Colombia's V-P dismisses rights criticism as left-wing bias (Bush Ally)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Canwest News Service

Colombia's V-P dismisses rights criticism as left-wing bias
Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, May 09, 2008

OTTAWA - Colombia's vice-president shot back Friday at critics of his country's attempt to forge free trade deals with Canada and the U.S., accusing them of a left-wing bias that has distorted legitimate progress on human rights.

In an interview with Canwest News Service, Francisco Santos admitted his country still faces a tough battle against corruption and drug lords, but said it is not afraid to deal openly with the ghosts of decades of violence in the interest of moving forward.

Santos said left-leaning, anti-trade, anti-globalization forces, aligned with the radical left in his own country, are following a rigid agenda that is not giving proper credit to progress in Colombia.

The argument is flawed because if there's something that works, it's engagement. If there's a country that has been open to engagement and scrutiny, it's Colombia," said Santos, a former journalist who was kidnapped by rebel paramilitaries in 1990 and had to flee the country a decade later because of death threats.



Read more: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=505299ae-0779-47f3-83b3-bd1fa278696e

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Francisco Santos is the one pouting on the left
of the Three Graces, including Álvaro Uribe,
center, and Defense Secretary, Juan Manuel Santos.
The two Santos are cousins.

Note on Defense Sec. Juan Manuel Santos:
Santos is part of one of the most traditional families in Colombia. His granfather's brother Eduardo Santos was President of Colombia from 1938 to 1942 and owner and Director of the newspaper El Tiempo. His father Enrique Santos has been editor of this newspaper for at least 50 years. His cousin Francisco Santos is President Alvaro Uribe's Vice President.

http://www.mundoandino.com/Colombia/Juan-Manuel-Santos

(Would this tell you how much truthfulness you can expect from Colombia's most powerful newspaper, El Tiempo?)

[Peace Patriot]

1. Priceless photo! Thanks! LOL! nt

[Judi Lynn]

6. They look as if they truly believe they own the joint, don't they? Ugly people. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

2. "...not afraid to deal openly with the ghosts of decades of violence...

...in the interest of moving forward."

Huh?

These evil "Scrooges" getting haunted, you think? Ghosts of hacked up union leaders and children with slit throats wafting into their bedrooms at night?

This double-talk is maybe because they're not sleeping well?

Who ya gonna call?...

BUSH BUSTERS!

[struggle4progress]

3. May 08: Threatened journalist relinquishes government-sponsored body guards engaging in ..

.. in intelligence activities against her

... (FLIP/IFEX) - Claudia Julieta Duque, freelance journalist and a member of the human rights organisation Equipo Nizkor, has relinquished the protection scheme granted her by the national government, due to constant mismanagement of its operation and the fact that her government-provided bodyguards' behaviour exacerbated her sense of vulnerability.

She took the decision after being made aware of internal reports her bodyguards had made to the Department for Administrative Security (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS), reporting on her activities and making false accusations against her. In addition to this, there has also been a series of gaps and inadequacies in the protection afforded her, which Duque had reported which she was still under the protection scheme.

Duque began being covered by protection measures organised by the Ministry of the Interior in December 2003. She had been the target of repeated threats and had been followed by unidentified individuals since 2001, following her investigation of the 1999 murder of journalist Jaime Garzón, which she conducted together with the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective, a prominent human rights group.

After beginning that investigation, she received telephone calls and messages threatening to kill her if she continued investigating Garzón's murder. As well, she noticed that strangers were circling her home and keeping under surveillance the places that she and her young daughter frequented. These incidents obliged her to go into exile several times. Ever since then, including recently, she has repeatedly been followed in a suspicious manner, threatened and the target of other intimidating actions, which she has brought to the attention of both the authorities and FLIP. She believes that state agents are behind these incidents. Her denunciations have not resulted in any improvement in her security situation ...

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/133/

[Judi Lynn]

5. Oh, my God. Ms. Duque made the right decision. Can you IMAGINE letting body guards assigned you by

Uribe get anywhere close to you, EVER? He's pure death on human rights activists, and journalists who don't kowtow to his administration.

Hope she has the ability to afford adequate security for herself. Most journalists the Colombian government hates simply leave the country if they don't get murdered first.

Thanks for bringing this into view. I'd like to find out more about what she's been doing as soon as I get some time.

[struggle4progress]

4. May 08: Forced displacement in Cimitarra Valley--a military objective?

Deadly threats to the security of campesinos living in the Cimitarra Valley continue. They believe the very entities responsible for their safety and protection are promoting rather than preventing their forced displacement in an effort to expropriate their farms and territory

The untenable situation of the hamlets of San Pedro in south Bolivar –Paraíso, Alto Cañabraval, and surrounding communities—illustrates these threats. Local residents and community leaders described to a visiting human rights commission Colombian military operations in which community members were assassinated and then presented as guerrillas who died in combat. They said demobilized guerrilla and paramilitary informers pointed out their community leaders, whom the Colombian authorities subsequently accused of treason and arrested (See http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2007/10/72859.php). Currently six are in jail, and fourteen more have arrest warrants against them.

The residents told of how the Colombian authorities sprayed with poison crops that the local people had had planted as an alternative to coca ...

http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/05/07/colombia-forced-displacement-cimitarra-valley-military-objective

[arcos]

7. What's with Latin American right wingers and sun glasses?

Efraín Ríos Montt


Augusto Pinochet

http://www.dw-world.de/image/0,,935490_4,00.jpg
Jorge Videla

[Judi Lynn]

8. Here's another one: Rafael Trujillo, Dominican Republic!

Rafael Trujillo



Bonus dictator with shades: Spain's right-wing Francisco Franco, honorary Latin American. He's got the look.