Clinton to Colombia: We will stand with you

Source: Associated Press

Clinton to Colombia: We will stand with you
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – 45 mins ago

BOGOTA, Colombia – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the Obama administration will continue to support Colombia as it heads for a leadership change amid tensions with neighboring Venezuela.

Clinton made the pledge in talks here with outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and the two candidates vying to succeed him in elections this month. She said President Barack Obama will continue to back Colombia's anti-drug and counterinsurgency programs no matter who wins.

"The United States has been proud to stand with Colombia and we will continue to stand with you in the future," Clinton told a joint news conference with Uribe.

She did not directly mention neighboring Venezuela, but two U.S. officials said Washington is well aware of potential threats to Colombia from Venezuela — as well as from Marxist guerrillas, drug traffickers and others.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100610/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_us_latin_america_clinton

"The United States has been proud to stand with Colombia and we will continue to stand with you in the future," Clinton told a joint news conference with Uribe.

And praising his reptilian overlords

She's culpable! In her bid for the presidency, she claimed Bill's 'successes' as hers. Ergo, critics claimed, his 'failures' were hers as well. So now in a truly official cabinet position, she can't hide behind simply doing Obama's bidding. She's an AIPACer, DLCer (in fact among its founders), corporate whore just like the rest of 'em.

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and revved up the operation which led _Bush to dump over 7 BILLION dollars of our money into supporting this pathetic feudal shooting gallery.

Too bad they aren't the kind of Democrats Paul Wellstone was, the man who was absolutely furious about the criminal deal with their criminal government.

I think when he died we lost much more than one man. Comparing him to other Democrats can't be done, at least not with our current crop.

When I first "got into" politics it was because of Clinton - and I liked Hillary Clinton a lot too. My eyes have been opened - sometimes I long for those innocent (ignorant) days.

That makes her a very intelligent monster.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/41861000/jpg/_41861064_guatemala_203.jpg http://www.russellmeansfreedom.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2122_sc_graves_of_guatemala-4_04700300.jpg

http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org.nyud.net:8090/archieve/july03-03/maryjo2.jpg

Posted: June 9, 2010 11:41 AM
Colombia Retains Position as the Most Dangerous Country in Latin America

As it has for many successive years now, Colombia continues to be the union murder capital of the world. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which keeps track of such statistics, issued its Annual Report yesterday, and reported that Colombia (with its small population of about 44 million people) accounted for 48 of the 100 union assassinations which took place in the world in 2009. That is, nearly one-half of all murders of unionists took place in Colombia.

As Guy Ryder, the ITUC General Secretary, opined: defending workers rights in Colombia is a "death sentence." The ITUC further reported that, of the 48 unionists killed in Colombia, "22 were senior union leaders, of whom five were women."

The country with the second worst record in terms of anti-union violence, Guatemala, fell far short of Colombia's record, with 16 union assassinations last year. Also, quite notably, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argues for Honduras' readmission to the OAS, Honduras came in at number 3, with 12 union assassinations last year. Nearly all of these killings in Honduras took place after the militiary coup last summer which resulted in Honduras' expulsion from the OAS in the first place.

Notably, the nations usually vilified by the mainstream press in this country -- China, Cuba and Venezuela -- did not make the ITUC list at all, for they suffered no assassination of unionists last year.

What's more, the ITUC's report on Colombia's abysmal anti-union violence record comes just as Colombia was ranked the most violent country in Latin America, and the top 11th most violent country in the world in the 2010 Global Peace Index.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombia-retains-position_b_605970.html

has the same scores for murder and violent crime.

Interestingly enough, Colombia scores higher in the Economist Democracy Index - Colombia is rated as a "flawed democracy" with a score of 6.54 while Venezuela is a "hybrid regime" with a score of 5.34.

Look closer at the details - it is not like Venezuela is that much better. They are very close to each other in the GPI.

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http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42484

at least the murdered aren't labor unionists.

U.S. sits at #85 in 2010 Global Peace Index, falling behind China and Cuba
BY Paulina Reso
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, June 9th 2010, 2:12 PM

Say it ain't so.

While peace and stability aren't easy to come by, this year the world fared slightly worse, partly due to the global recession, according to the fourth annual Global Peace Index.

The survey, which aims to objectively measure security and violence among nations while illustrating drivers of peace, ranked 149 countries this year.

Based on 23 factors, including military expenditures, participation in United Nations peacekeeping, social unrest and jail population, the U.S. placed somewhere in the middle, falling behind China (#80) and Cuba (#72).

More:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/06/09/2010-06-09_us_sits_at_85_in_2010_global_peace_index_falling_behind_china_and_cuba.html

Theirs is ten times greater than ours - second highest in the world irc.
It is also higher than Colombia's - so it is not that straight forward that Colombia is the most violent country in SA.

The GBI has nothing to say about domestic quality of life.

Crime Statistics > Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita

~~~~~
Posted: April 26, 2010 11:20 AM
Colombia's "Genocidal Democracy" May Have Claimed Over 150,000 Lives

In his book, Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy, Father Javier Girardo, a Jesuit priest and long-time human rights activist in Colombia, estimated that, between 1988 and 1995, more than 60,000 Colombians lost their lives to the internal conflict in Colombia - most of them at the hands of the state, either in the form of the official Colombian military or the paramilitary forces supported by the state.

As for the Colombian state's support for the paramilitaries, also known as "death squads," that is well-known. Thus, as the U.S. State Department has concluded in its annual human rights reports, the paramilitaries have received active support from the Colombian government and from the Colombian military which has provided the paramilitaries with weapons, ammunition, logistical support and even with soldiers. Given that the U.S. has aided the Colombian military with over $7 billion in military assistance since 2000, all the while knowing the military's close collaboration with the murderous paramilitaries, the U.S. itself is complicit in the paramilitaries' crimes.

The extent of the Colombian state's connections with the paramilitaries continues to be exposed, with former paramilitary leaders revealing the heights of the government support for their activities. Within the past days, for example, former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso confirmed that the current Colombian Vice-President, Francisco Santos, and the Defense Minister, Juan Manual Santos, had close ties with the paramilitary forces. Juan Manual Santos is expected to be the next President of Colombia.

Up till recently, the prevailing estimate of civilians killed specifically by the paramilitaries has been around 30,000. Father Girardo, citing new estimates by Colombia's own Prosecutor General, has now shattered those original estimates, announcing that the Prosecutor General is currently investigating 150,000 extrajudicial killings by the paramilitary groups - killings which took place between the late 1980's and the current time. Even the prior, more conservative estimates would have made Colombia the worst human rights abuser in South America in recent times, having victimized more than Argentina's fascist junta and Chile's Pinochet dictatorship.

The new estimates place Colombia in a category all of its own as the worst human rights abuser in the Western Hemisphere. And, in terms of peoples internally displaced as a result of the conflict in Colombia - over 4 million - Colombia ranks only second in the world to the Sudan. And, not too surprisingly given the U.S.'s usual support for the worst human rights abusers, the Washington Post reported in an article by Juan Forero on April 19, 2010, that Colombia is "Washington's closest ally on the continent."

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombias-genocidal-democ_b_551847.html

~~~~~
Comparing any Latin American or Caribbean country to the U.S. is probably one of the most foolish ideas one's likely to hear.

Has the U.S. been constantly ####ed with, for hundreds of years? I'd guess "NO."

Where are Veneuela's death squads, known publicly to be connected to the federal government, where are the millions of homeless and destitute people driven off their own land, and into the cities where there clearly aren't enough jobs, and where are the crematoria and mass graves for hiding the victims from the world? Ion Colombia, only a few months ago, they discovered ANOTHER mass grave, containing around 2,000 dead Colombians who were NOT killed in battle, buried at La Macarena, near a military base used by the U.S. government.

By the way, thousands and thousands of these people driven off their own land have run to Venezuela for their lives, where they are obviously homeless, and poor, still, and an enormous responsibility for the government.

You will NEVER fool anyone sober who has taken the time to keep up, and you lack the good sense to feel embarrassed.

funny why someone would post stats from 10 years ago.

It doesn't include intentional homicides by governments and their client death squads...

I'm sure Columbia would leap ahead if those were counted...

when I get the time to go looking for them. In the meantime, be sure to come to grips with the fact a LOT of murders don't even get included in their crime stats, since they are state-sanctioned murders and assassinations. Take the time and start looking up the information on the connections between the death squads and the Colombian government. That should keep you busy doing something productive. It's never wrong to look for the truth, instead of making it up.

Posted: April 26, 2010 11:20 AM
Colombia's "Genocidal Democracy" May Have Claimed Over 150,000 Lives

In his book, Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy, Father Javier Girardo, a Jesuit priest and long-time human rights activist in Colombia, estimated that, between 1988 and 1995, more than 60,000 Colombians lost their lives to the internal conflict in Colombia - most of them at the hands of the state, either in the form of the official Colombian military or the paramilitary forces supported by the state.

As for the Colombian state's support for the paramilitaries, also known as "death squads," that is well-known. Thus, as the U.S. State Department has concluded in its annual human rights reports, the paramilitaries have received active support from the Colombian government and from the Colombian military which has provided the paramilitaries with weapons, ammunition, logistical support and even with soldiers. Given that the U.S. has aided the Colombian military with over $7 billion in military assistance since 2000, all the while knowing the military's close collaboration with the murderous paramilitaries, the U.S. itself is complicit in the paramilitaries' crimes.

The extent of the Colombian state's connections with the paramilitaries continues to be exposed, with former paramilitary leaders revealing the heights of the government support for their activities. Within the past days, for example, former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso confirmed that the current Colombian Vice-President, Francisco Santos, and the Defense Minister, Juan Manual Santos, had close ties with the paramilitary forces. Juan Manual Santos is expected to be the next President of Colombia.

Up till recently, the prevailing estimate of civilians killed specifically by the paramilitaries has been around 30,000. Father Girardo, citing new estimates by Colombia's own Prosecutor General, has now shattered those original estimates, announcing that the Prosecutor General is currently investigating 150,000 extrajudicial killings by the paramilitary groups - killings which took place between the late 1980's and the current time. Even the prior, more conservative estimates would have made Colombia the worst human rights abuser in South America in recent times, having victimized more than Argentina's fascist junta and Chile's Pinochet dictatorship.

The new estimates place Colombia in a category all of its own as the worst human rights abuser in the Western Hemisphere. And, in terms of peoples internally displaced as a result of the conflict in Colombia - over 4 million - Colombia ranks only second in the world to the Sudan. And, not too surprisingly given the U.S.'s usual support for the worst human rights abusers, the Washington Post reported in an article by Juan Forero on April 19, 2010, that Colombia is "Washington's closest ally on the continent."

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombias-genocidal-democ_b_551847.html

"It's never wrong to look for the truth, instead of making it up."

Gallup: Colombia leads LatAm murder poll
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 15:56 Hannah Stone

A survey by polling organization Gallup finds that 17% of Colombians say they have had a close friend or relative murdered in the last year, a higher percentage than any other nation in Latin America.

Following Colombia in the poll is the Dominican Republic, where 14% of people say they have suffered a murder of someone close in the last year, followed by Brazil and Venezuela, with 11% and 10% respectively.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/9554-gallup-colombia-leads-latam-murder-poll.html

is it safe to assume your post is simply a deflection to hide that fact that Venezuela's rate is actually higher?

Since we are talking about murder rates, why don't we compare apples to apples?

Our record is not great. We got it right once during WWII. Screwed up the end result by partitioing Germany and taking Palestinian and other lands. Haven't been right since. We went kicking and screaming against S. Africa. Our wrong-headed support of the current Israeli government is holding our poor record steady.

We'd be better off if we cut ties with the two biggest drug dealers on the planet - Colombia and Afghanistan. Proud to stand by Colombia? WTF? Proud while they murder union workers, you bet. I hear Chiquita has its own death squads. Spreading that Freedom Bush was always talking about.

when she learns that the Colombian Supreme Court today asked for international support in the face of the death and other threats the justices are receiving from "other powers?

Or whether she knows that the uribistas have proposed putting the national judiciary under the authority of the executive branch?

Spanish
http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/articulo-207821-corte-suprema-pide-ayuda-comunidad-internacional

Or when she learns that the Interamerican Human Rights Commission today asked the uribista government to safeguard the life of Penal Court Judge María Stella Jara and her son because of the death threats she has been receiving.

Judge Jara this week sentenced a retired army col. to 30 years in prison for the execution of 11 civilians after the siege of the Ministry of Justice by the urban guerrilla group M-19 back in 1985.

Spanish
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/justicia/cidh-decreta-medidas-cautelares-de-proteccion-a-maria-stella-jara-_7748829-1

he could threaten the country's Supreme Court judges with impunity, and harass them endlessly, even having his spies wiretap them. Simply unforgivable that the U.S. is looking the other way while he intimidates them, tries to bully them into supporting his wishes, and is behind a scheme to bring them under the direct control of the Executive Branch of Colombia.

We are on the wrong side of morality and history in Latin/South America.

We should have strong and healthy ties with Brazil and support human rightsd, the environment, and indigenous and poor people.

But then we don't do any better for ourselves.

Of course she "stands with" the Columbian government against the Columbians.

Colombia: Another Trade Union Leader Assassinated

http://www.ituc-csi.org.nyud.net:8090/local/cache-vignettes/L600xH258/arton6996-9d9a9.jpg

10 June 2010: The ITUC, along with its Colombian affiliates, has firmly condemned the murder on 5 June of Hernán Abdiel Ordoñez Dorado, treasurer of the executive board of the prison workers’ union ASEINPEC in Cali. Ordoñez was in the company of his mother when he was attacked by unknown assailants travelling by motorbike, who shot him dead with four bullets.

According to the information received by the ITUC, the trade union leader had been involved in denouncing alleged acts of corruption by top prison officers at the Women’s Prison. He had received death threats and an attempt had already been made on his life. The government had ignored the repeated requests of the CGT (Central General de los Trabajadores) to provide him with security.

In a letter to the Colombian authorities, the ITUC joined with the CGT in requesting that the Colombian government take every step necessary to clear up the motives behind this murder and to identify and bring all those responsible to justice.

"The Colombian authorities must take urgent and effective measures to guarantee the physical integrity of Colombian trade unionists," insisted ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.

http://www.ituc-csi.org/colombia-another-trade-union.html

Of course, they've learned by now not to hold their breaths, since almost NO efforts are ever made to bring anyone to trial for killings of politically disliked people in Colombia.

June 11, 2010
4:02 PM
CONTACT: Amnesty International

Colombia: Human Rights Abusers Must Not be Protected from Justice
LONDON - June 11 -

The Colombian government must not protect military officers from prosecution for human rights violations, Amnesty International said today.

President Álvaro Uribe and the military high command yesterday called for the armed forces to be protected from civil prosecution, following Wednesday’s sentencing by a civilian judge of retired colonel Alfonso Plazas Vega for the disappearance of 11 people during the 1985 Palace of Justice siege in Bogotá, which left over 100 people dead.

“Shielding the security forces from prosecution would make a mockery of government claims that it is serious about fighting impunity and respecting its international obligations to bring all human rights abusers to justice,” said Marcelo Pollack, Amnesty International’s Colombia researcher.

The retired colonel faces 30 years in prison for his part in disappearances that took place in November 1985, after military forces stormed the headquarters of the judiciary where members of the M-19 guerrilla movement were holding those inside hostage.

Defending the senior army officer, President Álvaro Uribe yesterday reportedly said that the colonel was “simply trying to do his duty” and suggested that the military justice system be strengthened to prevent similar convictions in the future.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/06/11-10