Colombian state to apologize for senator's assassination

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Colombian state to apologize for senator's assassination
Monday, 08 August 2011 09:41
Natalie Dalton

The Colombian government will publicly acknowledge Tuesday their responsibility for the assassination of Union Patriotica Senator Manuel Cepeda, announced his son, Representative Ivan Cepeda

Cepeda was a Union Patriotica congressman who was shot to death August 9, 1994 in southeast Bogota. Seventeen years after the crime, the Colombian government will acknowledge their responsibility for the assassination of the politician, and ask for a pardon for the murder before Cepeda's family.

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights found the Colombian State responsible for both the action and ommission of the crime on behalf of their employees involved. The assassination of Cepeda occured in the context of politically generated violence against members of the Union Patriotica Party (UP).

Union Patriotica was formed by FARC guerrillas and the Colombian Communist Party as a diplomatic arm of their movement in 1985. By the late 1990s, the UP was obsolete with an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 of its members murdered. Most of these murders were never prosecuted.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18164-colombian-state-to-beg-pardon-for-senator-vargas-assassination.html

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http://lialdia.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Manuel_Cepeda.jpg

Father, Senator Manuel Cepeda.

http://ivancepeda.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/12/ivan-cepeda-portada-cambio.jpg

Son, Congressman Ivan Cepeda.

[dtexdem]

1. The UP was "obsolete" -- looks like planned obsolescence to me.

I would say that the UP was crushed by a campaign of assassination.