Colombian president's kin said to have lead death squads

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian president's kin said to have lead death squads
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 24, 2010

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe will leave office in August having largely succeeded in winning control of once-lawless swaths of countryside from Marxist rebels, an accomplishment partly made possible by more than $6 billion in U.S. aid.

But Uribe's government has also been tarnished by scandals, including accusations in congressional hearings that death squads hatched murder plots at his ranch in the 1980s and revelations that the secret police under his control spied on political opponents and helped kill leftist activists.

Now a former police major, Juan Carlos Meneses, has alleged that Uribe's younger brother, Santiago Uribe, led a fearsome paramilitary group in the 1990s in this northern town that killed petty thieves, guerrilla sympathizers and suspected subversives. In an interview with The Washington Post, Meneses said the group's hit men trained at La Carolina, where the Uribe family ran an agro-business in the early 1990s.

The revelations threaten to renew a criminal investigation against Santiago Uribe and raise new questions about the president's past in a region where private militias funded with drug-trafficking proceeds and supported by cattlemen wreaked havoc in the 1990s. The disclosures could prove uncomfortable to the United States, which has long seen Uribe as a trusted caretaker of American money in the fight against armed groups and the cocaine trade.

"This is what we have been hoping for -- that something like this could come out, and we could show what these paramilitary groups were," said Maria Eugenia Lopez, who said five of her relatives were killed by paramilitaries based in Yarumal in 1990.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052303821.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Located 1photo of Santiago Uribe Velez, death squad connected "kid brother" of President Uribe.

http://toros.rcn.com.co.nyud.net:8090/fotos/Santiago-Uribe-AA.jpg

Santiago Uribe Velez.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu.nyud.net:8090/~eklun20s/classweb/bush-colombia-cp-161514.jpg http://www.radiomundial.com.ve.nyud.net:8090/yvke/files/img_noticia/t_uribe_bush_131.jpg

http://www.axisoflogic.com.nyud.net:8090/artman/uploads/bush-uribe.jpg

President Uribe and friend

http://www.bnamericas.com.nyud.net:8090/ten/images/alvaroUribe.gif http://pal2pal.com.nyud.net:8090/BLOGEE/images/uploads/uribe+palin.jpg

[rabs]

2. Video of Meneses implicating Santiago and Alvaro Uribe

Video was shot in Buenos Aires. Very damning for the uribes, because he says Santiago talked with alvaro and how they arranged to have charges dropped against Meneses. Some of the police and others who were aware of the Santiago Uribe's "12 Apostles" paramilitaries were assassinated, which is why Meneses fled to Venezuela.

Spanish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSNZW7dibCw&feature=player_embedded

[Judi Lynn]

3. Wow. Juan Carlos Meneses is going to have to keep a very low profile for the next few years.

Can't imagine where he could hide that they won't find him!

I read about another witness to Alvaro Uribe's participation in planning a massacre on his property, who went underground in a witness protection program or something and fled all the way to some remote place in Canada, had a new name, a totally different lifestyle, unlisted phone number, etc., etc., etc., and the paras STILL found him and started making threats to him by phone and he begged the Canadian government next to give him protection.

There were articles written about this a few years ago.

This man seems completely credible, his words fairly flew from his mouth, and he certainly didn't seem to be lying at all to me. Was that your impression? I didn't follow too much of what he said. He would have needed to speak far more slowly, like my old Spanish teachers, and without slurring any of his words!

He looks slick, glib, acts tough, and I'll bet he's telling the complete truth.

I love the accents of the male and female news readers in Argentina! Very cool!

It was interesting seeing them show the pages of the story in the Washington Post which comes out Monday.

[rabs]

7. Meneses is under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

So it would be a disaster for the uribistas if they were to try to kill him at this point.

You saw that the interview was in Buenos Aires and that he escaped to Venezuela (with the aid of Father Javier Giraldo, another target of the uribistas).

(edit for typo)

[Judi Lynn]

5. Washington Post:Q & A with Juan Carlos Meneses, retired major in Colombia's National Police

Q & A with Juan Carlos Meneses, retired major in Colombia's National Police
Monday, May 24, 2010

Juan Carlos Meneses, 42, a retired major in Colombia's National Police, has decided to speak out about how he collaborated with a paramilitary group in the small northern town of Yarumal. The group, he now says, was organized and led by Santiago Uribe, President Álvaro Uribe's brother.

The allegations could revive an investigation that prosecutors had shelved against Santiago Uribe in the 1990s. Meneses's public allegations about the inner workings of Yarumal's 12 Apostles paramilitary gang are the most extensive ever offered by an officer of Colombia's security services, which have long been linked to the illegal militias that spread terror until a government-run demobilization ended in 2006. Fearing he would be killed for knowing too much, Meneses fled the country and went public with his story, first to a group of respected Argentine human rights activists. He spoke to The Washington Post's Juan Forero on May 12.

Q: Why did paramilitary groups form in Yarumal?

A: "The guerrilla scourge was what was happening at that time, because the guerrillas had taken over the zone, carrying out kidnappings, extorting the ranchers and farmers."

Q: You've said Santiago Uribe led those paramilitaries. What did he do?

A: "Santiago's role was to lead a group of cattlemen. He organized them to put together a group to protect themselves against guerrilla actions. So his role is to call them and say, 'We're going to start up a self-defense group.' "

Q: Had you ever seen this kind of group before your arrival in Yarumal in early 1994?

A: "You already saw a certain resistance of cattlemen, among those people who had money. Still, I was a bit surprised to see what was happening because I had not seen it anywhere else where I had been as a sublieutenant and lieutenant -- to see people of a certain importance and reputation, hacienda owners and cattlemen, uniting like this."

Q: What was the role of Álvaro Uribe, a rising politician and senator with an eye on national office, as all this was going on in Yarumal?

A: "What I knew about Álvaro is what Santiago told me. In that time, he said to me, 'Don't worry, lieutenant. My brother, Álvaro, knows all about this."

Q: When authorities began to investigate you and another police commander for paramilitary crimes, did the Uribe family intercede on your behalf?

A: "We went to an office Santiago had on the 13th or 14th floor of the Coffee Building, which is near Berrio Park in Medellin. He received us, and my captain and I tell him, 'Look, they're investigating the 12 Apostles -- we need you to help.' And he said, 'Don't you worry because Álvaro has very good friends in the attorney general's office, he has very good friends in politics in Bogota, and we're going to try to see that the case is shelved.' "

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052400080.html

[Peace Patriot]

6. The Washington Pest prints nothing that is not vetted, if not dictated, by the CIA.

So the question is, why is the CIA jettisoning Uribe? The CIA suddenly getting a conscience? Among the possibilities, that would rank with BP execs putting on sack cloth and ashes, begging the world's forgiveness and giving all their profits to the poor. So, what IS going on? My working theory is that Uribe (and his appointed successor, Manuel Santos) are SO dirty that they cannot be sold to the labor Democrats in Congress to ram the U.S./Colombia "free trade for the rich" agreement through--Hillary Clinton's most heartfelt desire, in her service to our corporate masters. This particular "free trade for the rich" agreement is VERY IMPORTANT to them all. It is the linchpin for the U.S. re-asserting domination of Latin America, along with the U.S. military occupation of the Central America/Caribbean region including Colombia and Venezuela's oil coast and northern oil provinces (which contain the biggest oil reserves on earth). This is the "circle the wagons" area within which the U.S. will not tolerate any uppitiness (as we noticed with the rightwing coup in Honduras). Also, the Pentagon and its war profiteers must be near on hysterical by now for sources of oil to fuel their great war machine and very likely have a war plan, probably involving the Colombian military as a proxy force and local fascist secessionists in Venezuela (rather like South Vietnam) to take Venezuela's oil. They may also feel--what with the internet and all (which we didn't have in the 1960s)--that Uribe and Santos (like the various puppets the CIA installed in South Vietnam) are just too dirty for anybody to swallow the notion of them as "freedom fighters." To sum up, our corporate rulers need a cosmetic change in Colombia, for these various purposes--Colombian slave labor for the corporations, corporate ravaging of Colombia's resources and lands, launching pad for the next oil war.

The Pest beats up on whoever they are told to beat up on. Thus, while they completely ignore the horrors committed by our own major criminals--Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (including some pointers to Bush Junta-connected crimes in Colombia)--they are now beating up on Uribe, the dumped U.S. operative in Latin America. It's quite interesting what the Bushwhack ambassador to Colombia, Wm Brownfield, got out of Uribe before he was dumped--a signed document giving total diplomatic immunity to all U.S. soldiers and all U.S. 'contractors' in Colombia (the military agreement that includes U.S. military use of SEVEN bases in Colombia and all civilian infrastructure). We need to know what THAT is about (immunity). Past crimes? Future crimes? Whose crimes? I have my suspicions about the La Macarena massacre (yet to be covered by the Pest or ANY corpo-fascist 'news' outlet)--up to 2,000 bodies in a mass grave of recent vintage (2005-2009) nearby to a U.S. military base. ('Turkey shoot' training for Afghanistan?) But I expect it all to be swept into the "river of forgetfulness" in the "new Colombia."

My suspicions and guesses are based on past and recent history and do not include miracles--such as Colombia suddenly becoming democratic, cleansing itself of the big drug cartels, protecting and helping the poor majority, asserting its sovereignty (refusing to be a pawn in U.S. war/corporate games), electing a REAL representative of the people, and so on. I do not deny that miracles can happen--although it is not really a miracle when someone like Evo Morales or Hugo Chavez gets elected; it is the result of long hard work by many people on election reforms and grass roots organizing. This COULD happen in Colombia--but it will take a lot of time. Maybe Mockus is the beginning of it, even if he is CIA vetted. (Colombians certainly need a period where they don't get shot for their political views, in order to build civic structures--and Mockus, interestingly, is known for just that--his work on creating a civilian culture of respect for other people and for the law, in Bogota.) But given the cauldron of corruption that the U.S. 'war on drugs' has created in Colombia, and U.S. war profiteer/corporate interests in the country, that is a tall order.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Timeline of Colombia's Modern Paramilitary Movement

Timeline of Colombia's Modern Paramilitary Movement
Monday, May 24, 2010

1981: The first modern paramilitary group is formed by some of Colombia's top cocaine kingpins: Death to Kidnappers, created to execute kidnappers who had targeted the relatives of drug traffickers.

1982: In the central Magdalena River valley, landowners, politicians, military officers and drug traffickers form a group that carries out massacres and assassinations, targeting not just suspected guerrillas but also opposition politicians, prosecutors and innocent civilians.

1990: The Union Patriotica party, a political arm of FARC guerrillas, is largely wiped out after years of attacks by paramilitaries, losing hundreds of politicians, including presidential candidates, to hit men.

1994: Congress approves creation of the CONVIVIR, self-defense groups strongly supported by the governor of Antioquia, Álvaro Uribe. Investigators later determine that many of the groups morphed into paramilitary groups led by notorious death squad commanders.

1997: The Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC in Spanish, is formed. The loose coalition of paramilitary groups would grow exponentially, spreading terror across the country.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052400079.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. Colombian President Uribe: Accusations against my brother are 'outrageous'

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 | 02:31 ET
An investigation is under way
Colombian President Uribe: Accusations against my brother are 'outrageous'

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe classified as "outrageous" the accusations made against his brother Santiago Uribe, who is said to be allegedly linked to paramilitaries. An investigation is currently under way to find out if said claims were generated by drug traffickers.

The leader remembered that his brother was exonerated by the judiciary after an investigation for alleged links with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the largest Colombian paramilitary group that progressively demobilized between 2003 and 2006.

"This outrageous accusation was resolved a long time ago by the judiciary (...) the truth is that one is surprised to see how drug terrorists that hate this government have the capacity to penetrate society without being censored," the leader said.

In the same sense, Defence Minister Gabriel Silva assured that Venezuela is carrying out "operations to discredit" the Colombian Head of State, in reference to the claim against Santiago Uribe.

"I think Venezuela has actively carried out discrediting intelligence operations against President Uribe that include ex DAS officials (Colombian secret service) and many others," Silva told a local radio station.

In this way, Silva referred to a claim made in Buenos Aires city by the retired police major Juan Carlos Meneses, who before human rights advocates, led by Nobel Peace Prize Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, said that Santiago Uribe led an illegal armed group.

More:
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/34493

[rabs]

9. alvarito's little brother responds to The Washington Post

-- all is "false"
-- charges were dismissed a long time ago.
-- "no journalistic rigor"
-- "false and vile accuations"
-- "lying former police officer"
-- "coincides with presidential election"
-- it was the naughty narco-traffickers Comba brothers
-- it is a VENEZUELAN PLOT ...

-------------------------------------



Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's brother, Santiago Uribe, sent a letter to The Washington Post, stating that allegations that he led a paramilitary group, reported by the U.S. publication, are false, Caracol Radio reports.

In the letter, Santigao Uribe states that the "false accusations of allegedly leading a paramilitary group that you are trying to revive against me, were archived by the Prosecutor General of the nation of Colombia following the dismissal of two investigations on May 8, 1996 and February 29, 2000, respectively."

"I emphatically reject the article published by the The Washington Post... in which - without balance of journalistic rigor, the testimony of a lying former police officer was used ... and it is a suspicious that this attempt to dig up false and vile old accusations against me and my family, coincides with the presidential elections in our country," the letter continues.

"These allegations, whose purpose is to stain the my honor and that of my family, have been scrutinized and repeatedly refuted, both by Colombian justice and during Congress debates," the letter says.

The Washington Post reported Sunday allegations by former Major Juan Carlos Meneses that Santiago Uribe led a paramilitary death squad in the early 1990s.

Retired Colombian Colonel Pedro Manuel Benavides alleged Tuesday that Meneses bought him a plane ticket to Bogota, where the colonel met with the drug trafficking Comba brothers, who offered him $250,000 to sully the Uribes' name.

Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office said later Tuesday that it will investigate Benavides' allegations of a plot to implicate Santiago Uribe in dealings with Antioquian paramilitaries.

According to Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva, the allegations against Santiago Uribe are part of a Venezuelan plot to undermine Colombia's government.

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Washington Post article which quotes allegations that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe'syounger brother led the "12 Apostles" death squad resulted in renewed controversy about the Uribe family's links with paramilitaries.

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Think Juan Forero should be VERY careful in Bogota from now on.


Washington Post Foreign Service| Juan Forero is based in Bogota, Colombia, for The Washington Post and is responsible for covering Colombia and Venezuela. Before joining The Post in September 2006, he was the Bogota bureau chief for the New York Times, covering the Andean region for six years. A native of Bogota, he has also been a staff writer at the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., Newsday, the San Diego Union-Tribune and other papers. In addition to the Andes, he has also roamed Mexico, Cuba and the Caribbean in search of stories.

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(Edit to add cartoon.)