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Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
Fri Feb 24, 2012, 01:01 PM Feb 2012

Colombia wants to export military expertise

Colombia wants to export military expertise
Friday, 24 February 2012 11:48
Mary Cecelia Bittner

Colombia has grown from being a recipient of U.S. mililtary aid to an ally that is able to share its military experience and knowledge with other countries in the Americas, the country's defense minister said Friday.

"We want to contribute to the development of the capacity of other nations in the region, Central America and the Caribbean" in order to fight drug trafficking throughout the Americas, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told reporters in Washington.

Pinzon and other high government officials have been in Washington the past three days to discuss military strategy and how to strengthen Colombia's ability to assist other countries in the region with their fight's against drug trafficking and terrorism.

"We had a very interesting dialogue as equals, like those had with other nations. It was the first time we've worked at this level with the White House, Security Council, State Department, Defense Department, and Justice Department," said Pinzon.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/22411-colombia-to-increasingly-export-military-experience-to-other-countries-defense-minister.html

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Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
2. Now there's an idea! Very similar, isn't it? Wonder if they'll teach "false positive" murders. n/t
Fri Feb 24, 2012, 02:21 PM
Feb 2012

Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
3. Wikileaks Cables Reveal Killing Hits Record Levels: Slaughter in Colombia
Fri Feb 24, 2012, 05:28 PM
Feb 2012

February 23, 2012
Wikileaks Cables Reveal Killing Hits Record Levels
Slaughter in Colombia
by DANIEL KOVALIK

For years, it has been believed that Guatemala led the Hemisphere in mass slaughter in the modern era, with 200,000 victims in the 1980’s – about 94% of them at the hands of the U.S.-backed state and its death squad allies. Very sadly, it appears that Colombia has shattered that record, and, as Wikileaks reveals, the U.S. is quite aware of this.

Thus, in a November 19, 2009 U.S. Embassy Cable, entitled, “2009-2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report,” the U.S. Embassy in Bogota acknowledges, as a mere aside, the horrific truth: 257,089 registered victims of the right-wing paramilitaries. And, as Human Rights Watch just reported in its 2012 annual report on Colombia, these paramilitaries continue to work hand-in-glove with the U.S.-supported Colombian military.

Even for those of us deeply involved in Colombia, this figure is staggering. The only time I saw such a figure before was in a book (Cocaine, Death Squads, and the War on Terror) which I recently reviewed on this site, and which cites one independent journalist for the claim that around 250,000 victims have been killed by the Colombian para-state. This book further claims that this number has been artificially lowered through mass graves and Nazi-style crematoria.

It appears now that the U.S. has been quite aware of this death toll for over two years, though this knowledge has done nothing to change U.S. policy toward Colombia — which is slated to receive over $500 million in military and police aid from the U.S. in the next two years — and certainly did nothing to prevent the Obama Administration from seeking and gaining passage of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement last year.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/23/slaughter-in-colombia/

Monk06

(7,675 posts)
4. Columbia is just a US military base pretending to be a country, quack quack. They will be exporting
Sat Feb 25, 2012, 01:23 AM
Feb 2012

right wing hit squads to Uraguay and Bolivia if they aren't already.

Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
5. After the violent kidnapping of Honduras' :President "Mel" Zelaya,
Sat Feb 25, 2012, 11:29 PM
Feb 2012

the news started traveling that a vicious, brutal landowner in Honduras had brought in death squad garbage from Colombia to terrorize the campesinos whose land he had stolen. From what I gather, they're probably stil there, and the number of the farmers has, of course, dwindled, due to MURDERS.

There is absolutely nothing lower than the kind of people US-supported monsters hire to torture, dismember, gut, and slaughter in order to keep the populations paralyzed with fear, and compliant.

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