US Bases in Colombia Rattle the Region

Published on Friday, March 19, 2010 by The Progressive
US Bases in Colombia Rattle the Region
by Benjamin Dangl

On the shores of the Magdalena River, in a lush green valley dotted with cattle ranches and farms, sits the Palanquero military base, an outpost equipped with Colombia's longest runway, housing for 2,000 troops, a theater, a supermarket, and a casino.

Palanquero is at the heart of a ten-year, renewable military agreement signed between the United States and Colombia on October 30, 2009, which gives Washington access to seven military bases in the country. Though officials from the U.S. and Colombian governments contend the agreement is aimed at fighting narcotraffickers and guerrillas within Colombian borders, a U.S. Air Force document states the deal offers a "unique opportunity" for "conducting full spectrum operations" in the region against various threats, including "anti-U.S. governments."

The Pentagon sought access to the bases in Colombia after Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa canceled the lease for the U.S. military base in Manta, Ecuador. The U.S. capability in Colombia will now be greater than at Manta, which worries human rights advocates in Colombia and left-leaning governments throughout the region.

"The main purpose of expanding these bases is to take strategic control of Latin America," opposition senator Jorge Enrique Robledo of the Polo Democrático Alternativo told me over the phone from Bogotá.

Every president in South America outside of Colombia is against the bases agreement, with Hugo Chávez of neighboring Venezuela being the most critical. Chávez said that by signing the deal the United States was blowing "winds of war" over the region, and that the bases were "a threat against us."

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/19-6

Judge orders release of 16 more 'false positives' suspects
Friday, 19 March 2010 14:36 Camilla Pease-Watkin

Authorities from the central Colombian department of Cundinamarca on Friday announced the release of sixteen members of the national army who were being investigated for committing extrajudicial murder of a youth in the municipality of Soacha, reported Colombian media.

The sixteen soldiers, who are suspected of involvement in a national scandal surrounding extrajudicial killings known as "false positives," included one sergeant, two corporals and twelve professional soldiers.

The soldiers are suspected of involvement in the disappearance of a young man from Soacha in 2008, who was kidnapped, murdered, and then reported as members of illegal armed groups killed in combat.

Lawyer Lorraine Leal explained to Caracol radio that the men were released on the grounds that the soldiers had not been granted a trial within the 200 day timeframe mandated by Colombian law.

The released soldiers will be held in the Artillery School, south of Bogota, whilst courts continue to compile cases against them.

Blanca Monroy, the mother of the false positive victim Julian Oviedo Monroy expressed outrage but not surprise at the outcome.

"It already happened to some soldiers so we imagined that it would be repeated, that they would release those responsible for the deaths of our children," said Mrs Monroy.

Numerous other cases resembling this incident have been reported around the country, and Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office is currently investigating some 1,200 similar cases.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8781-judge-orders-release-of-16-more-false-positives-suspects.html

Supreme Court will not try ex-general in paramilitary case
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 07:01 Kirsten Begg

Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice said Tuesday it has passed the case against former army General Rito Alejo del Rio, suspected of collaborating with paramilitary death squads, to a specialist judge, on the grounds that it falls outside the court's jurisdiction.

The court said the case is not in its jurisdiction, because Del Rio is not on trial for a crime committed in his capacity as an army general, and must be tried as a civilian.

Del Rio is on trial for his complicity in the murder of farmer Mario Lopez by paramilitary group Bloque Elmer.

The court reopened the case against Del Rio last March, after several testimonies made by demobilized paramilitaries linked the retired general to paramilitary coalition the Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

Demobilized paramilitary leader Freddy "El Aleman" Rendon Herrera testified that the army brigade Del Rio commanded was involved in Lopez's murder.

Del Rio is suspected of having allowed paramilitaries to kill dozens of innocent civilians when he was commanding the army's 17th Brigade in the 1990s. He has never been convicted, but is now in jail awaiting justice.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8707-supreme-court-passes-former-colombian-generals-case-to-bogota-judge.html