U.S. official warns about cutting aid for Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

COLOMBIA
U.S. official warns about cutting aid for Colombia

A State Department official urged Congress to approve money for Colombia, saying a failure to do so `would be entirely negative for our policy in all the hemisphere.'
Posted on Sat, Aug. 04, 2007

By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON -- Failure to approve a free-trade agreement with Colombia and to reauthorize military and anti-narcotics aid to that country would imperil U.S. relationships throughout Latin America, the State Department's third-ranking official said Friday.

The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, which has stalled in Congress, has ''taken on huge symbolic importance,'' said R. Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs.''What would the message be if we said no to the people of Colombia?'' he said.``The message would be entirely negative for our policy in all the hemisphere.''
(snip)

The free-trade pact would do away with tariffs and expand trade between the United States and Colombia. Democratic lawmakers have blocked it over concerns about the killings of union leaders and allegations of links between the Colombian government and right-wing paramilitary groups.

The United States' popularity in Latin America remains low, and thousands protested when President Bush visited this year. A string of Latin American countries have elected left-leaning leaders.

Argentines, Bolivians, Brazilians, Mexicans and Venezuelans polled in April and May said the United States posed a bigger threat than any other nation to their countries' futures, according to a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey released last month.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/192526.html

---

The photo in the middle is NOT _Bush's R. Nicholas Burns

[Peace Patriot]

1. The Miami Herald published THIS?! I'm impressed. McClatchy must be exerting

must be exerting a good influence....


"The United States' popularity in Latin America remains low, and thousands protested when President Bush visited this year. A string of Latin American countries have elected left-leaning leaders.

"Argentines, Bolivians, Brazilians, Mexicans and Venezuelans polled in April and May said the United States posed a bigger threat than any other nation to their countries' futures, according to a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey released last month."

-------

I've been yelling for a lo-n-n-ng time that we're been getting 100% disinformation from Bush's State Dept. and the Corporate news monopolies on Latin America, and that, IF FOR NO OTHER REASON than the need to be well informed on earth-shaking developments, like the awesome, peaceful, democratic revolution that is occurring south of the border, we are in dire need of ACCURATE information! The best reason, of course, is so that we can try to influence U.S. government policy away from violence, assassination plots, death squads, covert destabilizations, chainsawing union organizers, and all the foul tricks in the Bush Junta arsenal, so that more atrocities are not committed in our name, as they were under Reagan, and are in Colombia under Bush. "Free trade" (global corporate predation) of course destroyed the economies of all these countries who have turned to LEFTIST (majorityist) governments, to put them back on their feet. Colombia and Peru are the dinosauric holdouts in South America, and Central America is still in the grip of "free trade"-designed poverty and decline. And wherever rightwing government welcomes US-dominated "free trade," the murderous, phony US "war on drugs" (war on poor peasants and leftists) is the accompaniment, because rightwing government cannot maintain corporate exploitation without big infusions of military aid from the U.S.

This lying little Bushit from the State Dept., toady to John "death squad" Negroponte (Bush's Undersec of State for Latin America), deserves to be tarred and feathered and run out of the region. Colombia is the Bush Junta's launching pad for their second "theater of war"--the war for the oil, gas, minerals and other resources of the Andean democracies (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador). That's why they're pouring billions of our tax dollars into Colombia, and want to reward their chainsawers there with bigger drug territories and slave labor.

I am amazed to see the Miami Herald calling them on their evil shit. The Bushites and our Corporate Rulers are hated in Latin America for A REASON, and it's not because Congress is holding up "free trade" with Colombia!

[Robbien]

2. Exactly

When there are a couple million people holding a sit-in for weeks in Mexico and the American people aren't even aware of it, something is definitely wrong with the press.

Peru is having march after march, strike after strike over this FTA agreement and no one here knows. Dems just get grief from the press over not approving the agreement.

[bemildred]

3. Burns is a liar. He does not care about "the people of Colombia".

Neither does the US State Dept.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Paul Wellstone cared about Colombia, and he got drenched in pesticide,

and came close to being car-bombed in Colombia.

Here's a speech he gave on the Senate floor, 2 years, 2 months before he was killed:

Speech by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), July 14, 2000

MASSACRES IN COLOMBIA (Senate - July 14, 2000)


Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I want to bring something to the attention of the Senate today. Even though most Senators are gone, I want to do this because I think it should be done in as public a way as possible. I bring to the attention of colleagues a piece in the New York Times. It is a front-page story, `Colombians Tell of Massacre, as Army Stood By.'

When you read this story, there will be tears in your eyes. I don't know whether they will be tears of sadness or tears of anger. I will read just the first few paragraphs:

El Salado, Colombia: The armed men, more than 300 of them, marched into this tiny village early on a Friday. They went straight to the basketball court that doubles as the main square, residents said, announced themselves as members of Colombia's most feared right-wing paramilitary group, and with a list of names began summoning residents for judgment.

A table and chairs were taken from a house, and after the death squad leader had made himself comfortable, the basketball court was turned into a court of execution, villagers said. The paramilitary troops ordered liquor and music, and then embarked on a calculated rampage of torture, rape and killing.

`To them, it was like a big party,' said one of a dozen survivors who described the scene in interviews this month. `They drank and danced and cheered as they butchered us like hogs.'

By the time they left, late the following Sunday afternoon, they had killed at least 36 people whom they accused of collaborating with the enemy, left-wing guerrillas who have long been a presence in the area. The victims, for the most part, were men, but others ranged from a 6-year-old girl to an elderly woman. As music blared, some of the victims were shot after being tortured; others were stabbed or beaten to death, and several more were strangled.

Yet during the three days of killing last February, military and police units just a few miles away made no effort to stop the slaughter, witnesses said. At one point, they said, the paramilitaries had a helicopter flown in to rescue a fighter who had been injured trying to drag some victims from their home.

Instead of fighting back, the armed forces set up a roadblock on the way to the village shortly after the rampage began, and prevented human rights and relief groups from entering and rescuing residents.

While the Colombian military has opened three investigations into what happened here and has made some arrests of paramilitaries, top military officials insist that fighting was under way in the village between guerrillas and paramilitary forces--not a series of executions. They also insist that the colonel in charge of the region has been persecuted by government prosecutors and human rights groups. Last month he was promoted to general, even though examinations of the incidents are pending.

I ask unanimous consent the entire article be printed in the Record.
(snip/...)

http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/071401.htm

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

Anyone who read this might also be interested in seeing this background which was printed in the Colombian newspaper, El Tiempo.

The paramilitaries' worst massacre in 10 years
El Tiempo (Bogotá)
Tuesday, 28 February 2000

~snip~
Twenty years ago, this zone belonged to tobacco plantation owners. The attitude of some, which even included demands that peasants pay for their crops by "lending out their daughters", generated a lot of resentment among the peasants. It also motivated a strong movement for the land that led to an extensive agrarian reform led by the ANUC .

Around the mid-1980s until about six years ago, when the Socialist Renewal Current was legalized, the Maria Mountains were a sanctuary for the ELN . During the peace process with this group, the government promised to formulate a Development Plan for Sucre and to award land from the zone to those who rejoined civil society. Those promises were never kept.

So, the void created by the state was filled by the FARC. And it has now been "recovered" by the paramilitaries.

Thus, while one group kills for the sake of social justice in the country and the other group, for a Colombia "cleansed" of guerrillas, a country is being built on a foundation of fear.

© 2000 El Tiempo

http://www.colombiasupport.net/200002/eltiempo-massacre-0228.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Here is the reprint of the New York Times article on "El Salado" massacre:

Published on Friday, July 14, 2000 in the New York Times
Colombians Tell of Massacre, as Army Stood By
by Larry Rohter



Larry Rohter/ The New York Times

Pieces of a table used by members of a death squad and other reminders remain scattered on a basketball court where residents of El Salado were summoned, judged and executed. During three days in February, survivors say, members of the right-wing paramilitary group executed people accused of helping left-wing guerrillas.

~snip~
Members of a paramilitary unit had attacked this village in 1997, killing five people and warning that they would eventually come back. Many residents fled then, but returned after a few months believing that they were safe until the death squad suddenly reappeared on the morning of Feb. 18.

"I looked up at the hills, and could see armed men everywhere, blocking every possible exit," a farmer recalled. "They had surrounded the town, and almost as soon as they came down, they began firing their guns and shouting, 'Death to the guerrillas.' "

The death squad troops, almost all dressed in military-style uniforms with a blue patch, made their way to the basketball court at the center of the village. They took tables and chairs from a nearby building, pulled out a list of names and began the search for victims.

"Some people were shot, but a lot of them were beaten with clubs and then stabbed with knives or sliced up with machetes," one witness said. "A few people were beheaded, or strangled with metal wires, while others had their throats cut."

The list of those to be executed was supplied by two men, one of whom was wearing a ski mask. Paramilitary leaders, who have acknowledged the attack on El Salado but describe it as combat with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, later said that the two men were FARC deserters who had dealt with local people and knew who had been guerrilla sympathizers.

"It was all done very methodically," one witness said. "Some people were brought to the basketball court, but were saved because someone would say, 'Not that one,' and they would be allowed to leave. But I saw a woman neighbor of mine, who I know had nothing at all to do with the guerrillas, knocked down with clubs and then stabbed to death."

While some paramilitaries searched for people to kill, others were breaking into shops and stealing beer, rum and whiskey. Before long, a macabre party atmosphere prevailed, with the paramilitaries setting up radios with dance music and ordering a local guitarist and accordionist to play.

In addition, a young waitress from a cantina adjoining the basketball court was ordered to keep a steady supply of liquor flowing. As the armed men grew drunk and rowdy, they repeatedly raped her, along with several other women, according to residents and human rights groups.

As night fell, some residents fled to the wooded hills above town. Others, however, stayed in their homes, afraid of being caught if they tried to escape, unable to move because they had small children, or convinced that they would not be harmed.

Saturday was more of the same. "All day long we could hear occasional bursts of gunfire, along with the screams and cries of those who were being tortured and killed," said a woman who had taken refuge in the hills with her small children.

Of the 36 people killed in town, 16 were executed at the basketball court. An additional 18 people were killed in the countryside, residents and human rights workers said, and 17 more are still missing, making for a death toll that could be as high as 71.

By Friday afternoon, however, news of the slaughter had spread to El Carmen de Bolívar, about 15 miles away. Relatives of El Salado residents rushed to local police and military posts, but were rebuffed.

"We made a scandal and nearly caused a riot, we were so insistent," said a 40-year-old-man who had left El Salado early on Friday because he had business in town. "But they did nothing to help us."

Not only did the armed forces and the police not come to the aid of the villagers here, but the roadblock they set up prevented humanitarian aid from entering the village. Anyone seeking to enter the area was told the road was unsafe because it had been mined and that combat was going on between guerrilla and paramilitary units.

In a telephone interview, three Colombian Navy admirals said that residents of El Salado were accusing the military of complicity in the massacre because they had been coerced by guerrillas." The roadblock was set up, they said, to prevent more deaths or injuries to civilians.

"At no point was there collaboration on our part, nor would we have permitted their passage" through the area, Adm. William Porras, the second in command of the Colombian Navy, said of the death squad unit. "We never at any point were covering up for them or helping them, as all the subsequent investigations have shown."

But local residents, Colombian prosecutors investigating the massacre and human rights groups say there was no combat. Villagers say that the armed forces had not been in the center of El Salado recently, and that they had left the outlying areas a day before. Residents also say they had passed over the dirt road that Friday morning and there were no mines.

"The army was on patrol for two or three days before the massacre took place, and then suddenly they disappeared," recalled a 43-year-old tobacco farmer. "It can't be explained, and it seems very curious to me."

What has been established is that the villagers were simple peasants, and not the guerrillas the paramilitary leader says his troops were fighting. "It is quite clear that these were defenseless people and that what they were subjected to was not combat, but abuse and torture," said a foreign diplomat who has been investigating.

Residents said the paramilitaries felt so certain that government security forces would stay away that late on Friday they had a helicopter flown in. It landed in front of a church and picked up a death squad fighter who was injured when a family he was trying to drag out of their house to be taken to the basketball court resisted.

In a report published last February, Human Rights Watch found "detailed, abundant and compelling evidence of continuing close ties between the Colombian Army and paramilitary groups responsible for gross human rights violations." All told, "half of Colombia's 18 brigade-level units have documented links to paramilitary activity," the report concluded.

"Far from moving decisively to sever ties to paramilitaries, Human Rights Watch's evidence strongly suggests that Colombia's military high command has yet to take the necessary steps to accomplish this goal," the report stated.

At the time of the El Salado massacre, the senior military officer in this region was Col. Rodrigo Quiñones Cárdenas, commander of the First Navy Brigade, who has since been promoted to general. As director of Naval Intelligence in the early 1990's, he was identified by Colombian prosecutors as the organizer of a paramilitary network responsible for the killings of 57 trade unionists, human rights workers and members of a left-wing political party.

In 1994, Colonel Quiñones and seven other soldiers were charged with "conspiring to form or collaborate with armed groups." But after the main witness against him was killed in a maximum security prison and the case was moved from a civilian court to a military tribunal, the colonel was acquitted.

According to the same investigation by Colombian prosecutors, one of Colonel Quiñones's closest associates in that paramilitary network was Harold Mantilla, a colonel in the Colombian Marines.

Today, Colonel Mantilla is commander of the Fifth Marine Battalion, which operates in the area around El Salado and is one of the units said by residents and human rights workers to have failed to respond to appeals for help.

After the paramilitary unit left El Salado, the police captured 11 paramilitaries northeast of here on the ranch of a drug trafficker who is in prison in Bogotá. Along with four others who were arrested separately, they are facing murder charges, but their leaders and most of the others who carried out the killings remain free.

More than four months after the massacre, El Salado is virtually deserted. Only one of the town's 1,330 original residents was present when a reporter and human rights workers visited early this month, and he said the village remains as it was the day the death squad left, except for the two mass graves on a rise near the basketball court where the bodies were buried and later exhumed for investigators.

The tables and chairs used by the paramilitary "judges," smashed or overturned as they left, are still strewn across the basketball court.

"I don't know if the people are ever going to want to come back again," the resident said. "What happened here was just too terrible to bear, and we didn't deserve it."
(snip/)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/071400-02.htm

[Peace Patriot]

6. These are criminals, still in charge in Colombia, to whom the Bush Junta is giving

billions of our taxpayer dollars in military aid. The Colombian military and the U.S. "war on drugs" forces are working hand in glove with the rightwing paramilitaries who have committed, and are still committing, such atrocities!

"Free trade" is not a way out of this horror. It is a means of adding economic slavery to military slavery! It is a means of putrid exploitation and rewarding the rich elite. Some of the massacred were union organizers and other political leftists who could plainly see what "free trade" did to Argentina and the rest of South America, and were fighting against it. The rightwing hit squads take out the political opposition. Then the corporate predators and big time drug traffickers move in.