Colombian colonel, three others arrested for alleged paramilitary ties (US supported)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Colombian colonel, three others arrested for alleged paramilitary ties
The Associated Press
Published: May 7, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia: Prosecutors arrested a former army battalion commander Tuesday on charges of criminal conspiracy for allegedly colluding with right-wing death squads.

Col. Hernan Mejia, former commander of the Popa Battalion, surrendered and denied the charges.

The chief prosecutor's office also ordered the arrest of three men formerly under Mejia's command — Lt. Col. Jose Ruiz, Sgt. Aureliano Quejada and retired Sgt. Efrain Andrade.

The three were also charged with criminal conspiracy, and all but Quejada were apprehended, the office said in a communique.

Mejia, who commanded the battalion for two years beginning in January 2002, has been accused of inflating the number of rebels his troops killed by passing off paramilitaries' victims as rebels slain in army combat.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/07/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Military-Arrests.php

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Col. Hernan Mejia

[provis99]

1. colluded with right wing death squads? He worked with Karl Rove? n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bush Amigo's Para Pals

Bush Amigo's Para Pals
By Liliana Segura
This article appeared in the March 26, 2007 edition of The Nation.

March 12, 2007

~snip~
Then, on February 15, five more senior senators were arrested for paramilitary ties, including Senator Álvaro Araújo, the brother of Uribe's Foreign Minister, María Consuelo, provoking her resignation February 19. A warrant for the capture of their father, Álvaro Araújo Noguera, was issued March 2; meanwhile, former security and intelligence head Jorge Noguera, a campaign chief for Uribe in 2002, was arrested for arranging the assassination of union leaders and academics by paramilitaries.

The unraveling confirms what has long been an open secret: The Colombian government is rife with paramilitary influence. "What we are discovering here is not just a series of meetings between politicians and criminals," Senator Gustavo Petro of the leftist Polo Democrático told Congress November 30. "What we are discovering, before the eyes of all citizens, is the building of a mafioso regime in Colombia."
(snip)

Politically, Plan Colombia has benefited from the seamless merging of "war on drugs" rhetoric with that of the "war on terror." "When it comes to Colombia," Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern says, "the Bush Administration says two things: One, we're fighting terrorists, and two, we're protecting our kids from drugs. Facts don't matter. And anyone who disagrees is 'soft on terror.'"

The events of 2006 alone (labeled the "black year" by the Colombian press) make an overwhelming case for rethinking aid to Colombia. A low point came last fall, in a scandal that spoke volumes about what Uribe's US-funded "democratic security" state has wrought. After a spate of attempted--and seemingly coordinated--terrorist attacks in the weeks surrounding Uribe's re-inauguration last summer, the daily El Tiempo broke the story: Of seven bombs discovered by the military, "at least four" were planted by hired hands of the very officers who were later credited with deactivating them. This included a July 31 attack that injured nineteen soldiers and killed a civilian.

At the root of this scandal lies the military's relentless pursuit of positivos (literally, "positives"). Central to Uribe's results-oriented doctrine of seguridad democrática, positivos are the successful missions--often measured in guerrilla corpses--that yield money and professional advancement for those involved. Recently, positivos have led to some gross displays of military pageantry, like a staged "rescue" operation last summer in which six innocent "kidnappers" were murdered and then dressed as FARC guerrillas. In January Col. Hernán Mejía, one of the most decorated officers, was revealed to have collaborated with the notorious AUC leader "Jorge 40" in staging similar slaughters.

Thus far, Uribe seems strangely immune to the scandals that have riddled his tenure in office. "Many people believe so completely in what Uribe says that all he needs to do is make a public declaration and they'll go back to their routines," Bogotá-based activist Angela Cerón says. But as Uribe's allies become indistinguishable from the paras that dominate Colombia's conflict, his legacy will be inextricable from a military's whose actions last summer seem all too logical--and consistent--in a society governed by a war too profitable to end.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070326/segura

[formercia]

4. GLADIO lives in Colombia

Same gang, different country.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Colombian Troops Kill Farmers, Pass Off Bodies as Rebels' (Recent Washington Post story)

Colombian Troops Kill Farmers, Pass Off Bodies as Rebels'

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 30, 2008; A12

~snip~
Funded in part by the Bush administration, a six-year military offensive has helped the government here wrest back territory once controlled by guerrillas and kill hundreds of rebels in recent months, including two top commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

But under intense pressure from Colombian military commanders to register combat kills, the army has in recent years also increasingly been killing poor farmers and passing them off as rebels slain in combat, government officials and human rights groups say. The tactic has touched off a fierce debate in the Defense Ministry between tradition-bound generals who favor an aggressive campaign that centers on body counts and reformers who say the army needs to develop other yardsticks to measure battlefield success.

~snip~
Human rights groups see a disturbing trend, saying the tactics used by some army units are similar to those that death squads used to terrorize civilians. A top U.N. investigator said some army units went as far as to carry "kits," which included grenades and pistols that could be planted next to bodies.

"The method of killing people perceived as guerrilla collaborators is still seen as legitimate by too many members of the army," said Lisa Haugaard, director of Latin America Working Group, a Washington-based coalition of humanitarian groups.

After she interviewed a number of families of victims, she determined that in many of the cases soldiers "appeared to be going on missions, not accidentally detaining and killing people," she said.

The highest-ranking officer implicated in extrajudicial killings is Col. Hernan Mejía.

A former army sergeant who was under Mejía's command, Edwin Guzman, recounted in an interview how Mejía's unit would kill peasant farmers, dress them in combat fatigues and call in local newspaper reporters to write about the supposed combat that had taken place.

Guzman, now a government witness against Mejía, said soldiers participated because they knew the army gave incentives -- from extra pay to days off -- for amassing kills in combat. "This is because the army gives prizes for kills, not for control of territory," he said.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032901118_pf.html

[Acadia Blue]

5. We support murder for our corporate greed. Anyone who wants

a decent wage and to form a union is a "communist." Why are we hated? Its not because we own houses.