Peace and Justice for Colombia

Part 1

Part 2

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By James Petras

Juan Manuel Santos, notorious Defense Minister in the regime of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and closely identified with high crimes against humanity “won” the recent Presidential elections in Colombia, June 2010. The major electronic and print media CNN, FOX News, Washington Post, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the once liberal Financial Times (FT) hailed Santos election, as a great victory for democracy. According to the FT, “Colombia not Venezuela is (the) best model for Latin America” (FT 6/23/2010 p. 8). Citing Santos “overwhelming” margin – he garnered 69% of the vote, the FT claimed he won a “strong mandate” (FT 6/22/2010). In what has to be one of the most flagrant cover-ups in recent history, the media accounts exclude the most egregious facts about the elections and the profoundly authoritarian policies pursued by Santos over the past decade. Continue reading »

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Ground Zero for the US/Colombian War on Farmers

By James Jordan
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

April 6, 2010

The United States continues to fund and direct a war for Colombia’s natural resources that has become nothing less than a war against the nation’s farmers for their land. It is a war that wreaks havoc and terror throughout the countryside as whole communities are threatened, attacked and displaced. There are five million persons in Colombia who have been displaced mainly because of military and paramilitary violence. Sixty percent of those are farmers and farm workers. At this point in time, rural populations in the departments of Tolima and Arauca appear to be specially slated for repression and forced relocation. Continue reading »

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In recent months, there had been an unprecedented escalatation of harassment and persecution of solidarity activists internationally who have shown support to the political struggles of the Colombian and other Latin American peoples. This international campaign began soon after the murder of former FARC-EP leader, Raúl Reyes and the illegal seizure of information from a “magic laptop” that did not get destroyed after heavy bombing. Law specialists have discussed the legitimacy of such source of information, as no protocols were followed while obtaining the data. Moreover there are severe doubts of its authenticity including INTERPOL reports showing improper handling of the laptop by Colombian authorities. In any case, that information —based on alias names, doubtful dates and the media interpretation of the supposed data— has been used as a base for interrogating academics, journalists, human rights advocates, unionists and solidarity activists, in an attempt to simplistically interpret social consciousness, political activism or solidarity with “terrorist activity.” Continue reading »

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By DANIEL KOVALIK, from CounterPunch

This past summer, President Obama announced that he had signed an agreement with Colombia to grant the U.S. military access to 7 military bases in Colombia. As the UK’s Guardian newspaper announced at the time, “[t]he proposed 10-year lease will give the US access to at least seven Colombian bases – three air force, two naval and two army – stretching from the Pacific to the Caribbean.” And, these bases would accommodate up to 800 military and 600 civilian contractors of the United States. As the Guardian explained, this announcement caused outrage in neighboring Latin American nations and “damaged Barack Obama’s attempt to mend relations with the region.” Continue reading »

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Sunday 31st January 2010.

STOP THE HARASSMENT OF POLITICAL PRISONERS & THEIR SUPPORTERS. SILENCE IS NOT AN ALTERNATIVE

Dear friends:

For your information, we have become aware of an incident involving our friend Kevin Neish, a Canadian human rights observer who is currently in Colombia visiting some political prisoners and observing the trial of Liliany Obando. Her public hearing scheduled for 18/19 & 27^th January was cancelled because the “Fiscalia” (Prosecution) failed to provide a copy of the prosecution evidence against Liliany to her defense team. The case was adjourned until 15/16^th February. Continue reading »

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By Garry Leech, Colombia Journal

Many analysts and sectors of the mainstream media have suggested that the apparent ineffectiveness of the U.S. government to resolve the crisis in Honduras is evidence that the influence wielded by the region’s superpower is waning. They argue that the assertiveness of Brazil in its efforts to have Honduras’ coup regime step down and re-instate the country’s democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya illustrates how the balance of power in the region has shifted. But such conclusions might well be premature. After all, given the stubbornness of the coup regime headed by Roberto Micheletti, it could be argued that it is the United States, and by extension its ally Colombia, that are getting their way in Honduras and not Brazil and its leftist allies Venezuela and Bolivia. Continue reading »

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By Sovereign Hager

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International Review of Business Research Papers
Vol. 5 No. 4 June 2009. pp. 1-10
Oliver Villar *
*Dr Oliver Villar is a Lecturer in Politics at the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, Charles Sturt University (CSU).

For half a century, the United States and its client state in Colombia have been unsuccessful in eliminating Latin America’s oldest and most powerful Marxist insurgency the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), via the Cold War, the ‘War on Drugs,’ and the ‘War on Terror’ after 9/11. This is an astonishing feat for a so-called ‘terrorist’ organisation in the twenty-first century. This paper will explore an area much eluded in Washington’s ‘Axis of Evil,’ the US ‘War on Narcoterrorism’ in Colombia with a particular focus on the cocaine drug trade and the FARC. Continue reading »

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By Eva Golinger, from Postcards from the Revolution website

The announcement of the US occupation of more than 7 military bases in Colombia comes at a time when a dictatorship – supported, if tacitly by Washington – in Honduras is consolidating after almost a month and a half has passed since the violent coup d’etat forced Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power. The increased US military presence in Latin America has been perceived by a majority of nations in this hemisphere as a threat to stability and peace in the region. How does the Obama administration justify increasing the Pentagon’s budget and investing almost $1 billion in its Latin American military operations this year? Continue reading »

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