Dispatches From Colombia's Paramilitary Stronghold

[seemslikeadream]

From: Toby Muse
Subject: Fearing Peace
Thursday, June 10, 2004, at 12:35 PM PT
For the connoisseur of slang, Colombia's rich lexicon of war and crime is a treasure trove.

In one short visit to this country, one may be the victim of "miracle fishing" (Marxist guerrilla roadblocks set up randomly in the hope of finding someone wealthy enough to kidnap), take a "millionaire ride" (be driven at gunpoint around the city withdrawing money from every ATM until your cash card is maxed out), or have someone "fall in love with you" (be murdered).
Colombia's extreme right-wing paramilitaries, originally founded by wealthy farmers as a vigilante group to guard against Marxist guerrillas, have been given numerous monikers, as if Colombians never tire of rolling the word "paramilitares" around their mouths only to spit out a new variation. The most common term is the simple abbreviation "para." Others call them "paracos," and an indigenous tribe in the north of Colombia inexplicably refers to them as "paraguayos" (Paraguayans).




The paramilitaries themselves prefer their official name: the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym AUC. In some parts of the country, they're referred to as the "head-cutters," a nickname earned in the course of their merciless war against rebels and their sympathizers. The U.S. government calls AUC a "foreign terrorist organization" and lists them alongside al-Qaida.



Amid stories of paramilitary massacres, assassinations, extortion, U.S. extradition warrants, and human rights reports detailing the use of torture, it's easy to forget that there's a sizable minority in this country that approves and finances AUC. For many, especially the wealthy landowners who started the group, these fighters are saving the country from being overrun by guerrillas.



Locals say that when guerrillas operated in Cordoba in the 1980s, farm owners lived in fear of assassination, kidnapping, and extortion. Since the paramilitaries took over, the wealthy feel much safer, and now crime has dropped dramatically until it is one of the safer places in the country. It's a foolhardy criminal who strikes in an area under paramilitary control, with the prospect of immediate—and severe—justice.



Over the last five years, the paramilitaries have grown quicker than any other armed group in the country and are now Colombia's country's second-largest illegal force after FARC.
In an e-mail interview, Rodrigo argued that the peace process was nothing but a sham: As the paramilitaries "give up their mercenaries piecemeal, they earn time and keep abandoning their zones that logic dictates the guerrillas will retake.'' In the end, "they'll say that they cannot fully hand themselves over because the government has not fulfilled its obligations of containing the guerrillas." According to Rodrigo, the paramilitaries hope this peace process will whitewash their histories of drug-trafficking, legitimize the millions they've made, and remove the threat of extradition.


http://slate.msn.com/id/2102208/entry/0/

[LittleApple81]

1. Colombia has suffered so much. And it started the way we are

starting now in America: an Oligarchy that doesn't care about anything but itself and maintaining the "plebeians" down.

[struggle4progress]

2. Yes. And the Bushistas are developing ...

the world's largest mercenary army in Iraq.

I'm afraid it's coming back here. :scared:

[seemslikeadream]

3. Thanks struggle4progress Colombian paramilitaries

Colombian paramilitaries: A sub-command group of 20 people served as slave


Published: Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Bylined to: Philip Stinard


Colombian paramilitaries: A sub-command group of 20 people served as slaves

Panorama (Maracaibo) reports: Commissioner David Colmenares, head of investigations for DISIP, told Panorama by telephone that to date, 122 irregulars have been detained, as well as eight officers active in the Air Force and Armed Forces of Venezuela, in the case of the Colombian paramilitaries captured in Venezuela.

Click here for the original Spanish text

“We’re analyzing telephone evidence and witnesses’ testimony. We can say that there are a number of prisoners, minors, people who once they were baited with a ‘real’ reason to go, were then forcibly taken to Venezuela. Some of them were deceived into going to Venezuela.”



Colmenares explained, “One of these youths stated on a TV channel that they had brought him here to Venezuela, and had gotten him an ID to vote for President Chavez, but that is totally contradictory. How are you going to believe that Robert Alonso, an anti-Chavez and anti-Castro extremist, is going to bring someone here to vote for Chavez? Undoubtedly, they deceived this young man.”

The head of DISIP continued, “At least 20 were deceived. They were held as slaves. We’ve determined that they weren’t in Group A, rather in a group that they vulgarly called ‘The Gonorrhea’…. They were kept for domestic labor, always watched by others so they wouldn’t try to escape.”

It’s thought that the person whose cadaver was found was part of this sub command group.

more
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21208


Bay of Croissants - a bit o'musment from SA

they also found many croissants from the known Danubio pastry shop.

Other episodes have not been successful
Counter-intelligence in Venezuela


It is a group of "peasants, as they themselves have said," said the intelligence police's head (Photo: Venancio Alcázares)

The government statements on the capture of the suspected Colombian paramilitaries in the south of Caracas were quite abundant. The government admitted that except for one pistol, there were no guns. An alarmed Interior and Justice Minister Lucas Rincón, however, said that they also found many croissants from the known Danubio pastry shop


GIULIANA CHIAPPE
EL UNIVERSAL

The paramilitaries fell from heaven - or from hell, who knows? Whatever your view is, the truth is that they were found at a moment when the scandal for the Fuerte Mara fire and Súmate's successful pre-claim campaign needed to be minimized.

The biggest question is who brought them to Venezuela in such an inefficient way. The only certainty is that they did not come alone. One theory, defended by the government, insists that it is a destabilizing strategy of the opposition. Another version is that

it's a government montage, a theatrical representation as many others that the nation has witnessed before.

The creation of this kind of smoke screen, or the use of controlled situations to obtain concrete goals, are part of counter-intelligence, an activity in which the Cubans have acquired a vast experience. Just as any other simulation of the recent years, the case of the paramilitaries captured in Caracas on May 9 shows some clues that indicate that it might be an intelligence operation.

Bay of Croissants

The government statements on the capture of the suspected Colombian paramilitaries in the south of Caracas were quite abundant. The government admitted that except for one pistol, there were no guns. An alarmed Interior and Justice Minister Lucas Rincón, however, said that they also found many croissants from the known Danubio pastry shop.

Colombian paramilitaries in Caracas: background information timeline


Diario Panorama/VTV report: Panorama (Maracaibo) has published background information related to the events last Sunday on the outskirts of Caracas, when a group of at least 79 paramilitaries were seized at a ranch owned by opposition leader Roberto Alonso. In order to obtain a broader overview of the facts and activities preceding the events of the past few days, the list has been combined with another compilation published by Venezolana de Television on its website.



From Alonso’s website: “Since December 2nd, 2002, the day on which the national strike began, Roberto Alonso began his campaign of ‘Alerts’, sending his articles to over 80,000 e-mail addresses, which receive these essays almost daily, alerting about the danger that Venezuela is in of falling into the eternal and international trap of Castro-communism”

From one of the “Alerts”, titled “The problem isn’t getting rid of Chavez”, we take an excerpt: “Let’s talk straight. Getting rid of Mr. Chavez could be easier than peeling tangerines with long fingernails. It happened once, and that was done “accidentally, but on purpose”…. After much evaluation, there is no doubt that the only thing we need would be to create a crisis similar to the one on April 11th, where we could even prevent deaths.”

“…To prevent deaths – at least in large quantities – an anarchic explosion is required; uncontrolled, unarmed, in the largest cities of Venezuela, under the condition that it would happen, or in the worst case, that it starts and people would start joining in without hesitating too much.”

Guarimbose code:

In May 2003 and February 2004, Roberto Alonso wrote about the guarimba ... he reported in his essays that there is a Radical Defense Movement (MDR), but that it would not be the one making guarimbas happen. “Our job, for now, is simply suggesting it and explaining the plan… The Guarimba will last as long as it needs to in order to get rid of an unconstitutional government… The best thing that could happen in Venezuela is for us to topple an illegitimate president by means of the guarimba. The guarimba is very charming ... there isn’t enough military personnel or bullets in the Venezuelan Armed Forces to stop it. If applied correctly against the regime, it would not be able to resist an afternoon.”


more
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_7843.shtml

Venezuelan gov’t arrests Colombian coup plotters

Edited on Fri May-21-04 08:11 AM by seemslikeadream
Venezuelan gov’t arrests
Colombian coup plotters
Mass protest denounces U.S.-backed plan to oust gov’t
lead article

BY MARTÍN KOPPEL
AND MARION TALBOT


Speaking to the crowd at the conclusion of the march, Chávez said, “I’m calling for the massive integration of the people into the defense of the nation.” This is in addition to steps by the government to expand the size of the regular army and reserves. The Venezuelan president announced that retired and reserve officers would be named to head up a campaign of military training “in every neighborhood, field, university, and factory for the territorial defense” of the country. He said such a step was provided for in the Venezuelan constitution.

Sharpening confrontation
Many demonstrators interviewed by the Militant pointed out that the U.S. government has been escalating its campaign of threats against Venezuela. Through Plan Colombia, which funnels billions in aid to the Colombian military, Washington has encouraged the Colombian army to carry out provocative maneuvers near the Venezuelan border. The sharpening confrontation between most capitalists here, who have Washington’s support, and working people in Venezuela is intertwined with the latest moves by the U.S. government to tighten its four-decade-long economic war against revolutionary Cuba (see article on front page). One target of the U.S. rulers’ offensive is the fact that Cuba has sent thousands of doctors, teachers, agricultural technicians, and other volunteers to Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials said the individuals arrested had been undergoing military training at the ranch after they secretly entered Venezuela in March. In a May 14 press conference, Chávez said that among the arrested were Rafael Omaña and José Ernesto Ayala, two commanders of Colombia’s banned ultrarightist group United Self-Defense (AUC), who led forces near the Colombia-Venezuela border.

The term “paramilitary” is widely used in Colombia and elsewhere to describe these forces. This is done in order to hide the fact that these are simply units of Colombia’s military spun from the army to have a freer hand to carry out killings of peasants and other atrocities, while letting the right-wing government save face publicly. Chávez stated that the plot originated with right-wing Venezuelans living in Miami and that the U.S. government knew about it, an accusation U.S. officials denied. “There are people in the United States who keep thinking of how to start a war in Venezuela so that they can justify an invasion,” Chávez said.

To justify Washington’s campaign against the Venezuelan government, U.S. officials have declared that Cuban advisors are being placed in key positions in government ministries. The May 8 Miami Herald quoted an unnamed U.S. State Department official, who said, “We see a very worrisome spread in Castro’s infiltration of Venezuela under Chávez.” The Herald cited unnamed officials claiming that Cuban advisors are now in Venezuela’s secret police, DISIP, the Interior Ministry, the Central Bank, and the immigration service.

more
http://www.themilitant.com/2004/6821/682101.html


Venezuela: Strange figures from the Central Bank

The Central Bank reports that oil exports came to $6.907 billion in the first quarter of 2004, which, at an average price of $28.73 per barrel, gives an export volume of 2,642,000 barrels a day. However, if to that figure the 400,000 b/d consumed by the domestic market is added, one concludes that the Central bank is saying that production was more than 3 million b/d. Both the International Energy Agency and Gente del Petrólo put oil production at nearly 2.6 million (400,000 b/d less).

For the first time in the 64 years since the Central Bank was founded, there may be grounds for doubting the veracity of its statistics. The figures issued by the Central Bank are supposedly obtained from PDVSA. What is surprising is not so much that PDVSA is padding the figures, but that the Central Bank’s technicians have not made the necessary corrections.

It looks as though the Central Bank’s figures are no longer to be trusted.
http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200405210445

chomsky on venezuela


http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/291950.html

Question: Professor Chomsky, does the recent discovery and arrest of over a hundred Colombian paramilitaries in a ranch just outside of Caracas, many of them wearing Venezuelan military uniforms, does that signify a new phase in Washington's aggression towards the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and do you see any kind of military intervention, perhaps through Colombia, as being likely?

Noam Chomsky: It's not impossible, we really don't know, we don't have the details, but that the United States is trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government is not at all in question. In fact there was a military coup two years ago, which overthrew the government for a couple of days. The US welcomed it at once. It had to back down because of the overwhelming objection of the rest of Latin America, where they had this odd, old-fashioned idea about democratically-elected governments. And then the population immediately overthrew the coup-leaders.

There's a further consequence to that. The Venezuelan Supreme Court, which represents the old regime, the elite regime, determined that they could not be brought to trial, and the Venezuelan government, allegedly a totalitarian government, amazingly accepted the Supreme Court judgment, and did not bring them to trial.

Shortly after that, there was a terrorist bombing in Caracas, and two of the military officers who had been coup-leaders were implicated in the bombing. They fled to the United States, where they requested asylum. Venezuela called for extradition. That's where it stands right now, it's been about two months. The US has not given an official answer, as far as I know, to the call for extradition.

Incidentally, it's very hard to follow any of this because none of it ever gets reported, by the usual principals. But is this a further attempt? Your guess is as good as mine.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2004/05/291952.mp3

[seemslikeadream]

4. photo Essay: Civilians Caught in the Crossfire

photo Essay: Civilians Caught in the Crossfire

In Colombia, oil resources are only one reason for the ongoing armed conflict. The Colombian military and the paramilitaries also battle guerrillas over the control of coca-producing regions that provide 90 percent of the cocaine reaching the United States. Civilians account for up to 75 percent of the conflict's victims.







A soldier of the Colombian army's "immediate reaction battalion" (FUDRA) guards a Black Hawk helicopter in the Andean highlands.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/colombia/slideshowb2.html

[anarchy1999]

5. Here is a narrative of a friend's recent trip to Columbia as a PeaceKeeper

http://pages.prodigy.net/duane.ediger/fears&prayers.htm
snip:
COLOMBIA: Fears and prayers in attack aftermath

By Carol Rose and Duane Ediger

On Friday, April 23, three Colombian army soldiers in civilian dress were shot, presumably by guerrilla forces, while boating down the Opon River. CPT found the bullet-punctured and blood-stained and canoe floating downstream the following day. The body of 23-year-old Oscar Becerra Gomez was recovered downstream on April 26. The other two are missing and presumed dead. In the attack's aftermath, CPT Colombia maintained a prayerful, observant presence with civilians and combatants.

Los Ñeques, where the attack took place, is home to farmers, fishers, children, great-grandparents, chefs, singers, sharers of mangos and smiles and practical jokes. Many of them took temporary flight to the city on the afternoon of the attack out of uncertainty over what might follow. Violence opens the door for the spirit of fear to oppress communities.


and here is another amazing narration of a trip in 2001:

Arise! Answering Colombian cries

Dallas Peace Times June-July 2001

Dallas Peace Times Editor Duane Ediger spent three months in Colombia this spring, serving in a pilot project of Christian Peacemaker Teams. This issue features several articles, including this feature, from his experiences there.

http://www.dallaspeacecenter.org/arise.htm

Columbia is the war we are not supposed to know about. It is really sad to think about what is being done in the name of "freedom and democracy" all over this little world.

[bobthedrummer]

6. Labor organizers and supporters are called "terrorists" in Colombia

Tortured and killed by SOA trained death squads with US taxes helping pay murderers. I ran an informational picketline for the UFCW for 14 months once.
http://www.populist.com/02.7.Hirsch.html

[seemslikeadream]

7. left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries

The government is stepping up its war against drugs with a military campaign targeting both drug traffickers and coca farms

The AUC, the country's principal right-wing paramilitary group, has been penetrating deeper into FARC territory, trying to drive the guerrillas out of the country. Like the FARC, the AUC says it taxes drug manufacturers.

Across the country peasants have been forced to flee their homes to escape the fighting between left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries. This school complex houses up to 10 families per room.

Fed up with languishing as refugees, a few families began moving back in July.

Refugee barrios are commonplace outside Colombia's cities. An estimated 40,000 people crowd into the one in Cartagena, and more arrive daily. When the sun went down on June 24, 2000, this field at the barrio's western edge contained only grass and a few small trees. By morning, hundreds of refugees had moved in, clearing the weeds and turning the trees into frames for their crude tents.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/colombia.noframes/story/photo/

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...

HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...

BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html


Wumpscut
Totmacher

sie ahnten nichts von mir
von meiner wilden gier
doch als du kamst zu mir
da wurde ich ein tier
kein gedanke an danach
als ich dir die knochen brach

tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot

tot

fuer mein naechstes leben
schoepfe ich neue kraft
ich bin dem toeten ergeben
in der einzelhaft

tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot
tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot

ein dahinsichen
von gottes hand
ich kann dich riechen
und das denken verschwand

tot tot tot tot tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot tot tot tot tot

ich mache dich tot ich mache dich tot
ich mache dich tot ich mache dich tot

sag mir was du willst
dass du meine sehnsucht stillst
ich mache dich tot fuer immerdar
von blut alles rot auf gottes altar

tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot

ich mache dich tot fuer immerdar
ich mache dich tot glaub mir es ist wahr
ich mache dich tot fuer immerdar
ich mache dich tot auf gottes altar

[struggle4progress]

8. kick

:kick:

[seemslikeadream]

9. When the Pentagon decided to send Colombia military

"FAIR USE"

Military aid . . . from the private sector
When the Pentagon decided to send Colombia military
help for the war on drugs, it chose to outsource it.

By Paul De La Garza and David Adams
December 3, 2000
© St. Petersburg Times



WASHINGTON -- As U.S. assistance to war-fatigued Colombia escalates, the Clinton administration portrays American military involvement there as nothing more than basic anti-drug fighting aid.
Haunted by the shadows of Vietnam and El Salvador, administration officials vow to avoid managing another war by proxy in a foreign land.

The truth, however, isn't that clear cut.

Enlisted U.S. military personnel in Colombia, which average 250 on any given day, are under orders to stick to anti-drug efforts, including training of three anti-drug battalions.

But the Clinton administration quietly has hired a high-level group of former U.S. military personnel whose job far exceeds the narrow focus of the drug war and is intended to turn the Colombian military into a first-class war machine capable of winning a decades-old leftist insurgency.

These military consultants keep in close contact with Pentagon officials while advising Colombians on efforts to improve the Colombian army and even advise on the passage of new laws to help make the Colombian military more professional and effective. In addition, the consultants are helping to revamp the National Police, traditionally charged with fighting the drug war in Colombia.

The hiring of military experts -- in this case, Military Professional Resources Inc., an Alexandria, Va.-based company run mostly by retired U.S. military brass -- is a relatively new development in American foreign military assistance programs.

Critics say the practice, known as outsourcing, is intended to bypass congressional oversight and provide political cover to the White House if something goes wrong. MPRI has done other work for Washington around the world, including in the Balkans.

"We're outsourcing the war in a way that is not accountable," says Robin Kirk of Human Rights Watch. She argues that because the 130,000-strong Colombian military is notorious for human rights violations, it is essential for the United States to provide assistance "in accordance with international law and in a transparent manner -- not in secret."

Supporters of private military companies, however, argue that not only are they more cost-efficient than the U.S. military but that they ease the pressure on American troops, burdened by foreign assignments, including peacekeeping missions.

MPRI is working full time in Colombia under a $6-million contract. The company has dispatched 14 employees to Bogota under the direction of a retired Army major general.

Administration officials say MPRI personnel are doing precisely what uniformed American soldiers have traditionally done. They say MPRI was hired not because it has any special expertise, but because U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which oversees American military operations in Latin America, cannot spare 14 men to send to Colombia.

"What are we doing with MPRI that Southern Command or someone else can't do? In theory, nothing," Brian Sheridan, the senior Pentagon official who oversees the work of MPRI, said in congressional testimony in March.

"It's a manpower issue," he said.

Nevertheless, U.S.-Colombia policy experts say the use of firms like MPRI is intended primarily to limit the risk of American military casualties there.

"It's very handy to have an outfit not part of the U.S. armed forces, obviously," said former U.S. ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette. "If somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say it's not a member of the armed forces. Nobody wants to see American military men killed."

Although the hiring of MPRI was approved by Congress, it raises serious questions about the propriety of U.S. intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state, of American civilians participating in a foreign war, and whether the United States can guarantee the Colombian military will not misuse the assistance it receives from MPRI.

It also raises the question of the privatization of American foreign policy.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, is the author of human rights requirements in the $1.3-billion aid package Congress approved in June under Plan Colombia, a $7.5-billion internationally funded program with a strong U.S. military component designed to brace Colombia against collapse.

He, too, is critical of using companies like MPRI.

"(It) is fraught with dangers, especially when human rights are at stake," Leahy said.

"The Congress has little choice but to rely on the Pentagon to supervise the contractors, but the Pentagon too often does not pay close attention.

"We have no way of knowing if the contractors are training these Colombian soldiers in ways that are fully consistent with U.S. policy, laws and procedures."

MPRI and the Pentagon both denied requests by the Times to review the MPRI contract, which is renewable each year. MPRI spokesman Ed Soyster, a retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Department's Defense Intelligence Agency, compared the need for secrecy in Colombia with the need for secrecy in Vietnam.

"When I was in Vietnam, I wouldn't want to tell you about my operation," he said. "If the enemy knows about it, he can counter it."

Analytical problem solvers

In congressional testimony and in interviews, Pentagon and Colombian officials -- including Sheridan; the retired Southcom commander, Gen. Charles Wilhelm; and the Colombian ambassador to the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno -- have characterized MPRI staff as "men in business suits" who assess problems within the Colombian Ministry of Defense and provide solutions through detailed analysis that Colombia can either accept or reject.

In this view, they aren't any different than the other 50 or so private U.S. contractors providing equipment or services paid for by U.S. foreign aid in Colombia.

MPRI employees can "from time-to-time go out on a field trip to see something," the Pentagon says, including Colombian military operations, but they don't participate in battles against the rebel forces.

Its mission, according to MPRI internal documents, is to provide advice to the Ministry of Defense "with continued development and implementation of military reform measures."

Specifically, MPRI is working with the armed forces and the National Police in the areas of planning; operations, including psychological operations; training; logistics; intelligence; and personnel management.

Soyster, the MPRI spokesman, compares his company with other U.S. companies operating overseas -- "Like Coca-Cola," he said.

But, for the most part, MPRI officials operate out of public view, and neither Pentagon nor MPRI officials will talk in great detail about the company's activities.

MPRI's stated mission in Colombia is strikingly similar to its stated mission in the Balkans.

In January 1996, according to European-based Jane's Intelligence Review, Croatia and MPRI signed the Long Range Management Program designed to assist the Croats "in establishing the architecture, structure, organization and system for planning, programming and budgeting functions for the Croatian Ministry of Defense."

MPRI insisted that its work in Croatia was limited to classroom teachings and never involved any training in tactics or use of weaponry.

But suspicions were aroused after two successful military operations launched by Croatia in 1995, just months after MPRI's contracts began.

The operations "demonstrated that the Croatian army was now able to coordinate armor and infantry attacks supported by large artillery forces and master new communications techniques," Jane's reported. "Most importantly, the Croatian performance did not resemble the usual outmoded Warsaw Pact military tactics."

Officially, U.S. aid to Colombia is directed at the drug war, not the rebel war that has plagued the country for nearly 40 years.

But even senior administration officials, including drug czar Barry McCaffrey, acknowledge that the line between the drug war and the guerrilla war has become increasingly blurred because of rebel involvement in the drug trade.

Indeed, U.S. military officials familiar with the 18-week training program of anti-drug battalions in Colombia say that skills being taught by the Special Forces, including sniper training, are transferable to the fight against the Marxist rebels.

Farther-reaching influence

Among the most provocative parts of the MPRI mission are plans for MPRI to recommend legislation, statutes and decrees to Colombia regarding a military draft, a professional soldier statute, officer entitlements and health law reforms.

"They are using us to carry out American foreign policy," Soyster, the MPRI spokesman, said. "We certainly don't determine foreign policy, but we can be part of the U.S. government executing its foreign policy."

So delicate is MPRI's work in Colombia that State Department officials say there is an ongoing internal debate within the Clinton administration about for whom MPRI works -- the United States or Colombia?

Moreno, the Colombian ambassador, said he saw no problem in the contract. The United States was paying MPRI, but Colombia was the recipient of its military expertise, he said. "Colombia tells MPRI that we need help or we need advice in this area."

Moreno said he has met with MPRI personnel and that his country welcomed its help.

A country of 41-million people, Colombia has been at war with the rebels, a powerful force of 20,000 men, women and children, since 1964. Once fueled by Marxist ideology, the insurgency is now fueled by the drug trade, critics say.

Complicating peace efforts even further for the government are roving bands of right-wing paramilitary death squads, funded by wealthy landowners as well as the drug trade. Totaling between 5,000 and 10,000 strong, the paramilitaries often have been linked to the Colombian military.

"The military in Colombia has to be very professional and very modern if you are going to have peace," Moreno said. "Any time you spend on modernizing the Colombian military is time well-spent."

Washington has pumped more money into Colombia because it has grown increasingly concerned about the rebel war spilling over into its neighbors. Fighting already threatens stability on the border with Venezuela, a main U.S. supplier of oil, as well as Ecuador and Panama. Only Egypt and Israel get more U.S. foreign aid than Colombia.

U.S. and Colombian officials say one of the strategies in the drug war is to cut off funding to the rebels, who earn hundreds of millions of dollars by selling protection to the drug traffickers. Colombia provides as much as 85 percent of the cocaine sold on U.S. streets and an increasing amount of heroin.

In explaining the impetus for the use of MPRI, Pentagon officials say they have become frustrated over the past 40 years with trying to help reform the Colombian military piecemeal, doing exchange programs, for instance, that yielded poor results.

State Department officials say Washington is not using MPRI to ram military reform down the throats of the Colombians. Colombia can reject MPRI suggestions.

Moreno agreed.

When MPRI began operations in Colombia, the Pentagon said the ministry of defense already had begun a reform program.

It was Sheridan, the assistant secretary of defense for the Special Operations Low-Intensity Conflict, or SOLIC, section of the Pentagon, who recommended MPRI to Minister of Defense Luis Fernando Ramirez.

The Pentagon said that every quarter MPRI reports directly to a senior steering committee in Washington, including Sheridan, representatives of Southcom and Randy Beers, the assistant secretary of state for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Congress, meanwhile, gets no updates about the MPRI mission.

And that makes critics, even within the military, queasy.

In 1998, Col. Bruce D. Grant wrote a strategy research project at the U.S. Army War College questioning companies like MPRI.

Not only did he conclude that what they do is illegal, because they circumvent congressional oversight, but he also wondered how military men and women could sell their expertise to the highest foreign bidder.

"This dangerous trend removes military expertise from public accountability and corrupts our military," Grant wrote.

"The unintended consequences of profit-motivated military assistance could detract from U.S. foreign policy objectives, result in tragedy when misused by recipients and leave a dispirited military."

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/Columbia/PentagonWM.html

[Minstrel Boy]

10. "Bomb discovered in Colombia before visit of U.S. senator" (Wellstone)

Bomb discovered in Colombia before visit of U.S. senator
CNN, December 1, 2000

Police arrested Bernardo Alvarez Durarte, a suspected member of the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN), near the location of the land mines, Villar said. The United States supports Colombia in its battle against the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a larger rebel group.

Villar said police had not confirmed that Wellstone and Patterson were the targets, but said blasts from the devices, each carrying a 3-kilogram (6.6-pound) explosive charge, would have been severe.

"If the bomb had gone off, it could have caused immense damage," he said. "It would have spread shrapnel over a wide area and could have taken out 10 or 15 people."

Barrancabermeja has been described as the most violent town in Colombia. The region is plagued by right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels vying for control.
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/12/01/colombia.wellstone.03/

Senator Wellstone fumigated in Colombia

Senator Paul Wellstone, (D-MN), was accidentally sprayed with herbicide during a police demonstration. According to some accounts, Sen. Wellstone and his traveling delegation were sprayed with a mist of herbicide as they watched the Colombian National Police demonstrate a new approach to fumigating coca, the raw product used to produce cocaine.
http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/22/22013.html

Speech by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota)
MASSACRES IN COLOMBIA
(Senate - July 14, 2000)

Mr. WELLSTONE: Mr. President, I want to bring something to the attention of the Senate today. Even though most Senators are gone, I want to do this because I think it should be done in as public a way as possible. I bring to the attention of colleagues a piece in the New York Times. It is a front-page story, `Colombians Tell of Massacre, as Army Stood By.'

When you read this story, there will be tears in your eyes. I don't know whether they will be tears of sadness or tears of anger. I will read just the first few paragraphs:

El Salado, Colombia: The armed men, more than 300 of them, marched into this tiny village early on a Friday. They went straight to the basketball court that doubles as the main square, residents said, announced themselves as members of Colombia's most feared right-wing paramilitary group, and with a list of names began summoning residents for judgment.

A table and chairs were taken from a house, and after the death squad leader had made himself comfortable, the basketball court was turned into a court of execution, villagers said. The paramilitary troops ordered liquor and music, and then embarked on a calculated rampage of torture, rape and killing.

much more...
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/071401.htm

[seemslikeadream]

11. Wellstone just didn't go along with the plan

if the asbestos didn't get him something else would. :cry:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=331606

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=973521

Was Paul Wellstone Murdered by the BFEE?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=972753


disciplined and not too lenghty