Colombia's False Positives: Two cases down, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight to go

The banner reads "False Positives are State Crimes" and we agree

IKN applauds today's decision by a court in Medellín, Colombia, to ratify the 30 year sentences handed down to 10 Colombian soldiers convicted of so-called "false positives" murders in 2005. The case in question was about two young Colombian men, Arley de Jesús Vallejo Cardona and John Fredy García Cardona, who were arrested by the soldiers while selling food on the streets of Medellín on 2005 and turned up dead the next day. The soldiers had murdered the boys in cold blood, then dressed them up as FARC terrorists and claimed they had been killed in battle (normal M.O for the false positives cases), and all because the Army units (whose ministerial head at the time was the current presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos) had to meet quotas of dead FARC terrorists to get bonuses and more time off.

The abhorrent practices of false positives are every bit as bad as the disgusting behaviour of the FARC scum, but if it hadn't been for persistent protests from human rights group (yeah, them meddling kids and their pesky dawg) along with the judicial independence in Colombia, the Uribe government would have managed to keep the whole thing quiet and off the current agenda. How much better it is to know before another of the Uribe lying scumballs gets elected!

Meanwhile, rights groups that made issue of the deaths of Arley de Jesús Vallejo Cardona and John Fredy García Cardona say that theirs are only two of around two thousand cases of false positives identified in the country (yeah...two thousand!) the vast majority of which have been left uninvestigated, hushed-up and ignored.

It's going to be fun to see just how high up any investigation runs under a Mockus presidency, isn't it?

Sickening news from Colombia

While myopic gimme-da-munneh-and-screw-the-consequences capitalists promo Colombia as some kind of democratic, forward-thinking paradise, the real rotten core of the country is plain to see for anyone who bothers to look. This from Plan Colombia and Beyond:

It is with revulsion that we learn of a Colombian court’s decision yesterday to release 17 Colombian Army personnel for the 2008 Soacha murder case.

The officers and soldiers were awaiting trial for conspiring to kidnap and kill unemployed young men in a slum on Bogotá’s outskirts, only to present their bodies hundreds of miles away as those of armed-group members killed in combat. By raising their “body count” through this unconscionable scheme, the soldiers qualified for a schedule of rewards, as established by Defense Ministry orders. This so-called “False Positives” scandal now involves hundreds of cases since 2002 under official investigation all over Colombia, with over 1,000 potential victims.

Because of its high-profile nature — it forced the resignation of Army chief Gen. Mario Montoya — the Soacha case is a key test of whether Colombia would be able to investigate and punish these crimes.

Colombia is failing that test. Yesterday, 17 alleged perpetrators were released because continues here

Frank Holmes would have been promoting 70s Chile in the same tones, for sure. Disgusting.

"only" four victims

Cool threads, Residente

In an amazing breakthrough for world democracy, Colombia's Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP) reports that there have "only" been four deaths due to false positives in Colombia this year.

Yes that's right, folks. Whoop and cheer, because in 2009 only four innocent people were kidnapped by the country's armed forces, murdered in cold blood and then dressed as FARC terrorists by the state servants to make them look like victims of battles...so that the country's soldiers could reach their quota set by Uribe and company and get extra time off.

Your author's meek question: How can any number above zero be cause for celebration on something as jawdroppingly disgusting?

Here's an English language report on the issues, thanks to Colombia Reports.

Plan Colombia and Beyond

A photo from Soacha, Colombia. The army claimed these bodies were FARC soldiers.
They were later shown to be "false positives".

The blog Plan 'Colombia and Beyond' does such a great, great job covering its subject that it's difficult to praise it highly enough. For example, check out today's post that reports on the recent UN investigation into Colombia and its "false positives" scandal, where the army rounded up innocents, shipped them to the jungle, murdered them, dressed them up as FARC soldiers and pretended they were downed in battle.....all for the sake of gaining extra days of leave.

Here's the link to this outstanding 'Plan Colombia' post. Use it today and often, cos it'll open your eyes as to what's going on in the country. Remember, this is the same Colombia that Canadian dumbasses at two-bit ratings agency DBRS think is worthy of the 'investment grade' rating. Who gives a crap about human rights anyway? Just give us your money....right?

Colombia: Great piece of straight reporting from Australia

Go to this link and watch the video report from Australia's ABC channel and watch a really solid, well made report on today's Colombia by Eric Campbell. He does an excellent job of giving both sides of the story and pulls no punches against both the FARC and the government. It's 25 minutes long, so before you hit "play video" make yourself a coffee and find a comfy chair, but do it anyway. This isn't a soundbite special, this is real journalism.

To labour the point, this is great reporting be in no doubt. So good to see a bit of straight talk on Colombia via an English-speaking medium. Here's the link again.

Hat tip to reader 'MB' for the headsup.

And while we're on the subject of large-scale state abuse

Borev got the story, ten percent got the story but it's still getting full airtime here and not just a link.

Ask Chileans, ask Argentines, ask Peruvians. They'll all tell you that you can't cover up large scale, state run human rights abuses, state terrorism, extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and all their cohorts forever. Sooner or later the word begins to get out. So add this communique from a working party of UK members of parliament and US/Canada/UK trade unionss to the 1,000 army personnel being investigated for 'false positives' and the 22,000 (yes, twenty-two thousand) cases of disappeared. And unlike their partners in torture and crime, these British MPs don't mince words and directly imply Alvaro Uribe.

All in the name of freedom and democracy.......as usual.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PRESS STATEMENT: JUSTICE FOR COLOMBIA DELEGATION

We are a delegation of British Parliamentarians and British, American and Canadian trade unionists, and have spent seven days here in Colombia gathering information on human and labour rights abuses. We have met a wide range of individuals and groups across Colombian society, covering civil, political, legal and military interests, including trade unions, students and teachers, indigenous peoples, peasant farmers, trade union lawyers, human rights defenders, and former FARC hostages. We have travelled to Arauca province to hear the testimonials of communities and individuals caught up in the conflict in that part of the country. We visited Buon Pastor prison in Bogota and spoke to the women political prisoners incarcerated there; we also met with Martin Sandoval, imprisoned unjustly in Arauca. We had the opportunity in speaking also with senior members of Alvaro Uribe's government and the President himself. We are grateful to all those individuals and groups who have generously given us their time.

We are shocked at what we have heard, and have no doubts on the evidence given that the Colombian government of Alvaro Uribe, and the security forces, are complicit in human rights crimes. We are convinced also that the murderous activities of the paramilitary forces are condoned and actively supported by the government and army. These crimes are aggravated by the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and the failure of the legal system to prosecute the criminals and those who issue the orders.

Instead of imprisoning the real criminals, the Government has locked up trade unionists, members of the political opposition and human rights defenders like Martin Sandoval. We call for his immediate release and that of other political prisoners and trade unionists.

On our return to the United Kingdom and North America we will be calling for:

an immediate end to all military aid and support to the Colombian Government; no Free Trade Agreements until human and labour rights are respected in an internationally verifiable way; the public exposure of multinational companies, such as for their complicity in human and labour rights violations in Colombia; an immediate end to the criminalisation of legitimate and democratic opposition, including Senator Piedad Cordoba, Senator Gloria Ramirez, Congressman Wilson Borja and Dr. Carlos Lozano and others; support for dialogue, a peace process and a humanitarian exchange; An end to extrajudicial executions and 'false positives' carried out by the Colombian army. A full account of our findings and recommendations will be published in the near future. Signatures Appended, Wednesday, 8 April 2009 List of Delegates Ian Davidson MP: Member of Parliament for Glasgow; David Drever: President of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS); Simon Dubbins: Director of International Relations of Unite the Union and member of the Executive of the European TUC; Sam Gurney: International Policy Officer for the TUC and member of the ILO Governing Body Sally Hunt: General Secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), also a member of the Justice for Colombia National Committee and of both the TUC Executive and TUC General Council where she is spokesperson on international relations; Peter Kilfoyle MP: Member of Parliament for Liverpool, former Government Minister; Adam Lee: International Officer of the United Steelworkers (USW); Andy Love MP: Member of Parliament for Edmonton, Parliamentary Private Secretary; James McGovern MP: Member of Parliament for Dundee; John O'Neill: Partner at Thompsons Solicitors; Sandra Osborne MP: Member of Parliament for Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock, Member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Stephanie Peacock: Member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee; Frederick Redmond: International Vice President of the United Steelworkers (USW) and a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council; Mark Rowlinson: Legal Officer of the United Steelworkers (USW); Mick Shaw: President of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU); James Sheridan MP: Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire North; Tony Woodhouse: Chair of the National Executive Committee of Unite the Union.

Lessons in human rights, Colombian style

Proposed design of the new school gates

Style one: Aida Quilcue is the head of the Colombian indigenous movement that recently organized the national protest march known as the 'minga'. For her own protection she travels in a 4x4 SUV with polarized glass windows. Today she wasn't traveling in her car, but her husband Edwin Legarda was. Here's what happened according to AP:

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Soldiers at a rural roadblock on Tuesday shot and killed the husband of an indigenous leader who has organized anti-government marches.

Edwin Legarda, 34, was driving a Toyota SUV at about 4 a.m. near an indigenous reserve in western Colombia when the soldiers opened fire. One of four other people in the vehicle was lightly wounded, said Vicente Otero, a spokesman for the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council.

Legarda died at the San Jose Hospital in nearby yadayada continues here

And hey! Guess what? Justice is bound to be meted out on the Colombian national soldiers who thought they'd liquidated one of their government's strongest opposition leaders becasue the army has opened "an internal enquiry" over the matter.


Style Two: This could only happen in Colombia and is so bizarre it's difficult to capture the essence of the weirdness involved. The country is actually opening a "School for Human Rights" that will be run by....wait.....roll on the drums.....The Colombian National Armed Forces. Yep, the same guys who use that cool "false positives" concept of murdering innocent civilians to get their FARC bodycount up high enough for extra weekend leave are opening a school to teach the rest of Latin America about Human Rights! It's like getting Josef Stalin to stand up for the rights of Soviet intellectuals, or inviting the Mansons to babysit for a few hours.

Colombia is trying to justify this unfunny joke by saying it has just completed the "deepest purge in its military history" and my how deep they went! They managed to lose a full twenty-seven soldiers from their ranks due to iffy human rights records. So we are supposed to assume that the 89,973 military types left in Colombia's armed forces have never committed any one of the thousands of recorded cases of extrajudicial killings ...it was those naughty 27 who needed their bottoms spanking.

Now that Colombia's army is whistle-clean it can teach the rest of the region all about how to be caring on the battlefield. Or in its own words, it will be "the leading body in military doctrine for the hemisphere".

I fear the worst.