30 March 2007Colombian Army Chief Accused of Paramilitary Ties [0]
front-page article [0], disclosed a CIA report linking the chief of the Colombian Army, General Mario Montoya Uribe, with paramilitary activity.
The CIA report was based on information from an unproven source in an allied intelligence agency, but the document also cited the U.S. military attaché in Bogotá, who said that the report “confirms information provided by a proven source†and that information from the source “also could implicate†armed forces chief Freddy Padilla de Leon.
Montoya rejected the report, and a Colombian government statement [1] said that Montoya had received the blessing of the United States when he was posted in southern Colombian in a US-financed base known as Tres Esquinas. However, the statement did not directly deny that the military carried out Operation Orion together with paramilitary groups.
Yet General Montoya’s history of paramilitary collaboration apparently goes back much further. When Montoya commanded a unit in southern Putumayo department in 2000-01, soldiers under his command “bedded down†and shared intelligence with the 24th Brigade, a unit banned from receiving U.S. aid because of its reputation for paramilitary collaboration, according to a U.S. Embassy cable. “With army troops from the nearby 24th Brigade blocking roads behind them,†the San Francisco Chronicle reported in December 2000, paramilitary “gunmen selected 26 people, mostly youths, and executed them on suspicion of being guerrillas. In November 1999, the death squads massacred 12 more people in El Placer, 10 miles away. And over the past year, as many as 100 civilians have been killed in the province, mostly one by one. Human-rights groups in Bogotá and Washington complained, government investigators were sent, reports were written. No one has been convicted.â€
Two years later, Montoya was commanding the Fourth Brigade in MedellÃn, known most recently for “false positivesâ€: body counts that the army attributes to combat with guerrillas but turn out to be civilians killed by soldiers [1]. On orders from President Uribe, Montoya commanded operations to sweep guerrillas out of Comuna 13, a densely populated hillside barrio of some 100,000 poor residents. The most brutal of these was Operation Orión in October, in which at least fourteen people were killed. In November 2002, an FOR delegation visited a neighborhood women’s group in Comuna 13 whose members were in grief over the apparently illegal detention of three of their leaders two days before. The residents recounted Operation Orión, only one of 17 operations in Comuna 13 that year. The delegates wrote:
Walking back down from our meeting, we noticed the flag of Colombia was flying from the front of almost every shop. Residents told us that everyone has been pressured to fly the flag as a show of support for the military that is now occupying the neighborhood. At night, they said, the paramilitaries are running through the streets shouting, "we're in control now!"
In addition to receiving military training and later serving as an instructor at the U.S. School of the Americas, Montoya was assigned as commander of Joint Task Force South, the premier mission of Washington’s $1.3 billion spending on Plan Colombia in 2000-2001, and promoted to head the Colombian Army in 2006.
The CIA report and earlier documentation of General Montoya’s collaboration with paramilitary terrorist groups raise serious questions, not only about the Unites States’ “vetting†process to screen out human rights abusers. If the chief of the principle institutional beneficiary of Plan Colombia has such a long history of supporting terrorists, how can Congress even consider continued funding for the Colombian Army?
More information:
Sean Donahue, “The Life and Crimes of General Montoya Uribe [2]â€
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Colombia seeks eight in Chiquita terrorist scandal [3],†Christian Science Monitor, 2/22/07
“Colombians seek Chiquita extradtions [4],†Washington Post, 3/21/07
“Banana para-republic†Semana, 3/17/07
“Los mismos gringos de la Masacre las Bananeras… [5]â€, Ignacio Gómez, 5/6/06
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Read the rest of this article here [6]]
For further accounts:
A New Network Forms to Close U.S. Overseas Military Bases [7], by Medea Benjamin
No Bases Network born in the Middle of the World [8], by Helga Serrano Narváez
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Click here for information and application [8], or call 415-495-6334. Applications are due June 29.
Join us from August 4-18, 2007 as we visit Colombian peace movements, including the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, the Youth Network of Medellin, Antioquia Peasant Association, and more.
By participating in this trip, you come to have a greater understanding of the peaceful resistance growing in Colombia, the "drug war", and U.S. military intervention. The August delegation will inaugurate new efforts in civilian diplomacy by the Colombia Program, including on-line and teleconference sessions for the month previous to the trip. Our permanent accompaniment work allows FOR to assemble a unique and rich delegation experience. Your chance at meaningful formation awaits you!
Cost is $1400 from Bogotá.
For more information/applications, contact: FOR, moira(a)igc.org, 415-495-6334
On March 1, Mark C. Johnson joined Fellowship of Reconciliation as its new Executive Director. Mark brings to FOR much experience and many skills. He has a long history in peace and social justice issues, including extensive experience in the Middle East. A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, Johnson fulfilled his alternative service in Beirut, Lebanon and lived in Lebanon for six years. He has worked for many years for the YMCA at the local and national levels.
For the past four years Mark has been an officer of FOR's Chicago Area chapter. He also currently serves as special events chair of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, a coalition of U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian NGOs engaged in conflict transformation work. During his years with YMCA of the USA, he was very involved in the work of the Jerusalem International Y and developed a series of programs bringing young adults from Israel/Palestine to the United States to acquire conflict transformation skills.
Mark Johnson earned a bachelor's degree in English and history from the College of Wooster (Ohio), a master's in philosophy from Columbia University, and a doctorate in sociology from Columbia. He is an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church and a current member of First United Methodist Church/ Chicago Temple.
Mark can be reached by email at mjohnson(a)forusa.org
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Pedaling for Peace [9], FOR team member Janice describes her experience of Bush’s appearance in Colombia on March 11:
Bush came to Colombia today for six hours to meet with embattled Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. In the midst of scandal over many Uribe political allies' involvement with paramilitary groups, who are accused of horrendous human rights violations, Bush met with Uribe to discuss the Free Trade Agreement pending in Congress and the "progress" that has been made under Plan Colombia.
Bogotanos, in return, took to the street. From Wednesday through today protests took place throughout the city against Bush's visit. This week has demonstrated to me the broad-based opposition to Bush's policies in Colombia, and also brought into sharp relief how a small number of violent (anti-Bush) protestors can undermine and endanger collective peaceful resistance. What perhaps you have already seen on the news are the images of protestors kicking, throwing things, etc. What I saw today were about 2,000 non-violent protestors, including kids with their mothers, a man who is about to lose his job at a telephone company because of neoliberalism, a 24-year old who talked to me about the natural and cultural richness of her country, and a high school teacher who objects to Uribe, Colombia's president, being put into power by paramilitary forces and the US, not by the pueblo - the people. There were also a 100 or so violent youth throwing rocks amidst the rest of the non-violent protestors. As a result, police dispersed the protest after less than two hours with tear gas, and then later water hoses.
[On a previous day, Janice observed students protesting outside of the National University:]
It is intense, and I would say inspiring to see so many students out protesting (though the rock-throwing is, well, the opposite of inspiring). The vast majority of students attending the rally were peaceful, and unlike some protests I've been to in the US, when I "interviewed" protest onlookers for this blog, all students at the National University, they all knew why they were there, and wanted to let me know. Some excerpts:
“We are here protesting the TLC (the pending Free Trade Agreement with Colombia) because it will destroy our economy, use up our natural resources, and eliminate indigenous communities.â€
“We know that Plan Colombia is really a counter-insurgency plan more than having anything to do with helping our country out socially. The money goes to help the armed forces, who a year ago killed a student, Oscar Salas, in one of these demonstrations. We are indignant that Bush is coming to a place where he is just destroying society, which is what the U.S. has always done here.â€