Colombia militias quit peace deal (right wing death squads)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 11:01 GMT 12:01 UK
Colombia militias quit peace deal


A group of jailed right-wing Colombian paramilitary leaders have indefinitely pulled out of the peace process.
They are protesting against a recent Supreme Court decision to try them as common criminals, rather than for political crimes.

As part of the country's controversial justice and peace law, they were entitled to special treatment.
(snip)

"With this decision, the reconstruction of the historical truth, the handing over of mass graves and other legal obligations assumed under the peace pact are frozen," Antonio Lopez said.

"We can't allow our fighters to be treated like common criminals," he added.




Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6915238.stm

[denverbill]

1. They shouldn't be treated like 'common criminals'

Common criminals don't murder thousands of people just for their politics and bury them in mass graves.

[Judi Lynn]

2. These right-wing monsters don't seem to know how lucky they've been:

Colombia's paramilitaries halt confessions, plunging peace process into crisis
The Associated Press
Published: July 25, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: Colombia's peace process with far-right paramilitaries was close to collapsing Wednesday after jailed militia warlords halted their confessions to prosecutors.

The paramilitaries are fuming over a Supreme Court decision this month to disavow the 2003 peace pact that led to the demobilization of 31,000 right-wing irregulars.

"The government isn't respecting the rules of the game we agreed on," Ernesto Baez, a paramilitary spokesman told Caracol Radio.

Baez was speaking from a maximum security jail where he and some 60 other commanders said Tuesday that they would stop providing testimony to prosecutors about their crimes — hundreds of massacres, widespread extortion and the theft of millions of acres (hectares) of land — during a decade-long reign of terror.
(snip/...)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/25/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Paramilitary-Crisis.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a just world, the sky would have fallen on them long, long ago, and they would have never been allowed to plunge villages into abject suffering and terror, sending MILLIONS of Colombians into terrified retreat, homeless in what the UN designates the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world only exceeded by the Sudan, as the paramilitaries appropriated their homes and farms, while receiving support from not only the Colombian military, but also many members of the Colombian government itself.

As was reported by one farmer forced to accomodate them, who was allowed to live, after being told to sell them his land for a tiny, tiny amount of money, "You can either sell it now, or we will negotiate it with your widow."

[gratuitous]

3. Bush recruiting ranch hands for Paraguay?

Sounds like these are the kind of folks Dubya is most comfortable with, and he'll need a lot of help come 2009 when he's clearin' brush on his new "ranch" in Paraguay. A just world would have Mr. Baez digging his own grave with his bare hands on the slopes of Mt. Kilauea while the survivors of his victims waited for the inevitable moment when a lava flow covered him.

[Bacchus39]

5. "in a just world"

and who would have undertaken this action in this "just world"?

[MetaTrope]

4. "They are protesting against a recent Supreme Court decision to try them as common criminals"

"rather than for political crimes"

Which is EXACTLY how a SANE country not ruled by death-dealing plutocrats would have approached al-Qaeda. As it is, Bush gives them all the self-justification they need.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Colombia warns paramilitaries to cooperate or else

Colombia warns paramilitaries to cooperate or else
25 Jul 2007 21:06:46 GMT
Source: Reuters

BOGOTA, July 25 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe warned right-wing paramilitaries on Wednesday that they will lose their benefits under a peace deal if they follow through on threats to stop cooperating with investigators.

The standoff threatens to unravel the accord under which 31,000 "paras" have demobilized over the last three years.

Former militia fighters say they will not give testimony or turn over illegally acquired wealth after a recent Supreme Court decision barring them from running for public office.

Some refused to answer questions from prosecutors in televised hearings on Wednesday, citing the court ruling they say denies them their right to participate in politics.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25340688.htm

[Judi Lynn]

7. Imprisoned Colombian warlord is a frightening reminder of a bloody conflict

Imprisoned Colombian warlord is a frightening reminder of a bloody conflict
By Simon Romero Published: July 27, 2007



Salvatore Mancuso, a former commander and strategist for Colombian death squads,
in his prison cell in Itaguí, outside Medellín. (Scott Dalton/NYT)

ITAGUÍ, Colombia: In his prison cell here on the outskirts of Medellín, Salvatore Mancuso reads Ghandi and self-help books. He taps notes to his lawyers into his BlackBerry. He gazes at photos of his 19-year-old wife and 8-month-old son. He listens to vallenato music on his iPod.
(snip)

He put into motion plans that transformed the paramilitary militias from an anti-guerrilla force into major cocaine traffickers and allies - some say masters - of high-ranking officials throughout the Colombian government.
(snip)

Mancuso's confessions have fed the slow-burning scandal over revelations of ties between paramilitaries and a web of elite politicians, army generals and spies, almost all supporters of President Álvaro Uribe. In a country weary of war, Mancuso has become an uneasy reminder of how the conflict permeated so many areas of life.

"We were the mist, the curtain of smoke behind which everything was hidden," Mancuso, dressed casually in sandals and a black striped shirt and sitting in an ergonomic chair in his cell, said of the paramilitaries.

A child of privilege, Mancuso grew up near the Caribbean coast, the son of an Italian father, a prosperous businessman, and a mother who had been "Cattle Queen" in a regional beauty contest. After high school, his parents sent him to study English at the University of Pittsburgh while taking a break from civil engineering studies.
(snip)

Groups that represent the victims, who contend Mancuso oversaw hundreds of killings, see crocodile tears in such emotion. "It contradicts reality for someone like Mancuso to see themselves as heroes or martyrs," said Ivan Cepeda, the leader of a victims group whose father, a senator, was killed by paramilitaries. "This peace process is fictitious."

The demobilization process is also in danger of collapsing. Other paramilitary leaders said they would halt their confessions this week following a Supreme Court decision viewing the militias as common, as opposed to political, criminals. The ruling could jeopardize the militia leaders' hopes to re-emerge into Colombian society after revealing details of their crimes before prosecutors and victims.

The Colombian authorities, Mancuso said, "don't want to eradicate cocaine because the conflict generates so much international support that puts money on top of the table and allows so much money under the table in the form of corruption."
(snip)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/27/news/profile.php?page=1

[Judi Lynn]

8. Memorial created in Colombian town devastated by massacre, assassinations, "disappearances."

July 30, 2007

Projecting La Memoria in Southwest Colombia
by Peter Bearder

It is Friday in Trujillo, Valle de Cauca and a collection of youths are finishing a week’s work of repairs to the sculptures of their Memorial Garden. More than 350 residents of this small town have been assassinated or forcefully disappeared in a plague of paramilitary and State violence. Two more disappeared the night before I arrived in Trujillo. There are believed to be many more victims that have not been reported due to fear of reprisals. One relative described it as the “law of silence.” But the victims of Trujillo refuse to let the memory die. Their hillside memorial shouts loudly across the town below. The psychology behind it is as audacious as it is ambitious.

Trujillo lies in a mountainous drug trafficking corridor linking the east of the country to the Pacific port of Buenaventura. According to those I spoke to, there exist a powerful local “mafia” of paramilitaries, narco-traffickers, landowners, and local political and armed functionaries. It is common knowledge that the State is working hand in glove with more illicit actors and there are many accounts of the army brigade, based in neighboring Buga, entering the town by jeep at night and rounding up victims.

Following the massacre carried out by the Colombian Army in 1990, Trujillo became the first Colombian case to be brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It is becoming increasingly necessary to seek transnational paths to justice while the State maintains a de facto policy of impunity. The much-hated Justice and Peace Law offers knock down sentences, releases and special prisons for paramilitary leaders in exchange for the appearance of “demobilization.” Countless national and international bodies, including Amnesty International, have condemned the process for not meeting international standards on truth, justice, and reparation.

In Trujillo’s Memorial Garden, concrete sculptures depict the lives and work of the town’s victims below a plaque containing their names. Most of the artists are children or relatives of the dead. Many of the tombs are empty—except for personal artifacts and gifts—as the victims have either been “disappeared” or mutilated beyond recognition. Ágata visits the memorial with her granddaughter to honor her 18-year-old son who disappeared one evening in 1989 and his body has never been found. Every night she wonders where he is. Ágata is by no means alone in Colombia, a country that has seen 40,000 political assassinations and over 7,000 forced disappearances since 1980.

More:
http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia261.htm

[Judi Lynn]

9. For anyone who wonders why there aren't any ordinary protestors in Colombia,

please check this paragraph from the article immediately above, concerning a town's memorial to their murdered neighbors:

Memorial coordinator Sister Maritze possesses an inspiring energy and warmth. “We are fighting to keep the memory alive and fighting against the impunity,” she states. In Colombia, this constitutes a political act. Perhaps this explains why this short, gray haired nun’s email communications have been repeatedly intercepted and blocked, forcing her to change accounts on numerous occasions.
(snip)

Why do we never hear about things like this? Because the Colombian journalists have been killed in such great numbers, and the remaining ones threatened sufficiently that they even admit they censor their own writing.

[Bacchus39]

10. ordinary protestors in Colombia

ooops!!!

More than a million people marched through Colombia's major cities Thursday and drivers honked horns in unison in a mass protest to demand the immediate liberation of the country's kidnap victims.

In all, some 3,000 Colombians are being held by kidnappers, according to the anti-abduction citizens' group Pais Libre. Those being held include former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors in the hands of leftist rebels.

Thursday's protest was organized after leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said last week that 11 state lawmakers the rebels had held for more than five years were killed in a "crossfire."

http://www.quepasa.com/english/news/latinamerica/703554.html

and from the SAME source you just posted:

http://www.colombiajournal.org/protestphotos.htm

[Judi Lynn]

11. Perhaps my article was complete in error? I don't think so.

Journalists do NOT indicate they censor their own writing because they live in fear?

People are not scared spitless of the Colombian government/military/paramilitary?

Please!

[Bacchus39]

13. I never found Colombians to be afraid of their government

or even the military for that matter. particularly "ordinary" Colombians. of course, how would you know?

[Judi Lynn]

14. From knowing a Colombian who left, who maintains friendships with people there.

That's how I became interested in finding out more about it.

Thanks for asking.

[Bacchus39]

15. you should go there yourself

get a better perspective.

just curious, what do you hear from Venezuelans and Cubans who left their countries?

[Judi Lynn]

12. Colombian journalists self-censor.

MONTERIA, Colombia

he main suspect in Orlando Benítez’s murder was never in doubt. Benítez, a lawmaker here in the northwestern province of Córdoba, was preparing to run for mayor of a municipality controlled for years by Diego Murillo Bejarano, a paramilitary chief known as “Don Berna.” Murillo, once a close associate of drug lord Pablo Escobar, hadn’t given the campaign his blessing.

The local and national press reported briefly on a police announcement of the hit, in which five men gunned down Benítez, his sister, and his driver on April 10. But the press didn’t mention Murillo or subject the triple murder to any significant investigation. “No journalist tried to check into what everyone suspected,” says Gustavo Santiago, news director of the Caracol Radio affiliate in Montería, the provincial capital. “It could have cost you your life.”
(snip)

Such hands-off treatment is pervasive in Colombia, a Committee to Protect Journalists investigation has found. Interviews with three dozen news professionals show that media outlets and journalists across the country routinely censor themselves in fear of physical retaliation from all sides in the nation’s conflict.

At least 30 Colombian journalists have been murdered over the past decade for their work. “We love our profession, but we’re human,” says Carmen Rosa Pabón, news director of Voz de Cinaruco, the Caracol Radio affiliate in the northeastern city of Arauca. “Threats and killings make us afraid. To survive, we have to limit ourselves.”

On some occasions, verified news is suppressed shortly before broadcast or publication. In other cases, probing journalists are killed, detained, or forced to flee. More often, investigations never even get started. The issues shortchanged are human rights abuses, armed conflict, political corruption, drug trafficking, and links from officials to illegal armed groups. Journalists end up focusing instead on “pleasant topics like fauna and flora,” says Angel María León, news chief of Arauca’s RCN Radio affiliate.
(snip)

And the self-censorship has international dimensions. The Uribe administration, for example, is pushing for U.S. and European funding of a $130 million plan to reintegrate the demobilized paramilitaries into society. But foreign taxpayers can hardly judge whether the plan might bring peace if the press doesn’t dare investigate drug trafficking by paramilitaries or their civilian attacks.

“We’re talking about serial massacres—extremely cruel deaths with torture,” notes reporter Beatriz Diegó Solano of El Universal, a daily newspaper that curtailed its investigation of scores of unmarked graves discovered near Sincelejo this year. “Do you think these people are going to become corn farmers? They’re psychopaths.”
(snip/...)

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2005/DA_fall05/colombia/colombia_DA_fall_05.html