Retired army general arrested in Colombia

Retired army general arrested in Colombia
Posted 4h 3m ago

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A retired army general has been arrested in the disappearance of 11 people during the army's 1985 retaking of the Palace of Justice from leftist rebels, one of the darkest chapters in Colombia's modern history.

Intelligence unit soldiers under the command of Ivan Ramirez escorted the 11 out of the building as the military stormed the palace, prosecutors say. Armed M-19 rebels had taken over the courts the same day, seizing magistrates. At least 100 people were killed in the military attack.

The 11 included cafeteria workers and a captured rebel. None was heard from again. Witnesses, including soldiers from Ramirez's unit, say the captives were tortured and killed, according to an official in the chief prosecutor's office who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.

Ramirez, who was arrested Tuesday afternoon, faces at least 20 years in prison if convicted of "forced disappearance" charges. He is not accused of directly participating in their deaths.

Nine judges were among those killed in the assault, and Colombia's military was widely criticized for its violent handling of the standoff, which also led to a fire that destroyed judicial files.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-05-28-colombian-general_N.htm

as related in an article from a Colombian newspaper which I ran through the google translation tool. You might like to see the kind of things Mancuso said they were up to! He also indicates this vicious clown Ramirez, who's retired now, drawing a nice retirement check, of course, was instrumental in the increase of the range and power of the death squads:

Mancuso said that the generals Rito Alejo del Rio, Martin Carreno and Ivan Ramirez helped expand paramilitarism
For the first time, one of the men accused of crimes against humanity gives names of officers who live, according to him, helped in their cause. The leader of the AUC demobilized before the public prosecutor's office said that the three senior army officers already-retired-were vital for the growth of their criminal organization throughout the country.
Date: 05/15/2007 --
The demobilized paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso made two momentous revelations during this Tuesday as part of the second part of the free version before the public prosecutor's office in Medellin. First made a diagnosis of the conceptual rationale behind these criminal organizations of the far right. These arose, according to him, because in Colombia there is a "State of paramilitarism." Then took examples of instruction manuals National Army to conclude that not only him, but this phenomenon armed, came from there.

Then jumped into the field of facts and Locked who was a union to achieve their goals. Among these, released three names of the Republic of generals who have occupied key positions in the dome of the institution. They are the generals Rito Alejo del Rio, Ivan Ramirez and Martin Orlando Carreno.

His revelations were well received by an audience composed of victims of the conflict and that minutes before-when he arrived at headquarters where he was going to pay his statement, heavily escorted and a bulletproof vest-he had shouted: "Murderer, murderer, murderer". According to the families of victims of paramilitary activity in the free version, it now began to reveal what he had promised during last week.

On this occasion, Mancuso provided unpublished details. After handing a dossier to the Prosecutor delegate Justice and Peace, including its accreditation as a card that the boy scout as a child, began with a blunt sentence and that perhaps could summarize what was said during the morning: "I am proof reliability of paramilitarism in Colombia of State ".

Military support to the AUC, old complaint without ears
The demobilized paramilitary chief, Salvatore Mancuso, arrived this morning to pay their free version to the prosecutor 8 Justice and Peace, in Medellin. Senator Miguel de la Espriella, one of the detainees by the parapolitics scandal.
From this phrase began to explain how from the 60 to 90 and all manuals contraguerrilla National Army and justified invoking thoughts of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). So recounted, chronologically, the names of some commanders of the army in all this time advocated the AUC. For example, he mentioned names like Harold Bedoya when he was commander of the Army's second division in 1993, with headquarters in Bucaramanga, or the commander of the Army in 1973, Luis Carlos Camacho Leyva, or the commander in 1985 and Orlando Zafra Fernando Landazábal the Kings in 1988, and also the commander Luis Arcesio Bohórquez in 1989. Of all of them, said before the Prosecution, made doctrine and paramilitary quoted verbatim.

"The national defence is not only the responsibility of the army," he said in a direct quote from the commander of the Army in 1973, Luis Carlos Camacho Leyva. In other words, Mancuso said that it began to enroll in the paramilitaries as a "cooperating".
Then he said that to the extent that the process was gaining greater momentum had to go to the actions. Then he spoke of three meetings with Army generals Ivan Ramirez Quintero and Rito Alejo del Rio, which was planned expansion by paramilitary northern Colombia.

He assured that General Rito Alejo showed them to paramilitary squads could take what land and what areas were free of danger to concentrate on men recruited.

His release coincides with several human rights organizations have noted that the overall River as one of the officers who had violated human rights since the institution. The Cinep said that the general (now retired) Rito Alejo del Rio Rojas served as commander of the brigade 17 of the Army with headquarters in Carepa, Antioquia, from December 1995 until December 1997.

"In this period were perpetrated hundreds of crimes against humanity against the most vulnerable communities in the area whose responsibility, at least by omission, was attributed to his troops, which typically were seen acting in unity of action with the most recognized paramilitary structures . Many thousands of peasants, indigenous and black people were violently displaced from their villages and the paramilitaries took complete domination of the region. But the general did not reach Rio Urabá without disturbing background who were setting a track record and a profile strongly opposed to what the ethics and the law demand of the militia. A series of accusations have been recorded in numerous judicial and disciplinary records, although the Colombian justice with their entrenched methods of impunity that has characterized the left uninvestigated or sanction, even the Attorney General's Office to preclude the trial against him (March 9 2004), their livelihoods inescapable evidence leading to define the profile of this general as one of the most stubborn drivers and managers of paramilitarism in Colombia and make it responsible for numerous crimes under international law ".

Precisely, Senator Gustavo Petro has insisted that President Alvaro Uribe Velez owes the country an explanation of why he offered a tribute to the overall relief River precisely when the U.S. embassy had announced the withdrawal of his visa and human rights organizations in that country published detailed reports of their actions. Even Mancuso told that between 1996 and 1997 met with General Rito Alejo on the farm 'The 21' in San Pedro de Uraba.

He assured that there were Carlos Castano (head of the AUC already dead), and Freddy Rendon, alias' The German ', and that the item was discussed expanding paramilitary in Uraba. According to Mancuso, this official went on a civilian helicopter, but he took his military uniform. This is the first time a former head 'to' generally refers to Del Rio.

Then Salvatore Mancuso told the General Martin Orlando Carreno, explaining that when he was in the 17 Brigade sent its soldiers to patrol in the company of paramilitary commandos. "I was one more in this Brigade." In other words, Mancuso, said he was a soldier in the service of satin decisions Carreno, who with the passage of time in his career was ascending to occupy the commander of the Army.

Mancuso revealed that his men patrolled with General Martin Orlando Carreno and through a general of the 11 Brigade, which was identified as Ivan Ramirez, also met the General Alfonso Manosalva (deceased) with whom he met at least 10 times. The overall commander of the XI Ramirez Brigade in Monteria and then became head of Army intelligence. It also human rights organizations have been several reports where the trustees of various offences.

It will be recalled, Manosalva former paramilitary leader had already been identified in previous versions as one of his aides in the killing of El Aro (Antioquia).

But the revelations of Mancuso did not stop there. It was the episode with Judge Rodrigo Escobar, who said he came to Mancuso in the case of his girlfriend (not named). He wanted to know what had happened to her, even if they had retained or had been killed. Account that the judge "looked at one of our congressmen," Miguel de la Espriella, to ask him that. Then Mancuso called 'Jorge 40' and he said he was dead because she handled according to information from the finances of the guerrillas.

At the edge of noon, Mancuso finished by saying: "The paramilitaries have been orchestrated by the economic guilds, which are the ones who put the silver, silver favors politicians and the army fired on whom oppose it, either guerrillas or is not ". Giving clues as to what can come in the next few hours.

From Semana
http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?idArt=103661

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You'll note that the practise of violently removing citizens from their land and stealing it is mentioned in this published article. It's not something some American leftist made up.