Paramilitary terror ignored and promoted by the Colombian state

venezuela / colombia | anti-fascism | non-anarchist press Wednesday August 04, 2010 04:02 by Arturo Rosales

Many Axis of Logic readers have probably heard about the guerrillas and paramilitary bands in Colombia. Drug running, murder of civilians and labor leaders, terror of the civilian population and more recently the “parapolitics” scandal are the daily bread in large swathes of Colombia.

Members of the Senate and Congress (mostly from the party of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe) were arrested for having links with paramilitary groups and cocaine smuggling. These groups, their intimidation of voters and proceeds from cocaine guaranteed the election of the para-politicans to their public offices.

The three videos which appear below, entitled “10 Years”, will give the US reader an accurate idea of modern day Colombia – especially if you are numbered among the poor in urban areas or living in the countryside.

Now you can ask yourselves what the US government is doing sending more than US$7.5 billion to what can only be classified as a “rogue state” since 2000 in the context of Plan Colombia. Is this the way drug running is addressed in the eyes of the State Department?

You can also ask yourself if even the “crimes” they allege against Hugo Chavez can be compared to the human rights horror in Colombia? Please ask yourself why such emphasis is laid on Venezuela in the corporate media when some of the worst human rights abuses are happening right next door? Why do Colombian crimes against humanity go unreported, swept under the carpet by a complicit media owned by the rich oligarchs in nearly every country of the world?

Here is a link to the National Security Archive file on outgoing President Uribe due to leave the Colombian presidency on August 7th. It was released in August 2004 and so you may also want to ask yourselves why this man has been so entrusted and loved by the US military and the State Department? There are two reasons he is not continuing with a 3rd term as president of Colombia.

Because his reputation finally became daily news throughout the world and like most U.S. puppet presidents, he lived out his usefulness to Washington. They replaced him with his mirror image, Colombia’s Defense Minister under Uribe, José Manuel Santos. As Defense Minister, Santos presided over the murders of thousands by Colombian death squads.

Because the Supreme Court in Colombia, knowing his crimes and his threats against the judiciary, denied him his demand to run for a third term.
Here in Latin America, I am certainly not alone in my desire to see Alvaro Uribe one day sharing a similar fate to that of Manuel Noriega. The US does not have allies – just interests. The US throws away spent allies as a john does with his condom after finishing with his prostitute.

The people in the United States have to a large extent been silent on the wars their government has been against people of the earth. There is no more time or space for silence. In the end, silence is complicity. "The Silent" in the United States may one day be described as "Washington's Willing Executioners". In the end, what is the value of your life? Life is too short to leave it having done nothing for peace and justice. Our own humanity compels us to call upon all our brothers and sisters in North America to stand up against the atrocities being committed by your government in Colombia and many other countries of the world.

Now watch “10 years” and imagine if you, your loved ones and friends were living in the horror of these Colombian peasants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x35p5SVXFn8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GurxzZvumn8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7704jgVKsow