Colombia's vice president casts doubt on close ties to United States

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Colombia's vice president casts doubt on close ties to United States
The Associated Press
Published: May 8, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: Colombia might have to re-evaluate its close relationship with the United States if Congress fails to ratify a free-trade agreement, Vice President Francisco Santos said Tuesday.

Santos' comments came as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte reaffirmed the Bush administration's support for the stalled trade pact during a visit to Bogota, the first stop in a four-nation, six-day tour of the region.

Negroponte, visiting a rose farm that stands to gain from the removal of U.S. tariffs on Colombian exports, said the United States was a "great friend" of Colombia, its staunchest ally in a region increasingly dominated by anti-American, leftist leaders.

In brief comments to reporters, he said he hoped that Andean nation "would soon benefit from the approval by our Congress" of the trade pact.

Santos, in an interview with RCN television, warned that failure to ratify the deal would "send a message to the eternal enemies of the United States that ... this is how America treats its allies."



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/08/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-US.php

---

Francisco Santos

[High Plains]

1. Does that mean Colombia will refuse all that drug war/terror war aid?

That would show us.

[htuttle]

5. Obviously, they think it's not enough, and they want more

They need more largess via trade pacts to spread among their own wise guys. I doubt they would ask if they didn't think they could get it somehow.

It's all just bidnez...

[Benhurst]

2. Gosh, the way things are going, The World's Only Superpower may end up

playing with itself.

[cliss]

3. This is a nice switch!

Other countries are making Ultimatums now. And I LOVE the fact that it's a S. American country.

Jeez, I love this comment,would "send a message to the ETERNAL enemies of the United States..."

Eternal, sounds so....permanent, doesn't it?

By the way, the VP Santos is just a Cutie, with his hair parted down the middle! Cutie Pie.:smoke:

[Bacchus39]

4. I've been saying that all along

what good does it do to push away one the few remaining allies??

[Nevernose]

6. A lovely bit of political extortion

Perhaps we taught them too well? And (some of us Americans, at any rate) definitely underestimated people with darker skins than our own?

"Look, Los Estados Unidos -- we're pals, right? And we need something, and if you can't deliver it ... all I'm saying is my other buddy Hugo lives right next door, and maybe he can. Comprende?"

[Peace Patriot]

7. I think we shouldn't underestimate the benefits to the Bush Junta of having

a rightwing paramilitary force, well trained in mass killing of union organizers, peasants and leftists, heavily into drug trafficking and politically and morally compatible with assassinating the leaders of other South American countries (since they've assassinated some of their own, and were hatching plots to kill Hugo Chavez and destabilize the Andean democracies). I can't imagine how we benefit by getting roses in return. (Bet they're not unionized rose pickers either.) So why would we want "free trade" with Colombia? Chiquita Banana obviously wanted it (--caught paying bribes, and funding death squads). Containers to stash the cocaine in, disguised under some other product? That's not something most of us would want. So what is this threat Santos is issuing? Or maybe Santos is just so used to issuing threats, he doesn't know how to speak in any other way.

I think they've got a whole war planned down there, to grab the oil in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador--or had one planned. They now have to work with the reality that Latin American leaders are not going along. Bush had to endure being publicly lectured by Latin American leaders, from Brazil to Mexico, on the SOVEREIGNTY of Latin American countries, with Mexico's Calderon specifically mentioning Venezuela as an example. And I think they formed a consensus about this, and forbade Bush to mention Hugo Chavez's name, at all--no Chavez-bashing--as a precondition of HIS trip. When the Bushites told them all that they must "isolate" Chavez, Argentina's Nestor Kirchner replied, "But he's my brother." Brazil's Lulu went and visited Chavez two weeks before the Venezuelan election--a show of support after Chavez's remark at the UN that Bush is "the devil." And Rafael Correa, when asked about Chavez's devil remark, during his campaign for president of Ecuador, said "it's an insult to the devil." (His numbers soared and he was elected by 60% of the vote--against the big banana magnate, the richest man in Ecuador. Chavez was re-elected with 63% of the vote in Venezuela.) And all of these countries--including, notably, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales--are rejecting the murderous US "war on drugs." It's the Bush Junta's $4 billion militaristic wedge into the countries with the oil and gas (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador). Our tax dollars at work, once again, for Exxon-Mobile, Chevron, Halliburton and Blackwater.

So Negroponte has his hands full trying to stir up some bloody trouble, and hearten the assassins and drug traffickers of the Uribe government.

Odd how "our staunchest ally" in South America is this dirtbag regime that buries union organizers and other democracy-minded people in mass graves.

Negroponte "touring" Latin America is like Germany rehabilitating Eichman and having him "tour" the Jewish areas. Could there be anything uglier or more disgusting?

And I notice that the International Herald Tribute is using AP. Ye gods. And thus we get: "...in a region increasingly dominated by anti-American, leftist leaders." NO South American leader that I know of is "anti-American." They are anti-Bush. Big difference. And there is hardly a country on earth that isn't. Even the Queen had a sour look on her face (and, boy, was she mad when they dropped their black helicopters on her flower garden!). I think even the Saudis are beginning to hate them. But those gun-toting communist guerrilla authoritarian dictators that somehow get themselves elected all over South America really stand out as America..ahem, Bush...haters.

Christ.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Couldn't stress this point you made more, and more often:

"Odd how "our staunchest ally" in South America is this dirtbag regime that buries union organizers and other democracy-minded people in mass graves."

Democrats have ALWAYS been identified with union workers. What kind of Democrats could NOT find Colombia's massacres, assassinations, kidnappings, torture of union workers, and any one they can claim to be "leftist" loathesome, and filthy beyond description?

Anyone supporting that #### is simply looking in the wrong place for support, and will have to do with only the companionship of a few others who have also dug themselves into the place like parasites hiding in the bodies of their hosts.

[UNCLE_Rico]

13. Excellent post, you nailed everything (and more) that I was about to post...

Yeah, the fact that a guy like Negroponte isn't rotting in jail somewhere speaks volumes about the USA's ACTUAL level of commitment to it's little "War on Terra". Having him 'tour' South America is just about the most offensive 'diplomatic' move that bushco has made since ... well, attacking and invading a sovereign nation that was no threat whatsoever.

And it's certainly no coincidence that Colombia is bushco's 'staunchest ally' in the region. They're both part of Poppy's Oily Right-Wing CIA-Drug Money Crime syndicate.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Colombians seek justice for years of militia abuses

Colombians seek justice for years of militia abuses
09 May 2007 16:40:26 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Patrick Markey

NECOCLI, Colombia, May 9 (Reuters) - Hundreds of farmers, fishermen and their families packed a sweltering school building on Colombia's northern coast, looking for justice after years of suffering silently under paramilitary warlords.

Clutching a microphone, Jose Moguea trembled as he begged government officials for help finding his son, who was snatched by gunmen from the family farm more than nine months ago.

"I just need to know if my son is alive or dead," the aging farmer wailed at the meeting last weekend before emotion robbed him of his voice.

In villages and towns across Colombia, victims are coming forward to describe the murders, kidnapping and land grabs committed by militia bosses in the name of combating leftist guerrillas still waging a insurgency dating back to the 1960s.

President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-financed security crackdown has weakened the guerrillas and disarmed 31,000 paramilitaries under a peace deal handing militia commanders short jail terms for giving up their guns, confessing their crimes and compensating victims.

But Uribe is under scrutiny for links between some of his allies and the militias. Rights groups worry jailed commanders have kept their criminal operations alive and U.S. Democrats pushed him during his visit to Washington last week to curb resurgent paramilitary violence as they decide whether to back a free trade deal and aid package.
(snip)

But the huge scope of militia crimes are overwhelming investigators. More than 50,000 victims have registered with authorities, but Colombia has just nine judges and 20 prosecutors assigned to militia probe and has asked for international help.

Victims' statements will be used to cross reference testimony by militia commanders. The government has seized assets from paramilitaries to pay compensation, but the system and amount of payments is still being debated.

Confessions and testimonies have led investigators to hundreds of graves where victims were often dumped after being butchered. Forensic experts last week unearthed the bodies of more than 100 victims near the border with Ecuador.

The threat to victims seeking justice was illustrated by the murder in February of Yolanda Izquierdo, an activist seeking compensation for peasants forced off their land by a top militia commander.
(snip)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09263352.htm

[Bacchus39]

10. I support the demobilization and imprisonment of the paras?

do you?? or would you prefer they reorganize?

[Judi Lynn]

11. Latest killing of human rights defender throws controversial paramilitary demobilization process int

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: AMR 23/002/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 023
2 February 2007

Colombia: Latest killing of human rights defender throws controversial paramilitary demobilization process into further doubt

Amnesty International condemns the killing of human rights defender Yolanda Izquierdo in the city of Montería, Córdoba Department, on 31 January. Yolanda Izquierdo was reportedly shot several times by gunmen suspected of being linked to army-backed paramilitary groups.

Yolanda Izquierdo had been the victim of several death threats since December 2006 and had days previously reported them to the local authorities and requested protection. These threats are believed to have stemmed from her work representing survivors of paramilitary human rights violations at the demobilization hearing of paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso.

The killing was clearly designed to silence those brave enough to speak out against the human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed by paramilitaries such as Salvatore Mancuso, and by those who have supported the paramilitaries, either politically, economically or militarily, including members of the security forces, as well as powerful economic and political interests.

The killing of Yolanda Izquierdo once again raises serious doubts about a supposed demobilization process that continues to disregard the right of victims to truth, justice and reparation and which has patently failed to effectively dismantle paramilitary groups.

Amnesty International has repeatedly warned that paramilitary groups continue to operate and to violate human rights throughout the country, despite Colombian government assurances that over 30,000 combatants have demobilized.
(snip/...)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230022007?open&of=ENG-2AM

[Judi Lynn]

12. Murder Training: Colombian Death Squad Used Live Hostages

Murder Training: Colombian Death Squad Used Live Hostages
by El Tiempo
April 29, 2007

El Tiempo, Bogota -- “Proof of courage”: that is how the how the paramilitaries would term the training they imparted to their recruits so that they learnt how to carve up people while they were still alive.

Initially, the authorities rejected this version of the farmers who reported the practice… but when the combatants themselves started to admit to it in their testimonies before the prosecutors, the myth became a harsh crime against humanity.

Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández (alias Cristian Barreto), one of the perpetrators of the massacre at El Aro in Ituango, Antioquia, received this type of training in the same place where he learnt to handle arms and manufacture home-made bombs. Today, a prisoner at La Picota in Bogota, Villalba has described in details during lengthy testimonies how he applied the learning.

“Towards the middle of 1994, I was ordered to a course… in El Tomate, Antioquia, where the training camp was located,” he says in his testimony. There, his working day started at 5 in the morning and the instructions were received directly from the top commanders such as ‘Double Zero’ (Carlos Garcia, since assassinated by another paramilitary group).

Villalba claims that in order to learn how to dismember people they would use farmers they gathered together in the course of taking neighbouring settlements. As he describes it, “they were aged people whom we brought in trucks, alive and bound up”. The victims arrived at the ranch in covered trucks. They were lowered from the vehicle with their hands tied and taken to a room. There they were locked up for days in the hope that the training would start.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=9&ItemID=12697

[Judi Lynn]

14. Colombia’s New Armed Groups

Colombia’s New Armed Groups
Latin America Report N°20
10 May 2007

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The disbanding of the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 2003 and 2006 is seen by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe as a vital step toward peace. While taking some 32,000 AUC members out of the conflict has certainly altered the landscape of violence, there is growing evidence that new armed groups are emerging that are more than the simple “criminal gangs” that the government describes. Some of them are increasingly acting as the next generation of paramilitaries, and they require a more urgent and more comprehensive response from the government.

Since early 2006, the Organization of American States (OAS) Peace Support Mission in Colombia (MAPP/OEA), human rights groups and civil society organisations have insistently warned about the rearming of demobilised paramilitary units, the continued existence of groups that did not disband because they did not participate in the government-AUC negotiations and the merging of former paramilitary elements with powerful criminal organisations, often deeply involved with drug trafficking. Worse, there is evidence that some of the new groups and criminal organisations have established business relations over drugs with elements of the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN). At the same time, the government’s plan for reintegrating demobilised paramilitaries has revealed itself to be deeply flawed.

These alerts have to be taken seriously since conditions now exist for the continuity or re-emergence either of old-style paramilitary groups or a federation of new groups and criminal organisations based on the drug trade. The military struggles with the FARC and the smaller ELN are ongoing, and drug trafficking continues unabated. Massive illegal funds from drug trafficking help fuel the decades-long conflict, undermine reintegration of former combatants into society and foment the formation and strengthening of new armed groups, as occurred with the AUC and the FARC more than a decade ago.

These new groups do not yet have the AUC’s organisation, reach and power. Their numbers are disputed but even the lowest count, from the police and the OAS mission, of some 3,000 is disturbing, and civil society groups estimate up to triple that figure. Some of these groups, such as the New Generation Organisation (Organización Nueva Generación, ONG) in Nariño have started to operate much like the old AUC bloc in the region, including counter-insurgency operations and efforts to control territory and population so as to dominate the drug trade. Others, such as the Black Eagles in Norte de Santander, are less visible and both compete and cooperate with established criminal networks on the Venezuelan border.

More:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4824&l=1

[Judi Lynn]

15. Uribe Fools The Press And The Rest In Wash. D.C.

Uribe Fools The Press And The Rest In Wash. D.C.
Thursday, 10 May 2007, 11:39 am
Opinion: Jose Maria Rodriguez Gonzalez

Uribe Fools The Press And The Rest In Washington D.C.

By José María Rodríguez González
First, in its rush to devalue Democrats, both domestic and foreign, The Washington Post has awarded international status to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, proclaiming him possibly “the most popular democratic leader in the world”. ("Assault on an Ally", Sunday, May 6, 2007; Page B06) If we consider Mr. Uribe’s real popularity with the Colombian people, however, President Bush, with an approval rating of 28% actually outpoints Uribe in the popularity department. By the Post’s own fantastical standard, therefore, it is Mr. Bush and not Mr. Uribe who should be called the most popular democratic leader in the world.
(snip)

U.S. money and advisors doubled the size of Columbia’s army, which attempted to blanket the country. Mr. Uribe did nothing. Then international pressure from the UN and various ONG forced Mr. Uribe to demobilize the murderous paramilitary. Crime went down. In the resulting stalemate, political kidnapping no longer was necessary because the Revolutionary Arm Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) already held more than enough hostages to exchange for 500 its jailed members. (Meanwhile, ordinary criminal kidnapping goes on and is largely ignored).

It’s well known in Colombia that the FARC also considers Mr. Uribe tied to paramilitaries. Within this state of affairs, FARC adopted a new strategy to counter Mr. Uribe’s slogan that it was merely a narco-terrorist organization. FARC concentrated on sabotage and ambushes, hitting army and police units. The most recent attack destroyed Cali’s police headquarters, in the third largest city in Colombia.

The persecution of thugs guilty of massacres and other human rights violations is the result of international pressure by ONGs, not Mr. Uribe’s initiative. The Alternative Democratic Pole (Polo Democrático Alternativo, PDA), the largest opposition party in the country, has been responsible for purging the political system of parapolitics (paramilitary control of government), the worst legacy of Mr. Uribe’s umbrella of parties that further uribismo. Mr. Uribe has resisted every allegation of parapolitcs and vehemently defended the accused, many of them today in jail.
(snip/...)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0705/S00212.htm