Tens of thousands of Colombians marched on March 6 in Bogota and many other cities to stand with the victims of right-wing paramilitary violence and to protest violence by all armed groups. Solidarity events occurred in New York, Washington, and San Francisco.

Now, in the wake of accusations by a presidential advisor that the activists in Colombia who helped organize these peaceful marches are guerrillas, they are being targeted with paramilitary threats, kidnappings, and even killings.

Lethal attacks on Colombian labor activists also continue. On March 4 in Washington, President Bush called on Congress to approve the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, although Colombia is the most dangerous nation in the world to be a trade unionist. As if in response, in the four days following his statement, four labor leaders in Colombia were murdered.

Los Angeles Times
March 21, 2008

Soldiers, under pressure to show progress in a U.S.-funded war, allegedly are killing civilians and passing them off as rebels.

Raul Arboleda / AFP/Getty Images
FATALITY: A Colombian soldier in January wraps the body of a person who the army said was a leftist guerrilla. Body counts have been considered an indicator of military success.

By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

GRANADA, COLOMBIA -- Street vendor Israel Rodriguez went fishing last month and never came back. Two days later, his family found his body buried in a plastic bag, classified by the Colombian army as a guerrilla fighter killed in battle.

By TATIANA GUERRERO - Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --The U.N. on Friday called for an investigation into the deaths of six organizers of a march protesting the Colombian government and paramilitary death squads.

The victims included union workers and human rights activists. They were killed around the time of the March 6 protest that drew tens of thousands of people.

"This office asks state authorities to guarantee prompt and efficient protection for those human rights defenders and the leaders of social organizations," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

The protest against the FARC February 4 was impressive, no doubt. Considering the fact that the government gave public employees the day off and cut the school schedule in half, it is not surprising that so many people were able to make their "no more FARC" voices heard. Days before the protest, human rights organizations in Colombia issued comuniques to their networks encouraging them not to participate in any kind of counter-protest; some held a mass instead.

Here in San Francisco about 300 people mobilized: many wore the official t-shirt, held Colombian flags and roses were distributed to all. The protesters listened to speakers and marched around Civic Center square a number of times.

from the Lowell Sun Times
By Bridget Scrimenti, 01/14/2008

They planned to harvest cocoa beans.

About eight men, women and children were going to work in the fields. Some even started a seven-hour hike into Colombia's countryside.

But their attempt to gather food came to a sudden and violent end.

The families were viciously attacked and killed by men yielding machetes.

"They killed eight people, three of whom were children, with machetes," said Janice Gallagher. "For me as a U.S. citizen -- if I could do anything to stop that from happening again, I felt a moral imperative to do so."

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Original available here
Translated by Dan Whitesell

At the beginning of 2007 the Colombian government presented the Strategy to Strengthen Democracy and Social Development 2007-2013, better known as Phase II of Plan Colombia. The goal of this strategy is to seek support from the international community for the consolidation of what the (Colombian) government considers the achievements of both Plan Colombia I (1999-2006) and the policy of Democratic Security.

By Liza Smith

On November 23, approximately 5,500 Colombian and Ecuadorian women marched for demilitarization, to end violence against women, to construct peace with dignity and social justice and for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Their celebration was to mark November 25, the International Day to End Violence Against Women. This was the seventh year that women from all over Colombia mobilized “to make visible” an area of conflict in the country and specifically, how that conflict impacts women.

October 2007

President Álvaro Uribe’s ties to Medellín cartel drug lord Pablo Escobar surfaced again in October in the newly released autobiography of Escobar’s former mistress and one-time TV diva Virginia Vallejo. According to Vallejo’s memoirs, Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, Uribe was central to Pablo Escobar’s success in drug trafficking. From his position as director of the Aviation National Agency, Uribe “granted dozens of licences for landing strips and hundreds for aircraft and helicopters on which the drug trafficking infrastructure was built”. She went on to recall that when Uribe’s father was killed in a 1983 aborted kidnapping attempt by FARC in Northeastern Antioquia, Escobar lend him one of his helicopters to bring Uribe’s brother, also wounded in the attack and the deceased father to Medellín.