Why Colombia's military has had limited success over the years

I wet myself laughing and hope you do too. Thirty-two magnificent Youtube seconds await you.

And yes, before the doubts come that's the Colombian army jungle fatigues uniform (rubber boots, short sleeves, etc).

Another classic from Uribe's model democracy

This one has the makings of big news.

Plan Colombia has the story again, about a mass grave made by the Colombian national army that contains as many as 2,000 (yes, that says two thousand) unnamed and unmarked bodies. Not some relic of the past either, as the bodies have been deposited there in the period 2005 to present day. Here's a quote from the report:

“The Army commander told us that they were guerrillas killed in combat, but the people in the region told us of a multitude of social leaders, campesinos and community human rights defenders who disappeared without a trace.”

And guess what folks? Yep...

La Macarena, the site of the grave, has been a very important site of U.S.-aided military operations since the mid-2000s. In this area, the U.S. government supported and advised the Colombian Army’s 2004-2006 “Plan Patriota” military offensive, and since 2007 has supported the “Plan for the Integral Consolidation of La Macarena” or PCIM, part of the new “Integrated Action” framework that is now guiding much U.S. assistance.

Plan Colombia and Beyond is must-read material today. Here's the link again.

Democracy and respect Peruvian style (version 2.008)

This link goes to a story published in today's edition of Peru's daily, La Republica. It tells of how locals were treated by a platoon of Peruvian soldiers on the hunt for Sendero Luminoso terrorists last month. Not in 1987, but in September 2008.

The world needs to wake up and protest these blatant abuses of human rights by the supposed good guys before they turn into the bad guys. If you don't learn from history you are condemned to repeat it, and by the looks of things the Peruvian army hasn't learned a thing from the terrors of the 1980's and 1990's. Don't they understand that if they beat crap out of the people they're supposed to be protecting they'll simply drive them into the arms of the extremists?

THIS MUST STOP NOW. Here below are the direct quotations from the Republica story, as spoken by the rural dwellers abused by soldiers from their own national army.

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Dionisio Huayanay Carbajal: "There are many displaced people. They (the Peruvian army) forced us out of our homes with death threats and burned our houses. 80% of the houses have been destroyed. We need urgent help because we're left without food or clothes."

Rómulo Jerí Quinta: "They (the Peruvian army) detained five of us. They pistol-whipped us and asked us "Where are the terrorists?" Then they made us dig a grave, and they even made us lie down and measure our own bodies to dig the correct depth of grave so that all five of us would be buried."

Nilda Sánchez Romero: "They (the Peruvian army) kept us without giving us any food, and under the threat of death if we didn't reveal othem where the terrorists were. "We don't know", we told them, and when we finally convinced them we were simple rural dwellers they let us go. Now we are refugees in Canayre."