Paramilitaries kill in Colombia and drag bodies to Venezuela - Semana/Spanish

[Derechos]

'Paras' asesinan en Colombia y arrojan cuerpos en Venezuela

Conflicto Hoy

Se trata de hombres y mujeres que retienen en Cúcuta y varios municipios vecinos que son declarados objetivos militares por grupos paramilitares. Hasta el momento no se tienen cifras concretas sobre las víctimas. Informe especial de Juan Diego Restrepo E.

En diversas zonas rurales del estado Táchira se han encontrado osamentas de presuntas víctimas de paramilitares colombianos.

"Eso es una cueva de paramilitares”, dice el taxista minutos antes de llegar al corregimiento Juan Frío, municipio de Villa del Rosario, en Norte de Santander. Atemorizado, cruza a mediana velocidad por la única vía pavimentada que tiene el sector, donde predominan restaurantes de todo tipo que ofrecen un pescado conocido como cachama, la especialidad del lugar. Varios kilómetros después, el vehículo da la vuelta y sale del caserío. “Aquí el ambiente es muy pesado”.

El temor del conductor no es infundado. Dada su ubicación de frontera con el estado Táchira, Venezuela, en Juan Frío los paramilitares pusieron en práctica desde el 2000 un macabro plan para atentar contra aquellos que son considerados objetivos militares: los retienen del lado colombiano, los asesinan y los cuerpos son arrojados al otro lado de la frontera para evitar que sean recuperados. La Fundación Progresar, una organización no gubernamental de Cúcuta que impulsa una investigación al respecto, describe este fenómeno como desapariciones transfronterizas.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-conflicto-armado/paras-asesinan-colombia-arrojan-cuerpos-venezuela/137854.aspx

[Judi Lynn]

1. Derechos, you have provided such an important bit of information.

This is something many of us will NEVER forget. This is a major story.

Here's the part you posted from one of Colombia's major newspapers, google translated:

'Paras' murder in Colombia and Venezuela show bodies

VERDADABIERTA.COMThese are men and women of Cúcuta and several neighboring municipalities, which are declared military targets by paramilitary groups. So far no concrete figures are available about the victims.
Wednesday April 21, 2010

'Paras' murder in Colombia and Venezuela show bodies

Conflict Today
These are men and women who hold in Cucuta and several neighboring municipalities, which are declared military targets by paramilitary groups. So far no concrete figures are available about the victims. Special Report E. Restrepo Juan Diego

"That's a den of paramilitaries," says the driver minutes before reaching the township Juan Frío, municipality of Villa del Rosario, Norte de Santander. Frightened, crosses at medium speed for the sole paved road that has the sector, dominated all kinds of restaurants that offer a fish called tambaqui, the specialty of the place. Several miles later, the vehicle turns and leaves the village. "Here the atmosphere is very heavy."

The fear of the driver is not unfounded. Given its location bordering the state of Tachira, Venezuela, Juan Cold paramilitaries implemented since 2000 a macabre plot to attack those who are considered military targets: the hold on the Colombian side, they are murdered and their bodies are thrown into across the border to prevent them from being recovered. Progress Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that promotes Cúcuta an inquiry, describes this phenomenon as border disappearance.

Here's more, using google translation, of the article from Colombia's Semana you have provided:

~ snip ~
Unofficially, it was estimated that during this decade more than 200 people, including peasants, smugglers, social leaders, merchants and even mentally ill, have been detained by paramilitary groups that offend in Norte de Santander, Cúcuta and particularly in neighboring municipalities, which are then killed and their bodies dumped in various vacant lots of Tachira. Today, the families of these victims are found in several dead ends.

The Cold Juan corregimiento this decade became not only a stronghold of Front Border, Urban commando who was part of the collective demobilization Block Catatumbo United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) occurred on December 10, 2004 and led by the paramilitary leader Salvatore MancusoBut in a key area for groups of paramilitary groups that emerged after the abandonment of weapons of this illegal structure.

One of the "dumps" frequented by the paramilitary to throw the bodies is the Llano de Jorge, a site just across the township Juan Frío, only separated by Tachira. There they found several bones in recent months. But it is not unique. It is believed that there are at least five specific points between 450 km border Norte de Santander has with the states of Zulia and Tachira.

Much of these places have been traveled by relatives of victims who, in an attempt to recover their relatives, they risk to get them through the waters of the tributary, in its banks and into the brush.

One of them is Mary *. His brother was held in Juan Frío by a paramilitary group in July last year. To date, no one knows where he is. "We went several places, we went for several trails in the bush, to see if we could find something but nothing. We looked where he pimps (vultures) and followed them but nothing. Only we find several dead animals. "

For several weeks, this woman walked by several border areas looking for her brother, but to no avail. "In one of those outings, a girl on a farm we are prevented from entering, in another, the police forced us to return because we lived there warned that the paramilitaries."

In one of the last search, Mary found the skeleton of a woman who still had her skirt. "I was so scared that I returned." But he had to suspend their trips because it started getting calls from men who warned him to stop looking for her brother. "If he did, would suffer the same fate as him," she says.

His travels from one side of the border and took her to know three rural properties, known as San Francisco, Las Margaritas and the fire, which apparently remain paramilitary groups, who murder their victims there. "Here in Villa del Rosario nobody speaks on the subject, there is much fear, especially because the police do not cooperate."

http://www.semana.com/noticias-conflicto-armado/paras-asesinan-colombia-arrojan-cuerpos-venezuela/137854.aspx

DU'ers Who Have Not Used For the google translating option, please take the link to this address:
http://translate.google.com/ #

and paste it Into the box to get the entire article translated well enough to get the idea of What has Happened. There is much more to the article you will want to read.

~~~~~
Derechos, I hope as many as possible DU'ers will see this material.

Thank you, so much.

On edit, from the article:
http://www.verdadabierta.com.nyud.net:8090/images/conflictoquesigue/riofrio300.jpg

In many rural areas of Tachira have found skeletons of victims of alleged Colombian paramilitaries.

http://www.southamericainc.com.nyud.net:8090/img/venezuela_colombia_region.gif

Map showing where Tachira, Venezuela is located.

[troubledamerican]

5. Thanks for the extra work. This is a very distubing story. The "un-recs" reveal much about DU.

[Judi Lynn]

9. These unrecs DO tell us there's small cluster of winger vultures watching us all the time

who have decided all that matters is winning, not morals, not respect, not honor, NOTHING but power for the right-wing interests.

By acting like themselves they create a daily image of themselves which tells you who and what they are. That image is nothing to write home about unless your "homies" are a bunch of grifters and idiots, my apologies to grifters and idiots!

http://www.lesliebyrne.org.nyud.net:8090/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/teabaggers.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

2. Have looked for more on this, but your find from the Colombian source

is the only thing available at this time. I'll bet there's every chance our corporate "news" won't carry at all!

Here's an article which discusses another even some DU'ers know about and might want to see, concerning the very same area, only last year. Once again, our own corporate media didn't mention one word of it:

Parts of Colombia-Venezuela border closed after checkpoint attack
November 3, 8:21 AM

Two cross-border bridges that connect Colombia and Venezuela were closed last night after masked gunmen attacked a border checkpoint yesterday.

The attack happened at 2:45 pm at The Palotal checkpoint, between the border municipalities of Ureña, Colombia and San Antonio, Venezuela. A Venezuelan guard reported that four masked men on motorcycles arrived at the checkpoint and shot at the guards, killing two.

The guards returned fire, and a shootout ensued. The attackers—thought to be Colombian paramilitary members—fled soon after, and Venezuelan authorities immediately initiated an operation to attempt their capture."
Venezuelan authorities attributed the attack to retaliation for the capture last Friday of 10 suspected paramilitaries in San Antonio.

According to Colombian daily El Tiempo, the Simón Bolívar bridge, which joins Villa del Rosario in San Antonio del Táchira, and Francisco de Paula Santander bridge, which connects Cúcuta with Ureña, were closed around 8:30 pm.

More:
http://www.examiner.com/x-17196-South-America-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Parts-of-ColombiaVenezuela-border-closed-after-checkpoint-attack

[Judi Lynn]

8. Sorry, wrong post. Corrected it in response to troubledamerican. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Kicking!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[EFerrari]

4. Just when you think they can't be any more brutal, they are.

Has anyone heard if the Colombian paras are still "working" in Honduras?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Haven't heard a word. I'll bet they are. Hope they start turning on the landowners there,

just as they have in Colombia, when the spirit moves them.

"If you don't want to sell us your ranch for $5.00, we'll just discuss it later with your widow."

[Judi Lynn]

7. Here's something I just stumbled across from last October. on these Colombian paras in Honduras:

Posted: October 10, 2009 06:24 PM
Colombian Free Trade: Exporting Death Squads to Honduras

A breaking story -- covered in the Colombian press for about two weeks but just now being picked up by English-language news sources, including CNN -- reports that 40 members of Colombian death squads, responsible for the execution of thousands, have been recruited by Honduran plantation owners to protect their interests. In addition to the Colombian mercenaries, 120 paramilitaries from other Latin American countries "have been contracted to support the government of Roberto Micheletti," who organized the overthrow of Honduras' democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28.

Since then, Micheletti and his business backers have hired US lobbyists and public-relations firms, including lawyer and confidant of Hillary Clinton, Lanny Davis, to make the case to Washington that Zelaya's ouster was a democratic transfer of power.

Yet Honduras' rising body count, along with the reappearance of death squads - responsible in the 1980s for the murder and disappearances of tens of thousands of Central Americans - makes Davis's efforts increasingly difficult.

Micheletti himself may be directly involved in the importation of Colombian mercenaries. According to Bertha Oliva, the president of the respected and besieged Honduran human-rights organization, Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, the infamous "Billy" Joya - who in the 1980s was himself a member of the Honduran death squad, Battalion 316, and now is working as Micheletti's security adviser - traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, in early September to arrange the deal which brought the mercenaries to Honduras.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-grandin/colombian-free-trade-expo_b_316485.html

I'm SURE they're still there. They probably have so many Hondurans to kill, still, before they're finished.