Colombia

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Colombia achieves milestone in peace process as right-wing intensifies destabilization campaign

The historic ceasefire between the government and the ELN coincided with a fresh destabilization campaign against the Gustavo Petro government

August 05, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch


Members of the peace delegations and representatives of social movements participated in the launch of the National Participation Committee in Bogotá on August 3.

The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s largest left-wing guerrilla group, on Thursday, August 3, began a 180-day bilateral ceasefire. The truce will remain in force until January 29, 2024. The historic step was agreed upon on June 9 during the third round of peace negotiations between the two sides in Havana, Cuba.

The development marked the most concrete progress to date for leftist president Gustavo Petro and his government’s plan to bring “total peace” to the country and end over 60 years of internal armed conflict, during which more than 450,000 people were killed.

During an event held in Corferias, Bogotá, the National Participation Committee, made up of 81 delegates from 30 different social movements, trade unions, human rights organizations, victims’ movements, business organizations, among other sectors from all over the country, was established.

The Committee will be responsible for defining the methodology to ensure the participation of Colombian society in making proposals in the peace process. It will also be in charge of bringing the suggestions and requests of the civil society to eradicate violence to the negotiation table. Above all the committee seeks to help achieve a successful peace process that is accompanied by transformations in society.

The event was attended by President Gustavo Petro, the head of government delegation Otty Patiño, the head of the ELN delegation Pablo Beltrán, the high commissioner for peace Danilo Rueda, Senator Iván Cepeda, and other members of the peace delegations. The event was also attended by several government ministers and officials, representatives of the UN, representatives from the Catholic Church and guarantor countries, as well as around 2,000 citizens from regions across the country, who have historically suffered the most from the conflict.

President Petro, in his speech, focused on the need for peace in the country. He analyzed the armed conflict and insisted on the need to value life above death. He stressed that a true revolution implies betting on peace, that is, on life, without the use of arms.

“Today is about life or death, no revolutionary can be on the side of death…, anyone who really wants to transform society in today’s world has to be on the side of life. “Being on the side of life is the revolution,” said Petro.

For his part, Beltrán highlighted the importance of the National Participation Committee in bringing forward proposals, solutions, alternatives and changes that the country requires and that are fundamental for the advancement of the peace process.

“May the people make a diagnosis, but also say what must be done! May the elites join the change!,” said Beltrán.

Social organizations hold national mobilization for Life, Peace and Popular Democracy
The ceasefire began a day after thousands of citizens and members of various social organizations took to the streets in different regions of the country demanding dismantling of paramilitary groups, end to persecution of social activists and movements, and real transformations that guarantee life, peace, justice and democracy.

On Wednesday, August 2, under the banner of “For Life, Peace and Popular Democracy,” thousands of people mobilized against violence and in defense of human rights in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Bucaramanga, Tadó, and Casanare.

The social organizations condemned that the paramilitaries continue to expand throughout the country and attack the people who fight for their rights and territories. Several social leaders denounced that the police and military forces continue to work with various paramilitary groups. “The existence and strength of paramilitaries is not possible without the systematic help of the public force,” argued social organizations such as the Congreso de los Pueblos, the National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA) and the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO). They also rejected the displacement and confinement of communities in regions hit by paramilitarism and demanded concrete responses from the government.

Likewise, the members of Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities condemned the Attorney General’s Office as the guarantor of impunity in the country and for allowing paramilitaries to commit crimes without being tried. They denounced the racism faced by the communities and explained that their cases are never “prioritized” and remain partially investigated and without conclusions.

The organizations also criticized the public petroleum company Ecopetrol as a part of the criminal political network, operated by private businessmen and members of various previous governments responsible for paramilitarism and corruption, that finances paramilitary actions in the country.

“It has lent itself to the looting of natural resources in order to enrich a few “good people” and also had agreements to deliver its products directly to the paramilitaries through an “agreed robbery” that gave them more than 85 billion pesos, only between 2000 and 2005,” denounced the organizations.

Last week, an investigation revealed a millionaire oil theft within Ecopetrol, carried out by 17 businessmen and members of former government officials with the help of paramilitary groups.

Right-wing intensifies destabilization campaign against the Petro government
The historic ceasefire between the national government and the ELN rebels began just as the country’s right-wing forces launched a new destabilization campaign against the Petro government following the arrest of the president’s son Nicolás Petro in an alleged money laundering case. Several right-wing opposition leaders and legislators are demanding Petro’s resignation.

Last week, on July 29, the Attorney General’s Office arrested Nicolás Petro, accusing him of the alleged crimes of money laundering, illicit enrichment and data breach. The arrest came after the publication of an interview given by Day Vásquez, ex-wife of Nicolás Petro, to Semana magazine, in which she alleged that her ex-partner would have received large sums of money from questionable sources. She mentioned that about 600 million pesos came from former drug trafficker Santander Lopesierra, alias “Marlboro Man”, and another 400 million pesos from the son of a controversial figure known as “Turco Hilsaca”. She also alleged that the money was supposedly earmarked for Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign, but instead was used by Nicolás to purchase a luxurious home in Barranquilla.

This Wednesday, on August 3, in the first hearing before the Attorney General’s Office, Nicolás Petro admitted having received money from irregular sources, and that a part of it was allegedly used for his father’s 2022 presidential campaign.

Following the statement from the Attorney General’s Office, Vicky Dávila, director of the weekly magazine Semana that has been critical of Petro since he was a candidate, claimed that Nicolás Petro told the Attorney General’s Office that Gustavo Petro was aware of the irregular money being used in his campaign.

President Petro immediately reacted to the claim, assuring that it was a lie. “This is a lie. But in order to spread it, now several networks put this statement as some sources of the prosecutor’s office, this is how they spread the lie,” said Petro in a tweet. “To this day there is not a single sentence or audio of months of conversations recorded in the audios of my son and his ex-wife or in the videos that the author has of all my private meetings of the pre-campaign and campaign intercepted by government agencies that confirms this lie,” he added.

During a public event on August 3, Petro once again rejected the accusations. “Someone wrote today that my son had said that I knew that illegal money had entered my campaign. This statement can be analyzed in several ways and since it was not said by a judge, I am going to analyze what he said. He has a subliminal instinct in what he said and obviously if that were true, this President would have to leave today. So I have to tell that person, don’t keep telling lies. My son didn’t say that, and he didn’t say that for a basic reason, I have told my children: never commit a crime,” said the president.

“This is not the first time that they have tried to use the family scars, some will heal, others may never heal, they have tried to use all the weaknesses and errors to open the way to the collapse of the first popular government in Colombia,” Petro added.

To those demanding his resignation, Petro said “It is to the people that I must answer, be sure that this government is ending by popular mandate. There is no one who can end this government but the people themselves, and the people themselves gave an order by majority at the ballot box, we will continue until the year 2026.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/05/ ... -campaign/

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Colombia adds 100 social leaders assassinated in 2023


According to Indepaz, since the signing of the peace agreement in August 2016, around 1,514 leaders and social defenders have been assassinated in the South American country. | Photo: www.dejusticia.org
Published 5 August 2023

The senator for the MAIS Movement, Aida Quilcué, demanded urgent measures from President Gustavo Petro to protect the lives of social leaders.

At least 100 social leaders have been assassinated in Colombia, after confirming on Friday the assassination of the social and indigenous leader, Luis Eduardo Timana, in the Pradera municipality of the Valle del Cauca department.

According to the Institute for Development and Peace (Indepaz), the indigenous leader of the Nasa people was assassinated by unknown persons on his way to his home, located in the rural area of ​​the municipality.

The indigenous senator for the Movimiento Alternativo Indígena y Social (MAIS), Aida Quilcué, regretted the death of Tinama on her social networks, while demanding that Colombian President Gustavo Petro take urgent and effective measures to protect the lives of social leaders. .



The social leader was a candidate for the Pradera municipal council for the Historical Pact and was part of the political support of the legal representation team for victims led by the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC) for case 05 of the JEP.


According to the balance of Indepaz, since the signing of the peace agreement in August 2016, around 1,514 leaders and social defenders have been assassinated in the South American country.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/colombia ... -0008.html

Google Translator

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Relations Sour Between US and Colombia Over Colombian President Petro’s Refusal to Condemn Hamas
Posted on October 13, 2023 by Nick Corbishley

“The only way for Palestinian children to sleep in peace is for Israeli children to sleep in peace. The only way for Israeli children to sleep in peace is for Palestinian children to sleep in peace. War will never achieve this.”

When the former Guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro came to office in June 2022, becoming the country’s first left-wing president since Colombia won independence in 1819, it was clear he would have to tread very carefully in his relations with Washington, especially given all the US military bases on Colombian soil. Today, sixteen months after his election, Petro faces his first major diplomatic standoff, not only with Washington but also Tel Aviv — all the result of his refusal, so far, to condemn Hamas’ ruthless attack against Israeli citizens on Sunday.

Instead, Petro, a voracious poster on X/Twitter, wrote the following on the social media platform:


War has broken out again between Israel and Palestinian Gaza. In my speech at the United Nations I showed how world power treated the Russian occupation of Ukraine in one way and the Israeli occupation of Palestine in another, very different way…

From a very young age I studied the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I know of the immense injustice that the Palestinian people have suffered since 1948. Just as I know about the immense injustice that the Jewish people suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Europe since 1933.

If I had lived in Germany in ’33 I would have fought on the side of the Jews and if I had lived in Palestine in 1948 I would have fought on the Palestinian side.

Now the neo-Nazis want the destruction of the Palestinian people, freedom and culture. Now we democrats and progressives want peace to prevail and the Israeli and Palestinian people to be free.

“Unfortunate Messages”

Petro has also likened Gaza to Auschwitz as well as to the Warsaw Ghetto, which was destroyed by the German military after an uprising by Jews confined there. None of this, of course, has gone down well with the Israeli or US governments — or for that matter, opposition parties and much of the media at home.

“They are very unfortunate messages,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Lior Haiat. “They demonstrate a lack of knowledge, not to say ignorance, and an enormous lack of respect. After the atrocities that we have seen from this barbaric attack, making the comparison that the president of Colombia made, I am sorry to say, but it is a comparison that has no basis.”

In an interview with the Colombian newspaper SEMANA, Israel’s ambassador in Bogota, Gali Dagan, called on the Colombian Government to raise its voice forcefully against terrorism.

“It is very difficult to find the common denominator between these two cases [of Ukraine and Palestine]. We hope that a country friendly to Israel will strongly and clearly condemn the terrorist attack against innocent civilians in the State of Israel.

Shortly after the attack on Saturday, Colombia’s Foreign Ministry did release a statement strongly condemning “terrorism and attacks against the civilian population.” But by the next day, the statement had been replaced by one that no longer mentioned the word “terrorism” or referred to Hamas by name.

Among the dozens of messages Petro has published or shared on Twitter/X since Sunday was a photo montage of some of the Palestinian children who have perished under Israeli occupation, alongside the following text (translated by yours truly):

The only way for Palestinian children to sleep in peace is for Israeli children to sleep in peace.

The only way for Israeli children to sleep in peace is for Palestinian children to sleep in peace.

War will never achieve this, it can only be achieved by a peace agreement that respects international legality and the right of the two peoples to exist free.

He also posted this graph showing the glaring disparity between Palestinian and Israeli deaths over the past 15 years of conflict:

​

Since then Petro has maintained a running commentary on developments in Israel and Gaza, repeatedly calling for peace negotiations. On Monday, he responded to Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Galant’s call for a total siege and blockade of Gaza and his description of Palestinians as “human animals” by warning:

“This is what the Nazis said about the Jews. Democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to re-establish itself in international politics. Israelis and Palestinians are human beings subject to international law. This hate speech if it continues will only bring a holocaust.”

On Thursday, Petro’s remarks finally elicited an official response from the US government on Thursday.

“We strongly condemn President Petro’s statements and call on him to condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, for its barbaric murder of Israeli men, women and children,” Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt of the office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism (SEAS) said on X.

This is probably no idle warning. After all, Colombia is arguably Washington’s most important client state in Latin America. Its military has close ties not just with the US, largely as a result of Washington’s funding of Plan Colombia, but also Israel, which trains Colombian soldiers and sells them weapons and security tech. In 2017, Colombia became one of NATO’s global partners, and the Alliance’s first Latin American partner. Five years later, it was designated by the Biden Administration as one of the US’s 18 Major Non-Nato Allies (MNNAs). The five original MNNAs, established in 1987, were Australia, Egypt, Japan, South Korea and Israel.

Colombia also has seven formal US military bases on its soil and allegedly dozens of so-called “quasi-bases” — which differ from formal bases in no other way than that they lack a formal lease agreement for use of facilities — scattered around the country, particularly in areas rich in mineral resources and/or close to Colombia’s border with Venezuela, according to Schools of America Watch. As if that were not enough of a threat, the US is also amassing troops in neighbouring Ecuador and Peru.

Mixed Messages

Colombia is not the only Latin American country to have (so far) refused to condemn Hamas’ actions. Cuba, which has not had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1973, the year of the Yom Kippur War, called the current conflict “a consequence of 75 years of permanent violation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and Israel’s aggressive and expansionist policies.” The government of Bolivia expressed “deep concern” about “violent events” in the “Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestine” while Venezuela’s government called for “genuine negotiations” between Israel and Palestine without expressly condemning the attacks.

Most other countries in the region, including Mexico and Brazil, did condemn the attacks, though few, with the notable exception of Nayib Bukele’s government in El Salvador, have expressed support for Israel’s unbridled retaliation. Some refused to mention the word “terrorism” or Hamas by name. As with the war in Ukraine, most countries seem to want to maintain some degree of neutrality on the issue.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry, for example, said it “condemns the attacks suffered by the people of Israel (and) sends its condolences to the families of the victims.” It also “calls for an end to this inappropriate violence…to avoid an escalation that (will cause) greater…suffering to the civilian population… Every terrorist act constitutes a threat to international peace and security.”

The statement did not mention Hamas, and that was enough to draw Israel’s ire. The Israeli Embassy in Mexico expressed its “dissatisfaction” with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s statements in relation to the events in Israel and “deeply regretted that the Government of Mexico has not adopted a more energetic and determined position in the face of this situation.” It also noted that “maintaining a neutral position rather than taking sides ultimately means endorsing and supporting terrorism.”

In response, AMLO said:

The Israeli ambassador in Mexico says that she does not agree with our position, she has every right to say so, to express it, because we are free, we respect the Government of Israel and much more so the people of Israel, but we do not want war. We do not want violence. We are pacifists and we don’t want any human being of any nationality to lose their life, whether Israeli or Palestinian. We want the most important human right to be guaranteed, which is the right to life.

Brazil’s government was slightly more forceful in its condemnation and even projected the Israeli flag on the dome of the country’s National Congress in solidarity with the victims. The country is currently UN Security Council President and is leading efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to the conflict, so far to little avail.

“There is no justification for resorting to violence, especially against civilians,” the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “The Brazilian Government urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid escalating the situation.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” Da Silva expressed his “rejection of terrorism in any of its forms” and called for a two-state solution.

But like Mexico, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry did not use the word “terrorism” or refer to Hamas by name in its statement, to the consternation of the Israeli Embassy. “One of the things we said to the Foreign Minister is that there is no more serious example of terrorism,” said the Israeli ambassador. “It is the personification of terrorism. And the lack of this word in the Ministry’s statement is… I can’t speak against the government, but it betrays a lack, at least, of sensitivity.”

The US presumably feels the same and will be doing everything it can to bring LatAm countries into line. In its joint declaration with the governments of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, the Biden Administration told the world:

“We make clear that the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification, no legitimacy, and must be universally condemned.”

But will the world listen? After all, the US and the EU do not have the strategic influence or soft power they once had, having squandered much of it on the costly wars they have waged and the brutal sanctions they have liberally imposed. For the past 20 months, the US and its NATO allies have been desperately trying to persuade Latin American countries to endorse their sanctions against Russia as well as furnish Ukraine with Russian-made weapons, to no avail.

At a recent summit in Brussels between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Latin American leaders rebuffed EU requests for Zelensky to attend as well as include in the final summit declaration a paragraph condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was a PR disaster for Brussels. In his closing statement at the Summit of the Peoples, a parallel event taking place in Brussels, Petro pilloried the EU’s obsession with the war in Ukraine, which he described as “a far-removed issue” for Latin America and the Caribbean:

“The EU has basically focused on a topic that was of fundamental interest to itself, but which is far-removed for us: the war in Ukraine. [It wanted] to point to the construction of a block in the world, Latin America and the European Union, coalescing around Zelensky and support for a political, economic and military strategy, obviously. That was its priority.”

Now the priority of the collective West is to coalesce support around blanket condemnation of Hamas’ hideous war crime while giving carte blanche to Israel to commit a far larger one — one that has so far entailed cutting off all basic services and supplies to Gaza and levelling large parts of the enclave, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of others.

The next move in Israel’s grotesque game plan, it seems, is to corral around 1.1 million people into the southern half of the enclave in preparation for what is likely to be a substantial ground offensive — with “devastating humanitarian consequences”, says the UN. And the ostensible liberal democracies of the West are fully on board while many are in the process of outlawing pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

A quick look at the map below shows just how out of synch the collective West is with Latin America — and for that matter, the rest of the world — on the Israel-Palestine question, and indeed has been for years. As of December 31 2019, every country in Latin America except Panama, Mexico and a few island states had recognised Palestine as a sovereign state. The same goes for 138 of the world’s 193 countries — representing over three-quarters of the global population.



Among the G20, nine countries had recognized Palestine as a state by the end of 2019. Seven of them are BRICS members, new and old (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey), the other two being Turkey and Indonesia. Ten G20 countries had not recognised Palestine (and still don’t). Six of them are NATO members (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Three of them are major non-NATO allies (Australia, South Korea and Japan). The other is Mexico.

But even that changed in June this year when Mexico’s AMLO government quietly reclassified the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic mission in Mexico from special delegation to embassy, despite huge pressure from the US State Department.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10 ... hamas.html

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President Petro Condemns Capitalism as ‘Building Walls and Dropping Bombs’ at WEF in Davos (+Fake Video)
JANUARY 18, 2024


Colombian President Gustavo Petro (right) and US billionaire Bill Gates (left) conversing during a panel at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. Photo: Office of Colombian Presidency.

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, made a statement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he would like to see “the power of international law” restored, and the global financial system changed.

During his speech this Wednesday, January 17, at the “Addressing the North-South Schism” panel, the Colombian president referred to the need to reestablish “the power of international law,” which he noted “has practically fallen to pieces.”

On Tuesday, President Petro referred to his proposal to change public debt for environmental protection, especially in the Amazon, a region that he reiterated requires urgent climate action. According to him, a significant injection of resources is required to save the Amazon rainforest, estimated to be around $2.5 billion per year, which requires a significant change from public debt to climate action, and not the current model of “handouts”.

“We need a flow of approximately $2.5 billion a year to revitalize the already deforested space and to maintain over the years the construction of a bio-economy,” he said, “that is, an economy with the jungle and not against the jungle, which means sustaining it.”

Petro also referred to the Essequibo territorial dispute between Venezuelan and Guyana in this context, noting that oil extraction in the Essequibo territory—currently under Guyanese administration but claimed by Venezuela—should not continue. He also mentioned that the dispute was on the verge of turning into a military conflict, averted so far by Guyanese President Irfaan Ali’s acceptance of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s call for direct dialogue.



“What human life must consider is not who owns the Essequibo but that the oil from the Essequibo does not come out,” Petro said during the panel ‘Seeking a balance for the Amazon,’ “because, if it comes out, our fight against the climate crisis would just become an innocuous speech.”

Colombia’s position is that of “no more oil exploitation,” which is why—during the COP 28 Summit of 2023—it signed the fuel non-proliferation treaty last month in Dubai, “which only the islands that are about to disappear with their populations have so far signed,” Petro stated, underlining the importance of saving the Amazon region, which in his opinion is “the foundation of human life.”

From war to genocide
The Colombian president further recalled that a year ago, in the same forum, the term ‘polycrisis’ was coined. “I think that things have gotten worse because from war we went to genocide, to bombing children,” he said, referring to the Israeli occupation entity’s criminal bombing against the population of the Gaza Strip, Palestine, which has caused the death of at least 12,000 innocent children in less than 100 days.

In his opinion, the schism in the world is represented by “fortress capitalism, which builds walls and drops bombs.” When discussing solutions to the Israeli entity’s illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, he referred to the fact that the votes in the United Nations Security Council “have politically separated the Global North and the Global South.”


Smearing campaign
During his participation in the Davos Forum, President Petro was targeted in a new smear campaign, when a video montage that altered the official video of one of the president’s speeches at the forum was circulated and made viral in social media across Colombia. In the video montage, they made alterations to the president’s voice that implied that—at the time of making his statement—he had been drunk, or in a state of intoxication.

One of the Colombian far-right political figures who spread the false video on social media was Luis Guillermo Vélez, a member of the Democratic Center and the alderman of Medellín. When the video was proven to be a fake, the Uribista politician offered a public apology on social media: “Yesterday I posted a video where the president seemed drunk saying nonsense. Some friends told me it was an edited video and I took it down. I apologize to Gustavo Petro, and am publishing the original video,” he wrote.

President Petro responded to the apology in these terms: “You are a public servant and a university professor. Manipulating the truth to destroy the honor and morals of another public servant is conduct that breaks the disciplinary code,” he stated, before adding, “I accept your apology, and hope that other members of the opposition will abandon this practice of manipulation and falsehood.”

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

https://orinocotribune.com/president-pe ... ake-video/

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President Petro Denounces Attempt of Institutional Rupture and Coup in Colombia
FEBRUARY 4, 2024


Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Photo: EFE/File photo.

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, denounced the attempt of a “serious rupture of institutional order,” referring to the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office against him, which he called unconstitutional.

Petro decried that the Colombian Attorney General’s Office has opted for disruption of institutional order to remove him from the presidency.

“They have decided to break the institutional order. As the president of the republic, I must warn the world of the mafia that has taken over the Attorney General’s Office, and I must ask the people for maximum mobilization,” the Colombian president wrote on social media.

He stressed that the judiciary cannot investigate a president “because legally a workers’ union contributed to a left-wing party [campaign].”

Gustavo Petro referred to the investigation carried out by the Attorney General’s Office for the alleged contribution of 500 million Colombian pesos (about $127,000) made by the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (FECODE) to Petro’s presidential campaign in 2022.


Petro explained that contributions made by a teachers’ union to a political party cannot be equated with contributions to political campaigns by drug traffickers like El Ñeñe.

“They consider the contribution by alias ‘el Ñeñe’ as legal; they consider the contribution of the teachers’ union as illegal because we are progressive,” Petro said.

Former President Iván Duque was accused of receiving funds from the deceased drug trafficker José Guillermo Hernández, alias “El Ñeñe” for his presidential campaign. However, the Colombian judiciary closed that case known as “Ñeñepolitics.”

“Unions have been raided; witnesses have been tortured and pressured to accuse the president, and they have not been successful,” Petro added. “Drug traffickers, perpetrators of crimes against humanity, corrupt politicians, and corrupt sectors of the Attorney General’s Office are desperately trying to remove the president elected by the people.”

The Colombian president stressed that the institutions are being used to create “the attorney general’s great masterpiece.”

“The Attorney General’s Office will ask for my impeachment without hiding that it has carried out an unconstitutional investigation against me, looking for the victory that the people did not grant them [the opposition],” he warned.

In this scenario, Gustavo Petro called on all human rights organizations, progressive parties, and workers’ movements in Colombia and the world to be attentive and join the grassroots response initiative.

(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón

https://orinocotribune.com/president-pe ... -colombia/

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POLITICAL TENSION CONTINUES TO INCREASE IN COLOMBIA
Feb 9, 2024 , 3:30 pm .


President Gustavo Petro and prosecutor Francisco Barbosa (Photo: Bloomberg)

Last Monday, February 5, we warned that a new case of lawfare in the region was being brewed against the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, whose maneuver implies a political war through judicial-media channels in order to achieve a change of regime through not conventional.

Likewise, we mentioned that there were signs of the beginning of a process of persecution against members of the government to reduce the power of the president, by Attorney General Francisco Barbosa, former President Iván Duque's file, who put the institution at the service of the conservative elites. Barboza's term ends next February 12 and in these last days he extremes his positions against Petro.

The scenario of confrontation became more evident this Thursday, February 8, when the Supreme Court of Justice reported that it had failed to elect the nation's new Prosecutor, which caused protesters to gather in front of the headquarters of this institution located in the capital of the country. The Supreme Court of Justice has to choose between Amelia Pérez, Ángela María Buitrago or Luz Adriana Camargo.

The protesters, mostly made up of union organizations, demanded a delay in the definition of the new authority of the Public Ministry and demanded that the Court immediately elect one of the three candidates for the Prosecutor's Office proposed by Petro since last year. The protest also sought to prevent the Prosecutor's Office from being temporarily in charge of Deputy Prosecutor Marta Mancera , right hand of the outgoing authority and who may possibly continue the war against the Petro government.

In anticipation of the soft coup against him, Gustavo Petro had called for marches, as did right-wing leaders arguing that the president was seeking to impose a revolution.

Regarding the delay in the process to elect the new authority, and thereby stop the constitutional rupture orchestrated by Barbosa, Petro said that sectors outside the Supreme Court of Justice and linked to drug trafficking and corruption seek to interrupt his mandate. For its part, the Court raised the tone and accused the Executive of putting democracy “in suspense.”


Different audiovisual materials show that there were infiltrators who tried to change the tone of the peaceful protest that had been taking place in front of the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice, as reported by several users on social networks. It should be noted that a scenario of violence would contribute to strengthening the opposition narrative that Petro wants to generate chaos to impose a “revolution”, a stigma that they have wanted to project because the President was linked to leftist movements.

Everything indicates that political tensions in Colombia will continue to grow as long as prosecutor Francisco Barbosa, an open opponent, continues to hold office or maintain his influence in the institution to try to overthrow Petro via lawfare, a maneuver that has been used against other progressive governments of the region.

Unfortunately, President Petro could well trust the efforts and calls that institutions like the OAS could make in favor of the democratic stability of his country. A brief summary of his actions in recent years confirms that the organization is a source of destabilization, if we do not see the coup against Evo Morales in 2019.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/si ... n-colombia

Google Translator

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Journalist David Escobar: President Petro’s Total Peace Is Necessary for Colombia but Requires Political Will of All
MARCH 8, 2024


Poster of Orinoco Tribune's interview with Colombian journalist and documentarian David Escobar. Photo: Orinoco Tribune.

The Total Peace project promoted by the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, is essential for the Colombian society, but it requires political will on all sides to be a reality, commented Colombian journalist and documentary filmmaker David Escobar in an interview with Orinoco Tribune.

“The goal that the government of Gustavo Petro has with Total Peace is something necessary for the Colombian society… but not all groups have political will,” which makes it a difficult goal to achieve, he said.

David Escobar is a Colombian journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Cali, in the Valle del Cauca region of Colombia. He graduated in journalism and communication from the Universidad del Valle. As a documentarian, he has produced and directed several documentaries, such as Colombia: Young Protesters Dead and Disappeared, Paren de Matarnos, and has worked as a researcher for another documentary, Bajo Fuego. He also covered in detail the 2021 National Strike of Colombia.

In an interview with Orinoco Tribune on Monday, March 4, Escobar discussed various recent developments in Colombia, including the current state of the Total Peace process and the attempts by the Colombian right wing to remove President Petro from power.



Total Peace
When asked what President Petro’s Total Peace program means, Escobar explained that Petro is trying to bring all armed groups in Colombia—both revolutionary movements and paramilitary gangs—under an umbrella of peace process in order to stabilize the Colombian state and society. “Here in Colombia, historically there have been many peace processes. You can see the latest one with ELN, the peace process with FARC before that, the process with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and Justice with paramilitary groups, the peace process that led to the 91 constitution, and so on,” he explained. “Nevertheless, after the armed groups give up their weapons, even if they are paramilitaries that are serving de facto right-wing power, they are killed, they are executed.”

Escobar went on to explain that the same happened with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that signed the 2016 Peace Accords with the government of Colombia. “Hundreds of former FARC members have been killed and the peace agreements have not been accomplished… because of the lack of political will, and the paramilitary groups that remain in the territory, and former guerrilla members who went back to the mountains to continue being an armed group.”

Moreover, the armed revolutionary movement National Liberation Army (ELN) was not part of any peace process before, and the ongoing peace process intends to find a solution between the organization and the Colombian government. The Petro administration also plans to disarm the paramilitary and narco-trafficking gangs and allow their members to reintegrate into society. “So, basically, what Petro means by Total Peace is to achieve a peace agreement with all these groups. That’s a huge purpose, very difficult to achieve,” Escobar explained.

Moreover, there are legitimate concerns of some guerrillas of being killed once they surrender their weapons, as has happened to ex-FARC members and all other former guerrilla organizations. “There is also the sabotage from the right wing groups, the paramilitary groups,” Escobar added. “And I think, as it has been the custom here, there is interference from foreign intelligence agencies” such as Mossad and CIA.



Judiciary against Petro
When consulted about the current crisis in the Colombian judiciary regarding the selection of the new attorney general, David Escobar explained that former Attorney General Francisco Barbosa, whose term ended recently, worked hard to block the selection of his successor in order to provide the right wing with time and opportunity to coup the Petro government. On February 12, the day Barbosa’s term ended, he imposed his Deputy Attorney General Martha Mancera as the “interim attorney general” until the Supreme Court elects the new attorney general from the shortlist of three names proposed by President Petro in August 2023.

Martha Mancera is accused of having ties with narco-trafficking gangs from Buenaventura, of the Valle del Cauca region. She has also faced criticism for not investigating the massacres and the murders of social leaders that continue in Colombia. “The point here is that many people close to former President Iván Duque and also senators and politicians from the right are related to drug trafficking, so they need an attorney general to protect them, to close all the investigations,” Escobar explained. “So these de facto powers don’t want the election of the general attorney that has been proposed according to law… by President Gustavo Petro.”

According to the journalist, the right wing wants to remove Petro from power because “the program and policies of President Petro are not aligned with neoliberalism. His democratic policies include the recovery of the public sphere, a state of social wellbeing that’s more like Keynesian state. And the right wing politics is fighting to preserve its power and privileges in these spheres.”

“Petro has been giving the properties seized from the drug capos to peasants, or to the victims of violence,” he continued. “Even if it is not at a percentage that we would like to see, still the right wing does not want to leave it in his hands, because they were enjoying these properties by paying very low taxes, or having the control of many state institutions through corrupt contracts.”

Future of progressive forces in Colombia
Regarding the future of the progressive movement led by Petro, Escobar stressed that the possibility of progressive forces being able to maintain power in Colombia “is not something that we can take for granted. As in many other countries here in Latin America, there is a possibility of the right wing to be back in power.”

Moreover, due to the existence of presidential term limits in Colombia, progressive forces must look for some alternative to Petro if the movement is to continue. The Colombian presidential race is expected to start next year, but at the moment neither the right nor the left has any potential candidate. According to Escobar, the Colombian left must aim for holding political power, but achieving it will be difficult. One of the major factors sabotaging the left is the continued murder of social leaders by paramilitary gangs, as it is a way of politically disconnecting the government from the bases.

The ongoing political changes in Colombia are also reflected in the media. Although Colombian mainstream media still holds considerable economic and political power and acts as an arm of the Colombian right and the de facto powers including organized crime, several alternative media projects are coming up throughout the country and reaching a considerable public. In this regard Escobar named the renowned journalist Hollman Morris who is now serving as the director of the public television channel RTVC.

“There is also mobile phone communication to fight this [media] warfare,” he added. “Are we winning this warfare? Are we losing this warfare?… The struggle in this camp is a symbolic fight and it needs to reach the public.”

Although there remains a lot of work to be done by the Colombian left in the media warfare, “I think we are winning as a society when we have this capability to inform ourselves,” Escobar concluded.

https://orinocotribune.com/journalist-d ... ll-of-all/

[blindpig]

Three Leaders Murdered in Colombia in Less Than 72 Hours


Colombian Military Forces, April 2024 | Photo: X/ @doblellave

Published 30 April 2024 (14 hours 33 minutes ago)

So far this year, 58 human rights defenders have been murdered.


Social leaders Robinson Andrés Franco, Lelis Armando Santana Qüenza and his brother Hernando Santana Qüenza are other names added to the long list of murdered in Colombia.

The Colombian Federation of Ranchers (Fedegán) reported the murder of two of its members in the rural area of the municipality of Cravo Norte, in the department of Arauca, the rancher Lelis Armando Santana Qüenza and his brother Hernando Santana Qüenza, who for a time served as a councillor of that municipality.

Fedegán wrote on social network X, "Two ranchers and brothers have been killed in Arauca. Total rejection of the violence in which Colombia is immersed and that, as always, the largest quota is put by the producers of the field. We ask the authorities not to go unpunished and we send an alert to the National Government in the face of the complicated panorama of violence we face as a country".

According to press reports, armed men came shooting at the victims, who died on the spot.


The inhabitants of the area preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals and asked the authorities to act on the increase in crimes throughout the department.

Also, the executive president of Fedegán, José Félix Lafaurie Rivera, urged the authorities to implement actions that provide the livestock sector with the necessary guarantees to exercise their profession without any alterations.

On the other hand, the authorities confirmed on Sunday the crime of another social leader, Robinson Andrés Franco, of the Communal Action Board of the Carrizal village in the municipality of Segovia, northeast of Antioquia.


The Institute of Development of Studies for Peace (Indepaz) reported that Franco was killed with a gun in the early hours of the morning and his body was abandoned in the Carrizal village.

This crime is in addition to the murders of the councillor of Jamundí, in Valle del Cauca, Jhon Gil, committed on Saturday, and of the youth leader Yarlinton Robledo Rentería, in Quibdó, capital of Chocó, last Thursday.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Thr ... -0022.html

Colombian President Denounces a Network of Arms Trafficking in the Army
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, April 30, 2024 | Photo: X/ @infopresidencia

Published 30 April 2024

Colombian President Denounces a Network of Arms Trafficking in the Army


Colombian President Gustavo Petro, April 30, 2024 | Photo: X/ @infopresidencia

Published 30 April 2024

According to the first results of the investigations, those involved extracted ammunition, weapons, military equipment and explosives from the army to sell them in different countries, such as Haiti.

On Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro reported the discovery of an arms trafficking network within the National Army.

According to the first results of the investigations, those involved extracted ammunition, weapons, military equipment and explosives from the army to sell them in different countries, such as Haiti.

"For a long time there have been networks -made up of people from the military and civilian forces- engaged in a massive arms trade, using the legal weapons of the Colombian State (...), destined for armed groups in Colombia (...), probably to foreign conflicts, the closest to Haiti (...) and probably also to the international arms smuggling market," the president said at a press conference.

At the Tolemaida air base, there were more than a million losses in terms of grenades and ammunition of different calibers.


On the other hand, at the base of La Guajira, after an inspection on April 1, the loss of missiles, rockets, anti-tank charges, grenades of different types and ammunition was reported.

Petro noted that measures are being taken at military bases throughout the country to prevent the theft of weapons and stated that it is necessary to "separate the public force from any public event".

"The only way is for these types of criminal gangs to be dismantled as soon as possible and it is an order that has been given within our Public Forces, but that, obviously, has relevant investigations in the competent judicial authorities," he said.

"They are mercenaries of violence and greed, and justice must discover their links, committed military chiefs and their national and international contacts," he added.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0025.html

Well, at least those weapons aren't being used against the Columbian people...<sic> And happily a lot of those mercenaries Columbia is exporting to Ukraine ain't going home.

[blindpig]

Colombia’s Defense Minister denounces plot to assassinate Gustavo Petro

According to Iván Velásquez, the information about a possible attack against Gustavo Petro was provided by the US embassy. This is not the first time that the security of national government officials has been compromised.

August 10, 2024 by Pablo Meriguet


Colombian VP Francia Marquez, President Gustavo Petro and Minister of Defense Iván Velázquez. Photo: Presidency of Colombia

On August 8, Iván Velázquez, Colombia’s Minister of Defense, announced to the press that the government had uncovered a plot to assassinate President Gustavo Petro on July 20, the country’s independence day. Velázquez stated “There was information regarding that, yes sir, of an assassination attempt. I am not going to mention the details.”

He also added that it is not the first time they have received security alerts concerning the President’s safety, and that is why the intelligence team of the Ministry of Defense works tirelessly to ensure the integrity of Petro’s life: “On many occasions, information of various natures has been presented, regarding possible actions that could be taken against the president in which intelligence has been timely and taken, moreover, necessary measures”

His public comments came in the wake of different rumors swirling over the same, sparked by Petro’s late arrival to the customary military parade on July 20. The parade which was scheduled to start at 9:00 am, was delayed for more than three hours on account of the president, sparking harsh criticism from his political opponents.

The Mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Galan, had written on X, “The soldiers and police of Colombia must be respected and thanked, today and always, for their commitment and sacrifice for this country.”

Faced with criticism, Petro said that his delay to the military parade was due to an alleged alert that came from the US Embassy: “That I arrived late? Yes. Information to be corroborated from the US Embassy, and a lack of coordination of my escort service, caused the delay.”

On August 7, in a commemorative act for the legendary Battle of Boyacá (in which in 1819 the independence forces commanded by Simón Bolívar defeated the III Division of the Spanish Royalist Army near Tunja), the director of the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS), Gustavo Bolívar, succinctly said that there was a possible threat against the security of the Head of State that would soon be detailed by the government. “[The delay on July 20 was due to] a danger to [the President’s] security, a warning from the US embassy, in the sense that there was a possible danger that was being analyzed this last hour (…) I do know that there was that warning from the Embassy. I do not know if it was an attempt [against the President’s life], but they gave him a security warning,” said Gustavo Bolivar.

A spokesperson of the US Embassy in Colombia told Blu Radio, “We do not comment on private diplomatic discussions, but our collaboration on security issues with Colombia remains strong.”

This is not the first time that Petro and his government officials have been threatened. The most recognized case is that of Vice President Francia Márquez. On June 16, the vice president’s father and nephews suffered an assassination attempt, although the victims were unharmed. On July 10, Márquez’s caravan was attacked in the town of Suárez, in the department of Cauca. Fortunately, the vice president was not in the vehicle when a rifle bullet hit the security convoy.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/08/10/ ... avo-petro/

[blindpig]

Gustavo Petro responds to Trump: “Overthrow me…the Americas and humanity will respond”

Trump announced retaliatory measures against Colombia after Petro refused to let a US military plane full of deported Colombians land in the South American nation, citing inhumane treatment.

January 26, 2025 by Peoples Dispatch


Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaking on February 13 from the Industrial University of Santander in Bucaramanga. Photo: Presidencia Colombia

Tensions between Colombia and the United States escalated sharply on Sunday, January 26, after Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he would not allow US deportation flights to land in Colombia. Petro said on X, “The US cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals…the US should establish a protocol of dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”

Donald Trump announced several retaliatory measures on his social media platform Truth Social in response to “Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro”. These measures include a 25% tariff on Colombian goods, which will be raised to 50% in a week, a travel ban and revocations of visas of all Colombian government officials as well as “allies and supporters”, and visa sanctions on party members, family members, and supporters of the Colombian government.

Gustavo Petro wrote a response to Trump’s punitive measures, condemning the attitude and actions of Donald Trump and referencing the historic resistance of the peoples of Colombia and all Latin America to US attempts to control and dominate. In his response, he also announced that Colombia would respond in kind with a 50% tariff to the US.

Read his whole response below:

Trump, I don’t like traveling to the U.S. much, it’s a bit boring, but I confess there are worthy things. I like to go to the Black neighborhoods of Washington. There, I saw a whole fight in the capital of the U.S. between Blacks and Latinos, with barricades, which seemed to me like nonsense, because they should unite.

I confess that I like Walt Whitman, Paul Simon, Noam Chomsky, and Miller.

I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, in the history of the U.S., are memorable and I follow them. They were murdered for being labor leaders with the electric chair by the fascists who are inside the U.S. just as they are in my country.

I don’t like your oil, Trump, you are going to end the human species with greed. Maybe one day, along with a drink of whisky—which I accept despite my gastritis—we can talk frankly about this, but it’s difficult because you consider me an inferior race, and I am not, nor is any Colombian.

So if you are looking for a stubborn person, that’s me, period. You can try to stage a coup with your economic power and arrogance, like you did with Allende. But I will die by my law, I withstood torture, and I resist you. I don’t want slave owners on Colombia’s side, we already had many and we freed ourselves. Who I want to be on Colombia’s side are lovers of freedom. If you can’t join me, I will go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world, and you didn’t understand it. This is the land of the yellow butterflies, the beauty of Remedios, but also of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, one of whom I am, perhaps the last.

You will kill me, but I will survive in my town, which came before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea, and freedom.

You don’t like our freedom, fine. I do not shake hands with white slave owners. I shake the hands of libertarian whites, heirs of Lincoln, and of the Black and white rural boys from the U.S., in front of whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking through the mountains of Tuscany and after saving myself from COVID.

They are the US, and before them, I kneel, before no one else.

Overthrow me president, and the Americas and humanity will respond.

Colombia, now stop looking to the north, look to the world, our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Córdoba, the civilization of that time, from the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood carries the resistant Black people who were turned into slaves by you. In Colombia lies the first free territory of the Americas, before Washington, of all the Americas, I take refuge there in their African songs.

My land is of the goldsmiths that existed in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.

You will never dominate us. The warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, and who is called Bolívar, opposes you.

Our peoples are somewhat fearful, somewhat shy, they are naive and kind, lovers, but they will know how to win back the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all over Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, now Panama, before Colombia, whom you murdered.

I raise a flag, and as Gaitán said, even if I am alone, it will remain raised with Latin American dignity, which is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather didn’t know, but mine did, Mr. President, immigrant in the US.

Your blockade does not scare me because Colombia, in addition to being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know you love beauty as I do, don’t disrespect it, and it will offer you its sweetness.

COLOMBIA FROM NOW ON FACES THE WHOLE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE, AND HUMANITY.

I have been informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruit of our human labor to enter the US, I will do the same.

Let our people plant corn, which was discovered in Colombia, and feed the world.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/26/ ... l-respond/

*****

Trump Sanctions Colombia for Rejecting Dehumanizing Deportation Flights (+Urgent CELAC Summit)
January 27, 2025


Chained migrants taken into a US military plane. Photo: X/@PressSec.

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The president of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered a series of sanctions against the government of Colombia, in retaliation against Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s refusal to allow the entry of US planes with migrants due to the dehumanizing manner in which they had been deported.

“Petro’s refusal to allow these flights has endangered the National Security and Public Safety of the United States,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social account.

The sanctions against Colombia, declared on Sunday, January 26, include:

25% tariffs on all goods entering the United States. Effective within a week, the 25% tariffs will rise to 50%.
A travel ban and immediate visa revocations for Colombian government officials and all allies and supporters.
Visa sanctions for all party members, family members and supporters of the Colombian government.
Enhanced Customs and Border Protection inspections of all Colombian citizens and cargo for national security reasons.
IEEPA Treasury, Banking and Financial Sanctions will be imposed in full.

“These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the acceptance and return of the criminals it forced into the United States!” Trump threatened.

In response to these statements by the US president, President Petro stated, “We have never refused to receive migrants and we have tried to stop migration… But do not demand that I receive those deported from the US, handcuffed and on a military plane. We are not anyone’s colony.”



The Colombian government ‘s measure is due to the way the US has treated Colombian migrants, branding them as “criminals” and transporting them handcuffed on military planes.

In this regard, Petro asked the United States to apply a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before they are deported to their country of origin.



Earlier on Sunday, President Preto requested Colombian Migration to summon all US citizens living in Colombia without a regular status. The Colombian president wrote that almost 16,000 US nationals fall into this category, that he is in favor of mobility of individuals, but these individuals need to regularize their migratory status.

Additionally, President Petro requested the calling of an emergency summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to address the crisis that Trump’s deportation strategy is creating in the region.

Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, and CELAC
Colombia is not the only country in the region that has raised concerns about the recent US deportation flights. Mexico has also made statements on the issue in a conciliatory approach, however, a tension is evident especially after the arrival of migrants from third countries like Cuba or Venezuela to Mexico.

“When it comes to repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms. Mexico embraces you. Mexico has a very good relationship with the United States government and we cooperate on a wide range of issues, including migration, but always with respect for our sovereignty,” the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs announced, in response to US media claims about alleged rejection of landing permits to deportation flights.

“Absolutely false,” an official source from the Mexican government stated in response to an article published by NBC News claiming that on Thursday, January 23, a flight bound for Mexico was refused entry. What NBC failed to report was the deployment of 1,500 additional US military personnel on the US southern border with Mexico.



The Brazilian Foreign Ministry announced that it would ask for explanations from the US government regarding the “degrading treatment” of Brazilians on a deportation flight, referring to a deportation flight heading to Belo Horizonte that unexpectedly and suspiciosuly had to land in Manaus near the border with Venezuela.

On Friday, January 24, Brazilian deportees from the US arrived in Brazil in handcuffs. Upon arrival, some of the passengers also reported mistreatment during the flight, according to Brazilian media reports. The plane, carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents, and eight crew members, was originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais. However, it made an unscheduled stop in Manaus, Amazonas state, due to technical problems, according to the Justice Ministry of Brazil.

The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, in her capacity as pro tempore president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States ( CELAC), announced on Sunday the convening of an emergency meeting with the heads of state of the region to address the migratory crisis with the United States, after the call made by Colombian President Petro.

The meeting to address the issue of migration, the environmental crisis, and the unity of Latin America will take place on Thursday, January 30, at 11:00 a.m. Honduras time.

President Castro issued a warning to the US government a few weeks ago, saying that her administration would consider closing US military bases on Honduran soil if Trump follows through with his mass deportation plan.

“Faced with a hostile attitude of massive expulsion of our brothers and sisters, we would have to reconsider our policies of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military field,” Castro said in a message addressed to the nation. In particular, she mentioned the Soto Cano Air Base, known as Palmerola, which has hosted the Bravo Joint Task Force of the US Southern Command since 1982.

https://orinocotribune.com/trump-sancti ... ac-summit/

*******

Colombia Backs Down in Conflict Over Migrants With the United States


Migrants are deported from the United States to their countries of origin, Jan. 26, 2025. X/ @GUERREROALMIQUI

January 27, 2025 Hour: 7:52 am

Petro accepts the deportation of his citizens, while the Colombian foreign minister announces upcoming meetings in Washington.
On Sunday night, the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro backed down from its diplomatic conflict with the U.S. by announcing that Colombia would accept the deportation of its citizens. For its part, the White House mentioned that the Petro administration had accepted all of President Donald Trump’s terms.

“We have overcome the impasse with the U.S. government. We will continue to welcome Colombian men and women returning as deportees, guaranteeing them dignified conditions as citizens with rights,” said Colombia’s Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo.

“The Colombian government has made the presidential plane available to facilitate the return of the nationals who were scheduled to arrive in the morning in the country on deportation flights,” he added, putting an end to the exchange of messages between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro on social media throughout Sunday.

The diplomatic tension arose after Petro refused to accept two military planes carrying deported Colombians from the United States. Following his decision not to authorize the landing of the military planes, Trump announced he would impose 25% tariffs on Colombian products and revoke the visas of Colombian government officials. In response, Petro promised reciprocal measures.

Despite the agreement reached, the White House stated that the possibility of imposing tariffs and sanctions remains “on hold unless Colombia fails to comply with the agreement.” Trump argued that Petro’s refusal endangered “the national and public security of the United States.”

On Sunday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted photos of migrants boarding military planes for deportation flights over the weekend. The images showed migrants restrained at the waist and handcuffed. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you enter the U.S. illegally, you will face serious consequences,” she stated.

No son números, son PERSONAS. Trump los deporta encadenados ¿Dónde queda la empatía? ¿Dónde la libertad que tanto predican? ¿Encadenados? ¿Deportaciones en aviones militares? ¡Ah, la libertad made in USA! Venezuela y Colombia no se prestan para este atropello,
#AméricaUnida pic.twitter.com/VJH3ctrhaA

— Henry Omar VC (@HenryOmarVC1) January 26, 2025

The text reads, “They are not numbers, they are people. Trump deports them in chains. Where is the empathy? Where is the freedom that they preach so much? In chains? Deportations in military planes? Ah, freedom made in the USA! Venezuela and Colombia do not lend themselves to this outrage. United America!!”

Colombia’s Response
The U.S. decision to send deportees on military planes was the reason Petro cited for his refusal. “The United States cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals… I cannot force migrants to stay in a country that does not want them; but if that country returns them, it must be done with dignity and respect for them and for our country,” he pointed out, demanding that deportations be carried out on “civilian planes” and that a protocol be established, as “a migrant is not a criminal.”

After the announcement of sanctions against his government, Petro issued a statement saying he had ordered the presidential plane to transport the returnees. He also mentioned that 15,660 U.S. citizens residing in Colombia are in “irregular status.” Therefore, he urged them to “regularize their situation” and assured them of their continued stay in Colombian territory.

“You will never see me burning an American flag or conducting a raid to deport illegal immigrants in handcuffs to the U.S. True libertarians will never attack human freedom. We are the opposite of Nazis,” the Colombian president said before both governments reached an agreement.

U.S. Tariffs and Other Pressure Measures
In addition to the initial 25% tariff increase on all goods imported from Colombia, Trump had stated that within a week, the rate would rise to 50%. In response, Petro announced a similar increase in tariffs on products imported from the United States.

“I have instructed the Trade Minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%. If I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our labor entering the U.S., I will do the same,” the Colombian president told Trump.

“North American products, whose prices will increase in the national economy, must be replaced with domestic production. The government will assist in this effort,” Petro added.

Trump also ordered “enhanced” inspections at customs and border points on all Colombian citizens and products entering the U.S., citing “national security reasons.” In his list of sanctions, the Republican leader included revoking visas for Colombian officials, members of parties supporting Petro, and their families.

Late Sunday, the White House stated that these measures would remain in effect until the first deportation flight landed in Colombia.

#Honduras | Al igual que Gustavo Petro, la presidenta de Honduras, Xiomara Castro le advirtió a Trump que de seguir las deportaciones masivas de sus compatriotas se verá obligada a cerrar la base militar de EEUU en Honduras.pic.twitter.com/JEHp5p0Bfx

— Agitación (@Agitacion_) January 27, 2025
The text reads, “Like Gustavo Petro, Honduran President Xiomara Castro warned Trump that if mass deportations of her compatriots continue, she will be forced to close the US military base in Honduras.”
A Stern Warning
During his first week in office, Trump appeared to prioritize immigration policy over trade measures, though these were a key campaign promise. Now, for the first time, he used tariffs to threaten a country he believes is not sufficiently supporting the United States’ new hardline immigration policies.

Although Colombia only refused the landing of two U.S. military flights carrying undocumented deportees, that was enough for Trump to lash out at one of the United States’ closest allies in South America.

The Republican leader used Colombia to send a strong warning to other countries about the severe consequences they could face if they fail to cooperate with his immigration policies. This was a significant challenge for Colombia but also a test for Trump’s new administration.

Brazil Also Protested
On Saturday, Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry also condemned the “degrading treatment” received by Brazilian citizens who were deported in handcuffs on a commercial flight. Upon their arrival in Brazil, some passengers reported mistreatment during the flight.

Onboard the plane, which carried 88 Brazilian passengers, were 16 U.S. security agents and eight crew members. The flight landed in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais. Subsequently, Brazilian authorities ordered the removal of the deportees’ handcuffs, and Brazilian President Lula da Silva sent an Air Force plane to complete their journey.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, U.S. immigration policy has only become stricter, with decisions aimed at facilitating the deportation of thousands of people and canceling ongoing asylum or refugee processes. All of this has been accompanied by demands on Latin American countries to take back their expelled nationals.


teleSUR/ JF Source: BBC – PL

https://www.telesurenglish.net/u-s-and- ... s-threats/

[blindpig]

Colombia Backtracks After Deportation Tensions With United States
January 28, 2025


Outgoing Colombian foreign minister Luis Gilberto Murillo reading a statement after a clash with the US government over dehumanizing deportation flights. Photo: Carlos Ortega/EFE.

On Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s government announced that it is backing down from its conflict with the United States by announcing that it will accept the deportation of its citizens. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s administration stated that it “made itself respected.”

In an official statement released on Sunday night by Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, he stated that “we have overcome the impasse with the United States government.”

Foreign Minister Murillo announced that in the coming days, he will travel with other officials to Washington to hold high-level meetings to follow up on the agreements resulting from the joint work that led to the exchange of diplomatic notes between the two governments.



“We will continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees, guaranteeing them decent conditions as citizens with rights,” reads the Colombian government’s statement.

Under President Gustavo Petro’s direction, Colombia has the presidential plane ready to facilitate the return of the compatriots who were to arrive in the country this morning on deportation flights. The statement concluded that Colombia confirms that diplomatic channels of dialogue will be maintained to guarantee its citizens’ rights, national interest, and dignity.

In a contradictory statement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on social media that “the Government of Colombia has accepted all of President Trump’s terms.”



In her text, the US official wrote that “the Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”

“Based on this agreement, the fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve, not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement,” she added.

Leavitt noted that visa sanctions issued by the State Department and enhanced inspections by Customs and Border Protection will remain in effect until the first plane carrying Colombian deportees successfully returns.

“Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again. President Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens who are illegally present in the United States,” the statement concluded.

Background
Early on Sunday, President Petro disallowed the landing of two US planes carrying deported Colombians, refusing to receive them in military aircraft and handcuffed.

In retaliation, Trump revealed that he would apply several unilateral coercive measures to Colombia, including 25% tariffs on all Colombian products, extendable to 50%, exhaustive inspections of Colombian citizens and merchandise, and visa sanctions for Colombian officials. He also announced that sanctions on banking and other areas would be on the way.

In response, Petro announced that he would impose 50% tariffs on US products entering the Colombian market and denounced that a coup d’état was being planned against him.

https://orinocotribune.com/colombia-bac ... ed-states/

Pushing people around from a position of advantage is what passes for 'deal-making' and diplomacy in Trump's rodent brain. It will be interesting when he pulls this shit on Putin and Xi...

*****

Colombia’s Fragile Peace Ruptures in Catatumbo
January 27, 2025


Hundreds of more troops from the Colombian Army have been deployed to Catatumbo in the last week. Photo: Minister of Defense Colombia.

By Zoe Alexandra – Jan 24, 2025

Social movements and community organizations demand peace as violence breaks out in the northeastern region of Colombia.

In the last week, at least 80 people have been killed and over 32,000 people displaced in one of the deadliest bouts of violence in Colombia in recent years. The fighting in Catatumbo, a northeastern region of Colombia, broke out between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and an ex-FARC dissident group – Front 33. The violence in one of the most historically battered regions poses a serious threat to President Gustavo Petro’s promise of total peace in the country.

In a heavily criticized move, Petro suspended the ongoing peace talks with the ELN on January 17, in light of the current fighting.

The situation in Catatumbo also has regional implications as it lies on the border with Venezuela and, as has happened throughout the over six decades of Colombia’s armed conflict, thousands of Colombians have sought refuge in the neighboring country.

The sensitive situation in Colombia represents a threat to the wellbeing and safety of the communities of Catatumbo, which for decades have suffered the impacts of the internal armed conflict, and threatens to completely upend a peace process that is decades in the making.

Given that the situation is actively unfolding and the guns are still hot, there are many elements that are difficult to verify or know with certainty. This is some of what we know so far.

Violence erupts after family’s murder
On January 15, a young man and owner of a funeral home, Miguel Ángel López, along with his wife Zulay Durán Pacheco and their six-month-old baby, were assassinated while they were driving from the border city of Cúcuta towards Tibú, a municipality further north.

The crime was widely denounced by the local organizations and the national government, with government authorities saying that they would conduct investigations to determine those responsible. However, narratives were already taking form in public discourse. Mainstream Colombian media, as well as some Colombian authorities were quick to place the blame on the ELN. On January 17, the group’s Northeast Front released a statement rejecting the accusations and clarifying “the ELN has no responsibility,” adding,“We denounce to the people of the region that the action was perpetrated by the members of the so-called Front 33 of the extinct FARC, and at the same time we promise to find those responsible for the crime.”

While the perpetrator continues to be a disputed fact, what is certain is that this crime was the detonator of the violence in a moment of heightened tensions between the armed groups in the region.

The day after the killing of the family, armed confrontations commenced between the ELN and Front 33. The details of these armed confrontations and days of intensified violence remain disputed, but reports have emerged of the assassinations of civilians and demobilized fighters, along with threats and displacement orders to communities and members of social organizations.

How has the Colombian government responded?
One of the first measures taken by the Colombian government in response to the outburst of fighting in Catatumbo, was the suspension of peace talks with the ELN. This move was announced by Gustavo Petro on his X account on January 17, with him accusing the group of war crimes, saying that “The ELN does not have any will for peace.”

The National Government has since provided material and logistical support to humanitarian efforts in the municipalities receiving displaced persons.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Defense Iván Velásquez announced that the state would be carrying out a series of military operations in response to the armed clashes, including the evacuation of people who have allegedly been threatened by the ELN, as well as the deployment of 400 military personnel to help “strengthen territorial control and guarantee the security of the affected communities.”

In recent days, Petro has intensified his attacks against the ELN, leaving some to accuse him and other government officials of adopting rhetoric that Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, would have once found abhorrent. Furthermore, many have accused him of selectively targeting ELN, which has maintained that its operations are against paramilitary groups which Petro has failed to disarm and dismantle.

On January 23, Petro wrote on X, “They seek control in order to become an international bargaining chip and to enrich themselves with cocaine. For national sovereignty, the ELN must be defeated and all forces that have the same objectives. The Colombian military takeover in Catatumbo and Arauca and the Venezuelan military on the border, must be accompanied by the fundamental: the triumph is not only in the rifle, it is in true social justice, in opening the opportunities of progress in the excluded regions of the country.”

The people of Catatumbo demand peace
The abrupt explosion of violence and the dozens of deaths, have created a generalized climate of terror in the region, provoking tens of thousands to flee their homes in the more rural regions.

Most displaced people have headed towards the centers of the municipalities of Cúcuta, Ocaña, and Tibú, where local authorities and human rights organizations have organized temporary shelters, food, and necessary goods for the families. At least a thousand displaced people have crossed into Venezuela to the border municipality Jesús María Semprún. The government of Nicolás Maduro has instructed local authorities in border regions to receive displaced people and provide a safe refuge for them.

“We insist on the need to guarantee life, International Humanitarian Law, and peace in Catatumbo,” wrote a group of 100 social movements, peasant organizations, human rights associations, and other civil society groups from Catatumbo, including the Peasant Association of Catatumbo (ASCAMCAT) and the ​​Committee for Social Integration in Catatumbo (CISCA), in a public statement released on January 19 addressed to the ELN and Front 33.

“The civilian population should not be in the midst of hostilities and we ask for protection and respect for those of us who are not part of the armed conflict,” the statement reads.

https://x.com/AscamcatOficia/status/188 ... wsrc%5Etfw

“We, the civil society organizations of Catatumbo, openly ask you to make a clear statement on the following: Do the necessary guarantees and conditions exist or not for the exercise of social and humanitarian work of the leaders and grassroots organizations in the Catatumbo sub-region?”

Many of those groups took to the streets on January 20 in the town of La Gabarra, of the Tibú municipality, in a march for peace.

https://x.com/Col_Informa/status/188134 ... wsrc%5Etfw

Understanding Catatumbo: a region in conflict
Catatumbo is a region situated in the northeastern part of the North Santander department of Colombia and encompasses the municipalities of Ocaña, El Carmen, Convención, Teorama, San Calixto, Hacarí, La Playa, El Tarra, Tibú, and Sardinata which all neighbor the great Catatumbo River. The Catatumbo region is home to the Indigenous Barí people and two of their reservations.

The river, and thus the Catatumbo region itself, overflows into neighboring Venezuela.


Young peasants on horseback in Catatumbo. Photo: CISCA

The region is characterized by its rich biodiversity, deposits of coal and oil, lush green forests, mountains, and fertile soil.

For the past several decades, due to the lucrative nature of coca, the crisis of small-scale agricultural production provoked by free trade policies, and the pressure of drug trafficking groups, the fertile soil has been utilized by its large population of small farmers to plant coca. Catatumbo has for years been home to the highest concentration of coca crops in Colombia, which today leads production globally. According to a 2023 report by the United Nations, the Tibú municipality has the highest concentration of coca crops in the world at 22,000 hectares.

A land in dispute
Like many regions in Colombia “blessed” with resources, Catatumbo has been plagued with violence. As the Center of Historic Memory of Colombia put it, “Catatumbo is a territory in dispute. Its inhabitants narrate how different actors have sought economic, armed, and political control, in conflicts dating back to the early 20th century.”

The region has also been historically abandoned by the state. In spite of its natural wealth, it remains disconnected from the main transport routes and outside the economic and geographical center of the country. In light of the state abandonment, diverse community movements and social organizations have been forged over decades to demand rights and resources.

The state neglect of the people and the land also made it a prime location for leftist guerrilla groups to gain territorial control. The early presence of such groups created a stigmatized image of the region as one “dominated by guerrillas” in the national consciousness, which was manifested in a brutal “dirty war” and paramilitary siege.

Since the 1990s, the region has been subjected to different waves of paramilitary violence and state militarization, in the name of fighting a counter-insurgent war. For example, in 1999, a caravan of hundreds of paramilitaries arrived in the region, with the go-ahead from the National Army, and proceeded to occupy the area and carry out a series of terror-inducing massacres. One such massacre took place in the La Gabarra township in August 1999, where paramilitaries cut the electricity and then assassinated 21 people in recreation centers. In this period, 100,000 people were displaced.

Colombia Informa reflected that, “This strategy was carried out in order to impose economic projects: the installation of monocrops and the coal exploitation were the principal objectives. They sought to eliminate the social and people’s organizations, thus destroying the community life plans.”


Members of CISCA blockaded one of the major highways in Colombia during the 2021 uprising against neoliberalism and the government of Iván Duque. Their shields say “food”. Photo: CISCA
Catatumbo was also where several “false positive” massacres staged by the National Army took place. Such is the case of the boys from Soacha, Bogotá who were kidnapped by army officials on the pretense of a job opportunity. They were then transported to Ocaña, where they were murdered and dressed in guerrilla clothing to be falsely counted as slain combatants.



Reemergence of armed groups and escalating violence in Catatumbo
Although the paramilitary groups active in the 1990s and 2000s formally demobilized, new groups, with a greater focus on the drug trade, quickly reappeared, often recruiting people from other demobilized groups. Among these is the Gaitanistas (Gulf Clan), which has presence nationally, and has been engaged in combat with the ELN in various regions of the country, including Catatumbo, in an attempt to control the region and impose a new reign of terror. The Gaitanistas is one of the key groups accused of perpetrating the wave of assassinations of social leaders and human rights defenders, over 1,700 to date, which took place following the signing of the peace agreements in 2016.

Similarly, following the FARC’s demobilization through the Havana peace process, several “dissident groups” emerged, formed by members that were disillusioned with the peace agreements. Several of them organized themselves in the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), and its Front 33 has now also been vying for control over Catatumbo.

The growing conflict between the groups has once again put the people of Catatumbo in the crosshairs of armed confrontation.

“The most affected have been the peasant communities, who face difficulties in carrying out their agricultural activities and their organizational and community work,” Juan Carlos Quintero, of ASCAMCAT, said to Colombia Informa in 2021, amid the incursion of the Gaitanistas in communities of Catatumbo. “The paramilitary structures have not been dismantled, and actually there has been an expansion at this moment. But also, the institutions capable of taking measures to mitigate a human rights situation have had a position of negationism regarding the crisis suffered in Catatumbo and in the rural and metropolitan area of Cúcuta,” he added.

The unresolved threat of paramilitarism
Dismantling paramilitarism has remained one of the key demands of communities across Colombia and has been one of the key challenges of Petro’s administration, which took office in August 2022. With a promise of achieving total peace, Petro restarted talks with the ELN and approached the Gaitanistas and FARC dissidents to begin processes of peace and demobilization.

Yet, talks with the Gaitanistas have not progressed and, according to Insight Crime, the Gaitanistas have used the peace efforts to their own strategic advantage, having “expanded its territorial control into areas where other groups such as the ELN and EMC are present. These groups’ active dialogues with the government have limited their ability to carry out armed offensives, occasionally giving the AGC [Gaitanistas] an edge.”

On November 21, 2024, ASCAMCAT released a statement denouncing that the Gaitanistas had issued death threats and forced displacement orders to human rights defenders and social organizations. In it, they condemned the persistent paramilitary presence which the Colombian state has yet to curb. “This massive threat is not an isolated incident, but part of a strategy of intimidation in the midst of an escalation of paramilitarism in the north of the country and reflects the systematic way with which these armed groups seek to annul any effort for peace, human rights and social justice.”

The statement added, “We publicly denounce the inaction of the Colombian State, the lack of political will, negligence and complicity of the authorities. For years we have raised our voice demanding guarantees and protection, but the State has failed.”

The Territorial Pact: a hope for change?
Civil society organizations such as ASCAMCAT and CISCA, have also reiterated their longstanding demand for the National Government to implement the “Territorial Pact,” a development plan crafted with the marginalized communities of the region. The pact aims to address the impact of decades of armed conflict in the region, natural resource exploitation, and underdevelopment.

“Today, more than ever, it is crucial to advance in the concretion and signing of the Territorial Pact for the Transformation of Catatumbo. We call on the president of the Republic and the national government so that they urgently sign this instrument which is fundamental to promote investments that promote peace, development, wellbeing in the region, responding to the historic demands of the peasantry and the Bari people,” affirmed Catatumbo-based peasant organizations, human rights associations, and others.


Mobilization in Ocaña during the national uprising against neoliberalism and the policies of far-right Iván Duque. Photo: CISCA

On January 20, the regional platform of social movements, Alba Movimientos, wrote a statement calling for peace in Catatumbo, “We urge the national government to comply with the agreements made with the communities, such as the Territorial Pact for the Transformation of Catatumbo, as well as the fulfillment and full implementation of the 2016 Peace Accords. Likewise, we call on the government to urgently consolidate actions that guarantee the dismantling of paramilitarism, and to continue on the path of a political solution to the conflict that continues to be ongoing in various territories nationwide, avoiding warlike solutions that increase the scale of violence and militarization of the region.”

The critical situation continues in Catatumbo, but as communities have insisted, peace and dialogue are the only way forward.


An older peasant participates in a protest in Catatumbo. Photo: CISCA

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