Colombia Scandal Creeps Closer to Uribe

Source: Washington Post

Colombia Scandal Creeps Closer to Uribe

By TOBY MUSE
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 17, 2007; 11:45 PM



Opposition Senator Gustavo Petro, right, of the leftist Polo Democratico party, speaks during a debate at the Congress in Bogota, Tuesday, April 17, 2007. On background is Colombia's Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. (AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez) (William Fernando Martinez - AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A leading opposition senator said Tuesday that far-right paramilitary fighters established their hold over the province of Antioquia while President Alvaro Uribe was governor of the region.

In a congressional debate, Sen. Gustavo Petro showed dozens of documents that he said described two farms owned by the Uribe family that were used as meeting points for paramilitary death squads during Uribe's time as governor between 1995 and 1997.

Petro triggered a scandal last year with accusations tying death squads to Colombia's establishment. The ongoing scandal, the worst in decades, had been inching closer to Uribe, ensnaring key allies in Congress and his former domestic intelligence chief, but on Tuesday it arrived in his political backyard.
(snip)

Petro, citing government records and statements by members of the security forces, revealed that a civilian self-defense program known as Convivir _ championed by Uribe when he was governor of Antioquia _ was infiltrated by members of the death squads. Convivir has been since shut down.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041702378.html

Posted on Wed, Apr. 18, 2007
Ex-Colombia rebel gains ground
By Gary Marx

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

BOGOTA, Colombia - For years, Colombia's political elite dismissed Gustavo Petro's allegations.

Relentlessly denouncing ties among the nation's lawmakers, government officials and paramilitary death squads, the diminutive leftist guerrilla-turned-legislator became one of the most formidable adversaries of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, an important Washington ally in Latin America.

Defying death threats, he sported a bulletproof jacket and traveled with nine bodyguards. The president himself described the lawmaker and other former guerrillas now in politics as "terrorists in business suits"_an explosive allegation in a nation where scores of leftist politicians have been assassinated.

But Petro's credibility and profile have soared in recent months as Colombia became engulfed in a "para-politico" scandal that has lent credence to many of Petro's allegations.

"At the beginning, I was undoubtedly alone," said Petro, 46, seated in his office in downtown Bogota. "I was physically afraid. But as this has developed in a positive way, today I don't feel alone. It's starting to have a snowball effect."

More:
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/world/17095291.htm

Gustavo Petro is a good example--facing down the Uribe-connected, fascist death squads who have been backed politically and financially (billions of our taxpayer dollars) by the Bush Junta.

Also, as to obvious and extraordinary courage--Hugo Chavez, who has not only survived but has triumphed over the combined efforts of the Bush Junta, Venezuelan fascists and Colombian fascists, to kill him (the Colombian plot exposed recently), to remove him and destroy Venezuela's Constitution with a violent military coup, and to defeat him in elections, in an absurd and wasteful recall election, with a crippling oil professionals' strike, and with non-stop corporate news monopoly propaganda against him, here and in Venezuela.

Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador are also extraordinary men who have taken on the highly corrupt and murderous US "war on drugs"--made all the more acutely corrupt by the Bush Junta being in control of it--and who have openly opposed the US militarization and criminalization of the drug problem. This is in ADDITION to taking on the associated disaster of US-instigated global corporate predator "free trade." Rafael Correa provided an excellent and humorous example of the attitude of these extraordinary politicians. When he was asked what he thought of Hugo Chavez's remark to UN that Bush is "the devil," he replied that it was "an insult to the devil." This was at the end of his campaign for president of Ecuador. His numbers soared and he defeated his opponent (the richest man in Ecuador--a banana magnate) with 60% of the vote. Recently, Correa won a referendum on Ecuador's Constitution by almost 80% of the vote. These men clearly represent the vast majority of the people in these countries. But merely representing that vast majority is a dangerous business in South America, as it is in any region rich in oil and other resources coveted by US-based corporate predators who don't care who they trample for ungodly profits and power.

There are yet more examples of people of extraordinary character and courage standing up for social justice and democracy in Latin America: Nestor Kirchner, president of Argentina (who has had to stare down the World Bank and boot them out); Michele Batchelet, the first woman president of Chile, who was tortured by the US-backed dictator Pinochet and lost family members to that horrid regime; and Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua--target of the notorious Reagan-era Iran/Contra death squads, who was just elected president of the country, despite Bush Junta meddling. All of these people are not only incredible survivors, they have triumphed on behalf of the majority against ruthless fascist forces.

In addition, there others on the horizon: Rigoberta Menchu who is running for president in Guatemala (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in exposing the Reagan-backed Guatemalan death squads who slaughtered 200,000 Mayan villagers in the '80s); Lopez Obrador in Mexico and the leaders of the Oaxaca resistance, who have maintained the peace in Mexico, despite extreme provocation (stolen elections, violent repression); Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, known as the "bishop of the poor," who has resigned from the Church to run for president (and has both the Church and entrenched fascist interests opposing him), and Ollanta Humala in Peru (who came out of nowhere last year--with no experience and no money--and almost won the presidency of Peru, on behalf of the poor majority).

Leftists (majorityists) are now in power in the following countries--with profound implications for Latin American sovereignty and self-determination: Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Also Cuba (unelected, but influential, due to its peacefulness and social justice policies). Countries with strong leftist movements (likely to win future elections): Paraguay, Peru and Mexico. Guatemala and Colombia might be more difficult. Guatemala--the civil war is still raw in memory; the rightwing is still very powerful, and I don't know how strong the grass roots organization is. Colombia--civil war on-going; it's uncertain how long it will take to root out fascist corruption and establish democracy and good government. But there are hopeful signs in both countries--and very courageous leaders, including Gustavo Petro and also the Colombian justices and prosecutors who are going after the Bush-backed rightwing paramilitaries and Uribe.

We have some courageous leaders of our own--among them, John Conyers and Henry Waxman, who are conducting investigations into the Bush Junta (with the Bush Junta still in power), and many known and some unknown whistleblowers (Joseph Wilson and Sibel Edmonds come to mind). But we have a way to go before we are able to elect people of the caliber of these Latin American politicians as president. We have a situation similar to that in Colombia and Guatemala--with rightwing murderers, torturers and thieves still in control, and massive and cunning measures in place to prevent democracy (will of the majority) here--including Bushite-controlled electronic voting machines run on 'trade secret' code, and our war profiteering corporate news monopolies. The Latin Americans are way ahead of us in dealing with these anti-democratic forces. Perhaps the most important thing they've done--which needs to be done here--is work on transparent vote counting and honest elections.

Armed Gamonales (or Colombian Fascism)
by Hector Mondragon
April 16, 2007

It is impossible to understand the phenomenon of ‘para-politica’ that has come out to public light in Colombia in recent months, without analyzing it as an evolution of the deepest structures of power in Colombian society.

The roots of paramilitary power grow from the regime of the ‘gamonales’, characteristic of the diverse regions of the country. This regime ruled since 1854, when the army that liberated Colombia from the Spanish was dissolved as a consequence of the defeat of the revolution of the artisans. At that time, the gamonales won their victory thanks to weapons provided by the US, England, France, and Prussia. From that moment on, they became warlords in a country which suffered successive civil wars in which troops loyal to the conservative and liberal parties dominated what were then federal states, and confronted each other.

The triumph of the gamonales had several consequences. Not only did they consolidate their local power and the property of their haciendas, they also imposed an era of “free trade”, which really meant freedom of import, setting the growth of national industry back fifty years. That era saw the rule of the doctrines of English liberal economists as well as Colombia’s submission to the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, signed in 1846 with the US by the government of the gamonal of gamonales, landowner Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera, who not only opened the doors to free trade but also forfeited the sovereignty of the country to the megaproject of the Panama Canal which led eventually to Colombia losing Panama in 1903.

It is therefore an error to see gamonalismo and its regime as a merely local phenomenon. On the contrary, gamonalismo is embedded in the global economy and international power. The gamonal is in the first instance a major landowner. His title originally depended on the Spanish Crown, which granted lands and gold mines, first to the conquistadors and afterwards, under the Bourbon dynasty, to slave traders and other businessmen who received the mines and haciendas of the Jesuits, who were expelled by the empire at that time. His wealth depended on the government in power, the articulation of economic power and international politics, and the links between local powers and big landowners. These elements have shaped the configuration of gamonalismo, from its beginnings to this day.

More:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=9&ItemID=12602