Mass graves containing 150 remains discovered in northwestern Colombia .

[Judi Lynn]

Mass graves containing 150 remains discovered in northwestern Colombia .
Wednesday, 13 June 2012 07:34 Christan Leonard

Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office announced Tuesday it has located mass graves belonging to the AUC, formerly the country's largest paramilitary group, containing at least 150 remains.

A committee of the Justice and Peace Unit of the Attorney General's Office discovered the graves in the municipalities of Unguia, Choco and Necocli, Antioquia with the assistance of demobilized AUC leaders Elmer Cardenas and Freddy Rendon Herrera, alias 'El Aleman.'

According to Herrera, the victims were killed between 1995 and 1997 and various groups within the AUC were responsible including the House of Castaño, the Arlex Hurtado front, the Banana Bloc, the Elmer Cardenas Bloc and a group known as Los Guelengues.

The search for remains continues and officials believe there may be more graves near the site in Unguia.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/24553-mass-graves-containing-150-remains-discovered-in-northwestern-colombia.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Glad to see we have a trade agreement with

mass murderers.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Nothing but the best! Here's more I just found in a search:

Slaughter in Colombia: Wikileaks Cables Reveal Killing Hits Record Levels
Thursday 23 February 2012, by Dan Kovalic - Counterpunch

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.alborada.net/kovalik-colombia-slaughter-0212