants to pose as demobiliz-
ing fighters, thereby feigning compliance with the
peace process without disarming his actual fighters.12


These disclosures were preceded by equally
damning accusations that members of Colombia’s
domestic intelligence service known as the
Department of Administrative Security (DAS) had
collaborated with paramilitary and organized crime
groups, tipping them off about ongoing police or
military investigations, providing them with infor-
mation about targets for intimidation or assassina-
tion, and interfering in congressional and presiden-
tial elections.13 In October 2005, Uribe had accept-
ed the resignation of DAS director Jorge Noguera,
who had served as regional coordinator for Uribe’s
presidential campaign on the Atlantic coast in 2002,
in light of allegations of paramilitary infiltration of
the intelligence service.14 Colombia’s Procuraduría
General (Inspector General) filed disciplinary charges
against Noguera in November 2006, accusing him of
sharing intelligence information with paramilitary
leaders and of diverting public funds for personal
enrichment.15 Noguera was also accused by a former
associate of organizing massive vote fraud on Uribe’s
behalf during the 2002 presidential elections.16

In what appeared to be a burgeoning scandal,
judicial authorities acted in November 2006 on evi-
dence gathered by Colombia’s Supreme Court
regarding paramilitary infiltration of the Congress.
Two senators and one deputy, all of them members
of parties forming part of President Uribe’s coali-
tion, were arrested on charges of conspiring with
paramilitary groups; one of the senators, Álvaro
García Romero, was charged additionally with
“organizing, promoting, arming, and financing”
paramilitary groups in the department of Sucre.17

Some of the evidence against all three reportedly
had been obtained from “Jorge 40’s” seized comput-
er. Six other pro-Uribe lawmakers were called for
questioning by the Supreme Court in December.

The investigations and charges reflected, on the
one hand, an invigorated effort by the office of
Colombia’s attorney general and the Supreme Court
to prosecute members of the political elite for collab-
orating with paramilitary groups. On the other hand,
the charges appeared to confirm what has long been
alleged but few have documented: that paramilitarism
in Colombia is a phenomenon far deeper than its mil-
itary apparatus, penetrating Colombia’s political, eco-
nomic, and institutional life. How close, if at all, the
scandal will come to President Uribe himself remains
to be seen. But senior officials, notably Attorney
General Mario Iguarán, have not shied from compar-
ing the current crisis to the Proceso 8000, the investi-
gation of former President Ernesto Samper for having
accepted campaign funds from the Cali drug traffick-
ing cartel in 1994. The controversy dogged Samper
during most of his presidency and led the United
States to revoke his visa. The paramilitary scandal,
according to Iguarán, is worse.18

More:
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:mbYye8F3geMJ:wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/lap_colombia1.pdf+Colombian+paramilitaries+demobilization+stand-ins+peasants+laptop&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESivTYoRvhlHV7PMFv-_z8ZViToSy93HeRM2lxQrH_pSZsXJrXWvMf2QscRm-HLByHCrb1rXtuv6NZ8CDIIRFlV1rRgF1BNGZygbVR0ZwAYGCVZEVl43_drf61oEm1Q23sNgBkv7&sig=AHIEtbQxzolJpTPa2Ld9eN_e1mJWBfxUpQ

~~~~~

http://files.nireblog.com.nyud.net:8090/blogs/cafederedaccion/files/jorge40.jpg http://www.semana.com.nyud.net:8090/photos/Generales%5CImgArticulo_T2_40959_20061110_115035.jpg

[Downwinder]

3. See if you don't find them more like the Zetas than the AUC. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

5. I'll remember to keep that in mind reading reports. Thanks. n/t

[bemildred]

4. "Same old drug-trafficing groups menace Colombia."

"Plan Colombia fails to make a dent in drug-trafficing."

[Judi Lynn]

6. Heard not too long ago the price of cocaine from Colombia has also become cheaper! n/t