Reply With Quote
Cops go HAM on protesters in Cali, ex President Alvaro Uribe is said to have given the order to shoot.
(Btw, the updated unmber of "false positives" under Alvaro Uribe is 6,402, but Colombia is a US ally, so we're gonna let that slide.)
The Bodies of the Innocent
By DANIEL KOVALIK
The biggest human rights scandal in years is developing in Colombia, though you wouldn’t notice it from the total lack of media coverage here. A mass grave – one of a number suspected by human rights groups in Colombia – was discovered by accident last year just outside a Colombian Army base in La Macarena, a rural municipality located in the Department of Meta just south of Bogota. The grave was discovered when children drank from a nearby stream and started to become seriously ill. These illnesses were traced to runoff from what was discovered to be a mass grave – a grave marked only with small flags showing the dates (between 2002 and 2009) on which the bodies were buried.
According to a February 10, 2010 letter issued by Alexandra Valencia Molina, Director of the regional office of Colombia’s own Procuraduria General de la Nacion – a government agency tasked to investigate government corruption – approximately 2,000 bodies are buried in this grave. The Colombian Army has admitted responsibility for the grave, claiming to have killed and buried alleged guerillas there. However, the bodies in the grave have yet to be identified. Instead, against all protocol for handling the remains of anyone killed by the military, especially the bodies of guerillas, the bodies contained in the mass grave were buried there secretly without the requisite process of having the Colombian government certify that the deceased were indeed the armed combatants the Army claims.
And, given the current “false positive” scandal which has enveloped the government of President Alvaro Uribe and his Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, who is now running to succeed Uribe as President, the Colombian Army’s claim about the mass grave is especially suspect. This scandal revolves around the Colombian military, recently under the direction of Juan Manuel Santos, knowingly murdering civilians in cold blood and then dressing them up to look like armed guerillas in order to justify more aid from the United States. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pilay, this practice has been so “systematic and widespread” as to amount to a “crime against humanity.”
To date, not factoring in the mass grave, it has been confirmed by Colombian government sources that there have been 2,000 civilians falling victim to the “false positive” scheme since President Uribe took office in 2002. If, as suspected by Colombian human rights groups, such as the “Comision de Derechos Humanos del Bajo Ariari” and the “Colectivo Orlando Fals Borda,” the mass grave in La Macarena contains 2,000 more civilian victims of this scheme, then this would bring the total of those victimized by the “false positive” scandal to at least 4,000 --much worse than originally believed.
That this grave was discovered just outside a Colombian military base overseen by U.S. military advisers -- the U.S. having around 600 military advisers in that country -- is especially troubling, and raises serious questions about the U.S.’s own conduct in that country. In addition, this calls into even greater question the propriety of President Obama’s agreement with President Alvaro Uribe last summer pursuant to which the U.S. will have access to 7 military bases in that country.
The Colombian government and military are scrambling to contain this most recent scandal, and possibly through violence. Thus, on March 15, 2010, Jhonny Hurtado, a former union leader and President of the Human Rights Committee of La Cantina, and an individual who was key in revealing the truth about this mass grave, was assassinated as soldiers from Colombia’s 7th Mobile Brigade patrolled the area. Just prior to his murder, Jhonny Hurtado told a delegation of British MPs visiting Colombia that he believed the mass grave at La Macarena contained the bodies of innocent people who had been “disappeared.”
Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights lawyer working in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Cops go HAM on protesters in Cali, ex President Alvaro Uribe is said to have given the order to shoot.
(Btw, the updated unmber of "false positives" under Alvaro Uribe is 6,402, but Colombia is a US ally, so we're gonna let that slide.)
Uribe will be giving a talk on "sustainable democracy"
I have said my country is a US Puppet and our death squads are trained and financed by USA. USA is a cancer for South America. Wish south american re s would realize. They wont
"let's just shoot poor people"
Trump thinks thus guy got railroaded
https://colombiareports.com/colombia...final-stretch/The trial against Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe entered its final stretch on Tuesday when the prosecution began its closing statement.
Over the past months, the prosecution presented more than 40 witnesses, dozens of wiretap recordings and do ents to prove that Uribe bribed witnesses to fabricate criminal charges against those investigating his alleged ties to paramilitary groups.
Prosecutor Marlene Orjuela said last week that she needed no more than two days to make her closing statement before the Bogota court.
The alleged victims of Uribe’s fraud and bribery practices and the Inspector General’s Office said they would need one day each.
The former president and his defense attorney will be given as much time as the prosecution and the alleged victims to convince the judge of the Uribe’s innocence.
After this, judge Sandra Heredia will decide whether or to convict the former president, a decision that is expected to be appealed by either side.
Based on the testimonies and do entary evidence that has been exposed, the prosecutor will likely claim that Uribe led a criminal conspiracy that sought to manipulate witnesses, and smear politicians and prosecution officials with the testimonies of bribed witnesses.
The main targets of this alleged conspiracy were Senator Ivan Cepeda, Justice Minister Eduardo Montealegre and two former members of paramilitary organization AUC who testified that Uribe and his brother helped found the Bloque Metro death squad in the 1990’s.
Since 2018, when the Supreme Court began a preliminary investigation into the alleged conspiracy, 14 of the former president’s witnesses have been indicted for allegedly giving false testimony before the court.
Chitquita funded death squads
https://colombiareports.com/chiquita...ars-in-prison/The former executives were responsible for Chiquita’s contributions totaling $1.7 million to paramilitary organization AUC between 1995 and 2004, said the Prosecutor General’s Office in a press statement.
Convicted Chiquita bosses
- Reinaldo Elias Escobar
Former judicial adviser to Chiquita Brands in Colombia- John Paul Olivo
Comptroller of Chiquita Brands’ North America, who was the comptroller of Chiquita subsidiary Banadex between 1996 and 2001- Alvaro Acevedo
Former Banadex CEO- Charles Dennis Keiser
Chiquita’s operations chief in Colombia between 1987 and 2000- Jose Luis Valverde
Banadex’s legal representative between 2000 and 2002- Victor Julio Buitrago
Banadex’s security chief between 1999 and 2004- Fuad Alberto Giacoman
Chiquita Brands’ comptroller between 2002 and 2004
The contributions that led to the convictions were made in the northwestern Uraba region. The US corporation allegedly also financed paramilitary groups in the coastal town of Santa Marta.
Following meetings with AUC commanders, the Chiquita bosses agreed to contribute 3% of their exports to seven of the paramilitaries’ front companies in the Antioquia province.
The AUC used the corporate contributions to finance the illegal purchase of 3,000 AK-47 rifles that allowed the paramilitaries to expand their activities to other parts of Colombia.
The criminal proceedings in Colombia kicked off after Chiquita Brands plead guilty to terrorism sponsoring in the United States and paid a $27 million fine.
The evidence that led to the American plea bargain was used by prosecutors in the city of Medellin to seek justice for the thousands of victims of the AUC groups sponsored by the banana corporation.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions