Uribe's human rights legacy?

[Judi Lynn]

Uribe's human rights legacy?
Edward Davey

Published 19 November 2008

The slaughter of innocent civilians and trade unionists in Colombia has caused international outrage. But are things about to change?

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Colombia’s human rights record was a key point of discussion between the two US presidential candidates during the campaign, with Obama saying his opposition to the US signing a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia was due to concerns about Uribe's record.

The most telling recent human rights scandal, which has shocked the conscience of the nation, has been that of the ‘falsos positivos’, or false combatant deaths.

This macabre and widely-documented abuse involves the Armed Forces’ arbitrary, extra-judicial execution of innocent young men taken from poor urban and rural areas of Colombia.

The victims are then passed off as combatants killed in battles with left-wing guerrilla group, the FARC, and used as 'evidence' the Army is winning the war against the Marxist rebels.

Kill rates have been tied to individual soldiers' remuneration and to their promotion prospects within the armed forces.

Hence the incentive to produce ‘falsos positivos’ where FARC fighters have not been found.

Colombia’s paramilitary groups – criminal, right-wing organisations, often working in connection with the armed forces – are intricately involved in the killings too.

More:
http://www.newstatesman.com/south-america/2008/11/human-rights-uribe-colombia