Colombia solidarity activists harassed

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia solidarity activists harassed
19 February 2010

In recent months, there had been unprecedented harassment and persecution of solidarity activists internationally who have shown support to the political struggles of the Colombian people.

This international campaign began soon after the March 2008 murder of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) leader Raul Reyes and the illegal seizure of information from a “magic laptop” that somehow did not get destroyed after heavy bombing.

Law specialists, including INTERPOL, have questioned the legitimacy of such a source of information.

In any case, that information has been used for interrogating academics, journalists, human rights advocates, unionists and solidarity activists, in an attempt to simplistically link social consciousness, political activism or solidarity with “terrorist activity”.

Colombian intellectuals have been jailed. On August 2008, film-maker and human rights defender Liliany Obando (who toured Australia on two occasions) was detained but is yet to be tried.

On May 2009, Professor Miguel Angel Beltran was illegally extradited from Mexico to Colombia, accused of being a “FARC intellectual” because of his criticism of the Colombian government.

These cases add to the more than 7500 political prisoners languishing in Colombian prisons.

Outside Colombia, several human rights advocates and solidarity activists have been interrogated or harassed. In Spain on July 2008, pacifist activist Maria Remedios Garcia was temporarily jailed in Spain for alleged links to the rebel organisation, and houses of Colombian activists in Switzerland were raided.

To date, the Colombian government has failed to provide evidence of such connections.

During 2008 and 2009, solidarity activists in Chile, Mexico and Peru were harassed with their pictures constantly appearing in the national media without any incriminatory evidence.

In January, American writer and Colombia solidarity activist James Jordan was escorted out of a plane and questioned by US Homeland Security officials about his solidarity work with Colombia.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/827/42529

[Peace Patriot]

1. The U.S. has a lot to hide in Colombia. Otherwise this wouldn't be happening.

Colombia's fascist rulers don't have the clout to harass solidarity activists in Chile, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S. They can kill, unjustly imprison and terrorize union, community, human rights and leftist political activists in their own fiefdom, Colombia, with impunity (and lots and lots of U.S. military aid). And they might get away with it in Peru--a U.S. client state run by highly corrupt "free tradists" (who open fired from a helicopter gunship on Indigenous protestors who were trying to protect the Amazon from further rapine). But it would take U.S. power and bullying to activate Interpol to harass solidarity activists outside of Colombia and Peru (and within the U.S.).

I think the Obama administration may be covering up a huge scandal regarding U.S., U.K. and possibly other militaries' (Israel's?) involvement not only killing Colombians, in Colombia's 40+ civil war, but in mass murdering tens of thousands of political activists who oppose the horrible Uribe government, and/or who are merely doing humanitarian, community or labor organizing work.

Harassing people who might know things about U.S. crimes is one symptom of guilt. It could just be part of the usual CIA/Pentagon propaganda war (i.e., painting the U.S. as virtuous, which has tortured thousands and slaughtered hundreds of thousands, to steal oil, and painting the FARC--native Colombians who have taken up arms against their truly horrible government--as "terrorists"). We're used to this crap from congenital liars in Washington DC. But I'm beginning to think there's more to it.

This mass grave--with up to 2,000 bodies of local 'disappeareds'--just discovered in La Macarena, Colombia, an area of particular interest and activity by the U.S. military, and which we have heard not one word about in the corpo-fascist press (except for a Tribune magazine article in the U.K., pointing to possible U.K. military involvement)--has greatly raised my suspicions of massive Bush Junta criminal activity in Colombia. The dates on the graves (which have dates but no names)--2005 through 2009, at least--point to the possibility of U.S. involvement in Colombian military/death squad murders under Obama as well. What I suspect has been going on, with this particular crime, was/is 'turkey shoot' practice for Afghanistan, i.e., the 'training' of ('hardening' of) special ops troops as to killing civilians and terrorizing ("pacifying") areas of opposition to U.S. imposed rule.

Now re-consider this harassment of solidarity activists--that is, solidarity with leftists in Colombia who are being massively slaughtered. Why would the U.S./Interpol go after activists who oppose the military/death squads in Colombia, when the U.S. itself ostensibly opposes the death squads? And, indeed, why would the U.S./Interpol even go after activists who sympathize with the FARC and want a peaceful end to Colombia's civil war? Isn't that the best policy? Isn't that what the U.S. wants--or says it wants--peace in Colombia? Why go after a few activists here and there who oppose death squads and corrupt, fascist government, or who sympathize with the FARC and consider them to be domestic rebels with a just cause (not "terrorists")?

And then consider this furtive signing of the U.S./Colombia military agreement, by the Bush-appointed ambassador to Colombia (still in place), Wm. Brownfield, which the perps (the U.S. and Colombia) have defended as merely formal confirmation of existing arrangements--one of which is full diplomatic immunity for all U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors' in Colombia. Did the Bushwhacks forget to get that signed off on by Colombia? I think the agreement is the prep for a war. But it may also be an effort to legally cover the asses of U.S. personnel who have committed crimes, with a retroactive signed agreement that bars Colombian prosecutors and courts from going after U.S. personnel.

And there is something even worse than U.S. covert support for, and/or participation in, ridding Colombia of the political opposition, by means of mass murder, and that is U.S. plans for further mayhem in South America, using this old conflict in Colombia as the springboard. And that's where Reyes comes in--and the U.S./Colombian bombing/raid that killed him (and 24 other sleeping people) in March 2008. Reyes was trying to arrange for the release of FARC hostages in a bid for peace in Colombia's long civil war. Many world leaders were involved--France, Switzerland, Spain, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and others, as well as various humanitarian groups--trying to bring about an end to this conflict. The Bushwhacks deliberately and violently ended that peace effort (and almost started a war with Ecuador/Venezuela, then and there).

The Obama administration is already complicit in Bushwhack activity in Latin America--in at least two respects: the coup in Honduras, and the U.S. military occupation of Colombia. They are on board for the SouthCom (Pentagon) plan for "full spectrum" U.S. military capabilities throughout Latin America. They are also likely continuing USAID funding to rightwing groups all over Latin America, as well as covert funding and ops. (And they have clearly pressured El Salvador's new leftist government, and also possibly Guatemala's, on the issue of ALBA.) And--given also their protection of Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld, et al, on other war crimes--it would not be a surprise to find them covering up horrid crimes in Colombia instigated by the Bush Junta. And it remains a question whether or not the Obama administration has authorized further crimes in Colombia.

So, look at this harassment again. It fits. Those who are being harassed are people who would likely have information or access to information about U.S. crimes in Colombia.

---------------------

The La Macarena massacre (includes a description of, and links to docs about, U.S. ops in La Macarena)
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1303

The UK military connection
http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/02/04/silence-on-british-army-link-to-colombian-mass-grave/