Colombia

The fightback
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:06 pm

The Party of the Rose that shook the Valley

Nothing prevented crowds coming from all strata and social sectors to accompany the new way of making politics inaugurated by the #FARC.

There were conspiracies marked by hatred, lies, disinformation and economic suffocation due to the delay in the delivery of resources for the electoral campaign. But everything was overcome, in the end the strength of the common people triumphed over hatred, deceit and conspiracy.

We are the common people, we are the voice of hope: this was confirmed by the FARC in its closing of campaign for #Senado and # House of Representatives held in the city of #Cali this Saturday, March 3, which filled the hall of events of the Boquería.

"The candidates that we are here today, and in different regions of the country, are part of a party born to build peace, to reconcile #Colombia; reconcile Colombia so that democracy is born. Because to sow democracy is to later reap justice and Good Living; all a difficult route of what we dreamed more than 50 years ago, and today we continue to dream: the New Colombia in peace and with social justice ".

The event was also attended by candidates for the Luis Alberto Albán Urbano Chamber (Marco León Calarcá), Harold Ordoñez Botero, Gisela Díaz, Luisa Fernanda Jaramillo Angulo, Emilce Muñoz Villamil, Alvaro Guaza Carabali, Oscar Holman Echeverry Herrera, Maria Edith Patiño Guerrero , Eddie Lenis Martinez, Gustavo Arbelaez and Maria Lucelly Urbano.

During the closure, the government's non-compliances and lack of guarantees for the exercise of the FARC's political and electoral campaign occupied a place in the speeches.

"And let's not talk about the string of official lies about the financing of the campaign, which even today in the closing acts throughout the country, does not flow properly because of the bureaucratic obstacles and the political interest to prevent the new way of doing politics as an expression of national majorities ", denounced Calarcá.

The political act was marked by experiences and memories, memories of love that led to fight for the people.

"In my younger years I fell in love with this fight. And now I go back to that love, not as a commander or candidate, but as the young man who, when he joined the guerrillas, did not know how to walk on the mountain or cut firewood, but later learned," recalled Catatumbo, in the middle of the rally the people of the common enjoyed and that was animated by groups and artists like #CantoSur, #ClanR, # DynastyCampe, #Henry, #BlackStevan and Martín Batalla.

Finally, #Catatumbo called heartfelt and sincerely to strengthen the unity of the party.

"I appeal from the most basic, from the deepest, from the most human, from my closest and distant memories, and make a call to strengthen this party, to strengthen our unity, to overcome everything that separates us from fraternity, of solidarity and love, feelings so necessary for the unity of the party," he concluded.

Press Office

Candidacy for the Senate Pablo Catatumbo

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/ne ... alley.html

I wish them good luck but it's gonna take more than that.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 08, 2018 5:59 pm

FARC withdrawing from Colombian presidential race after Timochenko suffers heart attack
By AFP | Published: 08th March 2018 09:06 PM |

Last Updated: 08th March 2018 09:06 PM | A+A A- |

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Rodrigo Londono, top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Photo | AP)
BOGOTA: Colombia's FARC said Thursday it is pulling out of the country's presidential race after its candidate, 59-year-old ex-guerrilla leader Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono, suffered a heart attack.

Ivan Marquez, a senate candidate and senior member of the political party formed by the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels, told reporters that party members decided not to field a candidate after Londono underwent open heart surgery on Wednesday.

Since the peace deal struck with the government of outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos in 2016, the FARC gave up its half-century armed struggle and became a political party keeping the same acronym.

Colombia's presidential election is scheduled for May 27, with a possible runoff vote set for mid-June.

Surveys showed that Londono -- candidate for the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force -- had just one percent voter support.

Marquez however said his party is not dropping out of the legislative elections set for Sunday. The peace agreement guarantees at least ten seats for the FARC, but they must campaign for them.

Londono suffered a heart attack last week at the end of his daily exercise routine. He has had serious health scares before: in 2015 he had a heart attack in Cuba while negotiating the peace deal, and in July 2017 he suffered a minor stroke.

The ex-rebel leader is undergoing a "satisfactory" recovery, Marquez said.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2 ... 84089.html

It goes from bad to worse. To be honest Timo has not impressed, sounding more like some sort of liberal or Trot, which makes me wonder about this entirely disastrous course that FARC has taken. I do not understand how they could have thought that the ruling class would play it straight instead of murdering out of hand as usual. I could understand them coming to the conclusion that they couldn't win given the US's apparently open-ended commitment to their defeat but the manner of their disengagement endangers both their personnel and all progressive activists in Columbia, what a fucking mess.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 09, 2018 3:42 pm

We will continue to fight for a New Colombia

We publish here the press release by the FARC:

The People’s Alternative Revolutionary Force declare that:

1.- We decided to participate in the electoral process in response to our commitment to the Havana Agreements, despite the fact that the Congress of the Republic prevented the implementation of a political-electoral reform to the clientelist, corrupt and mafioso regime that rules the country; to which was added its refusal to approve the 16 special Peace Constituencies.

2.- We have assumed with determination our aspiration to contribute to overcome any link between violence and politics, although since the signing of the Final Agreement more than 50 ex-guerrillas or their families and more than 250 social leaders have been killed.

3.- We started our campaign despite the fact that nearly 600 ex-combatants, today members of our Party, are in prisons without being favored by the Amnesty Law. Likewise, without the financing conditions being enabled, which were generated a few days ago, but with unusual restrictions by the Agrarian Bank, which exercises an illegal function of preventive auditing and co-administration of our resources.

In open discrimination, we were denied any possibility of legal financing, other than the State one. We have also had to listen to unfounded stories and accounts by the Prosecutor's Office on presumed assets that had clearly an electoral tinge against us.

4.- We were forced to a temporary suspension of the campaign due to the absence of guarantees and, particularly, because of the attacks against our presidential candidate, Rodrigo Londoño, Timo, instigated by sectors of the Democratic Center, which threatened his personal integrity and led us to think that a more serious attack could be brewing.

We proposed to all political and social forces the need for a great national political agreement for the definitive overcoming of all links between violence and politics. Subsequent events occurred in other campaigns and have given us the reason and indicate that the aforementioned proposal has full force.

5.- In the midst of these conditions, we persist in our electoral participation with the firm conviction about the need for a government of transition of great national convergence, whose programmatic contents have been raised by our formula Timo - Imelda Daza.

6. Circumstances widely known by public opinion about the recovery process of our candidate Timo, after the surgery performed on 7 March, together with those already mentioned on the features of the electoral contest, have led us to decline our presidential aspiration.

We thank Timo and Imelda for accepting our nomination, both knowing the structural limits that alternative forces for the exercise of politics and electoral participation have.

7.- We express our willingness to dialogue with all political sectors in order to build bridges to realize the perspective of a great national convergence.

We invite you to vote this Sunday, March 11, for our closed lists to the Senate and Chamber, marking the red rose.

The people of the common will count in the Congress of the Republic with a robust bench that will work tirelessly for the purposes of democratic peace with social justice.

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/ne ... ombia.html

"We will continue the fight on ground of the enemy's choosing, according to their rules, with one hand tied behind our back."<sic>
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 23, 2018 4:21 pm

AFRO-COLOMBIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT LEADERS ARRESTED

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Human rights and social justice organizations from Colombia and international community question arrests of Afro-Colombian activists. On April 20, the Colombian government arrested around thirty people in southwestern Colombia that included the Afro-Colombian leaders Sara Quiñonez and her mother Tulia Maris Valencia based on accusations of narcotics trafficking and working with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group. However, both Ms. Quiñonez and Ms. Valencia are members of the Black Communities’ Process (Proceso de Comunidades Negras, PCN) social movement and have risked their lives to defend the individual and collective rights of Afro-Colombians.

The arrests of black activists are part of a systematic campaign to challenge the legitimacy of Afro-Colombian rights, and criminalizing the defense of human rights undermines the tenuous status of the Peace Accords. In 2012, another PCN activist Felix Banguero was arrested along with 27 others under similar circumstances for allegedly belonging to the FARC. After spending more than two years in an overcrowded prison, Banguero was released based on insufficient evidence. He continues to maintain his innocence and remains committed to the struggle for Afro-Colombian rights.

The arrests of Afro-Colombian activists Sara Liliana Quiñonez Valencia and her mother Tulia Marys Valencia are particularly concerning. Ms. Quiñonez currently has protective measures from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR) due to death threats against her and the entire leadership of the Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera located in Tumaco on the Colombian border with Ecuador. Ms. Quiñonez continued to defend the rights of the Afro-Colombian Community Council, even after the high-profile murders of her fellow community leaders Genaro Garcia in 2016 and Jair Cortés in 2017. Following the murders, Ms. Quiñonez was forcibly displaced with her family, including her mother Mrs. Tulia Maris, to another part of the country where she received protection measures provided by Colombia’s National Protection Unit (UNP).

ACSN expresses deep concern regarding their arrests and joins the call of the Colombian social movements to drop the charges and release Ms. Quiñonez and her mother Tulia Maris Valencia. According to PCN, “If our leaders (lideres y lideresas) stay in the territory, they are murdered—if they leave the territory, they are criminalized.”

Take Action on Twitter with the following message:

@FiscaliaCol #SarayTuliaMarisLibres! Son mujeres Negras defensoras de la vida en los territorios ancestrales del #PuebloNegro del Consejo Comunitario Alto Mira y Frontera en Tumaco donde la vida se asedia cada minuto. #Justicia! #SarayTuliaMarisLibres! @PGN_COL @CIDH @renacientes

https://afrocolombian.org/2018/04/23/af ... -arrested/

FARC has been mostly quite of late, which no doubt got something to do with the untenable situation they find themselves in.It is very easy to be an 'arm-chair-general', like me, but their options are and have been circumscribed given empire's intent and resources.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue May 15, 2018 1:02 pm

Future generations deserve a better tomorrow
Written by Rodrigo Londoño - Timo

Future generations deserve a better tomorrow


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"The agreement was not for the FARC, but for all future generations who deserve a better tomorrow, we invite all and all to defend this sacred commitment, no more hatred and intolerance in Colombia." Rodrigo Londoño - Timo

In elaborating this message, my intention is to remember the transition from war to peace between the Colombian State and the FARC-EP, in order to point out that what has been done in this important matter has not been a game. Our desire was to sow hope, imposing a change in the dark history of this long-suffering country, an extremely difficult task in which we remain committed, with the conviction that it is still possible to achieve a better future for all.

Between February 23 and August 26, 2012, an exploratory stage in Havana, it was necessary to establish with certainty whether the conditions were in place to reach a peace agreement. On the preparatory road to reach the Cuban capital, the government unnecessarily killed our Commander Alfonso Cano, the initiator of the process. Despite this, interpreting Alfonso's will, we continue to look for ways out until we reach the General Agreement.

On October 12, 2012, plenipotentiaries from both sides began the dialogues in the city of Oslo. On September 23, 2015, I met in Havana for the first time with the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, to announce to Colombia and the international community that a unique agreement had been reached in the world on justice and related issues. . The Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition was born then.

On June 23, 2016, once again in the Cuban capital, the permanent venue for the dialogues, we signed the ceasefire and hostilities agreements with Bilateral and Definitive and Leave Weapons and Security Guarantees with the national government, in the presence of Raúl Castro, President of the Republic of Cuba, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and other figures of continental and world renown.

On September 26 of the same year, in Cartagena de Indias, in front of witnesses of maximum international recognition, Mr. President Santos, in his capacity as Head of State, and the undersigned, on behalf of the FARC-EP, terminated the talks by signing the Peace Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Building of a Stable and Lasting Peace. Six points of the greatest importance for reconciliation and social justice in our country.

We contemplate changes of structural scope in the rural sector, restorative justice, the ending of the war with the abandonment of weapons included, the reincorporation mechanisms with international verification, the guarantees of future subsistence and productive projects of multiple benefit for ex-combatants, their families and the rural community, and others of fundamental scope, that we subscribe the two parties with the purpose of guaranteeing the indefinite durability of peace.

After the known setbacks and amendments that represented the plebiscite on October 2, on November 24, 2016 we signed a new version of the Agreement, after introducing to the first one the modifications suggested or required by important sectors of national life. This time, at the Teatro Colón in the city of Bogotá. Then the Congress of the Republic, Senate and House separately, endorsed by overwhelming majority the aforesaid Final Agreement.

On June 27, 2017, the UN Mission in Colombia announced that it had already stored the 7,132 individual weapons of the FARC-EP, one day before the ceremony in which the disarmament of our force was concluded. On September 1, 2017, the transformation of our armed organization into a political party was officially announced. On March 11, 2018, we went to the polls, fulfilling the word pledged. What was agreed was intended to be fulfilled.

The States facilitators and friends of process, the Security Council of the United Nations, as well as the national and international public opinion, are witnesses of the stumbling blocks suffered in the process since the signing of the Definitive Agreement at the Teatro Colón. The National Congress, in incomprehensible gesture of hostility, decided to ignore important aspects and commitments agreed in Havana, under the capriciously interested baton of the Attorney General of the Nation.

Systematic bloodshed has taken the lives of a large number of our reincorporated, rampaging time against human rights defenders and social leaders, putting at risk the stability and credibility of the entire process. Let's add to the logical alarm, the inefficiency of the State in the matter of legislative implementation and the slow official attention of the basic needs in the now called Territorial Spaces of Training and Reincorporation.

President Santos, we met him in the war. So ferocious was he on the battlefield, that he came to make sense mistakes. However, we must recognize his courage in the search for peace. There were those who described him as a traitor for having recognized the internal conflict and paved the way for national reconciliation. He has had to face hatred, lies, polarization and the most dirty tricks of various sectors committed to wrecking peace.

We just arrived to reflect in Cartagena with you and two illustrious personalities, the Ex-President of Spain Felipe González and the Ex-President of the Republic of Uruguay José Mujica. This last weekend, with them as witnesses, we agreed on new directions and goals. We look for new breaths. Go ahead, Santos. You are the President of Colombia and Head of State until the last minute of the last day of your mandate. Please reorient, implement, not a step back.

The Peace Agreement is armored. This was understood by the Constitutional Court, declaring the Legislative Act number 02 of 2017 to be enforceable. It is recognized by the United Nations Security Council. It is accepted and applauded by the community of nations. We are not going to force anything, it is simply to honor the word that committed the Colombian State and our old insurgency. The beautiful dream of peace can be an irreversible reality if you decide to act.

Mr. Néstor Humberto Martínez, a gesture of his in favor of peace could change the country's perception of his actions. He remained silent during the peace talks, having had the opportunity to contribute to his greatest success in various scenarios, the Council of Ministers, to mention only the highest hierarchy, and having the ears of the Head of State at his disposal in his own office everyday. Then he acted as if uninterested.

Once elevated to the Attorney General of the Nation, he tried to tear apart central aspects of the Agreement. Some he twisted his arm leaving them truncated and others he has unknown Olympically. Do you know what they are? Now orchestral criminal accusations with extradition reaches, devoid of veracity, accompanied by capricious procedures, which significantly affect the name of important members of our ranks.

Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, I extended from Havana an olive branch at a time when peace talks were taking place. I wanted to talk with you about how to get the country out among all, in a spirit of reconciliation, of the entanglements and violence that overwhelms them. As far as I know, President Santos did not oppose that initiative. By then, the FARC-EP had accepted to go through the fullness of the paths of international legality.

We had accepted the central principles of the Charter of the United Nations Organization, the Law of Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and the Rome Statute. We understood that we should accept the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the integral system of truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition. And that we should appear before the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition.

At this point it must be clear to you that the developments of the process will end up leading it before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Only that reason explains his desire to destroy special justice, impossible dream, and that his candidate for the Presidency, by his insinuation, propose a single Court for Colombia, intending to wipe out the instances of ordinary jurisdiction in which his name, because of his multiple behaviors, he ventilates and finds himself in suspense.

However, accepting that you, we and many others are on the verge of responding to justice, for behaviors related to the internal conflict, it would be good to give the country an example of what is the search and clarification of the truth . For this, I formulate a new invitation. Let's meet before the Truth Commission, with the clear purpose of clarifying our past responsibilities. Set the date and we will go together.

Mientras tanto, quisiera dirigirme a la doctora Ingrid Betancur, a Clara Rojas, a Sigifredo López y a todos los colombianos y colombianas que en uno u otro momento fueron a parar a las llamadas cárceles de las FARC, incluyendo desde luego a policías y soldados y a las familias de todos ellos. Deseamos pedirles perdón público por todos y cada uno de los sufrimientos ocasionados en los trágicos días de la guerra, por lo que les planteamos coordinar esfuerzos para tal evento.

I would like to remind all Colombians and Colombians that by signing the Havana Accords, the fate of our country was cast. We build between death opponents a formula of reconciliation and social justice for our country. The Agreement was not for the FARC but for all future generations who deserve a better tomorrow. We invite all and all to defend this sacred commitment. No more hatred and intolerance in Colombia.



RODRIGO LONDOÑO ECHEVERRY

President of the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the FARC Common

Bogotá, May 9, 2018

http://www.farc-ep.co/comunicado/las-ge ... anana.html

Google Translator

I am gobsmacked by the idealism in this statement
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu May 24, 2018 12:53 pm

FARC denounces persecution and threats by paramilitary groups

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Citizens Lady Poblador, Brayan Segura and other community leaders have been harassed and attacked. | Photo: @farc_epueblo

Published May 23 2018

The Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common (FARC) affirmed that there has been an increase in contraband and violence against its members and civil groups.

The Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common ( FARC ) denounced on Wednesday the recrudescence and constant aggressions, persecutions and harassments suffered by ex - combatants of the now political party perpetrated by criminal groups.

"The Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common Bogota denies the continuity of threats and harassment against its members in the city of Bogotá and denounces the presence of criminal groups that are successors of the paramilitaries, " the insurgent exgroup said in a statement.

They also denounced that since 2017, after the murder of a community leader in a neighborhood south of the capital, kidnappings and violence against its members and other social leaders have increased the presence of armed criminal groups, as well as the smuggling of illicit substances into places like Ciudad, Bolívar, San Germán, San Cristóbal and Suba.

For his part, the member of the District Political Council of the FARC Francisco Javier Toloza said that between April 11 and 25 he was the object of persecution when he was followed and photographed by a presumed National Police Deputy Superintendent.

In the same way, they exhorted the Colombian authorities to take action on the matter to end the aggressions that threaten life, peace, and the free exercise of political participation, premises established in the Peace Agreement signed in Havana, Cuba. between the Government and the insurgent exgroup in 2016.

"We demand the Colombian State and its judicial, administrative and control authorities, to take all urgent measures, (...) to guarantee the life and personal integrity (...) and the political participation of all the militants of the party, "the text adds.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/farc-col ... -0053.html

Who could have suspected that this would happen...............?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Sat May 26, 2018 11:44 am

Santos Announces That Colombia Will Join NATO
Published 25 May 2018

For the first time in history, a Latin American country will be part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Colombia will be part, starting next week, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the first Latin American "global partner", announced on Friday the president of that nation, Juan Manuel Santos.

"We will formalize in Brussels next week -and this is very important- the entry of Colombia into NATO in the category of global partner, we will be the only country in Latin America with this privilege," the president said in a televised address from the presidential Narino Palace.

Santos, who will leave office this year, will meet next May 31 in Brussels with NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, to finalize the accreditation of Colombia as part of the military alliance.

On December 2016 the Colombian Executive had informed that NATO had accepted the request to establish an agreement and thus agree to a "greater" military cooperation with that organization, following the Peace Agreement signed in Havana.

"And another great news. Next week we will formalize the entry of Colombia to NATO, in the category of global partner. We will be the only country in Latin America with this privilege"


At that time, the neighboring government of Venezuela rejected the announcement as an "attempt to introduce external factors with nuclear capacity" in the region.

At the beginning of 2017, the then Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez had denounced that with that entry Colombia could violate the Tlatelolco agreement, put into effect in 1969 with the purpose of establishing the denuclearization of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In addition, Colombia is part of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (NAM) and one of the essential principles of the bloc states that its members "can not be part of any type of military and warlike organization such as the North Atlantic Treaty.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0018.html

How long has this been in the works? Is this cause or effect relative to the FARC surrender?

I remember the Delian League.......
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue May 29, 2018 5:15 pm

FARC Decries Murder of Three Members in Southeast Colombia
Published 29 May 2018 (3 hours 42 minutes ago)

The Common Alternative Revolutionary Force says at least 60 of its members have been killed since the peace agreement.

The Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (FARC), the political party founded after the demobilization of the insurgent group with the same acronym, denounced the murder of three of its members between May 22 and 26 in rural areas in Cauca and the Cauca Valley, southeast Colombia.

The murdered members are Cristian Bellaizac, Jhon Jairo Ruiz Pillimue and Wilinton Bravo Angulo in the Jamundi, Suarez and Buenos Aires municipalities, respectively.

According to the party, who said 24 former fighters were killed in the first five months of the year, political forces in the country must “seriously commit to walking together on the path for reconciliation and coexistence.”

They invited Álvaro Uribe's protege Ivan Duque and progressive candidate Gustavo Petro, who will face each other in the second round of the presidential elections on June 17, to “wrap up once and for all that great national political agreement to abolish the use of weapons in politics.”

The political party showed its concern for crimes related to drug cartels in Colombia and the violation of human rights that “directly threaten peace and social leadership in these territories.”

Last Wednesday the FARC denounced that “criminal groups, successors of paramilitarism... threaten and harass” their members in Bogota.

A day before, President Juan Manuel Santos said that 40 members of the former insurgent group had been killed since the peace agreement was signed between them and the Colombian government, but the leftist political party claims the number of victims is higher at 60.

“Just one is too many,” said Santos, recognizing the government has failed to protect the former fighters and to comply with the agreement and assured his administration would continue to work until the last of its days so “more cases don't occur.”

Even though the peace agreement with the FARC aimed at ending a decades-long armed conflict to combat violence in the country, the permanent presence of paramilitary groups -some even working under government's protection- is hampering peace efforts in the region with impunity.

In fact, the demobilization of the former guerrilla fighters left a void of power in many regions, which have been now taken by violent drug cartels and paramilitary groups. More than 200 social leaders and human rights defenders have been murdered in Colombia since January 2017 to date. Multiple human rights organizations have urged the Colombian government to implement more effective measures to preserve the lives of social leaders.

In January, the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AGC, the armed forces branch of the “Clan del Golfo” (Gulf Clan), threw a grenade into an Antioquia dance club, injuring 30 people and breaking the unilateral ceasefire they had announced for the Christmas celebrations.

The organization emerged in 2007, as a result of the 2005 demobilization of paramilitary groups then known as the United Self-Defenses Forces of Colombia, leaving a void in the drug trafficking and extortion business. The group is also known as "Los Urabeños," a nickname given by the Colombian government.

While the Colombian government continues to deny the existence of other paramilitary groups, the brutal organizations continue to cause internal disturbances and kill human rights defenders. Colombia’s landmark peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that was widely hailed as an end to the longest-running civil war has done little to stop paramilitary violence.

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

Who could have anticipated this.................

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

Elites Anxious As Former Colombian Paramilitary Testifies
Published 17 April 2018

Former Colombian paramilitary leader will testify in front of the Special Court for Peace (JEP), in testimony that may be linked to ex-president Alvaro Uribe.

Salvatore Mancuso - former leader of the paramilitary group, United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) - will testify in front of JEP, making some elite and industrial sectors of the country very nervous because his confession could reveal tight connections to important political figures and military leaders.

Mancuso was one of the most important paramilitary leaders in Colombia during the late 1990s and early 2000s, leading some 50,000 paramilitary soldiers on missions mainly in the areas of Antioquia, Cordoba - his home region - in northern Colombia.

The AUC was formed by anti-guerrilla groups and defectors of Pablo Escobar‘s Medellin cartel in 1997 and operated until 2006 when the group began to deactivate. That same year, collaborating with the courts - Mancuso confessed to the murder of over 1,500 people. When his admonitions revealed strong connections to the political and economic elites he and 13 other paramilitary leaders were extradited to the U.S. for drug trafficking crimes in 2008.

According to the Colombia Reports, Mancuso has said his now disbanded group invested drug money in election campaigns of former President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010). The AUC leader is a witness in the Supreme Court’s ongoing investigation that before becoming president Uribe helped create paramilitary groups in the 1990s.

At the end of November Mancuso helped put away former senator Martin Emilio Morales who, it was found, was involved with the AUC. Mancuso said during the hearing of Morales that he was committed to helping victims of the armed conflict gain justice.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0026.html
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu May 31, 2018 1:20 pm

Integral Farm of the exguerrilleros in Rabbit inaugurated

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BY: SANDRA GUERRERO
@sguerrerob

The food they produce is purchased by the World Food Program for the PAE of 22 schools in the south of La Guajira.

In the Nueva Colombia Integral Farm, the Cooperativa Multiactiva para la Paz in Colombia and representatives of the World Food Program in Colombia, will inaugurate the Integral Farming Project for the ex-guerrillas of the Farc located in the corregimiento of Conejo, La Guajira.

According to the ex-combatants, this project arose out of the efforts of the members of the FARC "in the face of the failure of the national government to reintegrate into society and the economy".

According to Nolberto Velásquez, the initiative was prompted by an investment by the PMA to carry out the pertinent adjustments to the farm, which is currently part of the School Feeding Program -PAE- program in the south of La Guajira, supplying 22 schools of the area, with products such as paprika, tomato, banana, chili, cassava, corn, onion, cilantro cabbage, carrot, cabbage, passion fruit, among others.

He explained that the adjustments include the construction of a tool warehouse, a work office, bathrooms, elevated tanks, as well as investment in inputs and seeds for crops that are projected on the farm, among others, this as part of the purpose to achieve quality standards in good practices of farm management.

The farm is one of the five projects that are part of the Cooperativa Multiactiva para la Paz of Colombia-Coompazcol-which also has production units for clothing, organic fertilizer, joinery and tourism.

"In this way the ex-guerrillas of the Farc consolidate their commitment to maintain peace, despite the fact that the national government has not complied," said Velásquez.

https://www.elheraldo.co/la-guajira/ina ... ejo-500656

Google Translator

Good luck. I say that with all possible intent but not much hope.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:17 pm

'Romaña' is now a farmer and asks that they let him work
Between corn and sunflower crops, the former guerrilla commander criticizes his party, calls for unity and asks for help to buy silo harvests that he is about to collect.

Gloria Castrillón / @glocastri
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Henry Castellanos in the sunflower crop that ex-combatants have in the village Muribá de La Uribe. / Photos: Cristian Garavito

Since leaving Tumaco in November of last year, Henry Castellanos Garzón, who became famous in the Farc with the alias of Romaña, had not shown his face. Hardly met a video recorded with cell phone, which he himself spread by social networks, where he realized that he had built a bridge over the Guape River that serves as a border between the municipalities of La Uribe and Mesetas, in Meta.

We found it on a Saturday, at dusk, in a farm located in the village of El Diamante, in the municipality of La Uribe. The landscape is of overwhelming beauty. The bed of the Duda River, living witness of 50 years of historical struggles of the peasants who colonized these mountains after the bombing of Marquetalia and the independent republics of El Pato and Riochiquito, gives way to an enviable view: in the east the already deforested Serrania de La Macarena, to the south the Tinigüa Natural Park, to the west the Los Picachos Natural Park and the Sumapaz can be guessed just to the north.

Gallery: Life in a settlement of ex-combatants in Meta

He no longer wears a beret, his rubber boots are not the traditional Ecuadorian ones he used to wear during the war. It receives us with red sweetened with panela and we hurry the chat on camera, because a monumental downpour haunts us.

He is cordial and willing to deny statements from around the world. The first: he did not leave Tumaco due to death threats; He says he left there, disappointed, with about 60 ex-combatants who, like him, had operated in these mountains, and arrived in those lands at the end of last December, looking for their friends and family, and a better future for their productive projects. According to him, the pineapple, aloe, banana and corn plants are rotting there in the territorial space of Nariño, due to lack of commercialization.

Second denial: he never called Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez -as he affirmed in Congress a few weeks ago- and never received any help from him for the corn crops he shows with pride. The 120 million were given by the Swedish government (this newspaper confirmed it) in kind: seeds and fertilizers. And there are 30,000 hectares as the head of the accuser said. They are barely 30. He laughs.

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The farm where he receives us has 120 hectares, but only 20 are sown. In addition to corn, it has vegetables, plantains and beans; four pools with cachama crops; a marranera that started with 12 females that arrived in a macondiana crossing from Tumaco and that today already has 80 pigs; a corral with chickens (the first, a sister gave them), turkeys and ducks; 350 heads of cattle that ex-combatants have bought with their monthly income; a cabinetmaking workshop, and a crystalline pipe in which he plans to set up a tourism project.

Part of the conversation was spent on a Sunday tour of the other farms that they leased to plant corn and sunflower. It has 12 escorts (ex-combatants) and they move in trucks with Bogota license plates (supplied by the UNP) on these roads that the Farc built with the communities during the Pastrana demolition. He walks peacefully along the path full of craters known as the palm of his hand, while waving with the whistle to a pair of soldiers who make a catch unthinkable a few years ago.

How do you manage to maintain unity and discipline among 350 ex-combatants?

It is not easy, because just received the first $ 700,000 some ex-combatants thought of buying a cell phone or a motorcycle. One explains that this is over and that, if the government does not comply with the reinstatement, they are left adrift. We advise you to save to have something for the future. Here the norm is to buy steers when they go to charge each month. They have already understood it, although there is no lack of who buys the cell phone or sends money to the brides or goes to have a drink.

How did you get Sweden to support you with the cultivation of corn?

The first thing we did when we arrived was to look for some land for rent, then I knocked on doors of different government offices, the ARN, the office of the High Commissioner for Peace, the National Land Agency, several embassies. I spoke to them about the incoherence of the State: they lasted for years asking us to demobilize and when we reached the peace process, they no longer want to see us. One wonders why the investments have not come to these territories so affected during the war. Why, if it was not invested in the war, it is not done during peace either. I take this opportunity to thank the Swedes and make the invitation to other embassies and entrepreneurs such as Colanta and Alquería. If we do well, we will have 5,000 tons of sunflower silo and 5,000 more of corn. We do not ask you to give us anything, just buy us at a fair price.

How did the community receive them?



Well, I was only 18 months on the outside, so everyone distinguishes me.

Did you receive it with fear?

Without fear, they have confidence in one, they were 40 years in which we were with them and they were with us.

But you also hurt in these areas.

That is the most beautiful part of the peace process, which gives us the opportunity to be told what mistakes we made, to ask for forgiveness.

It has done?

Yes, I've already done it, so I have not done it directly. If it was the FARC, we are a collective, and you have to apologize. I have not found the first person who has told me something that I would have done. During these years, people were looking for us to solve their problems of boundaries, of marriages, of crops. And now they keep coming to look for us to solve these problems, I send them to the community action board. They welcomed us with love.

Kidnapping victims will not think the same. You will always be remembered for the miraculous catches.

We have already done acts of forgiveness in Bojayá, in La Chinita, with the deputies of Cali, the victims of El Nogal. And we will continue doing those acts.

And his victims?

I take this opportunity to tell all those who feel affected that they come to talk about the issues, if we have to ask for forgiveness and make clarifications, as we do. For that we have created the Integral System of Justice, Truth, Reparation and Non-Repetition and the Truth Commission, so that we can go and say what happened to us in these years, why we kill ourselves in that way.

What is your assessment of the kidnapping today?

Which is an absurd method. From when it was raised, comrade Jacobo (Arenas) said that we should do it for a while because that degraded, but we did not find other ways to finance ourselves. It was a very hard war, imposed by the United States. It is very painful to have to keep a person to get money. The important thing is that we made a commitment to respect life.

In many cases that did not happen.

That happened through the same military pressure, because it was a very hard war. It is one thing to tell it now and another thing is to live it. I take this opportunity to tell people who want to return to war, who want to dismember agreements, that in war lives, values, and feelings are lost, which is not the same to incite from a desk or a microphone.

If it was so painful, why insist on doing it?

It was a matter of life or death, if we did not we were starving, we could not get the endowment for our army or the ammunition or the accoutrements. A combat was worth a lot (counts the value of each grenade, of the ammunition cartridges). If all the money that was spent in the war was invested in social works, we would all live well. Of course, if there was no corruption.

With all those economic and human costs, was it worth embarking on that war?

If we had not done it, we would not be alive. It's that they declared a war to the death. Ask the peasants how the bombings were, the machine guns. It was a useless war, killing us among Colombians at the whim of the powers. That's what we managed to understand at this time. And we solved that problem, but now they do not fulfill us. There are 188 countries in the world that know that the Farc complied and the Government did not. And we are here defending the agreement, saving lives and proving that we can solve this problem among Colombians.

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And now what are they missing?

We have told the Government, the Mayor of La Uribe, Mesetas, put us to work, give us employment, we have two cooperatives and we can hire. We have said to all shout that we want peace, we know how to build. We already made a bridge over the Guape River, with a raffle of one car and 12 heifers. We collected 150 million pesos, and we got together to build it with the farmers of Esperanza, La Unión, La Floresta and El Vergel.

Are you playing with the process?

Yes, despite the difficulties. We must take it forward. That I do say, if Comrade Santrich does not go free, the process will continue in crisis, because we are afraid that any of us will make a montage like the one they did to him. But the damage they already did, they broke the confidence with the game and in us. We remind the Government that we must first be guaranteed physical and legal security. Without that the process fails.

What do you need to carry out the short-term plans?

We need the harvester to catch the corn and the sunflower, a cutter to cut four furrows, a silo pack that is a packer, and the chuspas where the silo is packed. And then comes the other stage, which is to fix the roads: they are like 50 kilometers, 7,000 ballast trips and 30 sewers are needed.

How is health care?

They are affiliated with the New Eps, but nobody believes in it, thank goodness there are no sick people, only two who have cancer, one is treated by a foreigner who helps us and for the other girl we collect for chemotherapy because they have not treated her yet . With me 20 nurses and 10 dentists, we have surgeons, traumatologists, therapists, who know more than professionals, because in the war they saved many lives, but they have not validated their knowledge and can not attend. If they were careful, they could make health brigades for the community.

New points of regroupment of the Farc in the Meta

As revealed by Colombia 2020On April 19, there are 33 new regroupment points in the country where ex-combatants of the Farc are looking for better opportunities for their successful reintegration, outside the Territorial Spaces of Training and Reincorporation. The settlement led by Henry Castellanos in La Uribe is one of the three in Meta and is called El Diamante, and 350 people belong to it. In the jurisdiction of La Julia, also in La Uribe, there is another one in which there are about 60 people, while in the camp that was upgraded in the Mesetas, for the arrival of ex-combatants who were to remain in restriction of freedom, there is another group of about 80 people. The Government is just beginning to recognize these settlements and only in some cases offers food supplies. Other types of services such as security are still pending.

https://colombia2020.elespectador.com/t ... n-trabajar

Google Translator

It is very complicated, if I prayed, I would. But I still wanna know, 'crystalline pipe''?

We should also bear in mind that this interview was for a Colombian mass circulation publication and certain 'tailoring' being inevitable and necessary.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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