Uribe's Cousin Arrested in Colombia

(With thanks to RickB at Ten Percent for his multi-MOA linked post on the same subject.)

The Colombia/terrorist state story has taken yet another disturbing twist. It has emerged that Mario Uribe Escobar, President Uribe's cousin, has been arrested due to alleged links to right-wing paramilitaries. From the BBC:

A cousin and key ally of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been arrested over alleged ties to paramilitary groups.

Mario Uribe Escobar, who stepped down as a senator last October, denies accusations of criminal conspiracy.

He went to the Costa Rican embassy in Bogota seeking asylum, but his request was turned down.

As he left the embassy, he was taken into custody and driven away in a police jeep.

Mario Uribe is one of the most prominent figures arrested over alleged paramilitary links.

A jailed former paramilitary leader, Salvatore Mancuso, has alleged that he met Mario Uribe several times and was asked by him to support his senate campaign in 2002.


This is merely the latest revelation in a long series of revelations regarding the Colombian government's links to terror (far more than any so-called terrorist state proclaimed by Bu$h). A Colombian government that the UK and the US continue to fund and arm, despite continuous human rights abuses (watch this slideshow for more). It is time for the West to cease arming this nation that is clearly a failed state in the hands of a group of terrorists who have no qualms about murdering thousands of citizens to protect their position in power. It is time that a true terrorist state was confronted for it's crimes against humanity. With the US in it's corner, what are the chances of that?

FARC Allegation Leads to Trade Union Deaths in Colombia

You may remember this story last week:

Foreign office minister Kim Howells was under fire today after making "utterly unfounded" comments which unions say have put the lives of Colombian trade unionists and human rights defenders at risk.

Labour's largest affiliated trade union, Unite, called on Gordon Brown to sack Howells unless he apologised over his claims that a trade union-backed organisation, Justice for Colombia (JFC) supported the Farc, a Marxist guerrilla group fighting a war against the government.

On Friday Howells told the Western Mail newspaper: "… Justice for Colombia … supports Farc, a band of gangsters and drug smugglers. Thirty years ago it used to be a revolutionary organisation, but now it's the biggest drugs cartel in Colombia."

However, JFC has highlighted the fact that more than 550 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia over the past six years by the army and paramilitary death squads that work with them.

JFC has also criticised the UK government for continuing to give military aid to the Colombian army, despite the killings.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said the minister's comments denouncing JFC, had put local trade unionists and human rights workers in "real danger".

The latest developments in Colombia underline quite how much damage Kim Howells has done to the trade union movement in the country. It has now been claimed that four trade unionists have been murdered as a result of the Colombian government making accusations about supposed links to the FARC. The following is taken from a press release by Human Rights First:

Four Colombian trade unionists--some of whom were reportedly associated with a March 6 demonstration protesting state and paramilitary human rights violations--were killed between March 4 and March 11. Members of human rights organizations have been subject to physical attacks, harassment, office break-ins and thefts of files in the past weeks. Over two dozen organizations and individuals received death threats purporting to come from paramilitary groups in the capital, Bogota.

Shortly before the attacks, presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria made a series of statements on national radio linking renowned victims’ representative Ivan Cepeda and other organizers of the March 6 protest to the notoriously abusive guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On February 11, one day after Gaviria first made the statements, the supposedly demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group released a statement echoing Gaviria's allegations.

The attempts by the Colombian government to link protestors to the FARC has ultimately led to their deaths. One can only wonder how many others will die as a direct result of Howells' ill-founded accusations. I will be writing to him to press this point and, in the unlikely events that I will receive a reply, I will post it here.

Mark Malloch Brown - The Colombian Connection

With the arrival of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, there was much talk about the appointments he made and whether they indicated shift from the his neo-conservative predecessor. As usual, much nonsense was spun out that this government was going to be different, this government was going to be a government of 'all the talents' a more representative style of government. While there has been a slight shift in the choice of language (no more 'war on terror' thankfully), upon examining the detail, the truth is very much different.

Melanie Phillips, the representative of the far-right, has been quick to present the appointment of Mark Malloch Brown as causing 'dismay in Washington DC'. She also claims that he played a vital role in the oil-for-food scandal, the removal of Wolfowitz and portrays him as an opponent of the Iraq war. The combination of these factors allow Phillips to portray Malloch Brown as anti-American, corrupt and disreputable. This, of course, would lead to some on the right to suspect that Malloch Brown is therefore closely associated with the left. However, there is more to Malloch Brown than Phillips would have you believe, and it certainly seems unlikely that the US is really concerned about his appointment.

During the late 1980s, Malloch Brown was on the payroll of Washington's Sawyer Miller political consultancy group. The Sawyer Miller group were actively involved in the political situation in Colombia during the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. Their role? They were instructed to present the Colombian government in a positive light. Central to this was addressing the concerns that the government was linked to paramilitaries. The director of Sawyer Miller declared that:

"the main mission is to educate the American media about Colombia, get good coverage, and nurture contacts with journalists, columnists, and think tanks. The message is that there are ‘bad’ and ‘good’ people in Colombia and that the government is the good guy."

Their appointment was made when the Colombian government was at its lowest standing with the American people. Opinion polls at the end of the 1980s found that 76% of all Americans thought Colombia was corrupt and further 80% wanted sanctions imposed. Sawyer Miller (and Malloch Brown) were given the task of presenting the Colombian government in a more positive light. They certainly seemed to profit from their task. The group earned nearly a million dollars in fees and expenses in the first half of 1991 alone.

The main role of the group, who had signed up former Reagan administration Ed Rollins and PR star John Scanlon on as partners, was to pressure journalists into spinning for the government. They distributed pamphlets, sent letters to editors signed by government officials and placed full-page advertisements in The New York Times and The Washington Post. All American journalists were required to go through Sawyer Miller before they could interview government officials. According to one reporter, Sawyer Miller declined a request for an interview with President Gaviria because the network also wanted to interview former U.S. drug czar Bob Martinez, who had criticized the Colombian government. The reporter claimed:

"Sawyer/Miller did not want to give the perception that the Colombian government and the U.S. had differences."

Producers even claimed that Sawyer Miller tried to change the content of the programme.

Sawyer Miller also attempted to pressurise editors who were unsympathetic to Colombia's ties with drug barons. Sawyer Miller reuqested a meeting with the editor of the Miami Herald when it described the Colombian government as a 'weakling'. According to the editor:

"They were sharp and even followed up the meeting with a couple of phone calls. Yes, we did tone down our criticisms, but it was mainly because the president explained that he was following public opinion in Colombia."

Sawyer Miller has also played a key role in skewing the 'war on terror' in Colombia. As a result of PR activities conducted by the group, FARC is considered the 'most dangerous international terrorist group based in the Western Hemisphere'. However, this is mainly due to the work of Sawyer Miller and the Colombian military who, according to the US ambassador to Colombia in 1996, 'considered it a way to obtain U.S. assistance in the counterinsurgency'. And this assistance has continued to this very day. Colombia continues to be on of the largest recipients of American military aid in the world.

Colombia's links to narcotics and right-wing paramilitaries are well documented (click on the Colombia label below), Sawyer Miller's role was to cover this up and present Colombia as a country free from corruption. Sawyer Miller helped to convince the American public that Colombia wasn't the corrupt country that they had been led to believe, and that there were no such links to narcotics. The recent revelations over Uribe's administration have given lie to that and yet, such was the effectiveness of this PR campaign, Uribe maintains a level of popularity far in excess of most corrupt administrations. The fact that Malloch Brown played such a key role in producing propaganda for the Colombian government, much to the delight of Washington, truly gives lie to the claim that Gordon Brown has shifted the government to a more humane position in global politics. There are still those at the heart of government that are eager to do the bidding of the United States around the world. Melanie Phillips can sleep easy.

Colombia: One of the world’s most dangerous places for trade unionists

3 July 2007

A sham paramilitary demobilization process, combined with thousands of cases of threats and killings and a chronic lack of investigations and prosecutions, makes Colombia one of the most dangerous places in the world for trade unionists, according to a new report released today.

Amnesty International’s report, Killings, arbitrary detentions, and death threats -- the reality of trade unionism in Colombia,highlights a pattern of systematic attacks against trade unionists involved in labour disputes and in campaigns against privatization and in favour of workers’ rights in some areas where extractive industries operate.

Colombia’s National Trade Union School documented 2,245 killings, 3,400 threats and 138 forced disappearances of trade unionists between January 1991 and December 2006. Despite their supposed demobilization, army-backed paramilitaries and the security forces are thought to be behind most attacks. Guerrilla groups have also been responsible for such killings.

“Trade unionists across Colombia are being sent a clear message: Don’t complain about your labour conditions or campaign to protect your rights because you will be silenced, at any cost,” said Susan Lee, Amnesty International’s Americas Programme Director.

“By failing to adequately protect trade unionists, the Colombian authorities are sending a message that abuses against them can continue, while companies operating in Colombia risk being held accountable for human rights abuses for which, through their conduct, they may bear responsibility.”

The report includes the cases of human rights abuses against trade unionists -- and their relatives -- working in Colombia’s health, education, public services, agricultural, mining, oil, gas, energy and food sectors.

Amnesty International is calling on companies working in Colombia to use their influence with the Colombian government to end and prevent human rights abuses against trade unionists.

“This report is a wake-up call for any multinational company operating in an environment in which human rights are systematically violated. Inaction is no longer an option,” said Susan Lee.

Successive Colombian governments have implemented policies to improve the safety of trade unionists, including a programme that allocates armed escorts, bullet-proof vehicles and telephones to some threatened trade unionists.

“While such measures are welcome, attacks against trade unionists will continue unless effective measures are taken to end the impunity enjoyed by those killing and threatening them.”

Amnesty International’s report also highlights the Tripartite Agreement signed by the Colombian government, Colombian business representatives and Colombia’s trade union confederations in June 2006, under the auspices of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The agreement provides for the establishment of a permanent presence of the ILO in Colombia to monitor the application of freedom of association rights in the country and progress in efforts to advance investigations into the killing of trade unionists.

“The International Labour Organization (ILO) agreement is a key opportunity to tackle the human rights crisis facing trade unionists. It is now imperative that the Colombian authorities, multinational and Colombian companies, and the international labour movement work together with the office of the ILO in Bogotá to ensure investigations into all cases of threats and attacks against trade unionists and their relatives.”

For a list of some of the case studies included in Amnesty International's report, please see:

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230162007

A copy of Amnesty International's report Killings, arbitrary detentions, and death threats -- the reality of trade unionism in Colombia will be available from 3 July on:

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230012007

You may repost this message onto other sources provided the main text is not altered in any way and both the header crediting Amnesty International and this footer remain intact. Only the list subscription message may be removed.

*******************************

Past and current Amnesty news services can be found at http://www.amnesty.org/news. Visit http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maagWOoabzElAcksvcKe/ for information about Amnesty International and for other AI publications. Contact amnestyis@amnesty.org if you need to get in touch with the International Secretariat of Amnesty International.

Privacy policy: http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maagWOoabzElEcksvcKe/

More Evidence of Uribe's Links to Paramilitaries?

The scandal rumbles on. From the Miami Herald:

A lawyer for a U.S. labor union has asked the State Department to investigate the infiltration by Colombia's illegal paramilitaries into President Alvaro Uribe's first electoral campaign, based on a video showing then-candidate Uribe meeting with a group that included a man identified as a paramilitary leader.

The video, a copy of which was obtained by El Nuevo Herald, does not indicate that Uribe was aware one of the men at the meeting was a paramilitary leader. It appears to be a campaign event, and the dozen or so other participants identify themselves as civic leaders from the city of Barrancabermeja.

From the images and the date that appears on the video, the meeting was held Oct. 31, 2001, during a campaign stop by Uribe in Puerto Berrío, near Barrancabermeja.

The paramilitary man at the meeting was identified by human-rights activists from Barrancabermeja as Frenio Sánchez Carreño, second in command of a unit of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the paramilitaries' umbrella group. The man identified as Sánchez does not speak on the video.

Sánchez was arrested less than two months after the meeting in an operation announced at a news conference by Colombia's version of the FBI, the Administrative Security Directorate. Then-agency Director Germán Jaramillo said Sánchez, also known as Comandante Esteban, was wanted on charges his unit had murdered some 80 people in the previous two years.

Time to call an end to the corrupt regime that governs Colombia, the links with various paramilitary leaders is becoming all too apparent. However, it is not only elected officials that are tainted by links to terrorists, big business also stands accused of links to terrorism:

Relatives of 22 Colombians killed by militants in their country's banana-growing region claim in a lawsuit that Chiquita Brands International and Chiquita Fresh North America financed terrorist groups that killed innocent civilians.

Attorneys for the relatives filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale. They claim Chiquita's payments to guerrilla groups between 1997 and 2004 helped fuel the region's volatile guerrilla warfare and led to the 22 deaths. The victims are mostly banana workers and include an 8-year-old child. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

So, when is the 'war on terror' due to hit Colombia, the worlds leading terrorist state?

More Evidence Of Colombian Government's Ties to Paramilitaries

From the Houston Chronicle:

ITAGUI, COLOMBIA — As the razor-wired gates slid open, an armored SUV escorted by police sharpshooters on motorcycles roared out of the prison yard.

The motorcade is part of the morning routine at this mountainside penitentiary. One by one, jailed leaders of Colombia's paramilitary death squads are whisked off to court to confess their crimes.

Their testimony has confirmed what many have suspected all along: that the cream of Colombian society — senators, business leaders, army generals — promoted and financed the paramilitaries, who committed hundreds of massacres during their 20-year dirty war against Marxist guerrillas and became major cocaine traffickers in the process. More revelations about the links between the outlawed gunmen and the country's elite are expected in the coming weeks.

"Do you think an irregular force of 17,000 fighters armed to the teeth could move throughout the country without anybody knowing? Without anybody collaborating?" paramilitary leader Ivan Duque asked in a jailhouse interview.

"That's why I call this a country of hypocrisies," he said, "a society of lies."

The most damaging allegations were leveled last week by Salvatore Mancuso, the commander-in-chief of the now-demobilized paramilitary army, during three days of testimony that shook the government of President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration's closest ally in Latin America.

Mancuso accused small-town mayors, big-time congress members and Uribe's vice president and defense minister of collaborating with the gunmen.

He described active-duty police officers piloting paramilitary helicopters packed with cocaine. He said businesses ranging from Colombia's state-run oil company to U.S. banana exporters regularly paid the paramilitaries for protection from the guerrillas.

What's more, Mancuso laid much of the blame for the outlawed militias' expansion at the Colombian government's feet.

America's Weapon of Choice?

In Noam Chomsky's latest work, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy, he argues that America is beginning to resemble a failed state. He argues that as the state begins to regard itself as beyond domestic or international law and unable to protect its citizens from violence, it no longer operates as a state. I would argue that not only is America a 'failed state' it is also a terrorist state, a state that has succeeded in the proliferation of terrorism across the globe, a state whose so-called 'War on Terror' diverts the attention of the masses whilst it focuses on it's own 'War of Terror'. These tactics by the US, ensure that any substantive war against terrorism will never be won whilst the standard bearer is the prime sponsor. There is perhaps no finer example of the American government's support for terrorism than in it's continued financial support of Uribe's government in Colombia.

Since 2000, the US government has spent over $4.7 billion in Colombia, ostensibly to support the fight against drugs and the insurgency. Plan Colombia was originally proposed by former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana Arango to end the ongoing armed conflict that was crippling the region. Much of the funds were channelled into the fumigation of coca fields, which have had an adverse affect on the local population. This programme of financial aid has also led to the strengthening of the right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia, with many groups supporting the Plan Colombia initiative. The atrocities committed by the paramilitaries are well documented (see 'Colombia' label), there have been various union officials murdered or 'disappeared' throughout the country over the past five years. The Colombian government has, however, done little to combat the activities of the paramilitary groups. In fact, government forces have often failed to deal with the paramilitaries, even when it is clear that violations are being committed.

Furthermore, it would appear that it is more than just failing to challenge the paramilitaries on their activities. It has become obvious that many paramilitary groups are particularly close to the government in Colombia. The current political scandal in Colombia has led to many resignations and arrests. At the heart of the scandal has been the family of the former Foreign Minister. So far, the father of the former Foreign Minister has been arrested and her brother has been jailed as a consequence of their links to paramilitary organisations. The former director of the secret police (and Uribe's former campaign manager) was also charged with murder and collaborating with right-wing militias. And now, prosecuters have filed electoral fraud charges against Trino Luna, the governor of the influential coastal state of Magdalena. Luna was the only candidate in the 2003 Magdalena gubernatorial election and prosecutors suspect him of colluding with paramilitaries to intimidate any would-be opponents.

There is no doubt that terrorist organisations have infiltrated the very heart of the Colombian government. As that is clearly the case, there seems little doubt the likelihood that a large proportion of the money from Plan Colombia is making it's way to the terrorists. American and, to a lesser extent, UK tax payers are essentially funding the terrorist activities of the paramilitary groups in Colombia. While talking the talk on fighting terrorism, our brave leaders are also funding the terrorist activities of right-wing military groups in Colombia that have been involved in the deaths of over 4,000 trade unionists in the last 15 years. That's the equivalent to TWO September 11th attacks on Colombia. And we have contributed towards this death toll through our taxes. How hollow does the 'War on Terror' sound now? Now that it is clear that the Colombian government is dominated by terrorists and terrorist sympathisers. It sure doesn't sound like we are waging a war on terror, it sounds to me like we are giving material support to terrorists. But our support for terrorism doesn't end there.

Not content with giving succour to terrorists in South America, the American government has also taken upon itself to support terrorism in the Middle East. You would think they had learnt the lessons of September 11th, but it appears not. As was reported at the end of February, the US government is trying to encourage the seeds of discontent in Iran in an effort to destabilise the country and halt their nuclear ambitions. CIA officials have been helping opposition militias in the border regions of Iran. These groups are known to use terrorist tactics to further their goals in the country. According to The Daily Telegraph:

In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and government officials.

Such incidents have been carried out by the Kurds in the west, the Azeris in the north-west, the Ahwazi Arabs in the south-west, and the Baluchis in the south-east. Non-Persians make up nearly 40 per cent of Iran's 69 million population, with around 16 million Azeris, seven million Kurds, five million Ahwazis and one million Baluchis. Most Baluchis live over the border in Pakistan.

This is, of course, part of the fall-out from the invasions of Iraq and South Lebanon by the US and her proxy. Iran has been undeniably strengthened by these foolish acts, and now the US wants to re-assert it's authority on the region. If that means supporting terrorism, so be it. Despite the fact that any attack would play right into the hands of al-Qaeda (an enemy of both the US and Iran), the US government is still keen to fund these terrorist organisations in an effort to destabilise the Iranian regime.

Behind the facade of the 'War on Terror', it is clear that terrorism is still the American government's weapon of choice. The arrest of eight pro-Uribe congressman accused of collaborating with right-wing paramilitaries clearly suggests that the right-wing paramilitaries have infiltrated the very highest echelons of the Colombian political system. Effectively, the US and UK governments are guilty of financing the terrorist organisations through the military aid given to Uribe's corrupt regime. Until the Colombian government is purged of all paramilitary elements, financial aid should no longer be provided. If one makes a stand on fighting terrorism, one must take a stand on all terrorist organisations, not just the ones that oppose your world view. The decision to provide material support for terrorists in Iran simply underlines the double standard at the heart of the US government. Has the 'War on Terror' ever sounded so specious?

Colombia Clean

To mark the second anniversary of the massacre of 8 people in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, the American branch of Amnesty International has developed this cartoon in conjunction with political cartoonist Mark Fiore. The community continues to face threats by right-wing paramilitaries (right-wing paramilitaries that have infiltrated the highest levels of government), and Amnesty are calling on the government to ensure their safety and to dismantle the paramilitaries immediately.

Add your support by visiting the website and following the instructions.