was a close friend of drug mega-trafficker Pablo Escobar:

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991

Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"



Confidential DIA Report Had Uribe Alongside Pablo Escobar, Narco-Assassins

Uribe "Worked for the Medellín Cartel" and was a "Close Personal Friend of Pablo Escobar"

More:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm

[center]~~~~~[/center]
Álvaro Uribe, Lord of the Shadows... and of Los Pinos
If Mexican President Calderón Wants to Wage War on Drug Traffickers, Why is He Following the Lead of a Colombian President So Linked to Narco-Corruption?

By Luis Hernández Navarro
La Jornada
March 24, 2008

Colombia’s Virginia Vallejo is a peculiar woman. Born in 1949, blessed with remarkable beauty, she has been a television host, model, actress and reporter. In July of 2006, a DEA airplane took her from her native country to testify in the United States in the trial of the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers. She was also a key witness in the murder of a presidential candidate, and in the Palace of Justice massacre.

Distinguished more for her love life than for her professional qualifications, Virginia was a true diva. Courted by men of power and money, in 1982 she fell deeply in love with another singular celebrity: drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín cartel. For more than five years, she was his lover.

In the heat of their intimacy, the television host became deeply familiar with her beloved capo’s life and works – and also those of many of his friends, including important politicians. She thus found out about the strong bonds between drugs and the current president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe.

After Pablo Escobar’s death, Vallejo kept quiet for 20 years. Finally, in 2007, she published Amando a Pablo (“Loving Pablo”), a scandalous book – not because of the romantic adventures she relates, but because it presents a dramatic X-ray of the links between drugs and politics in Colombia.

More:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue51/article3036.html

[center]~~~~~[/center]
~snip~
Senator of Colombia

Uribe was elected one of Antioquia's senators from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1990 to 1994. As senator, he served as president of the Seventh Commission and he supported laws dealing with reform of pensions, labor and social security, as well as promotion of administrative careers, cooperative banking, black sugar, and protection for women. Some of the legislation later drew criticism, in particular that which reduced the state's responsibility for social security. During his later term he received official and unofficial awards as one of the "best senators" (1990, 1992 and 1993) and as the senator with the "best legislative initiatives" (1992).[2] Additionally, a DIA biographical sketch released in 2004 suggested that during his term in office, Uribe participated extensively in drug trafficking and was a personal friend of Pablo Escobar.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Uribe

Alvaro Uribe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/18/AR2009071801785.html

And, no, I'm not interested in Washington Psst disinformation.

Stephen Hull.
Executive Editor, Huffington Post UK

Luis Carlos Galan: The Most Important Criminal Case You've Never Heard of

Posted: 17/01/12 00:00

~snip~
But before Colombia can fully move on, the unanswered question must be addressed: Who killed Galan? The 'generally accepted' version of events does not hold water. For closer analysis, rewind to 1988, a year before Galan's killing.

It is an undisputed fact that during that year, British mercenaries were secretly hired by Colombian army generals to deal with the other big threat to Colombia's national security, FARC.

According to David Tomkins (who was one of the mercenaries hired) in his book Dirty Combat, the fighters were recruited by a man called Jorge Salcedo.

Salcedo, the son of one of the generals, was tasked with organising an attack on the leaders of FARC. Private foreign mercenaries were used because the generals couldn't convince the political leaders to attack - diplomacy was considered a stronger weapon. Rather than disobey their elected leaders, the generals went behind their backs.

Tomkins says his mission was privately funded by associates of Escobar in the Medellin cocaine cartel. He says this was because Escobar wanted to exterminate FARC, who were a common enemy as they were a challenge to his expanding drug empire. But also army money could not be used to fund what was essentially an illegal, unauthorised mission.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/stephen-hull/luis-carlos-galan-murder_b_1208793.html

~snip~
According to accounts the first assassination threats were phone calls made to Galán's home phone number after the Liberal Party Convention to nominate an official candidate. Flyers were left in the mailbox threatening to kill or kidnap his children. An attempt to kill Galán with an RPG was thwarted while visiting Medellín on August 4, 1989. The assassination attempt was frustrated by Waldemar Franklin Quintero's men who got tipped off. Quintero was the commander of the Colombian National Police in Antioquia and along with him and Galán was the Mayor of Medellín, Pedro Pablo Paláez, both of these men were killed weeks later after the assassination attempt. After this event Galán and his family restricted their travels especially during the night time.[8]

Later on Galán's staff received information from the Colombian intelligence services advising him of the presence in Bogotá of a group of hitmen with the intention to kill him. His staff advised him not to travel to the town of Soacha and that the trip to Valledupar was more suitable since he was also scheduled to attend a football match in nearby Barranquilla for the 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifications and in which the Colombian team was going to play. At the last moment Galán changed his mind and ordered his staff to prepare to go to Soacha.[8]

Galán was killed as he walked onto the stage to give a speech in front of 10,000 people in Soacha. At least ten others were wounded in the gunfire.[9]

The Colombian drug cartels were worried of the possible approval in congress of an extradition treaty with the United States and political enemies feared Galán's increasing power would isolate many of them from the votes.

According to John Jairo Velásquez aka "Popeye" and Luis Carlos Aguilar aka "El Mugre", Escobar's former hitman, the assassination was planned in a farm by Pablo Escobar, Gonzalo Rodríguez aka "El Mexicano", Liberal political leader Alberto Santofimio and others. Velásquez affirmed that Santofimio had certain influence over Escobar's decision making and he had heard him say "kill him Pablo, kill him!".[10]

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Carlos_Gal%C3%A1n

[center]~~~~~

YouTube video from a news cast:
The Luis Carlos Galan Assassination

Just the way the right-wing likes things.








Luis Carlos Galán [/center]
Had he not been murdered, the same right-wing tools would be dragging their sorry asses here to a democratic, progressive site to smear this man, day in, day out, of course.

That's what they want. A continent of countries drowned in blood and civil war, where being progressive is a crime punished with death, controlled by a puppet government submissive to international neoliberal/ corporate interests.

It's really not surprising that, of all progressive countries in the region, right-wing Colombia is the one they chose to present as a "role model" in their threads. Tells a lot about the real nature of their ideology.

Hope justice is served and Galán will never be forgotten. Thank you for all the information.

Not one ####ing peep from them regarding the astonishing atrocities generated by right-wing US-supported governments, not a ####ing syllable.

Yet they have all the time to butt into progressive message boards and shriek their guts out over far, FAR, less evil slights and insults they want to rave on forever about from leftist leaders.

It would make a maggot gag, except maggots are right-wingers, too, beyond all doubt, and are also blind to right-wing filth.

Police major implicated in murder of presidential candidate surrenders .
Tuesday, 12 March 2013 07:30 Olle Ohlsen Pettersson

A retired police major accused of participating in the 1989 murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan surrendered on Monday to authorities.

According to reports Luis Felipe Montilla Barbosa, the former police official who was in charge of Galan's security at the time of his killing, surrendered to police at Bogota's National Police Club.

Earlier on Monday, the prosecutor general of human rights ordered the arrest of the police officer, suspecting him and a former state security agency employee of aggrevated homicide.

Galan was murdered on the 18 August 1989 while participating in a political manifestation in the central Cundinamarca department.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/28490-police-major-implicated-in-murder-of-presidential-candidate-surrenders.html

(Short article, no more at link.)

What would be different would be if we stopped pretending that such assholes have some right to tell the rest of us what to do.