Colombian Police Killing and Wounding Indians: 2 dead, 100 hurt

Two dead, 100 hurt in Colombian clashes

* Story Highlights
* NEW: Clashes continue Wednesday; casualty toll rises to two dead, 100 hurt
* Some 7,000 Indians block the Pan-American highway in four spots
* Their complaints include government's free market capitalist economic policies
* Police say leftist guerrilla fighters have infiltrated the demonstration
* Next Article in World »

By Karl Penhaul
CNN

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Violent clashes between Indian protesters and riot police continued Wednesday in southwest Colombia, increasing the casualty toll to at least two dead and about 100 injured, according to Indian spokesmen.
Indians and riot police clash in Candelaria, in southern Colombia, on Tuesday.

Indians and riot police clash in Candelaria, in southern Colombia, on Tuesday.

The protests started Tuesday, when an estimated 7,000 Indians from various ethnic communities used rocks and tree trunks to block the Pan-American Highway -- the country's main north-south thoroughfare -- in at least four locations between Colombia's second largest city, Cali, and the city of Popayan, 85 miles (135 kilometers) to the south.

Fresh clashes broke out Wednesday when police moved in with armored personnel carriers and water cannons to clear the highway.

The Indians are protesting the Colombian government's free market economic policies; regional landowners they say have stolen their territory; and government plans for a free-trade deal with the United States.

The Indians, who are traditionally among the very poorest in Colombian society, along with blacks, say they are worse off than ever before.

Indian congressman Climaco Alvarez accused police of firing on protesters with live rounds Wednesday. Police deny using lethal force.

An Indian spokesman said one Indian was killed in Wednesday's clashes and 39 were injured. That adds to Tuesday's toll, given to CNN by another Indian spokesman, of one dead and around 60 injured.

Two hours after the clashes, the Indians said they had managed to move back onto the highway and set up fresh blockades.

Tuesday's clashes took place at several locations along the Pan-American Highway.

One spokesman for the National Indigenous Council told CNN that injuries to Indians, mostly of the Nasa tribe, had occurred in clashes with riot police near the southwest town of La Maria Piendamo and farther north near a community known as La Candelaria. He said 18 of the injured at La Maria Piendamo had gunshot wounds.

Col. Jorge Enrique Cartagena, commander of the police's elite riot squad, said his men had not used live rounds, only tear gas and water cannons.

He said seven of his men had been hurt, two seriously, by demonstrators who tossed rocks and fired stones from slingshots, and by exploding gunpowder.

He also said leftist guerrilla fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had infiltrated the demonstration and were motivating the protest. Indian organizations deny the accusation, which law enforcement officials frequently level at social protests across the country.

The Pan-American Highway is a network of routes stretching from Alaska to South America's southern tip in Patagonia. The idea for it was conceived in 1923 to unite the Americas.

The road network is only broken at the jungle-covered border of Panama and Colombia -- a stretch of about 54 miles (87 kilometers) called the Darien Gap. Otherwise, the road network runs about 29,000 miles (48,000 kilometers).

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/15/colombia.clashes/

http://snipurl.com/4ebkd

states "huh uh!"

Thanks for breaking this story, magbana. I'm going to look for more on it when I get back later tonight.

I noted this in the report:

...police moved in with armored personnel carriers and water cannons to clear the highway.

Why don't they go get their death squads? Can't use them as often right now, someone (the whole world) is watching.

trade agreement because of the assassination of organizers. That's the first time I've ever heard him sound like he knew the stakes.

was sane, focused, and moral, unlike the positions held by the free trade a-holes who support the death squad massacres of union workers attempting to derive at least partially liveable wages and conditions from their employers who are hell bent upon driving them hard at low wages, as close as you can come to slave labor.

Business makes a profit by avoiding paying the workers what they actually earn.

In Colombia, they not only steal the product from the employees, they KILL them if they attempt to make their trapped, painful lives less horrendous by raising the quality of their lives beyond extreme poverty, after working themselves into early graves for the companies who refuse to offer health benefits, workers' compensation, pension programs, and even a shadow of an honorable wage.

It was WONDERFUL hearing him actually saying that, and I was as surprised as you to hear those words spoken out loud, on tv!

updated 2 hours, 38 minutes ago
Colombian Indians push anti-government protests

POPAYAN, Colombia (CNN) -- Thousands of Colombian Indians plan to protest government policies on Tuesday in the country's second-largest city, marking more than a week of demonstrations against the nation's free-market economic policies.

Indian leaders in the mountains of southwest Colombia announced during the weekend they were gathering as many as 20,000 protesters and would begin to march Tuesday on the city of Cali, an industrial and agricultural hub.

At least two Indians have been killed and more than 80 have been injured in the protests, which began October 10 and have included a blockade of the Pan-American highway. The government says as many as 70 security force members, mainly riot police, have also been injured.

During the past week, protesters throwing rocks and firing sling shots, catapults and Molotov cocktails, have clashed with riot police, who fought back with tear gas, rocks and batons.

The Indians also say the security forces have been shooting at them with rifles and canisters packed with shrapnel. President Alvaro Uribe has denied that police and army forces have been using lethal force against demonstrators, but medics say they have treated scores of Indians injured by bullets and shrapnel.

The protesters allege one of their own, 27-year-old Taurino Ramos, was fatally shot in the head by police. The police have made no official comment.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/20/colombia.protests/index.html

updated 2 hours, 24 minutes ago
2 men killed in Colombia protests

From Karl Penhaul
CNN

VILLARICA, Colombia (CNN) -- Two men were shot to death Tuesday in a clash with riot police amid a burgeoning Indian protest in southwestern Colombia.

The men were shot in the head and back as they sought to join thousands of Indians marching on Colombia's second-largest city, Cali.

Other demonstrators said government security forces fired on the men, but Colombian authorities denied the allegation. Police claim protesters attacked them with homemade explosives.

Tuesday's violence stirred resentment among Indians.

"We went out there today to reject the government, and they open fire on us," one protester said.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/22/colombia.protesters/index.html

2 hours, 26 minutes ago
Uribe: Colombian police fired on protesters

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe admitted Wednesday that police fired on Indian demonstrators despite a government pledge that security forces would not do so.

Uribe had earlier denied accusations that security forces fired at demonstrators during protests by thousands of Indians.

"The police did fire," Uribe said at a news conference Wednesday.

He made his remarks after CNN obtained and aired a videotape that shows police at La Maria Indian reservation.

The video shows a man in an olive green uniform and ski mask raise an M-16 assault rifle, standard issue for some Colombian police units, and fire three shots, though the target is unclear.

~snip~
I worry when I see all these videos on international TV that don't show that this country has respected diversity," he said. "The government respects social protest. What the government doesn't tolerate is violence."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/23/colombia.shooting/index.html



Yeah, right!