Colombia

The fightback
User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 30, 2022 4:35 pm

Explosive found in Colombia prior to meeting with Gustavo Petro

Image
The Government of Colombia plans to intervene in the 65 municipalities with the highest security risk to protect the lives of the most vulnerable. | Photo: The Colombian
Published 28 August 2022

The president reiterated in Ituango the call to the armed groups to agree on a multilateral ceasefire and accept his total peace proposal.

Police officers from the Colombian department of Antioquia found an explosive device this Saturday in the municipality of Ituango, minutes before President Gustavo Petro arrived in that community to meet with its members and authorities.

After the incident, the president met with the community at the Pedro Nel Ospina Educational Institution, after setting up a Unified Command Post (PMU), and analyzing the security situation in the region, while reiterating his call to the groups armed to participate in his policy of total peace.

After the security team detonated the explosive device in a controlled manner, the commander of the Antioquia Police, Colonel Daniel Mazo, stated that "at no time was the president's life at risk."


The officer detailed that, under the anti-explosive protocol that is carried out during presidential visits, a dog detected the presence of a suspicious device in a "secondary road" and the security forces proceeded to carry out a controlled activation.

"The place was completely cleared, there is no danger to the community and material is collected in the sector to send to the laboratory, in order to verify whether or not there was an explosive in the place," Mazo said.

Meanwhile, the head of state avoided that "I propose to these groups throughout the country a multilateral ceasefire, human security is measured with lives and that is why I make this proposal" in the company of the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, and the Defense Minister Iván Velásquez.


Similarly, the leader of the Executive intends to focus the fight against illegality on confronting the illegal economies that finance the war in Colombia and are engines of violence; in addition to instructing the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, so that the mayors have autonomy and can make timely decisions.

In this sense, he revealed that various armed factions that commit crimes in Ituango have shown interest in approaching the proposal for total peace; such as the cases of El Clan del Golfo and the dissidents of the 36th front of the FARC.

The Colombian Government has defined the 65 municipalities that are most at risk for social leaders, and in this sense they intend to intervene in these communities to protect the lives of the most vulnerable. Ituango was the second PMU to be installed after Norte de Santander.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/hallan-e ... -0002.html

Massacre denounced in Colombia, number 70 during 2022

Image
As in other areas of the country, the Ombudsman's Office had issued an alert for the department due to the territorial dispute that is taking place between irregular armed groups. | Photo: Colprensa
Published 27 August 2022

The massacre took place in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood of Cúcuta (capital of the department) and resulted in four people being killed.

The Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) denounced this Saturday the perpetration of a new massacre in Colombia, this time the event took place in the department of Norte de Santander.

According to Indepaz, the massacre took place in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood of Cúcuta (capital of the department) and resulted in four people being killed, "so far the identity of the victims has not been recognized," they said.

As in other areas of the country, the Ombudsman's Office had issued an alert for the department due to the territorial dispute that is developing between irregular armed groups, "events such as forced disappearances, murders, forced recruitment are occurring," they add. .


The Colombian authorities detail that the following irregular armed groups are present in the department: The National Liberation Army (ELN); the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC); the Second Marquetalia; FARC dissidents; transnational gangs.

According to Indepaz, so far this year 70 massacres have been perpetrated and 120 social leaders and 32 ex-combatants included in the Peace Agreement have been assassinated.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/colombia ... -0012.html

Google Translaor

********************

WAR OR LANDS? THE DILEMMA IN THE NEW COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG POLICY
29 Aug 2022 , 2:25 pm .

Image
Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised accompaniment and protection to rural producers to contribute to the regulation of drugs (Photo: File)

"We will move from the failed war on drugs to a comprehensive process of substituting economies and lands in favor of a productive economy that dignifies rural populations and protects nature," reads the government program of the Historical Pact Coalition with which the current Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, won the last June elections.

The economist in charge of the neighboring country has been critical of the "war on drugs" policy implemented in recent decades with the backing of the United States, since it failed to reduce the cocaine market in the country or lessen its impact on criminality. He has stated that the fight against drugs will be one of the points on which Bogotá and Washington must come to an agreement and he has set himself up for it.

US officials, in the voice of Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), consider that they can open a dialogue with Petro in pursuit of "a holistic approach that takes into account livelihoods in the countryside and illicit activities", while Petro, for example, has been in favor of taking steps towards the legalization of cannabis, as a way to reduce the illegal market and take advantage of its medicinal and industrial potential .

In addition, the Colombian president wants to put on the table the conditions under which Colombians are extradited to US jurisdiction because of drug trafficking. According to the press, his intention is that Colombian criminals are only extradited in case of non-compliance or recidivism in Colombia, since his primary intention is that criminals pay for their crimes in national territory.

According to Sputnik Mundo , this "philosophy" gained more strength in Petro after the extradition of alias 'Otoniel' , leader of the Clan del Golfo (or Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) who was sent to a New York Court to answer for crimes, even though had shown affinity to collaborate with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).

WAR OR LANDS?
Another passage from the government plan of the Colombian president says:

" We will articulate the most effective instruments of the National Crop Substitution Plan and the ISDA (Comprehensive Community and Municipal Substitution and Alternative Development Plans) to the new productive economy policy in which Colombia moves from the fossil and illegal economy of cocaine to an economy based on work and food production in which the small rural producer will not be prosecuted, fumigated or displaced but on the contrary, within the framework of land and economic substitution find a decent place and the conditions of capital, associativity and knowledge to contribute to the regulation of drugs".

This has begun to show. The National Police of Colombia suspended the work of forced eradication of crops for illicit use to change it to voluntary eradication and substitution. In this he contrasts with former President Iván Duque, who insisted on the idea of ​​fumigating illicit crops with glyphosate even after the Council of State stopped aerial spraying with that chemical.

In this way, and as the press comments, Petro has been seeking the decriminalization of drugs, a task in which he cannot work alone and, on the contrary, he needs to reach consensus with the White House. These steps began last Tuesday the 23rd when he and his defense, agriculture and foreign ministers met with envoys from the White House to discuss the changes that will be made in anti-drug policy.

Gupta, sent by Biden, assured from the Casa de Nariño that "the United States and Colombia have had 200 years of shared history to forge a trajectory in anti-drug policy. President Biden is aware that many of the policies of the past have marginalized some people, they haven't worked for many populations and we can do better.

Image
The image of who loses the war on drugs is seen on the bandaged fingers of a raspachín who collects coca leaves during the harvest of the leaves on a small coca farm in Guayabero, (Guaviare) Colombia (Photo: John Vizcaíno)

The presence of the head of Agriculture, Cecilia López , is not fortuitous, since the Petro administration wants to launch an agrarian reform that recovers unproductive land and redistributes it among landless peasants. The alternative is more military operations where coca and violence grow. In its recent final report of 900 pages and in which it collects the testimonies of 30 thousand victims of violence, the Truth Commission indicates that in 52 years the internal conflict claimed 450 thousand lives, 121 thousand 700 disappearances, 50 thousand kidnappings , 8 million displaced people and 16,200 children and adolescents recruited into the guerrillas.

Even after the peace accords, Colombia maintains 500,000 police and military personnel, twice as many as Brazil with a population four times larger. The Pentagon, for its part, has no interest in losing its seven bases in a country with extensive Pacific and Caribbean coastlines. For the current government, the key is better land redistribution accompanied by comprehensive approaches.

Some data-opinions:

The State is running out "of conventional tools" because traditionally the fight has focused on forced eradication -manual or spraying- and voluntary eradication and crop substitution, but all face problems: Luis Felipe Cruz, researcher at the NGO Dejusticia .
99,097 families were linked to the Comprehensive National Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS), but as of December 31, 2020, after the 29-month period established by the government to execute the PNIS in its entirety, only 5,516 families (5.57% of the total) had completed the stages of the program: Monitoring report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Strengthening the PNIS would imply making it more comprehensive and connecting it with another strategy of the peace agreement, the Development Programs with a Territorial Approach (PDET), which would help focus these efforts on rural development: María Alejandra Vélez, director of the Center for Security Studies and Drugs (CESED) of the Universidad de los Andes.
The fight against drug trafficking is a multilateral fight "and must include the efforts of all countries. Colombia has to adequately coordinate with other relevant actors in this matter within the production or distribution chain": Hernando Herrera, director of the Corporation of Excellence in Justice (CEJ).
THE WAR OF FAILURE
María Alejandra Vélez added that the challenge will be to focus on rural development and start a medium-term conversation "about the failure of the war on drugs and how we are assuming the costs as a producing country." In reality, most analyzes agree on the failure of the so-called "War on Drugs" and this is not new .

This is an unmitigated failure and for which Petro has proposed a "paradigm shift" that includes, in addition to eradication, subsidized credits and recognition of land titles to coca farmers.

The same day of the meeting in the Casa de Nariño, the Colombian Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna , denied to El País that his administration had plans to decriminalize cocaine.

"Cocaine is not going to be legalized in this government," he said. "The intention is not to persecute the peasants who live by growing cannabis or coca leaves. The policy is to substitute crops and land where they can grow other products," he explained. "Faced with consumption, the policy will be public health, not prohibitionism," he added.

Image
The cultivation of coca leaf skyrocketed in 2014 in Colombia, according to a White House report published in May 2015, aerial eradication with glyphosate did not achieve its reduction and yet Washington maintained the pressure to maintain it (Photo: AP)

The current government has set out to help farmers get their products to market, something especially difficult in a country as rugged as Colombia, with no railways and few penetration roads. For their part, the drug structures pay on the spot and in dollars for the coca, their aircraft then take the cocaine to places like Los Angeles or New York, where a kilo can cost 60 times more than in the places of origin, whether these are in Colombia. , Peru or Bolivia, where 5% of the business remains, according to the UN.

Rather than defeating narco-capitalism, the war has strengthened it, its production has doubled to 2,400 tons per year due, among other reasons, to increased productivity and better irrigation of illegal cultivation areas, which takes place in areas mountainous areas where water abounds, such as national parks and other protected areas.

In four years of mandate, the government of Iván Duque only reduced 5% of illegal crops, according to the UNDOC, the United Nations agency against Drugs and Crime, which does not appreciate differences between the areas where there were forced eradications, to hand or with herbicides, and in which not.

Other data:

*Official figures indicate that between 2005 and 2015 the cost of eradicating illicit crops with glyphosate was 8.8 billion pesos, "that is, in ten years it was 88 billion pesos, which is equivalent to the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture in 50 years".
*The latest UN measurement of illicit crops shows that, although the number of hectares planted with coca fell in 2020, the potential for cocaine production has been rising for several years. In 2020 alone, the increase was 8%, going from 1,137 metric tons in 2019 to 1,228 tons in 2020.
*More coca with less raw material implies technification and a greater use of chemicals that end up in water sources and soil, experts point out.
*A document published by Dejusticia indicates that between 2005 and 2014 the Police captured 2 million 479 thousand 630 people, of which 29.3% were for carrying, trafficking or manufacturing drugs. That leaves an average of 80,787 arrests per year for drug behavior, which is equivalent to nine arrests every hour. In the same period, behaviors such as money laundering or conspiracy to commit a crime represented only 0.5 and 0.7%, respectively, of the arrests.
*As of June 2021, 18,426 people were incarcerated in Colombian prisons for drug trafficking, manufacturing, or possession, according to INPEC data. It is the fourth crime that has more people behind bars, representing 11.5% of criminal behavior.

HOW WILL IT INFLUENCE TO AND FROM VENEZUELA?

A fight against drugs that bases its success on casualties and intercepted tons has become one of the structural causes of violence in Colombia, also of racism and inequality. In addition to incubating where the Colombian State has maintained little presence, violence has also been present since that time in the Venezuelan State.

As a natural effect of such an intense war, Venezuela has been affected since its explosion in the 1980s and 1990s, and the border area has been involved in a network of sociopolitical problems that are difficult to gauge. This has resulted in displacement to Venezuela with the respective export of poverty and social exclusion.

This is how Petro has understood it, who held a summit with mayors and governors of the Pacific, one of the areas most disputed by illegal organizations. "And what is the response from Bogotá, and from Washington? Well, fill this with soldiers. And the others [illegal groups] also arm themselves and those who are dying are black," he said on the first trip after his presidential possession.

The flow of cocaine to Venezuela grew considerably in the first ten years after Plan Colombia was launched and the Medellín, Cali and Norte del Valle cartels disappeared. However, some satisfactory figures began to become evident when the DEA was expelled from the national territory.

Image
Venezuela maintains its anti-drug policy that combines the disabling of routes with an agricultural and social policy that seeks the presence of the state and the real economy in the territories (Photo: File)

Sources from the same establishment based in Washington have shown that Venezuela is a minor route for Colombian drug trafficking, however, this does not minimize the impact of the disputes between organized armed groups in the border territories on the Venezuelan side or the effect it has on the Bolivarian Republic. being a neighbor of a country at war and permanent exclusion.

Given this, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) has been developing the Bolivarian Shield Operation with results that have minimized the operation of the so-called Tancol , while, even in the midst of coercive measures and blockade, there is extensive experience of social coverage in the border municipalities.

The relationship with Venezuela does not seem to influence the relationship between the Petro and Biden administrations; Bogota has already appointed representation in Caracas and vice versa. Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Petro himself have spread expectations regarding the gradual opening of the border.

Washington has not sought that Colombia recognize the anti-Chavista Juan Guaidó as head of the Venezuelan government; Apparently, and until now, he advocates that the government and opposition return to the dialogues started in Mexico.

If some type of cooperation were established between Venezuela and Colombia regarding the eradication of drug trafficking in all its phases, the benefits would reverberate in the communities and economies on both sides of the border. However, the debt is long.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/gu ... colombiana

Google Translator

********************

Image

Democratic capitalism is no solution for the Colombian people, nor for Latin America

In the second round of the elections in Colombia, the most reactionary and criminal forces of the Colombian bourgeoisie were electorally defeated. But as long as these forces continue to hold onto their capital, their lands, and their military might, the only peace the people will continue to experience will be the peace of the grave.

The elected president, Gustavo Petro, consistent with what he has been expressing for a few years, ratified the same night of his election that his task is to continue developing capitalism. His government proposals, such as the energy transition, agrarian reform without expropriation and some welfare measures, aim to modify some consequences of capitalism, but leaving intact the exploitation of the working class, the private appropriation by the monopolies of socially produced wealth and the power of the landowners, drug trafficking and mining monopolies in the countryside.



Both Petro, as well as Boric and Obrador, owe their electoral victory above all to large mobilizations of dissatisfaction against the shock policies of capital that have impoverished the peoples. They have mounted large waves of protests, and paradoxically their role is to deactivate them, essentially because they represent the interests of the ruling class, and it is with them that they assume the commitment of social stability to ensure capitalist development in times of crisis and the maximum profit for monopolies.

The recent examples of Mexico, Chile, and even Argentina and Peru, show the great risks for the working class and the popular sectors of going back and submitting to the policy of "social peace" that Latin American social democracy proclaims. Day by day, these governments negotiate and agree with the sectors of the bourgeoisie that they promised to defeat; and they align themselves with one or another imperialist pole, particularly with the United States, as the Summit of the Americas showed. Meanwhile, they pressure and blackmail popular forces to give in, and when this is not achieved, they do not hesitate to use repressive mechanisms to maintain "social peace", like the governments of Boric and Obrador.

Capitalism has generated serious social and economic problems that plague Latin America: the exploitation of the working class, extreme poverty, millions of migrants and displaced persons, unemployment, racism against native peoples and Afro-descendants, oppression against women, destruction of the environment , high crime rates and paramilitary violence. In the last 70 years in Latin America there have been “revolutionary” nationalist governments, old and new social democrats, even self-styled “21st century socialists”, who have not been able to permanently put an end to any of these problems.

Therefore, the Communist Party of Mexico assumes no illusions in the face of these social democratic governments. Faced with the dispute between two sectors of the ruling class, and faced with the two versions of capitalism that they offer, the "savage capitalism" of neoliberal efforts or the "democratic capitalism" of social democracy or progressivism, the only dilemma to the What the working class and the popular sectors are facing is to intensify their struggle and mobilization against capitalist barbarism, or to submit once again to a sector of the bourgeoisie, to the point of disenchantment and disillusionment.

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

The International Section of the CC of the PCM

http://www.comunistas-mexicanos.org/par ... n-colombia
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:23 pm

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has 56% approval

Image
Petro and his Cabinet are engaged in a proposal for transformation in the country, with total peace and security as one of the key aspects. | Photo: EFE
Published 1 September 2022

President Petro exceeds the approval rating of his predecessor, Iván Duque, by four percentage points at the beginning of his term.

The Colombian research and marketing advisory firm Invamer said Wednesday that the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, began his term with 56 percent approval.

Invamer details that Petro's disapproval rate during his first 25 days in office reached 20 percent; while his level of approval is four percentage points higher than that of his predecessor, Iván Duque, when a similar survey was applied four years ago.

The Invamer study was applied to 1,200 people in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, the five largest cities in the country, between last August 20 and 28; and points out that 33 percent of those surveyed consider that things in the country are improving.


While 48 percent estimate that they are getting worse, pointing out 38 percent of them unemployment and the economy as the main problem of the nation; seconded by public order and security with 19 percent, and corruption", with 18.

For its part, Vice President Francia Márquez's approval rating stood at 54 percent, according to data provided by the polling entity and which, as specified, could present a margin of error of 2.83.


During this initial period of his administration, the Colombian president and his ministerial cabinet are committed to promoting the total peace proposal, which aims to negotiate with the armed factions that operate illegally in the country and materialize an agreement similar to the one signed in 2016 with the FARC guerrillas.

In addition to proposing other reforms in the educational, agricultural, health, and fiscal fields, among others, with a marked projection and social impact; to which he has added the official reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/presiden ... -0005.html

I fear he will be a martyr and proof of social democratic futility.

They denounce the murder of another social leader in Nariño, Colombia

Image
The territory has high levels of violence as a result of armed groups that dispute its control and existing drug trafficking.. | Photo: Contagion Radio
Published 1 September 2022

With the murder of Angulo, 123 social leaders have been killed in Colombia so far in 2022.

The Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) of Colombia denounced this Wednesday the murder of another social leader in the municipality of Magüi Payán, department of Nariño.

They are Juan Quiñones Angulo, who served as a member of the La Voz de los Negros Community Council; and also as a victim of antipersonnel mines he participated in the meetings of Education in the Risk of Antipersonnel Mines (ERM) of the CIREC foundation.

Indepaz details that Angulo died in the middle of a confrontation between factions of armed groups that tried to gain control of said territory, becoming the 123rd social leader killed on Colombian soil so far this year; and number 1,350 since the signing of the peace agreements in 2016.


For its part, the Ombudsman's Office had issued an early warning in the municipalities of Magüi Payán and Roberto Payán due to the prevailing poverty and marginalization in the region; which has facilitated the presence of residual armed groups operating in the area; as well as the proliferation of phenomena such as drug trafficking.

The Franco Benavides Mobile Column – 30th Front, the ELN, the Alfonso Cano Western Bloc – BOAC Marquetalia; in addition to raids by the AGC.

In addition to the murder of social leaders in the South American country as a result of internal violence, the occurrence in 2022 of 73 massacres, which have claimed the lives of 244 people; and 32 former signatories of the Peace Accords.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/denuncia ... -0001.html

Google Translator

*************

8 Colombian Police Officers Killed in Attack

Image
Colombian national police

Published 2 September 2022

The Colombian National Police announced that eight of its members were killed in the Corozal village, in the department of Huila (southeast), by a terrorist attack with an explosive device.

"At 14:30 (19.30 GMT), an explosive device was activated in the Corozal village (to be established) in the path of an institutional van in which eight uniformed members of the San Luis Police Commission were being transported," the entity said in a statement.

The Police assured that it did not know which illegal structure would have perpetrated the attack and initiated the respective investigations to clarify it.

The institution detailed that the uniformed officers were participating in a social welfare activity in one of the commands in the area and had left the unit at 10:30 a.m. with a destination to the village of San Luis, Huila, towards the town of Corozal. There were two quartermasters, two patrolmen and four auxiliary police officers in the vehicle.

The entity warned that in this rural area, there is a sporadic presence of the Ismael Ruíz Front (with direct influence in the department of Tolima - center-east) and the Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column (with influence in Cauca - southeast) of the dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), where so far and according to the background, they have only executed criminal actions, such as homicide and extortion.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/8-C ... -0017.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 23, 2022 2:13 pm

Colombia’s Government Begins Informal Talks With FARC

Image
The FARC dissidents are led by alias Ivan Marquez. Sept. 18, 2022. | Photo: El País

Published 18 September 2022

Petro's Government confirmed the official reopening of peace talks in Havana, Cuba, negotiations that will be led by Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his government has begun an informal dialogue with dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Petro also attached two photographs in which emissaries from his administration are seen talking with members of the dissidents in a kind of "cambuche" in the middle of the Colombian jungle.

The dialogue began with the front called 'Jorge Briceño', to whom the dissidents pay homage to alias 'Mono Jojoy', one of the most representative leaders of the extinct FARC, a group that signed the peace agreement with the State in 2016, and who was killed by the National Army in the middle of a bombing in 2010.


"A dialogue begins," the president wrote on his Twitter account.

Currently, the FARC dissidents are led by alias Ivan Marquez. In addition, alias 'Jesús Santrich' and 'El Paisa', three of the commanders who left the peace process between the FARC and the State to re-found the group, were also part of the group.

Since he assumed the presidency, Gustavo Petro assured that one of his main policies would be the search for peace with the different national armed groups, such as the FARC dissidents, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Gulf Clan.

Precisely, with the ELN, the Government confirmed the official reopening of peace talks in Havana, Cuba, negotiations that will be led by Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0006.html

*********************

FIRST ANALYSIS: VENEZUELA ACCEPTS MEDIATION BETWEEN PETRO AND THE ELN

Franco Vielma

14 Sep 2022 , 6:49 pm .

Image
The ELN pacification process was cut short with the rise of Iván Duque, which paralyzed the negotiations (Photo: Raúl Arboleda / AFP)

The Colombian government under President Gustavo Petro sent a letter requesting the incorporation of Venezuela as guarantor of the negotiation and peace process between his administration and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Venezuela gave an affirmative answer in the voice of President Nicolás Maduro Moros, who pointed out that "once again, as Commander (Hugo) Chávez did in his time to guarantee the Peace Accords, Venezuela accepts the character of guarantor of the negotiations and the Colombian Peace Agreements with the ELN".

In addition, he indicated that his country is committed to peace, stability and security in Colombia, since he considers that it is also "that of our nation, of South America and of the entire continent."

In Petro's letter addressed to the Venezuelan president, it is indicated that the Colombian executive and the ELN guerrilla have "reached an agreement to fully and safely apply said protocol," for which they have planned "the holding of a prompt meeting in Venezuela in order to specify the procedure, as well as other steps for the long-awaited reestablishment of the talks table with this guerrilla".

This occurs after last August 11, a delegation from the Colombian government arrived in Havana, Cuba, to start rapprochements with representatives of the ELN and thus work on the resumption of peace talks, reports Telesur .

Gustavo Petro indicated from his electoral campaign that he would resume talks with the ELN, which were suspended until now due to efforts by the government of Iván Duque, which also de facto repealed a large part of the peace agreements that had been reached with the Armed Forces. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP).

This announcement includes many elements beyond the life of Colombia. For Venezuela and the region, it is a milestone that can open the way, this time in a credible way, to the stabilization of Colombia and the end of the longest armed conflict recorded on the continent.

For Venezuela, specifically, this invitation also has several implications.

VENEZUELA TAKES ITS PLACE ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE
In the last year, Venezuela has gone through an evolutionary process of its international relations, after they were allegedly closed in 2019 due to the imposition of the so-called "interim government" headed by Juan Guaidó and due to the diplomatic isolation to which an attempt was made to confine the country. .

Faced with the proven exhaustion and failure of this strategy, the countries have decided progressively and pragmatically to adjust to the real dimension of Venezuelan politics. In 2021, it was the Bolivarian Government that represented the country at the Ibero-American Summit. In 2022, the US government did not give rise to the "interim government" at the Summit of the Americas. Despite the exclusion of Venezuela and other countries from this event, the Americans have likewise entered into direct negotiations with the legitimate government in Caracas. In purely concrete effects, the intended isolation turned out to be unsustainable and unfeasible.

In this way, the Colombian government has resumed diplomatic and consular relations with Caracas and has understood that Venezuela could play a constructive role in the negotiation with the ELN, as happened with the peace process that was undertaken at the time with the FARC. EP.

It should be remembered that Venezuela was already part of the negotiations between the Colombian government and the ELN as a guarantor country, which were suppressed de facto in 2018.

Image
Through this letter, the Colombian government requests Venezuela to participate as a guarantor in the negotiation and peace process with the ELN (Photo: Presidential Press)

The invitation to Caracas to this agenda proposes the incorporation of Venezuela to a highly pertinent and constructive position to resolve the great and extensive conflict in Colombia.

By participating as a guarantor, a credible and trusted actor, Venezuela regains a key space in the regional and international scene, breaking the isolationist agenda.

CONSTRUCTION OF A REGIONAL PEACE POLICY

It is very likely that the government of Gustavo Petro will reach agreements with the ELN. However, the construction of a full peace in Colombia is a much more intricate and difficult factor, because after the disqualification of part of the agreements with the FARC-EP, and long before, with the false "demobilization" of the paramilitarism of Álvaro Uribe, the armed forces in Colombia have taken on new names that are not subject to negotiation or political intermediation, and therefore will not be subject to negotiations and disarmament.

The complexity of the narco-terrorist structure in Colombia is also entrenched in the country's institutions, hence its ability to reproduce corruption, the weakness of government entities and the perpetuity of war is more than profound, almost congenital.

The Petro government has proposed that the dismantling of the war, but especially the construction of conditions for peace, although they fundamentally obey Colombia, must have international support and the concert of the countries in favor of these objectives.

Like, for example, the decriminalization of crops and the different treatment of the drug problem in that country.


Similarly, the development of negotiations with the ELN will offer the actors a space of opportunities to understand, from the dimensions of the present, the uniqueness of the factors that perpetuate the conflict, since there are already references to the use of weapons and new versions of paramilitarism after the agreement with the FARC-EP. They all concern peace and security in various timeframes.

In this item, Venezuela plays an essential role because it is the country that shares a large border with Colombia and where the Colombian conflict has infiltrated historically.

By taking part in these negotiations as a reliable and constructive actor, Venezuela distances itself from the baseless accusations that have been imposed by the previous rulers of Colombia, regional political actors and the media, that the country is a "sanctuary" of the Colombian guerrillas.

This is not a minor issue. In 2019, Iván Duque even presented false images of alleged ELN guerrillas on Venezuelan soil before the UN General Assembly, pretending to create an international stir.

Image
Iván Duque falsified information accusing Venezuela at the UN of alleged links with the ELN. However, the "evidence" of him was seriously dismantled by the media and actors inside and outside Colombia (Photo: EFE)

Although a large part of these narratives were abandoned, obsolete or have been discarded as ridiculous, they continue to form part of the false file against Venezuela and are part of the argument that has sought to legitimize the pressures against the country.

The possibility that the ELN and the Colombian government reach agreements and a disarmament takes place, could dismember by the way of the facts any support to that old accusation against Venezuela.

Even more important: one of the denominators by which the new negotiations must be developed is the construction of a zone of peace and stability from Colombia with scope in the region.

BINATIONAL BORDER SECURITY

In the present time, Venezuela has waged important combats with Colombian narco-terrorism factors on the border of the Apure state with the neighboring country.

The development of this diffuse war, of a prolonged nature, has put the accent on the Venezuelan side in the containment of a conflict generated and strengthened in Colombia that has sought to colonize the Venezuelan territory in a manner detrimental to national sovereignty.

The seriousness of the rupture of relations that the government of Iván Duque caused with Venezuela in its support for the "interim government" deliberately weakened inter-institutional collaboration, inter-governmental communication and the construction of minimum policies for attention to the border reality. This was, by default, a maneuver to try to undermine Venezuelan security, let's see it this way.

Therefore, and in this new stage, the participation of Venezuela as an observer, mediator and guarantor in these negotiations with the ELN (an issue that is yet to be defined in detail), represents a new space of opportunity for the governments of both countries can develop new related points in the matter of binational border security.

The ELN, but also other Colombian armed factors, have been part of the mosaic of the conflict on the border between the two countries. Therefore, it must be understood that the ELN is only one part of this complex picture. However, the negotiation may yield keys, elements of attention and specific references that must be addressed by both governments.

In the long term, although Colombia will develop a peacebuilding strategy within itself and deal with the difficulties that the new types of narco-paramilitarism will offer, this concerns with special emphasis understanding the socioeconomic and socioterritorial realities of its border, such as the Eastern, which concerns Venezuela.

The vision of comprehensiveness in the border security policy must be developed from the material dimensions and inertia in these territories. Overcome political, economic and social vulnerability as component factors of security beyond the use of weapons.

Although Petro, unlike his predecessors, has referred to these conditions against the current of warmongering, he will not be able to do it alone. He will necessarily have to count on the support of Venezuela to build a similar policy in the border territories.

On September 26, both countries will formally open their borders in a staggered process, and it is expected that both governments will be able to build joint policies on binational border security in the short term.

https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/prim ... o-y-el-eln

Google Translator

**********************

Colombia: Possible Multilateral Ceasefire in Coming Days-Petro

Image
A total of 22 structures have announced to the government their interest in joining the "total peace" project. Sep. 22, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@business

Published 22 September 2022 (13 hours 20 minutes ago)

President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" project seeks agreements with all armed groups currently in Colombia.

Today, in New York, on the occasion of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), Petro told the media that in a few days, a multilateral ceasefire would be proposed with all the armed groups that have expressed their intention to join the total peace.

With this project, 22 structures have announced their interest in joining the "total peace" project to the government. In Petro's presidential campaign, he asked illegal groups to stop taking up arms, while the government, in response, suspended armed actions and avoided fighting them.

"It will involve all those who want a negotiation process with justice in Colombia to dismantle criminal organizations. We propose to them the cessation of hostilities, death, ceasefire," Petro said.

Twenty-two structures have announced their interest in joining the "total peace" project to the government. Danilo Rueda, Peace Commissioner of Petro's government, has said that this move has come from guerrilla groups, drug traffickers and narco-paramilitaries.


At the 77th UN General Assembly, Colombian President Gustavo Petro touched on some important points during his speech: Amazon deforestation, climate justice and food security.

Since taking office on August 7, Petro has initiated a dialogue with several armed groups to reach a peace agreement or bring them to justice.

In this regard, the resumption of talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla in Havana stands out after a four-year hiatus. According to the President, having shared exploratory approaches so far, it is a matter of days before negotiations between the parties begin.

Also worth mentioning is last week's "exploratory meeting" between a Colombian government delegation and a delegation of the "central general staff" of the former FARC dissidents to evaluate "the possibility of initiating dialogues in the framework of total peace."


Following the signing of peace with the FARC in 2016 and the stalling of talks with the ELN in 2018, the proposed multilateral ceasefire would be the first significant action to end the conflict.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0019.html

Gustavo Petro is seeming to be as much of a pleasant surprise as Boric of Chile has been a disappointment. Assassination attempts are certain.

*****************

Álvaro Uribe’s Brother Involved in Embezzlement of Monómeros
SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

Image
A view of the extensive grounds of Monómeros fertilizer company, in Barranquilla, Colombia. File photo.

As time goes by, more and more evidence of the embezzlement committed in Monómeros by Iván Duque and former deputy Juan Guaidó emerges. However, a new name has now come into the spotlight: Camilo Uribe, brother of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

According to an audit requested by the board and delivered in April of this year, irregular payments of large sums to companies linked to Álvaro Uribe’s brother were found.

Payments amounting to more than $170,000 were delivered to Camilo Uribe and his partners without going through the necessary channels.

The company that received these payments, Dorr Asset Management, SZEC, is headquartered in the Cayman Islands and provides financial advisory services.

These payments were approved without going through the respective committees’ filters, the payment order was given in contravention of all the controls required by the internal regulations, and providers were not required to submit a commercial proposal stating the purpose and scope of the contracted service.

Additionally, there were no guarantee policies for the advances that were given, and the registration of incorporation was not obtained either. Dorr Asset Management’s commercial registration, which is essential to establish the legality of the company that is being contracted, was also not obtained.

However, the most serious thing revealed by the audit is that a contract for these payments never even existed.

According to regulations, payments for services greater than $100,000 must be made by contract. Of the five audited contracts, totalling $2,040,792,840, only one met the requirements. It became clear that the one who signed off on the contracts was William Otero, ex-financial manager of Monómeros.

The payments to Uribe’s brother coincided with a visit made by Leopoldo López to the former president at his farm. During the visit, López was also accompanied by the president of Monómeros, Carmen Elisa Hernández.

(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón

https://orinocotribune.com/alvaro-uribe ... monomeros/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Wed Oct 05, 2022 2:39 pm

Guarantors applaud the agreement reached by the Government of Colombia and the ELN to resume dialogue

Image
The decision to reinstate the dialogue table between the two parties is "an important step towards peace in Colombia," said Norway. | Photo: @BrunoRguezP
Published 5 October 2022

"I confirm that Cuba will continue its role as guarantor in accordance with what has been agreed and what the parties require," said the president of the Caribbean island, Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Venezuela, Cuba and Norway, guarantor countries of the dialogues between the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN), applauded this Tuesday the agreement to resume the talks table, taken by both parties in Caracas.

Delegations from the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro and the ELN announced on Tuesday the reactivation of the dialogue table, which was suspended for four years by decision of the previous government of Iván Duque.

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its firmest commitment to the total peace process in Colombia and as a guarantor country (...) celebrates the agreement to restart the table" of talks, said the government headed by President Nicolás Maduro in a statement published on their social networks.


Venezuela "aspires to consolidate this new effort between the parties, so that the people of Colombia overcome this stage of conflicts that would strengthen Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, making progress in the Bolivarian effort of union and prosperity for our peoples," he added.


The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said for his part on his Twitter account: “I confirm that Cuba will continue its role as guarantor in accordance with what was agreed and what the parties require. Our commitment to peace in Colombia is invariable”.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, on his side, stressed that the Government of Havana "supports (the) announcement made today in Caracas by representatives of the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN), in the presence of Guarantors of Venezuela, Norway, Cuba and special guests, that the Table of Conversations will be reinstated in the coming weeks”.


"Cuba will continue to support and contribute, together with the Guarantor Countries, to the negotiations with the ELN, and reiterates its deep conviction that the people deserve peace and will find the ways to achieve it," the Foreign Minister added.

Norway also published on its social networks a congratulations for the decision to reinstate the dialogue table between both parties, which it considered "an important step towards peace in Colombia."


"We appreciate the trust placed in us to continue in our role as a guarantor country," the Norwegian government said.

Guterres asks for support for Petro efforts
The Secretary General of the United Nations Organization (UN), António Guterres, welcomed the resumption of the conservation table between the Government and the ELN, and encouraged the international community to support President Petro's efforts in this matter, he said the spokesman for the organization's leader, Stéphane Dujarric.

"The Secretary General welcomes the decision announced today by the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) to resume peace talks" and "urges both parties to take full advantage of this opportunity to put an end to a deadly conflict that has lasted decades, and whose resolution is essential to expand the scope of peace in the country," he said.

Guterres also expressed "his deep appreciation to Cuba, Norway and Venezuela for having agreed to assist the parties as guarantor countries, and encourages the international community as a whole to lend its support."

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Gua ... -0001.html

Colombia: Indepaz Reports 82nd Massacre to Date in 2022

Image
"Neither civilians, nor military, nor guerrillas. Not one more dead!" says the banner. Oct. 3, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@ElPayanes

Published 3 October 2022

At least three people were killed Sunday night in a neighborhood in the Colombian city of Barranquilla.


According to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), this new massacre is the 82nd registered in the country this year.

Police authorities reported the identities of the victims: Luis Martínez Lara Mendoza, 41, Breiner Daniel Cervantes Barrios, 20, and José Luis Domínguez Gonzáles, 22.

In the Villa Katanga neighborhood of Soledad, Atlántico, three young men were killed by armed men on motorcycles who shot at them when they were gathered outside a house, Indepaz said.

With this one, there have been six massacres this year in Barranquilla and its metropolitan area. Four occurred in the capital itself and two in the Soledad municipality.


Massacre #82 occurred in 2022
02/10/22
Solitude, Atlantic

In the Villa Katanga neighborhood of Soledad, Atlántico, three young people were murdered by armed men on a motorcycle who shot them when they were gathered outside a house.

Among these massacres, the bloodiest was recorded last month in the Las Flores neighborhood of Barranquilla, when hired killers killed six people.

Early Alert 037/2020 issued by the Ombudsman's Office indicates as an element of vulnerability that prevention policies are based on the presence of armed institutions, particularly the police.

In this way, the structural causes of insecurity in the country are not addressed and the population's risk factors are ignored, according to Indepaz.


The Colombian institute denounced that the so-called Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), Los Costeños and Los Rastrojos are present in the area.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0018.html

I dunno how Petro can deal with this, doubt that he can rely upon the army to fight their partners in repression. He is surely a target himself and should get a platoon of 'Wagnerites' to cover his ass at the soonest.

Colombian President Asks US to Remove Cuba From Terrorist List

Image
President Gustavo Petro (L) & U.S. State Secretary Anthony Blinken (R), Bogota, Colombia, Oc. 3, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @WRadioColombia

Published 4 October 2022

President Petro and Anthony Blinken also spoke about regularization of migrants and cooperation in the fight against climate change, drugs, and corruption.


During a meeting in Bogota on Monday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro asked U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Cuba be removed from the list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism."

"What has happened with Cuba is an injustice," Petro said, recalling that, at the request of President Juan Manuel Santos and during the administration of President Barack Obama, Cuba hosted peace negotiations between the Colombian state, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Later, however, Colombian President Ivan Duque asked President Donald Trump to declare Cuba a country that encourages terrorist activities because the FARC and ELN were in its territory.

"That is an injustice and, therefore, in my opinion, although it does not depend on us, it should be corrected," Petro told Blinken, who ratified that President Joe Biden's administration will keep Cuba on the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list.

Petro and Blinken also spoke about regularization of Colombian migrants in the U.S. and cooperation in the fight against climate change, drugs, and corruption.


“We will strengthen the relationship between the United States and Colombia in these comprehensive projects,” Petro tweeted.

Blinken supported Petro's proposal to fight drugs, which is characterized by fighting "the real drug traffickers" who are in the cities instead of going after the poor who grow coca.

"With Secretary Blinken we talked about drug trafficking, a traditional issue on the binational agenda. On this occasion, however, we did it from a different perspective. We did it with a more flexible and comprehensive vision of the problem of drug consumption and production in the continent," the Colombian president said.

"We want to make substantial changes. Until very recently, the repressive policy on drug trafficking consisted of fumigating all farmers with glyphosate. This will no longer happen because the Colombian Constitutional Court prohibited it," he added.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0001.html

It's like he's working on a checklist of ways to piss the US off. Careful...

83rd Massacre in Colombia’s Cali: At Least 5 Dead

Image
The attack took place in the west of Cali, specifically in the Brisas de Mayo neighborhood early Tuesday morning. Oct. 4, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@quepasaencalive

Published 4 October 2022 (9 hours 44 minutes ago)

Amidst the airs of renewed peace talks in Colombia, the 83rd massacre so far this year is reported.


The Institute for Development and Peace (Indepaz) said the massacre occurred early Tuesday morning in the Colombian city of Cali. Five people were reported dead and two others injured.

The attack took place in the west of Cali, particularly in the Brisas de Mayo neighborhood, in a sector known as "El Hueco", early Tuesday morning.

It happened when the group of seven people was intercepted by gunmen who came to a corner of the Siloé neighborhood, according to the local mayor, Jorge Iván Ospina.

Without details on the identity of the victims, it is known that four men died on the spot, and a fifth died later at the medical center from his injuries, the local mayor said, while among the wounded are two women.


A new massacre left at least five dead and two injured in the Colombian city of Cali when armed men attacked a group of people who were in a corner of the Siloé neighborhood, reported the mayor of the town, Jorge Iván Ospina.

Ospina asked to wait for the investigation into the multiple murder, the motive for which is unknown. However, he said, "In Colombian society, a battle is being waged in each of the municipalities and cities over the pots of micro-trafficking."

Indepaz confirmed that so far this year, there have been 83 massacres in the country.

Colonel William Quintero, commander of the Cali Metropolitan Police, said that "the FARC and ELN, as well as common organized crime groups, have historically been present in this community."

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/83r ... -0017.html

That police commander is more likely to be the perp rather that leftists.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 11, 2022 2:26 pm

Gustavo Petro visits La Guajira after Julia's involvement in Colombia

Image
Regarding the immediate plans for the recovery of the territory, the chief of the Executive suggested that "that it be in Guajira itself where the food is bought." | Photo: @petrogustavo
Published October 10, 2022 (9 hours 25 minutes ago)

"The formation of hurricanes with greater intensity and shorter intermittent times is a product of the climate crisis," said the Colombian President.

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, visited the department of La Guajira on Monday, after the effects of storm Julia, and appreciated that the fundamental damage caused in that region by the weather event was the breakdown of land communication by bodies of water that increased due to the rains.

“Today we visit La Guajira, undoubtedly the territory of the disaster; the most acute problem there is, is the breakdown of land communication by bodies of water that are still in the place. In Uribia, fortunately, there were no human losses to mourn”, stressed the president.

Petro indicated as an immediate plan the reestablishment of terrestrial communication through the laying of bridges or highways, as well as other alternatives that allow avoiding bodies of water and transfer help to people.


Regarding the immediate plans for the recovery of the territory, the chief of the Executive suggested that "that it be in Guajira itself where food is bought and that humanitarian aid be a reactivator of the regional economy, bring food directly to the family, and in third place and a little more distant, the reconstruction of houses”.

He appreciated that the impact of these hurricanes and meteorological phenomena is also the result of the climate crisis. “The formation of hurricanes with greater intensity and shorter intermittency time is a product of the climate crisis. If we don't do anything to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and stop emitting them, it will get worse and worse."


Petro considered that after its recovery, La Guajira should take advantage of its desert area to take advantage of solar radiation and generate clean energy. “Each square meter of the desert is worth a little money, and if the community associates with Ecopetrol and generates income from electricity, they raise living standards. Having another Guajira is possible through their own communities,” he said.

In relation to the real concern of governments about climate change, the head of state pointed out that "we must have a decarbonized economy, but economic interests prevent it and governments become emergency governments."

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/gustavo- ... -0038.html


Social leader Fredy Mena assassinated in northern Colombia

Image
| Photo: @DefensoriaCol
Published 10 October 2022

The Ombudsman's Office has issued an early warning in which it warns of the risk for unionized communal organizational processes.

The Ombudsman's Office denounced the murder of an Afro leader, Fredy Mena Obregón, who served as the legal representative of the community of La Playa, municipality of Lloró, in northwestern Colombia.

According to the authorities, the victim Mena Obregón had been kidnapped in her community the night before by a gang of armed hitmen.

In this sense, the entity reported that before taking the social leader, this group of men with firearms and whose faces were covered with balaclavas, looted the public funds of the community.


"Today the community found his body on a beach near the town, which is in distress, we reject this unfortunate fact," said the Ombudsman's Office.

It should be noted that, during the funeral procession, the residents who attended were forced to move massively towards the municipal seat of Lloró, after seeing shots fired from boats against the 66 families present at the ceremony.


To date, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), registers a total of 140 leaders in Colombia in 2022, a figure that has increased to 1,367 since the Peace Agreement was signed in 2016.

The crime in Mena Oregon becomes the third murder of a social leader this weekend in Colombia, after Ferney Morales and Rigo Alape, social leaders and peasant leaders from the department of Putumayo (south), were assassinated on Saturday.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/denuncia ... -0007.html

Councilman murdered in the Colombian department of Magdalena

Image
According to Indepaz, the councilman was assassinated by alleged assassins on the road that connects the township of San José de las Casitas with the municipality of Remolino. | Photo: Vanguard
Published 7 October 2022

The municipal mayor of Remolino rejected and lamented the crime against Councilman Carlos Silva Borja.

In the midst of the wave of violence that Colombia is going through against social leaders and human rights defenders, the Institute for Development and Peace of Colombia (Indepaz) reported on Thursday the murder of councilman Carlos Julio Silva Borja in the department of Magdalena.

According to the human rights organization, the social leader was shot dead by presumed assassins on the road that connects the village of San José de las Casitas with the municipality of Remolino.

According to preliminary information, Carlos Julio Silva Borja, 31 years old, was traveling in a truck when the alleged assassins tried to stop the vehicle and when he refused, they fired a weapon, killing the councilman.


When the murder of the political leader was confirmed, the municipal mayor of Remolino, Carlos Vargas Fontalvo, rejected and lamented the crime against Carlos Julio Silva Borja.

The Magdalena Police announced that in coordination with the Colombian Attorney General's Office, they are carrying out investigations to clarify the motives and identify the criminals who participated in the murder of the councilor by the Alianza Social Independiente (ASI) party.


The attack against councilor Silva Borja is added to another that occurred on October 5 in the municipality of Jamundí, Valle del Cauca, when armed individuals attacked councilor Pablo Ramírez with a firearm.

Indepaz pointed out that during 2022 there have been 136 murders of social leaders in Colombia.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/colombia ... -0001.html

The Total Peace project for Colombia is approved in the first debate

Image
After seven hours of debate, the base project for Total Peace designed by Gustavo Petro saves its first major obstacle. | Photo: @AlbanComunes
Published 11 October 2022

The project addresses the concept of human security and empowers the president to establish peace agreements and regions

The commissions of the Colombian Congress approved on Monday the extension of Law 418, one of the essential elements to develop the "Total Peace" project designed by the president of that country, Gustavo Petro.

Sources from the Colombian Congress explain that the project associated with the so-called Public Order Law modifies, adds and extends the previous text in search of a "true commitment to Total Peace through Human Security" and empowers the national government to establish negotiations of peace with armed groups that have political status.

"In peace processes and in each of their stages, the effective participation of women and civil society, reparation and other rights of victims will be guaranteed," states one of the articles of the project.


The same section adds that the ethnic, participatory, gender, environmental, differential approaches and the principle of centrality of the victims will be transversal to the agreements.


According to the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, in the project that will now be discussed in the plenary sessions, "a good part of the experiences of the peace processes are collected, which can be very useful to advance Total Peace."

Likewise, it offers free rein to the formation of peace regions to encourage dialogue and provides powers for President Petro to appoint regional peace commissioners, in charge of negotiating with the community.

The latter, the experts clarify, will not have the power to sign peace agreements.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/aprueban ... -0003.html

Google Translator

Talk, talk, talk...I cannot see how this will be accomplished. The historical record makes it plain that the bourgeoisie and their Yankee masters will accept nothing but total subjugation. Until the army is purged of rightists murderers and the paramilitary thugs are 'de-funded' by the Colombian bourgeoisie, the US government and US and Canadian corporations the killing will continue.

**********

Ordinary civil war
October 11, 9:34 am

Image

Ordinary civil war

The longest and closest I saw the war was in Colombia. In it, the farther people were from the combat zone and the closer to sofas and TVs, there was more bloodthirstiness in them.

Civil wars are the worst. The more you understand the person you have to shoot at, the more you need to dehumanize him in order to be able to do it. At the same time, on both sides - the military and the partisans - there was usually no personal hatred, there was difficult, dirty and dangerous work, which they would be glad to stop. Both were poor people whom the war fed and killed. There were often informal communication channels between their commanders and enemy commanders, which, in violation of all charters and orders, made it possible to avoid unnecessary losses. Another thing is paramilitares and mercenaries. Under the cover of the army, they fought little and their specialty was to intimidate the civilian population in order to deprive the partisans of support. The most heinous crimes against civilians and prisoners are their work. Very efficient; out were afraid. The peasants fled not so much from military action as from the risk of occupation from paramilitary villages. The partisans knew that it was impossible to fall into their hands alive and they were not taken prisoner either.

The worst thing about the Colombian civil war was its routine. In recent decades, the parties have known that none of them will be able to win it, and at the same time it is impossible to stop it, it has acquired some kind of internal inertia that does not depend on human will, it has become a way of life and a solution to problems for many participants. The war has become a constant in political life, along with inflation or sports news.

It was also the main reason for the US military presence in Colombia and one of the main justifications for their control of the country's political power. The war was dosed and managed from the US, either by increased military aid to the government, or by the demand for peace talks when it was possible to derive political or economic benefit from this. The war was a guarantee of the loss of Colombian state sovereignty and, under the singing of the national anthem and the shouting of patriotic slogans, the management of its domestic and foreign policy from the American embassy. The country had one of the best constitutions in the region, but it was not respected by anyone. Democratic elections were regularly held every four years, but the complete control of the media over the consciousness of the historically and politically ignorant majority guaranteed their outcome in favor of those in power. Criticism of this system was equated with terrorism. The inventors and owners of drug trafficking, organized by order from the United States, introduced the term into the press to define their political opponents - "drug communists".

From the very beginning of the Ukrainian tragedy, it was clear that the destruction of the country would follow the Colombian scenario.

(c) Oleg Yasinsky

https://t.me/olegyasynsky/530 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7909782.html

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu Oct 20, 2022 2:35 pm

Colombian President Accuses US of “Ruining” World Economies

Image
Gustavo Petro, offers a press conference today in Bogotá (Colombia) | Photo: EFE/ Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda

Published 19 October 2022

Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the United States on Wednesday of ruining almost all the world's economies in pursuit of protecting itself regardless of what happens to other countries.


"The United States is practically ruining all the economies of the world," said the President during a speech in the municipality of Urabá Antioqueño (northwest), in the framework of the binding regional dialogue, a government initiative to get closer to the communities.

Petro also affirmed that countries such as the US and France take measures without considering the consequences they generate, highlighting the damage these policies cause in Latin America.

"They make decisions to protect themselves alone, sometimes without thinking about what will happen through their measures; the economy of Latin American nations is being drained," said the Colombian President.

The President added that the conflict in the old continent is generating the economic ruin of Europe.

"And after that war, the European economy collapses. Powerful Germany is going into recession and, who would have thought, England, which was once the colonial power, the British Empire, is now falling apart in a deep economic crisis," he said.

On the price of the dollar, which reached 4,800 Colombian pesos this Wednesday, beating a new record, the President commented that the conflicts and the winds of world recession put the price of the currency to be on the rise and keep on that trend, explaining that it is not something that happens only in the country, but in several Latin American nations.

"Our currencies are all falling, not only the Colombian peso," he said.

Finally, Petro invited Latin American countries to build a joint plan to respond to the economic crisis.

"In Colombia, we are threatened by economic stagnation, we are threatened by high-interest rates, which the Central Bank of the United States, the (Federal) Reserve, has decreed for its own economy and takes away the capital of South American countries, leaving us empty. Of course, these are real threats, but we have a strength on which to build our response; it is time for all Latin American countries to get together in the face of the world crisis and build their own agenda", concluded the President.

Petro spoke about these issues during the beginning of the Vvinculantes regional dialogues, spaces created by the Government to listen to Colombians' proposals in constructing the National Development Plan 2022-2026.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0011.html

Triple Murder Registered in Sucre, Colombia

Image
Andres Felipe Herrera Perez, Cristian Eduardo Arrieta Avila and Yoiner Andres Perez Torres were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds. Oct, 19, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@guerraxlamente

Published 19 October 2022 (12 hours 35 minutes ago)

The massacre was reported this Wednesday by police authorities in the rural area of San Onofre.


According to preliminary information, those killed were attacked by armed men who abandoned the bodies, which were found hours later.

The victims were men identified as Andrés Felipe Herrera Pérez, Cristian Eduardo Arrieta Ávila, and Yoiner Andrés Pérez Torres.

According to the Department of Legal Medicine, multiple gunshot wounds were found in the bodies of the victims.

It is reported that two of the victims have judicial records for homicide, receiving stolen goods, domestic violence and failure to provide food assistance.


A new massacre in the country leaves three dead in Sucre. The triple homicide occurred on the borders of Sucre and Bolivar. Two of the victims have judicial records for homicide, receiving stolen goods, domestic violence and failure to provide food assistance.

The first investigations showed the victims were not from the department of Sucre and that the massacre had been perpetrated in the rural area of Palo Alto, very close to the place where they were later found dead.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Tri ... -0018.html

Colombia: Members of Synthetic Drug Trafficking Ring Captured

Image
The Prosecutor's Office said 12 kilograms of 2-CB (pink cocaine) and 84 000 dollars in local and foreign currency, ten firearms and computers were seized. Oct. 19, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@InesBetancur1

Published 19 October 2022 (13 hours 44 minutes ago)

Members of the "La Terraza" and "Caicedo" gangs were allegedly part of the criminal network.

Attorney General Francisco Barbosa Delgado said that "28 members of one of the largest networks dedicated to the production and commercialization of synthetic drugs" were captured.

Among those captured are three members of the National Police and one official of Migration Colombia. They allegedly allowed the synthetic drug to leave through the José María Córdova airport in Rionegro (Antioquia).

It is reported that the drug trafficking network was involved in smuggling synthetic drugs to the U.S. and countries in Europe, the Caribbean and South America.

According to the investigation, the network recruited men and women in municipalities in Antioquia and convinced them to travel to other countries with illicit substances hidden in their luggage or bodies.


Attorney General, refers to an important operation in which one of the largest criminal networks dedicated to the processing and sale of synthetic drugs on a large scale was impacted, of which alleged members of the gangs 'La Terraza' and 'Caicedo'

Authorities also found that some criminal network members recruited young women and took them to Cartagena (Bolivar) or Miami (U.S.) to exploit them for commercial purposes sexually.

The arrests involved 36 search and seizure operations in Medellín, La Estrella, Sabaneta, Andes, San Francisco, Bello, Santa Fe de Antioquia (Antioquia) and Cartagena (Bolívar).

The Prosecutor's Office said that ten firearms and computers were seized for 12 kilograms of 2-CB (pink cocaine) and 84 000 dollars in local and foreign currency.


Property acquired with the proceeds of the organization's illegal activities was also seized. The affected assets are valued at more than one million dollars. They were placed at the disposal of the Special Assets Company (SAE) for their administration.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0017.html

Colombia: Another Indigenous Governor Killed in Antioquia

Image
So far this year, 146 social leaders and human rights defenders have been murdered in Colombia. Oct. 18, 2022. | Photo: TWITTER/@porttada

Published 18 October 2022

The indigenous governor Álvaro Bailarin Sapia was shot on Friday, October 14.


On Tuesday, the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia (OIA), denounced the murder of the indigenous governor who was attacked by an armed man in the 20 de Julio neighborhood of the municipality of Urrao.

Álvaro received serious wounds to his head and chest. Although he was taken by his relatives to a medical center, he later died.

OIA's Human Rights and Peace advisor, Luis Fernando Cáisamo, said, "At no time did our leader express threats against him, I only know that he was a good leader who leaves three orphaned minor children and his entire community in a state of defenselessness."

The indigenous community demanded that the competent authorities investigate, capture, prosecute and convict Álvaro's murderer. They also called on the legal and illegal armed actors to respect the lives of the indigenous people in danger of physical and cultural extermination due to the armed conflict in the country.


Antioquia must stop the systematic murder of male and female leaders. Rejection of the murder of Urrao Indigenous Governor Álvaro Sapia Dancer (Embera Eyábida from the Losses Valley reservation)

The Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) said that Álvaro, elected for 8 consecutive years, was the current governor of the Resguardo Valle de Pérdidas. The community recognized him as one of the most solid governors in management.

This murder brings the number of social leaders and human rights defenders killed in Colombia this year to 146, with 1 373 killed since the Peace Accords.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0021.html

*************

President Petro urges the design of a common Latin American agenda

Image
The president of Colombia spoke from the Urabá region, scene of migratory transit to the north. | Photo: @infopresidency
Published October 20, 2022 (8 hours 13 minutes ago)

Petro denounced the economic and human problem posed by the wave of Latin American migration to the United States.

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on Wednesday to establish a common agenda in Latin America to face the world crisis and manage the migratory tragedy.

With regard to the Binding Regional Dialogue held in Turbo, in the northwestern region of Urabá, Petro called on all the governments of Latin America to establish a common agenda to defend Latin America from the global crisis that is coming and that must be the priority of the Colombian Foreign Ministry.

“The economy of the Latin American nations is being emptied, Latin America is being looted. Our currencies all fall”, warned the president.


Petro assured that a world economic crisis is coming, that more than 800 million people suffer from hunger around the world and among them there are millions of Colombians.

Economic stagnation threatens us, the high interest rate that the United States Federal Reserve has established for its own economy threatens us and takes capital from South American countries there, leaving us empty, he stressed.


The United States' own policy, due to the size of its economy, can destroy the Latin American economies, but it can also help them, he added.

The president stressed that the Uraba region is experiencing a large exodus of migrants seeking to cross the Darién jungle to the United States in search of economic improvements.

Petro also explained that where they were, Urabá, in the last year they have crossed the jungle around 150,000 Colombians, Venezuelans, Haitians and others from South America.

"They believe that there is a dream that awaits them and they leave our countries, in one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in recent history," said the president.

"That wall of nature, crossed by thousands and thousands of people, has caused disasters, sorrows, in that exodus of the South American population that tries to go north, at any cost," lamented the head of state.

“Those migrants are rejected in the United States. That country that does not want them, would have to understand that, in order to stop this exodus, which is passing through here, we must achieve more prosperity in our nations”, asserted the Colombian president.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/presiden ... -0003.html

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 07, 2022 3:18 pm

Colombian Congress approves Total Peace Law promoted by the Government

Image
The law establishes that representatives authorized by the Colombian government will have the power to engage in dialogue with irregular armed groups | Photo: Colprensa
Published 4 November 2022

The total peace law was approved with 128 votes in favor and 7 against and will be sent to the House of Nariño so that President Petro can sanction it.

The plenary sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives of Colombia approved on Thursday the report of Law 181, known as the total peace legislation, which will allow the Government of Gustavo Petro to dialogue with different armed groups in the country.

The initiative promoted by President Gustavo Petro contemplates the legal framework for the peace policy, establishing the obligation of those who succeed him in power to continue the dialogues in favor of the peace process, as well as the agreements and the implementation of the same.

The total peace law was approved with 128 votes in favor and 7 against and will be sent to the House of Nariño so that President Petro can sanction it.


Within the law, the proposal of social service for peace was maintained as an alternative to compulsory military service.

"It is a law that, basically, what it delivers are instruments to the President of the Republic, the High Commissioner for Peace, the National Government and will allow progress to achieve total peace in Colombia," said the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, after its approval by the plenary session of Congress.


The senator for the Historical Pact, Iván Cepeda, stated that the law is the most solid and inclusive approved to date in the country that has the indispensable instruments to lay the foundations and inaugurate an era of peace.


The initiative establishes that the representatives authorized by the Colombian government will have the power to "engage in conversations and dialogues with structures or organized armed groups."

In addition, these representatives may sign agreements with the spokespersons or representative members of the illegal armed groups in order to obtain solutions to the armed conflict.

The total peace law included the creation of a National Program for the Voluntary Surrender of Weapons, which contemplates that people who avail themselves of this policy could be beneficiaries of non-prosecution for carrying weapons.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/congreso ... -0005.html

They denounce the murder of a peace signer in Cauca, Colombia

Image
The Quitumbo Cayapú escort was attacked with shots when he was moving to pick up his protégé, Jhan Carlos Moreno. | Photo: Events Cauca
Published 6 November 2022

Indepaz denounced that with this homicide there are 36 peace signatories killed so far in 2022 and 342 since the signing of the 2016 agreements.

The National Common Reincorporation Corporation (CNRC) denounced that the signer of the 2016 Peace Agreement, Jose Alirio Quitumbo Cayapu, was murdered this Saturday in a rural area of ​​the municipality of Caloto, department of Cauca, in southwestern Colombia.

Quitumbo Cayapú, who was working as an escort for the National Protection Unit (UNP), was attacked with shots in the village of La Dominga, in Caloto, when he was mobilizing to pick up his protégé, Jhan Carlos Moreno, local media reported.

The victim was carrying out his reincorporation process in the department of Cauca and belonged to the Carlos Perdomo Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR).


The Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) of Colombia denounced that with this homicide there are 36 peace signatories killed so far in 2022 and 342 since the signing of the 2016 peace agreements.


In a statement, the CNRC described as "urgent" the need "for the comprehensive implementation of the Peace Agreement, with a gender, territorial, ethnic and differential approach that allows us to build peace with social justice."

The National Protection Unit and the legislators of the Comunes Party, Luis Alberto Albán Urbano and Sergio Marín, among others, condemned the murder of the bodyguard and peace signer. They also sent condolences and shows of solidarity to his family.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/colombia ... -0001.html

Google translator

**********

NATO IN THE AMAZON: PETRO PLAYS WITH FIRE
Posted by MLToday | Nov 6, 2022 | Other Featured Posts | 0

Image

BY ROGER D. HARRIS
October 26, 2022

NATO recently expanded to Sweden and Finland, has been de facto incorporated in Ukraine, and may extend to Georgia. Now, NATO’s entry into the Amazon is in the works under the aegis of newly elected President Gustavo Petro of Colombia.

NATO is a primary instrument of US imperial dominion. It is Washington’s praetorian guard projected on a global scale.

Earlier this month, President Petro invited US and NATO military forces into the Amazon on the pretext that the imperial war machine could be repurposed as “police” aimed at protecting the environment instead of the old ruse of the war on drugs. He proposed deployment of US Black Hawk helicopters to put out fires. Previous to the environmental alibi, the pretext for militarization of the jungle was narcotics interdiction.

Petro described his “conversation with NATO” as “strange,” but hastened to add “that’s where we are.” He legitimized the US military occupation of Colombia –a reported nine bases – as “more of a police unit than a military unit.” Incredulously, he claimed that the continued occupation was a “complete change in what US military aid has always been.”

NATO in Colombia

Colombia has been the poster child for the Monroe Doctrine – an assertion of US hegemony over the hemisphere dating back to 1823 – and the leading client state of the US in the Americas. The South American nation was touted by both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in their US presidential campaigns as a model for the rest of Latin America.

In 2017, Colombia became one of NATO’s Global Partners and its first in Latin American. In February, Colombia conducted a provocative joint naval drill with NATO near Venezuela, which included a nuclear submarine.

Then on March 10, Colombia became a “Major Non-NATO Ally” of the US, giving Colombia special access to military programs. Biden explained: “This is a recognition of the unique and close relationship between our countries.”

From August 26 to September 11, US and Colombian militaries conducted joint NATO exercises. During this period, US Army General Laura Richardson, commander of the US Southern Command, made a five-day visit to meet with the newly elected president. The general gushed about “our number one security partner in the region,” describing Colombia as the “linchpin to the whole southern hemisphere.”

The South-Com commander also met with Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez to discuss implementation of the hemispheric “Women, Peace, and Security” initiative. Richardson concluded that the “Western Hemisphere is largely free and secure because of Colombia’s stabilizing efforts.”

When Petro first came into office, he differed from the US/NATO stance on the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, advocating a neutral negotiated peace on September 21. Two weeks later he switched, joining the US-led resolution in the Organization of American States strongly condemning Russia’s “unprovoked invasion” and unilaterally demanding Russian withdrawal.

Green-washing of NATO in the Amazon

Legitimizing foreign military intervention into the Amazon region under the guise of environmentalism is not a new idea. Little concerned about the niceties of national sovereignty, Al Gore told the US Senate in 1989: “The Amazon is not their property. It belongs to all of us.”

More recently in 2019 and in response to fires in the Brazilian Amazon, French President Emmanuel Macron imperiously urged the G7 nations to intervene: “It is an international crisis.” UN Secretary General António Guterres echoed Macron’s sentiment, as did political leaders of other former colonial powers such as Germany.

Quora rhetorically asked: “Why doesn’t NATO invade Brazil in order to save the Amazon?” Touting “foreign action,” the NATO Association of Canada argued: “Environmental security threats such as the fires in the Amazon rainforest affect the global environment, and therefore require a system of collective security to address them.”

Combatting forest fires and other climate-driven disasters have been incorporated into

NATO’s ever expanding scope. The militarists are not so much concerned about the environment as they are about perturbances that can upset the existing world order.

Because NATO is an accessory of the US empire, these new ecological tasks are best understood not as non-military functions but as the militarization of environmentalism. Their environmentally “woke” missions operate under such cover as the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme and even the UN Environmental Programme, which cooperates with NATO.

Accordingly, Foreign Policy favorably considered the “militarization of the Amazon” on environmental grounds. A subsequent FP article on who will invade the Amazon predicted: “It’s only a matter of time until major powers try to stop climate change by any means necessary.”

Colombia – no longer an automatic US proxy

Notwithstanding his opening the door for US/NATO into the Amazon, Colombian President Petro has other non-military climate-change solutions in mind. In his UN address, Petro warned, “wars have served as an excuse for not ending the climate crisis.”

While oil producing nations such as the US, UK, and Norway are increasing extraction, Petro is going in the opposite direction. His proposed oil and coal tax to reduce production and fund social projects, ban on fracking, and especially the politically provocative unwinding of fuel subsidies could, however, cause further devaluation of the peso and public discontent.

Petro asked a recent US congressional delegation to Colombia to intervene with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to forgive some of Colombia’s debt in exchange for investment in decarbonized economies. That would compensate, he explained, for the disruption of the world economy caused with US unilateral coercive measures (i.e., sanctions). Petro elaborated in a recent speech: “The US is practically ruining all the economies of the world.”

Petro also requested that the US congressional delegation consider footing the bill for deeding three million hectares of land to campesinos as part of his administration’s land-reform effort. The alternative, Petro adroitly suggested, would be to engage the US’s geopolitical rival China more fully in his energy transition initiatives.

Bloomberg reports that China has already concluded a number of significant renewable energy infra-structure deals with Colombia. Indicative of the shifting balance of trade, Colombia imported $14.8 billion from China compared to $14.1 billion from the US in 2021.

Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos had boasted in 2013 in reference to Colombia’s regional role as a US client state: “If somebody called my country the Israel of Latin America, I would be very proud. I admire the Israelis, and I would consider that as a compliment.” A decidedly new message is coming from President Petro, who is on record saying the US “does not love us.”

Indeed, Petro has made international headlines criticizing the US war-on-drugs policy, noting that while Colombia may have historically been the supplier of illicit narcotics, the US bears responsibility for being the biggest consumer. Further, from being Washington’s stand-in for destabilizing Venezuela, Colombia has flipped to making amends with its immediate neighbor and reestablishing amiable diplomatic relations.

Petro’s problematic association with George Soros

The rightwing accuses Petro of being a protégé of and financed by billionaire George Soros, whose Open Society Foundation has long been active in Colombia. Petro is portrayed by those elements “as manifesting that ideological trajectory of which George Soros is often seen as the patriarch.” Although reviled by the right, the obsessively anti-communist “puppet master of humanitarian imperialism” is no friend of left.

Even though Petro tried to distance himself from Soros in a tweet calling him a “speculative capitalist,” the new president met with Soros’s son and vice president of the foundation shortly after assuming the presidency to discuss joint ventures in the Amazon.

Petro’s predicament – a small country in the shadow of the US hegemon

Now that the rightwing associated with former President Álvaro Uribe has been discredited and electorally defeated, US imperialism needs a new face in Colombia. Petro’s ambiguous positions are best understood in historical context. For the first time in two centuries, putative leftists have run and lived to assume the presidency of Colombia, a country which has not only been a client state of the US but its lead proxy.

Their win is an essential step in the long struggle to free their troubled country from its erstwhile subjugation to the colossus to the north. But it must be emphasized that it is naïve to believe that the Washington is about to allow such a seismic shift to the left to endure uncontested.

Given the domination of Colombia by its US-backed military, Petro was concerned not only about winning the election but surviving afterward. Both Petro and his running mate Márquez survived assassination attempts on the campaign trail. Even the Voice of America warned about the “specter of assassination.”

The new president of Colombia is a former leftist guerilla, who has shifted toward the center politically. But in comparison to the far-right rule of Uribe and his successors in Colombia, the election of Petro and his vice president Márquez constitutes a sea change in the progressive direction.

The regional movement towards integration and independence poses a challenge to the US drive to impose its hegemony in the Americas. The change in the executive of Colombia further advances this movement. But Petro has inherited major institutional constraints and is subject to enormous pressures.

Paradoxically, the very conditions that Petro campaigned against, which swept him into office, have now become his puzzles to solve. Strong inflationary winds are buffeting society, generated by global economies with which small countries like Colombia must integrate but over which they have minimal control. As the cost of living goes up, Petro’s popular support at home suffers erosion.

Petro’s predicament is being caught between the popular demand for progressive change and the legacy of US imperial domination. Colombia will need to find the means to resist the further projection of US military command in the form of NATO. The Amazon doesn’t need arsonists to put out its fires.

https://mltoday.com/nato-in-the-amazon- ... with-fire/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue Jan 17, 2023 2:51 pm

Colombia: Fifth Massacre in 2023 -INDEPAZ

Image
"They are killing us," reads the banner. Jan. 16, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@Guacamaroja

Published 16 January 2023 (16 hours 55 minutes ago)

Two young men, aged 18 and 17, and a minor, aged 8, were killed on Sunday.


The Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ) denounced that on Sunday, hired killers murdered "two young men aged 18 and 17 and an 8-year-old minor" in the municipality of La Union, in the Colombian department of Valle del Cauca.

According to the institute, the 18-year-old, identified as Jhoan Steven Dávila, and the 17-year-old died at the site. The eight-year-old girl was taken to a health center in Tuluá, where she was later reported dead, INDEPAZ said.

The commander of the Valle del Cauca Police, Colonel Ever Yovanni Gómez, said that "the victims arrived at their place of residence and were approached by two subjects, who without saying a word, fired their firearms and attacked them."

Gómez added that the assailants "fled the scene in an unknown direction." Investigations by a group of police investigators and the Prosecutor's Office will lead to the arrest of the perpetrators, said the commander.


Date: 15/01/23 Location: La Unión, Valle del Cauca No. of Victims: 3 people. In La Union, Valle del Cauca a massacre is registered where two young men of 18 and 17 years old and a minor of 8 years old were killed by hired assassins.

The massacre was rejected by the Ombudsman's Office, which said via Twitter: "We urge a rigorous investigation of the crime and the prosecution of those responsible. Our solidarity with the families of the victims."

According to INDEPAZ, the crime registered this Sunday in La Unión, Valle del Cauca, is the fifth massacre so far this year in Colombia.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0011.html

**************

Peace! Peace! But in Colombia, there is no peace
January 11, 2023
By James Patrick Jordan

Image

Send an email to the White House and to your Senator to urge that the White House withdraw, and that the Senate reject, the nomination of SouthComm’s Jean Elizabeth Manes as the next ambassador to Colombia. The ambassador to Colombia should be an ambassador for peace, not an agent of US militarism. https://afgj.salsalabs.org/SouthCommsJe ... index.html

Advocates for peace and justice around the world were thrilled to hear the proposal by Colombian president Gustavo Petro for a Total Peace Plan, an effort that was promptly approved by the congress. The plan is ambitious and deserves our support. Colombia’s entire history from the Spanish colonization right up till today has been a story of violence, displacement, and repression. The country has been in the grips of armed conflict and civil war on several fronts for more than 50 years. The 2016 Peace Accord between the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian Armed Forces (CAF) was a major step forward.

Nevertheless, the accord has been marred by the failure of the Colombian government to meet its commitments, and by continued political violence. Petro has expressed his strong support for the accords and a desire to reverse the noncompliance of the state. Regrettably, the assassinations of social leaders and ex-combatant signers of the accords remains excessively high. If we add the number of victims of massacres, people are losing their lives to political violence in Colombia at a rate of more than one person per day. According to Indepaz, in 2022, 189 social leaders and human rights defenders, and 43 ex-combatants, were murdered. Another 289 persons lost their lives in 91 massacres. Together, this accounts for 521 victims of assassinations and massacres in 2022. Since the accords were implemented in 2016, 1,409 social leaders, and 348 ex combatants have been killed. There have been 368 massacres, with at least three victims of each.

On New Year’s Eve, Pres. Petro announced a bilateral ceasefire among all major armed groups, including the largest guerrilla group, the ELN (National Liberation Army). On January 4, 2023, the ELN announced via its website that no bilateral ceasefire had been discussed or agreed to. Previously, the administration had maintained that the AGC (Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) paramilitary death squads, as well as the Dagoberto Ramos front (former FARC-EP turned narcotraffickers) had agreed to negotiations. However, we know of several threats and killings alleged to both groups against sister organizations in conflict hotspots in the Departments of Cauca and Valle de Cauca.

The Total Peace Plan by the Petro administration should be applauded. It is a tremendously positive development to have an administration in power that truly wants peace.

However, the kinds of concrete steps necessary to achieve a durable and just peace in Colombia are still behind where they should be, even with the progress that has clearly been made. The Sindicato Memoria Viva (Living Memory Union) is especially emblematic of the problem. They are a union whose members are mostly former combatants and signers of the peace accords. Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world to be a union member, and signers of the peace accord are routinely targeted for assault.

Memoria Viva is already doubly endangered. Then there is the actual work they do—they are bodyguards who are assigned to provide security for leadership of the Comunes Political Party, formed as a result of the 2016 Accord, with the participation of members of the former FARC-EP. (Not all members of Comunes are formerly of the FARC-EP, and not all former members of the FARC-EP are members of Comunes.) In short, Memoria Viva is a union of the doubly threatened charged with protecting the threatened. There are few who understand the need for a real peace as much as they do, and they have a unique and invaluable perspective on how that peace might be concretely achieved.

But the union has been hit hard by threats against and murders of its members, labor violations, false allegations, and a still lingering failure by the State to provide the tools necessary for them to do their jobs. A chronic problem has been the lack of viable vehicles necessary to provide security for the people they accompany, something that has resulted in the loss of life. Ronald Rojas, an ex-combatant who led the reincorporation process in the Department of Huila is one of these. According to the union, his security detail was not available because of a vehicle that was in the shop, without a substitute provided.

In an October 18, 2022 interview, Memoria Viva president Victor Osorio told the Alliance for Global Justice, that,

“There have been six assassinations, disappearances, and declarations of inconsistencies regarding my colleagues, as well as regular national persecution….

We stand firm on the implementation of the Peace Accords but in order for that to be possible we need our lives to be secure. We need to be able to move around in the territories where we can accomplish the goals, we proposed…. something which has been next to impossible on our end including with the new government. We have yet to get them to sit and talk with our unions in a genuine and sincere way or to follow our proposals and recommendations for better security protocols. These protocols have the responsibility of guaranteeing the lives of those who signed the Peace Accords….

The response from the state has been very unsatisfactory…. Ronald Rojas had expressed to our colleagues that he had received concerning information regarding being followed with the objective of assassination. Still, when the assassination happened, he was unable to depend on the security measures that should have been given to him…. The issue is that the renting car company, which has a million dollar contract with the state to rent those vehicles and provide security and mobility for the signers of the Peace Accords…. We have colleagues who have to ride public transportation because they weren’t guaranteed a vehicle. This puts them in very unsafe conditions. These rental companies…. often supply old, dingy cars that spend more time in the shop being repaired than actually protecting anyone….

What happened to Ronald was very painful for our community…. Ronald was someone who was very close to us…. He was a leader in the protection of our friends.”

The People’s Human Rights Observatory (Observatorio de los Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos) and the Alliance for Global Justice recently sent a letter to Pres. Petro, the UNP (National Protection Unit), Department of Labor, and leadership of the Comunes Party in support of Memoria Viva’s demands, including a meeting with Pres. Petro. The president’s office replied that it had forwarded the letter to various cabinet offices with instruction to investigate the concerns, and the UNP responded that they are taking the concerns under consideration. A meeting with the president was denied, citing that his agenda was not open. AFGJ will continue to monitor the situation and mobilize solidarity with Memoria Viva. We will continue to support their call for a meeting with Pres. Petro.

The Alliance for Global Justice has also maintained an ongoing campaign for better protection and an adequate vehicle for the security detail of Darnelly Rodriguez, the coordinator of the Pacific Human Rights Center (Centro Pazífico) and of the Francisco Isaias Cifuentes Human Rights Network (REDDHFIC) in Cali. Darnelly has been singled out by name in several death threats, she’s been followed, and her office burglarized. She has told us that her team’s vehicle is frequently in the shop for repairs, without a substitute provided.

The threats of political violence extend to all levels. Even as this article is being written, we hear on the news that a bomb was found (January 10, 2023) near the family home of Colombia’s Vice President Francia Marquez in the Department of Cauca. Marquez came to prominence as an eco-defender and Afro-Colombian social leader.

Clearly, the administration should meet with the leadership of Memoria Viva not only to hear their demands, but because their analysis and advice could be transformative. Listening to these voices from real grass roots experts in this peace process is perhaps a missing piece that could bring the Petro administration’s dream of a Total Peace closer to reality.

Unfortunately, there are other voices vying for the attention of the Petro administration, and few as persistent and loud and ominous as that of a US government that is firmly oriented towards maintaining Colombia as a military colony for the Pentagon, and a springboard for implementing the Empire’s agenda throughout Latin America and even the world. The US government has used the Drug War as a smokescreen to spend billions of dollars to militarize Colombia and fund the repression of its people. Colombia has been a training ground and base for countless forms of interference, including attempted coups and invasions, in Venezuela. Colombia has trained scores of thousands of police and military personnel across Latin America and the world. Colombia has sent its soldiers to engagements in Korea, Afghanistan, Yemen—even in Ukraine. While the US and NATO maintain they have no boots on the ground in Ukraine, Colombia, a NATO Global Partner, has sent soldiers there to give de-mining trainings.

Colombia is well known as a proxy for the US military where it is often prevented from going. As former head of the Southern Command, General John Kelly once testified before Congress,

“The beauty of having a Colombia – they’re such good partners, particularly in the military realm, they’re such good partners with us. When we ask them to go somewhere else and train the Mexicans, the Hondurans, the Guatemalans, the Panamanians, they will do it almost without asking. And they’ll do it on their own. They’re so appreciative of what we did for them. And what we did for them was, really, to encourage them for 20 years and they’ve done such a magnificent job.

But that’s why it’s important for them to go, because I’m–at least on the military side–restricted from working with some of these countries because of limitations that are, that are really based on past sins. And I’ll let it go at that.”

Without doubt, Petro’s denunciation of the War on Drugs as a failure, his criticisms of the US funded and created ESMAD riot police, his thawing of relations with Venezuela, even his embrace of a truly durable and just peace plan, provoke the concern of the US/NATO Empire. But, his unfortunate proposal for US and NATO involvement in an international military force to protect the Amazon Basin provokes the US to consider that Petro may be malleable to some of the Empire’s most desired interests. It must be emphasized that no matter how much he may or may not want to, Pres. Petro cannot effectively challenge the US military’s grasp on Colombia without a massive show support from popular movements both in Colombia as well as in the United States.

The Biden administration’s nomination of Jean Elizabeth Manes for the next ambassador to Colombia is something that supporters of peace, and respecters of sovereignty should oppose. Manes comes straight out of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, where she currently serves as Civilian Deputy and Foreign Policy Advisor to SouthComm Commander General Laura J. Richardson. It is a matter of tradition that among the first visits made by any Colombian President before and after taking office is to the US to meet with the heads of SouthComm. Conversely, one of the first visits any incoming SouthComm commander makes is to Colombia. No aspect of the Colombian military is beyond the watchful eye and direction of the Pentagon. If Colombia may, sadly, be described as an occupied country, and a Pentagon colony, then SouthComm is its regent.

During this time that Colombia grapples with its deepest desires for peace both at home and in the region, this is not the time for a civilian analyst and strategist for SouthComm to take up direction of the US embassy. The ambassador to Colombia should be an ambassador for peace, not an architect for conflict and domination.

When we hear the cries for peace in Colombia, when we hear of plans for total peace, we have every reason to be hopeful, even to be thrilled. But until more concrete steps are taken by the Colombian government, and until the US government stops treating Colombia as its launchpad for Empire in Latin America, when we hear the cries for peace, we will also hear that haunting echo: “But there is no peace….”

Originally published by the International Journal for Socialist Renewal

https://afgj.org/peace-peace-but-in-col ... s-no-peace
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:38 pm

WHAT DOES WHAT HE PROPOSED IN DAVOS SAY ABOUT PETRO?

eder pena

25 Jan 2023 , 9:55 p.m.

Image
he Colombian president went to present his concern for the global environmental crisis to those who generate it (Photo: Foreign Policy)

Colombian President Gustavo Petro participated on January 17 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, which brought together heads of state and world leaders, and presented Colombia's proposals to face the climate crisis and promote the energy transition . He also held bilateral meetings with various executives of global companies with investments in Colombia.

BUSY SCHEDULE

The space takes place in an alpine ski resort that has become the epicenter of world capitalism and far from popular protests. There, the lines of the globalization plan that the economic elites have established over the rest of the world are defined and reviewed.

Within this framework, Petro attended the session "Food Action Alliance: investing in greater resilience" where the Food Action Alliance Strategy 2023-2025 was launched and spoke together with the President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan.

After meeting with Alain Berset, elected president of the Swiss Confederation for 2023, he met with the founder of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, and Al Gore, former Democratic vice president of the United States between 1993 and 2001. Also with the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ilan Goldfajn, and was a speaker at the session "Leading the charge through Earth's new normal", in which topics such as climate action, oceans and biodiversity were discussed.


He announced that 70 million dollars from the IDB will be directed to strengthening the energy transition policy, and that another 3.5 million dollars will be directed both to the design and structuring of financial mechanisms and to a regulatory framework to implement payment for services. environment in the Amazon basin.

In the session "Leadership for Latin America" ​​he shared with the presidents of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, and Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso. His agenda included a meeting with Laurent Freixe, Nestlé's vice president for Latin America, and Adel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He also attended the dialogue "Sustainable Solutions for Latin America", in which the presidents of Costa Rica and Ecuador also participated.

He closed with the CEO of Enel; that of Coca-Cola; that of Microsoft; the general director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva; the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte; the President of Yara International, Svein Tore Holsether. With the latter, he evaluated a possible investment of close to 100 million dollars to increase the production of fertilizers in Colombia.

DEBT SWAP FOR " DECARBONIZED CAPITALISM"

Even though the main motivation for his trip was to present his concern about the global environmental crisis, the Colombian president established contact with the main actors (and authors) of the system that generates it. As he did in his inauguration ceremony and in his speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), he proposed a debt swap for "specific environmental services" to tackle the climate crisis, reiterating his idea of ​​ending dependence on oil and coal to undertake an "accelerated" energy transition.

In addition, he proposed in Davos that climate summits be binding on the global economy and reiterated his criticisms of the current relationship between capitalism and the fight against climate change in the search for zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by part of the extractive industries.

Regarding the energy dimension of the global crisis, he raised the possibility of building an American electrical network. During the "Leadership for Latin America" ​​panel, he proposed "selling our clean energy potential so that the United States can change its energy matrix, the first element to change everything in the world."

In his proposals for " decarbonized capitalism " he proposed that materials such as copper could be used in reindustrialization processes "to generate energy ourselves (...) by direct network to the United States and by sea to the rest of the world."

OXYGENATING A MODEL IN A COMA

The WEF is the forum where the course of a planet is decided in which the largest agricultural regions, such as Latin America, have the worst problems of access to food and the highest rates of poverty, diet-related diseases and pollution. of air and water.

Image
(Photo: (Free the soil))

While food picked and packaged by low-wage immigrant labor is exported, crowded and marginalized urban communities suffer disproportionate levels of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and obesity. While local markets are flooded with junk food, it is cheap but high in calories and low in nutritional value. At first glance, there is a problem of equitable distribution, which is directed from the elites gathered in Davos.

An agro-industrial model based on the Green Revolution in which the Global South feeds the world while degrading its soils by deforesting and stripping them of their structures and nutrients. It has escalated through biotech packages that increase food and technology dependency, led by the funded Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, owners of Microsoft. A Grain report found that most of the grants from the foundation ended up with research institutes in the United States and Europe, to produce technology that would create dependency on African farmers.

The environmental crisis to which Petro refers is accompanied by a collapse of the globalized civilizing model imposed from the West. Its symptom is the conflict between Russia and NATO (with Ukraine as the battlefield) by showing how the arrangement between the poles of power is no longer the same. Capitalism, indigestible with debt , can hardly be decarbonized when even the so-called green energies experience a "self-destructive loop" and require a high carbon footprint for their manufacture and start-up.

We have already seen how Germany, which promised to decarbonise its economy, had to resort to voracious coal extraction on its own soil. The power, which has developed from cheap energy and raw materials like the entire Global North, responded to its "energy crisis" (loss of a low-cost supplier like Russia) by reactivating coal consumption since before the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

Image
Eight wind turbines dismantled in Germany to expand a coal mine

For its part, China plans to build new coal-fired power plants and the recent installation of an unmanned oil rig in the South Sea. Its president, Xi Jinping, already warned in 2022 that the Asian country will not stop burning fossil fuels until it is sure that clean energy can reliably replace them, a complex matter when economic growth is the great utopia.

In our Global South it seems that the mere redistribution of income (be it oil, mining or agro-export) will not be enough to slow down the high flow rate of capital and income towards a wealthy minority, even less when that is the core of the capitalism that Petro proposes. oxygenate with green economy. Continuing to extend the life of capitalism, to the point of promising to decarbonize it, is to postpone the discussion about its weakness, which does not lie only in the peak of debt or the financialization of life, but in the biophysical limits of the planet.

TRANSITION TO THE SOUND OF WHAT?
The transition from an energy -unjust world to an equally unfair world has already been questioned, especially if one ignores the fact that "green" technologies depend on complex global supply chains fueled by fossil fuels at every stage of their manufacture. , transportation, deployment, maintenance and decommissioning.

A report from the Ember company has pointed out how the problem lies in energy. Wind and solar, the fastest growing sources of electricity, reached a record 10% of global electricity in 2021 providing a supply of 38%. But the demand for electricity reached an unprecedented increase in emissions and also coal-fired power. Renewables, for the moment, only accompany the growth in electricity consumption, but they are not replacing gas or coal, which continue to grow.

Petro, troubled by the burning of reserves caused by the ongoing devaluation of the Colombian currency, may be seeking financing to resolve the enormous socioeconomic crisis left behind by Uribismo, whose policies left untouched capital flows to national oligopolies and transnationals.

When speaking of "environmental services" he refers to a network of impositions that have advanced in putting a price on life (or what we call nature). These "market solutions" based on "green finance" assume that nature is destroyed because it is not given (exchange) value.

Nature-Based Solutions (SBN) are part of that mechanistic vision that is based on carbon offsets. His approach is that, if the trees capture carbon, the planting of many more can be financed or protected areas can be created to offset the amount of CO 2 or other GHGs that are emitted. The countries gathered in the WEF do not intend to reduce their emissions to zero: they simply intend to "offset" those emissions elsewhere, paying with technologies that remove them from the atmosphere to make it appear that way.

Many are the sectors that affirm or wonder if the energy systems that allow us to carry out daily activities, but also maintain a flow of capital and income towards a wealthy minority, can be "decarbonised". Corporate "sustainability" programs have already been shown to have a 98% failure rate.

The global agricultural model that the WEF has imposed has generated levels of food dependence, not only on its technologies but also on fossil fuels. This is how seven out of eight people in the world, who live in cities, will have died in a year if synthetic fertilizers (manufactured by corporations like Yara International), petroleum-based pesticides and herbicides are eliminated. The ships, planes, trains and trucks that transport food from field to table would also stop; It doesn't seem like an absurd number.


The Colombian president is betting on a transition that is supported by a sector of the political-economic elite of the United States, headed by the Democratic party, which wants to change everything so that nothing changes. It traps him to understand these elites as managers of that "transition" when they impose what is currently established. In reality what they propose is more control and dependency but disguised as a "green future".

What Petro said and did in Davos puts him at a crossroads between what is urgent and what is important: between governing in the midst of the crisis of a country surrounded by Uribista looting and promoting a realistic path towards food sovereignty for his country and the region. The latter requires boldness and a commitment to those who produce food and to get off the derailed train of green capitalism.

https://misionverdad.com/opinion/que-di ... o-en-davos
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10586
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:46 pm

Despite confusion over bilateral ceasefire with the ELN, search for peace in Colombia continues

The announcement of a non-agreed upon bilateral ceasefire between the Colombian government and the ELN stirred up mistrust and confusion as the country continues to search for total peace

January 04, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

Image
Members of the ELN peace talk delegation. Photo: Al Carajo

On Wednesday, January 4, Colombian Interior Minister, Alfonso Prada, announced that the national government had suspended the bilateral ceasefire with the country’s largest active leftist guerilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). The announcement came a day after the ELN publicly denied that they had agreed to a ceasefire.

On December 31, 2022, President Gustavo Petro reported that his government had reached an agreement on a six-month bilateral truce with five irregular armed groups including the ELN; the dissident groups of the demobilized FARC: the Estado Mayor Central, the Segunda Marquetalia; and the drug cartels Clan del Golfo and Los Pachencas. The head of state also reported that the ceasefire would be in force from January 1 to June 30, adding that it would be “extendable depending on the progress of the [peace] negotiations.”

However, on Tuesday, January 3, the ELN dialogue delegation rejected the announcement, stating that no such proposal had been discussed at the dialogue table.

“The ELN dialogue delegation has not discussed any bilateral ceasefire with the Gustavo Petro government, therefore there is still no agreement on this matter. On various occasions we have pointed out that the ELN only complies with what is discussed and agreed upon at the Dialogue Table where we participate. A unilateral government decree cannot be accepted as an agreement,” said the group in a statement.

The guerrilla organization recalled that “in the first round of peace talks held in Venezuela, which ended on December 12, 2022, they only agreed on the institutionalization of the roundtable and the adjustments to the agenda had begun.”

The organization said that “in the next round of negotiations to be held in Mexico, it was agreed to complete the adjustment of the talks agenda,” adding that “once we conclude what is planned we are ready to discuss the proposal for a bilateral ceasefire, to examine the terms that make an agreement possible. We understand the Government Decree as a proposal to be examined in the next round.”

The organization’s statement came after the government issued specific decrees for each of the organizations, in which it set the parameters for the said truce.

On the morning of Wednesday January 4, in a press conference, Interior Minister Prada announced the suspension of Decree 2657 which established a six-month bilateral truce with the ELN.

“Given the position publicly assumed yesterday, according to which the protocol of said cessation should be brought to the dialogue table, we have decided to suspend the legal effects of Decree 2657 of December 31, 2022, and in the following round, dialogue on this matter would be reactivated,” he said.

Prada added that “given the desire for peace expressed by the ELN and while the bilateral cessation protocol is being studied at the dialogue table, we invite this organization to declare a verifiable truce in response to the imperative call of the ethnic, territorial and peasant communities to maintain the bilateral cessation and non-violence in their territories.”

The interior minister reported that except for the ELN, the other four groups had expressed their willingness to participate in the truce. Similarly, he reported that the Military Forces had already been ordered to “establish the mechanisms to cease criminal offenses against these groups, if there is compliance with the agreements reached [with them] before the end of 2022.”

Prada recalled that the United Nations, the Catholic Church and several countries supported the government decision to stop fighting with these groups. However, he added that after the reluctance of the ELN, the military offensive against them would continue until a consensus on the matter was reached.

Meanwhile, Antonio Garcia, the top leader of the insurgent group, wrote on Twitter that during the unilateral ceasefire called for by the group during the end of the year holidays, state actors had continued carrying out operations against the ELN.

While many lamented the confusion over the bilateral ceasefire, others have pointed out that this sort of agreement is normally only reached through drawn out negotiation after several rounds of talks. In the peace process held between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a lasting bilateral ceasefire was only achieved in 2015, three years after the process began and continued uninterrupted.

In the “New Year Message” released by the ELN on January 1, 2023, the group highlighted that its primary goal for both remaining in arms and engaging in the peace process is to “transform the conditions of the dispossessed.” It added that “The absence of armed uprising will never be synonymous with peace. Profound transformations will not be gifted by anyone. Today, there is an opportunity to resume the debate on the need for a more just society, authentically democratic, conceived and governed by the majorities.”

President Petro’s plans to bring total peace to Colombia after more than six decades of internal armed conflict, which has killed around 450,000 people and displaced over 8 million, continue.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/04/ ... continues/

Another assassination attempt against Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez

Márquez reported that her security team found a highly destructive explosive device near her family home during a security check before her visit

January 11, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

Image
Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez denounced a new attempt on her life on January 10. Photo: Francia Márquez/Twitter

Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez, on Tuesday, January 10, denounced a new attempt on her life. Márquez reported on Twitter that her security team had found a highly destructive explosive device near her family home in the Yolombó village, in the Suárez municipality, in the Cauca department during a security check before her visit. Márquez also reported that the device had been destroyed in a controlled explosion by bomb disposal experts.

“Members of my security team found a device with more than 7 kg of explosive material on the road that leads to my family residence in the village of Yolombó, in Suárez, Cauca. It was destroyed in a controlled manner by anti-explosive personnel from the SIJIN,” Márquez tweeted along with photos of what appeared to be an improvised explosive device.

The Vice President and Minister of Equality, in another tweet, shared a police report about the incident, and said that “the attached report shows that it was another attempt on my life.”

Márquez, an environmental activist who became the first Black woman vice president of Colombia against all odds, added that “regardless, we won’t stop working every day, day after day, until we achieve Total Peace that Colombia dreams of and needs. We will not give up until it is possible to live in true harmony in each territory.”

Márquez had planned to visit her hometown in Yolombó from January 7 to 9. For this reason, a prior inspection was carried out in the areas close to her residence, when the explosives were found. Due to the characteristics and location of the device, intelligence and security personnel concluded that this was an attack against the vice president.


This was not the first time that Márquez had her life threatened. In May 2022, before the presidential elections, during a campaign rally in the capital Bogotá, Márquez was pointed at with a laser when she was on stage addressing a multitude of supporters. At that time, her bodyguards immediately covered her with bulletproof shields to protect her and prevent an attack against her life.

In April 2022, the far-right paramilitary group, Águilas Negras or Black Eagles, issued death threats against several members of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition, including Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez, who were candidates at the time.

It was the third death threat that Márquez had received in less than a month. The Águilas Negras had issued two other death threats to Márquez and other progressive political and social leaders in March 2022.

Márquez, who rose to prominence for her struggle against illegal gold mining in Suárez, took office with President Gustavo Petro last year on promises of fighting inequalities, corruption, impunity, drug trafficking, paramilitarism and consolidating peace.

Violence against environmentalists, land defenders, human rights defenders, Afro-descendent, Indigenous, peasant and social leaders like Márquez is not uncommon in Colombia. Paramilitary and drug trafficking groups have been targeting those who work to defend land and natural resources in their territories and pose a threat to the organization’s illegal operations.

Colombia has lived through almost 60 years of internal armed conflict over territorial disputes between paramilitary groups, drug traffickers, the army and guerrillas, which has killed around 450,000 people and displaced over 8 million.

Colombia’s first leftist leaders, President Petro and Vice President Márquez, are determined to bring total peace to the country. The Petro-Márquez government has called on all irregular armed groups operating in different parts of the country to negotiate peace agreements.

According to Colombian human rights organization, the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ), so far, at least 23 irregular armed groups have expressed their intention to engage in dialogue and “accept legal benefits in exchange for peace and definitive non-repetition of violence.”

The government has already begun negotiations with four groups including the dissident groups of the demobilized FARC guerilla group: the Estado Mayor Central, the Segunda Marquetalia; and the drug cartels Clan del Golfo and Los Pachencas. The peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN) which began under the government of Juan Manuel Santos, but was suspended during the term of Iván Duque, was also restarted and the first round of talks was held in Caracas, Venezuela in December 2022.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/11/ ... a-marquez/

IACHR declares Colombian State responsible for extermination of left party

This follows the Special Jurisdiction for Peace from 2022 determining that during the genocide perpetrated against the party, nearly 6,000 people were murdered or disappeared

February 01, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

Image
The survivors and family members of the victims of the genocide against the Patriotic Union party celebrated the IACHR Court’s ruling, which declared the Colombian State responsible for the extermination of UP militants and members in the mid-1980s. Photo: Corporación Reiniciar/Twitter

On Monday January 30, in a virtual hearing from Costa Rica, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) declared the Colombian State responsible for the extermination of members of the left-wing Patriotic Union (UP) party by right-wing paramilitary groups and state security forces in the mid-1980s.

After 30 years of legal struggle, survivors and family members of the victims of the genocide against the UP finally achieved a breakthrough. In the ruling of the case ‘Members and Militants of the Patriotic Union vs. Colombia,’ the IACHR Court declared, “the State of Colombia is responsible for the human rights violations committed to the detriment of more than 6,000 victims who were members and militants of the Patriotic Union political party, beginning in 1984 and for over 20 years.”


Human rights violations against the UP

The IACHR ruling recalled how, after May 1985 when the UP was established as a political organization, the party rapidly rose in national politics and became a victim of “an alliance [which] emerged between paramilitary groups, sectors of traditional politics, the public force and business groups,” who unleashed “the acts of violence against the members, sympathizers and militants of the Patriotic Union” to counteract its rise.

The Court said that it “was able to verify that the systematic violence against the members and militants of the Patriotic Union, which lasted for more than two decades and extended to almost the entire Colombian territory, manifested itself through acts of a different nature such as forced disappearances, massacres, extrajudicial executions and murders, threats, attacks, various acts of stigmatization, improper prosecutions, torture, forced displacement, among others.”

The Court determined that the “systematic extermination plan against the UP, its members and militants counted on the participation of state agents and with the tolerance and acquiescence of the authorities.” It added that “the investigations into these acts of violence were not effective and were characterized by high rates of impunity.”

The IACHR Court also held the Colombian State responsible “for the violation of the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and politics of the victims” as well as “the rights to recognition of legal personality, to life, to personal integrity, to personal liberty, to freedom of movement and residence, the rights of the child and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons.”

The Court established that UP members’ right to honor and dignity was also affected, the rights to judicial guarantees, judicial protection and the duty to investigate acts of torture were not guaranteed, and the right to personal integrity was violated, to the detriment of the next of kin of the victims of forced disappearances and executions.

Reparation measures

In the light of the violations, the IACHR Court ordered various reparation measures, such as “initiating, promoting, reopening and continuing, within a period of no more than two years, and concluding, within a reasonable period of time and with the greatest diligence, the investigations, in order to establish the truth of the facts related to serious human rights violations and determine the criminal responsibilities that could exist.”

The Court also ordered “a search to determine the whereabouts of the disappeared victims whose fate is still unknown,” “medical, psychological, psychiatric or psychosocial treatment to the victims who request it,” and “a public act of acknowledgment of international responsibility.”

The Court also suggested taking commemorative steps, such as “establishing a national day in commemoration of the victims of the Patriotic Union and carrying out activities for its dissemination,” “building a monument in memory of the victims and of the acts committed against the members, militants and sympathizers of the Patriotic Union,” as well as “placing plaques in at least five places or public spaces to commemorate the victims.”

The IACHR Court also recommended educative actions, such as “preparing and disseminating an audiovisual documentary on the violence and stigmatization against the Patriotic Union,” “carrying out a national campaign in public media in order to sensitize Colombian society regarding the violence, persecution and stigmatization to which the leaders, militants, members and relatives of the members of the Patriotic Union were subjected,” and “holding academic forums in at least five public universities in different parts of the country on issues related to this case.”

The Court asked the government to submit a report on an agreement between the government and the authorities of the Patriotic Union “on the aspects to be improved or strengthened in the existing protection mechanisms and how they will be implemented, in order to adequately guarantee the safety and protection of leaders, members and militants of the Patriotic Union.” The Court also asked the government to “pay the amounts established for compensation for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage.”

National recognition of the ruling

Following the IACHR Court ruling, numerous political leaders and survivors of the genocide expressed their satisfaction with it.

Colombia’s first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, welcomed the sentence and said that his government will always support justice against impunity. “Today an American court of justice said that the State helped assassinate thousands of militants of a political party, just because it was left-wing. A murderous State that should never return, a society of privileges that murders rather than allowing change. International justice was created [to deliver justice] when states are unable to prosecute the worst crimes: crimes against humanity. This government will support national and international justice against impunity,” wrote Petro in a thread on Twitter.

Cultural Minister Patricia Ariza, who was a member of the UP party and is a survivor of the genocide, celebrated the ruling. “We were all in tears when we received the sentence of the IACHR Court, the Colombian State was condemned. We were right! Justice will survive, affection will survive. We, the victims and survivors, will keep the memory alive,” tweeted Ariza.

Senator Aida Avella, who was also a member of the UP and a survivor, also welcomed the verdict. “Today is the day of Justice. We received the final decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, against which there is no appeal. The state has been condemned for the extermination of the Patriotic Union. After 29 years of tireless work, it is recognized that in a supposed democracy they murdered our fellow militants and supporters,” tweeted Avella.

Likewise, Senator Iván Cepeda, who is son of the assassinated UP militant Manuel Cepeda Vargas, in a video message on Twitter, said that the “sentence undoubtedly does justice to three decades of struggle of the victims, as it constitutes a precedent so that in the future in Colombia a political genocide will not be repeated.”

The general secretary of the UP, Legistor Gabriel Becerra, said that they received with joy “the great news of the condemnation of the State for direct responsibility in the extermination of the UP,” adding that from the party they will continue “fighting to ensure compliance with the ruling of the Inter-American Court in terms of justice, reparation and non-repetition.”

Genocide of the Patriotic Union
The Patriotic Union was founded on May 28, 1985, as a part of a peace process between the National Secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerilla group and the national government of conservative President Belisario Betancur.

After 1986, when the UP participated in its first general elections, the party was subject to political violence and extermination from drug lords, paramilitaries and security forces. Its most visible leaders and elected congressmen began to be assassinated, while hundreds of militants were kidnapped and disappeared. In the following years, the attacks against the UP members intensified. They were increasingly attacked, tortured and sexually assaulted. Many had to be displaced from their homes amid death threats, leading to the party’s decline.

In September 2002, the UP was stripped of its formal and legal status as a political party under new electoral laws. In July 2013, the Supreme Court of Colombia gave the UP its status back, facilitating its members to again run for office.

In April 2022, the Chamber for the Recognition of Truth and Responsibility of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) determined that the genocide perpetrated against the UP left more than 5,000 dead or disappeared. The JEP, which was established as a part of the 2016 peace agreements signed between the FARC and the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos, revealed that of the total of 5,733 victims, 4,616 were killed and 1,117 disappeared between 1984 and 2016.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/01/ ... eft-party/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

Post Reply