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COLOMBIA: "Mark Him on the Ballot - The One
Wearing Glasses"
Constanza Vieira
IPS
May 8, 2008

. . .

The odd thing was that in both the 2002 and 2006 elections, despite the fact that the
villagers had already decided to vote for Uribe, the far-right paramilitaries, who had
committed a number of murders since 1998, when they appeared in the region that was
previously dominated by the leftwing guerrillas, pressured the local residents to vote for
Uribe anyway.

The paramilitaries did not kill people to pressure the rest to vote for Uribe, as they did in
other communities, but merely used "threats," said L.

"If you don't vote for Uribe, you know what the consequences will be," the villagers were
told ominously.

. . .

The odd thing was that in both the 2002 and 2006 elections, despite the fact that the
villagers had already decided to vote for Uribe, the far-right paramilitaries, who had
committed a number of murders since 1998, when they appeared in the region that was
previously dominated by the leftwing guerrillas, pressured the local residents to vote for
Uribe anyway.

The paramilitaries did not kill people to pressure the rest to vote for Uribe, as they did in
other communities, but merely used "threats," said L.

"If you don't vote for Uribe, you know what the consequences will be," the villagers were
told ominously.

And on election day, they breathed down voters’ necks: "This is the candidate you’re
going to vote for. You’re going to put your mark by this one. The one wearing glasses,"
they would say, pointing to Uribe’s photo on the ballot, L. recalled.

"One (of the paramilitaries) was on the precinct board, another one was standing next to
the table, and another was a little way off, all of them watching to see if you voted for
Uribe," she added, referring to the less than subtle way that the death squads commanded
by drug traffickers and allies of the army ensured that L.’s village voted en masse for the
current president in both elections.

More:
https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ips_guywithglasses_05082008.pdf

No doubt you are aware that Alvaro Uribe, and his entire family have been deeply involved with and connected to the paramilitary death squads for decades. This information has been available from former paramilitary members in testimony during trials, many of whom were murdered directly afterward. Uribe's brother started a deathsquad on his own property years ago. These paramilitaries are also involved in narcotrafficking, as well as horrific political assassinations, and massacres of farmers and villagers, and union organizers, and indigenous people trying to live on their own lands who have refused to move and allow the paras to sell their land to others, as in mine-owners, or agricultural industrialists, etc.

Paras are well known for approaching small farmers, demanding the man sell them his land for a tiny, tiny sum, then, if the man refused, telling him it's o.k., they will take the matter up with his widow. They are responsible for turning so many people out of their own property, owned by their families for generations, and making them homeless, turning Colombia into a country with the world's 3rd largest displaced populations for year after year, with former farmers ending up lost in the cities, with no where to go.

The wealthy landowners and industrialists have owned Colombia since forever after the Spanish invaded and took the land, and they damned well intend to keep it that way, regardless of the price the poor have to pay.