Peru signed Free Trade Agreements with the United States and Canada and so did Colombia. Peru led the negotiations for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, while Colombia recently ratified the declaration. (more…)
Incidents where Multinational Corporations (MNCs) sponsor massacres in order to eradicate dissenting voices against their obsession for profit have been a motif through Colombia’s history.
At the beginning of the 20th century it was the army who suppressed labor protests. The best example is the Banana Massacre in 1928 in which the army exterminated laborer protesting over wages in behalf of the United Fruit Company. This bloody episode in Colombia’s history was immortalized in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Since the mid 20th century, the slaughtering of the most vulnerable in society has been “outsourced” from the military to paramilitaries directly sponsored by MNCs but still in direct complicity with the government and the army. (more…)
On 2009/06/07, In Conflict, By Albeiro Rodas
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Mancuso admits responsibility for 4 massacres |
It seems that the name of Salvatore Mancuso will linger long in what is the present Colombian history. From a jail in Washington, the former war lord of the Paramilitary groups known as AUC, makes that many tremble in the South American nation. Many of them, victims, relatives and friends of victims that will know the true, many others as supportive or perpetrators of infamous crimes against humanity.
Last Friday, Mancuso admitted responsibility for four massacres committed by his paramilitary forces in La Gabarra, El Salado, Cucuta and Pichillin. Ninety civilians were killed in cold blood by paramilitary forces in these massacres. (more…)
On 2009/01/08, In Politics, By Albeiro Rodas
Washington D.C. October 16, 2005 - The National Security Archive. Today, the Colombia Documentation Project proudly announces the first in a series of articles to be published in collaboration with Semana, Colombia’s leading news magazine. The column, which will appear monthly on Semana.com, is the result of a mutual desire to publish and disseminate in Colombia declassified information now emerging from United States files about the major issues in the U.S.-Colombia relationship, including the drug war, security assistance programs, human rights and impunity. (more…)
On 2008/12/07, In Politics, By Albeiro Rodas
Foto: Óscar Pérez - El Espectador
True or not, one thing is completely true: The matter of paramilitaries has been a shadow for the governance of president Álvaro Uribe. For several opponents, President Uribe and his family has been involved with Paramilitaries since the beginning of his political career. To state that, books have been written. This coming 9th of December the human rights defenders Iván Cepeda and Jorge Rojas will present their work “A las puertas del Ubérrimo” (At The Doors of the Ubérrimo), published by Random House Mondadori. (more…)
On 2008/06/18, In Culture, By Albeiro Rodas
Once one of the most fearing paramilitary leader in Medellín, an almost succesor of the Pablo Escobar reign got a plea agreement of 27 to 33 years to serve in prison before a court in Manhattan. “Don Berna”, the criminal nick name of Diego Murillo, 47, has recognized that he conspired with military, political and “anti-communist” forces to smuggle cocaine into US. He is one of the 14 paramilitary leaders extradited to US courts last May 13 by president Álvaro Uribe with the reason they were not cooperating enough in the Colombian peace process. The paramilitary leaders were among the most wanted drug dealers by US and most of them have been prosecuted to serve sentences as long as 45 years. However, Murillo is also charged in Colombian courts by crimes against humanity and human rights violation.
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