Re: Colombia
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:46 pm
SALVATORE MANCUSO CONFESSES HOW PARAMILITARISM AROSE IN COLOMBIA
8 Aug 2021 , 2:38 am .
Salvatore Mancuso was one of the "political commissars" of the AUC (Photo: File)
The war that has plagued the interior of Colombia for some seven decades has gone through various stages of violence, with different actors that often intersect by interests and procedures, with the State playing a leading role -of course- in the equation. Historically dominated by local oligarchies, their interests have been imposed with tactics of extreme violence and strategies that have undermined any trace of peace.
Even researchers and academics have not hesitated to determine the terrorist character of Colombian government policy over the years, which has been systematic in its relationship with Colombian paramilitarism for half a century.
Thus, it has been shown that the Colombian State has delegated a war against the guerrillas and society in general to the paramilitary armies, as confessed by the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso, in a recent virtual meeting with the Truth Commission.
The forum 'Contribution to the truth and recognition of responsibilities of Salvatore Mancuso' was also held with Rodrigo Londoño, formerly better known as Timochenko (FARC-EP) and 18 direct victims of the armed and social conflict, where both spoke about the origins of his activities, one when he was a paramilitary and the other a guerrilla, his vision of history, they assumed guilt and distributed pardons.
What is interesting in the case of Mancuso is that his privileged position during the time of paramilitary assumption provides a key testimony where, once again, the State appears as the main promoter of terrorist violence, with an essential role and without which the proceeding from these armed groups would not have happened.
WHERE THE LEGAL IS ANOTHER WAY OF DEFINING THE ILLEGAL
Mancuso, in his testimony, relates that the brothers Carlos and Vicente Castaño invited him to found self-defense groups that spread throughout the northern departments of Colombia, in regions where there were long-standing conflicts between the guerrillas, the state army, and the oligarchy. landowner. The conjunction of these last two sectors would outline a political, military and economic project, he affirmed.
He described the ties with various institutions and the Convivir: "There was always direct coordination that made it possible to advance with the self-defense groups."
Let us remember that the Convivir, surveillance cooperatives that were used as a legal facade for paramilitarism, were authorized to operate with Decree Law 356 of 1994, and were intensely supported by Álvaro Uribe Vélez when he was governor of Antioquia (1995-1997).
In 2008, according to a bulletin from the Colombian Commission of Jurists , the paramilitary chief Éver Veloza García, alias "HH", told the Colombian authorities that his armed groups had acted since their creation "and until today" under the protection of the military forces, and that the Convivir Papagayo, from the Urabá region, "always had its headquarters behind the 17th Brigade of the National Army, and that to get to its facilities it was necessary to go through army checkpoints."
Alias "HH" said that "all the Convivir were ours", and the report gives an explanation of their insertion in the paramilitary world:
The Convivir Papagayo is only one example of what these "private security and surveillance" associations really were: true paramilitary groups under the protection of the State, or organizations that acted together and in coordination with the paramilitary groups. This situation had already been denounced for years by human rights organizations, by some State entities and by international organizations for the protection of human rights that saw in these groups the legalization of paramilitarism.
From a US jail where he has paid a penalty for drug trafficking, Mancuso assured that he himself was trained by the Colombian army. The State had articulated with the self-defense groups, this being an illegal actor, to delegate to them the armed confrontation in Colombia against the guerrillas, and characterizing the relationship of the public force with the self-defense groups, Mancuso pointed out: "The role of the Convivir allowed the creation of a hinge between legal self-defense and illegal self-defense ".
What Colombia experienced in the last half of the 1990s was the transition of the AUC "from the military side to the political side. And that is when the Self-Defense Forces take over state power, making pacts, agreements, and what is known as parapolitics. We had mayors, governors, deputies, congressmen and even presidents we managed to help appoint, "explained the former paramilitary chief.
This transition from the legal to the illegal was ideal for the covert actions of the Colombian State, which at least since 1968 urged the population to join the tasks of defense and public intelligence with decrees, laws and orders. But the Convivir was just the tip of the iceberg.
PARAPOLITICS OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Tens and hundreds of Colombian politicians have come to power with the support of the paramilitary groups, something unusual if we compare the actions of this sector with the guerrilla, criminalized and even massacred as happened with the thousands of members of the Patriotic Union. Instead, the para-politicians enjoyed immunity and gave protection to the power behind the shadows.
Salvatore Mancuso, in his virtual testimony, used the term "political commissar" to refer to his role within the AUC since he joined in 1995: "The political commissars had a fundamental role in the creation of the structures. I met with mayors , politicians and businessmen, had multiple roles. "
So not only did they work with the Convivir, they also confirmed the various alliances to wrest territorial control from the guerrillas: "I stopped being Salvatore Mancuso and became alias Santander Lozada and I began to have agreements with the institutions, with the Army, the DAS, with the Police, even with the Public Prosecutor's Office attended to the cause of self-defense to jointly confront the enemy of the Nation. "
Indeed, the "communist threat" was the common denominator of Colombian security policy by US mandate, which included the South American country in one of its most important centers of operations in the Western Hemisphere. And that ideological thread, quite violent in practice, led to the formation of paramilitary groups in view of the fact that the State could not cope with the war on its own, or at least that was what it led to believe.
Therefore, it is not surprising that, for ideological, political and profit motives (mostly from drug trafficking and other related illegal activities), especially among sectors of the extreme right, the paramilitary emergence has been supported with such vigor. The former member of the AUC mentioned that at least 35% of Congress had ties with them, pointing out that politicians, through the territorial control exercised by the group, benefited from being able to lead the local population in elections.
When one becomes an actor of territorial control, Mancuso said, it leads to having control over populations and that leads to having social, political, economic, cultural control and one can come to influence elections.
This testimony agrees with what other former paramilitary leaders have said, such as the aforementioned alias "HH" and alias Don Berna, who in 2015 from a jail in Miami confessed that there were members of illegal armed groups within the State, among politicians, military and police.
It is not the first time that Mancuso testifies to the intimate relationships between Colombian institutions and organized crime. At least since 2008 , when he was extradited to the United States, he has been releasing some stories that dot politicians, military and police officers, judges and also the landed oligarchy, especially the one that is more related to Uribism.
In fact, he promises to reveal more details about the policy of "false positives", but for this he prefers to give testimony before the Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP), a body that has denied the request because it considers Mancuso an "organic member of the criminal structure, developing a continuous combat function ", dismissing it. Still, by now Mancuso could reveal important information about state crimes in the near future.
It is for something that in these moments of crisis of Uribe, some sectors do not want to hear this part of the story. Especially those who currently occupy the House of Nariño.
https://misionverdad.com/memoria/salvat ... n-colombia
Google Translator
8 Aug 2021 , 2:38 am .
Salvatore Mancuso was one of the "political commissars" of the AUC (Photo: File)
The war that has plagued the interior of Colombia for some seven decades has gone through various stages of violence, with different actors that often intersect by interests and procedures, with the State playing a leading role -of course- in the equation. Historically dominated by local oligarchies, their interests have been imposed with tactics of extreme violence and strategies that have undermined any trace of peace.
Even researchers and academics have not hesitated to determine the terrorist character of Colombian government policy over the years, which has been systematic in its relationship with Colombian paramilitarism for half a century.
Thus, it has been shown that the Colombian State has delegated a war against the guerrillas and society in general to the paramilitary armies, as confessed by the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso, in a recent virtual meeting with the Truth Commission.
The forum 'Contribution to the truth and recognition of responsibilities of Salvatore Mancuso' was also held with Rodrigo Londoño, formerly better known as Timochenko (FARC-EP) and 18 direct victims of the armed and social conflict, where both spoke about the origins of his activities, one when he was a paramilitary and the other a guerrilla, his vision of history, they assumed guilt and distributed pardons.
What is interesting in the case of Mancuso is that his privileged position during the time of paramilitary assumption provides a key testimony where, once again, the State appears as the main promoter of terrorist violence, with an essential role and without which the proceeding from these armed groups would not have happened.
WHERE THE LEGAL IS ANOTHER WAY OF DEFINING THE ILLEGAL
Mancuso, in his testimony, relates that the brothers Carlos and Vicente Castaño invited him to found self-defense groups that spread throughout the northern departments of Colombia, in regions where there were long-standing conflicts between the guerrillas, the state army, and the oligarchy. landowner. The conjunction of these last two sectors would outline a political, military and economic project, he affirmed.
He described the ties with various institutions and the Convivir: "There was always direct coordination that made it possible to advance with the self-defense groups."
Let us remember that the Convivir, surveillance cooperatives that were used as a legal facade for paramilitarism, were authorized to operate with Decree Law 356 of 1994, and were intensely supported by Álvaro Uribe Vélez when he was governor of Antioquia (1995-1997).
In 2008, according to a bulletin from the Colombian Commission of Jurists , the paramilitary chief Éver Veloza García, alias "HH", told the Colombian authorities that his armed groups had acted since their creation "and until today" under the protection of the military forces, and that the Convivir Papagayo, from the Urabá region, "always had its headquarters behind the 17th Brigade of the National Army, and that to get to its facilities it was necessary to go through army checkpoints."
Alias "HH" said that "all the Convivir were ours", and the report gives an explanation of their insertion in the paramilitary world:
The Convivir Papagayo is only one example of what these "private security and surveillance" associations really were: true paramilitary groups under the protection of the State, or organizations that acted together and in coordination with the paramilitary groups. This situation had already been denounced for years by human rights organizations, by some State entities and by international organizations for the protection of human rights that saw in these groups the legalization of paramilitarism.
From a US jail where he has paid a penalty for drug trafficking, Mancuso assured that he himself was trained by the Colombian army. The State had articulated with the self-defense groups, this being an illegal actor, to delegate to them the armed confrontation in Colombia against the guerrillas, and characterizing the relationship of the public force with the self-defense groups, Mancuso pointed out: "The role of the Convivir allowed the creation of a hinge between legal self-defense and illegal self-defense ".
What Colombia experienced in the last half of the 1990s was the transition of the AUC "from the military side to the political side. And that is when the Self-Defense Forces take over state power, making pacts, agreements, and what is known as parapolitics. We had mayors, governors, deputies, congressmen and even presidents we managed to help appoint, "explained the former paramilitary chief.
This transition from the legal to the illegal was ideal for the covert actions of the Colombian State, which at least since 1968 urged the population to join the tasks of defense and public intelligence with decrees, laws and orders. But the Convivir was just the tip of the iceberg.
PARAPOLITICS OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Tens and hundreds of Colombian politicians have come to power with the support of the paramilitary groups, something unusual if we compare the actions of this sector with the guerrilla, criminalized and even massacred as happened with the thousands of members of the Patriotic Union. Instead, the para-politicians enjoyed immunity and gave protection to the power behind the shadows.
Salvatore Mancuso, in his virtual testimony, used the term "political commissar" to refer to his role within the AUC since he joined in 1995: "The political commissars had a fundamental role in the creation of the structures. I met with mayors , politicians and businessmen, had multiple roles. "
So not only did they work with the Convivir, they also confirmed the various alliances to wrest territorial control from the guerrillas: "I stopped being Salvatore Mancuso and became alias Santander Lozada and I began to have agreements with the institutions, with the Army, the DAS, with the Police, even with the Public Prosecutor's Office attended to the cause of self-defense to jointly confront the enemy of the Nation. "
Indeed, the "communist threat" was the common denominator of Colombian security policy by US mandate, which included the South American country in one of its most important centers of operations in the Western Hemisphere. And that ideological thread, quite violent in practice, led to the formation of paramilitary groups in view of the fact that the State could not cope with the war on its own, or at least that was what it led to believe.
Therefore, it is not surprising that, for ideological, political and profit motives (mostly from drug trafficking and other related illegal activities), especially among sectors of the extreme right, the paramilitary emergence has been supported with such vigor. The former member of the AUC mentioned that at least 35% of Congress had ties with them, pointing out that politicians, through the territorial control exercised by the group, benefited from being able to lead the local population in elections.
When one becomes an actor of territorial control, Mancuso said, it leads to having control over populations and that leads to having social, political, economic, cultural control and one can come to influence elections.
This testimony agrees with what other former paramilitary leaders have said, such as the aforementioned alias "HH" and alias Don Berna, who in 2015 from a jail in Miami confessed that there were members of illegal armed groups within the State, among politicians, military and police.
It is not the first time that Mancuso testifies to the intimate relationships between Colombian institutions and organized crime. At least since 2008 , when he was extradited to the United States, he has been releasing some stories that dot politicians, military and police officers, judges and also the landed oligarchy, especially the one that is more related to Uribism.
In fact, he promises to reveal more details about the policy of "false positives", but for this he prefers to give testimony before the Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP), a body that has denied the request because it considers Mancuso an "organic member of the criminal structure, developing a continuous combat function ", dismissing it. Still, by now Mancuso could reveal important information about state crimes in the near future.
It is for something that in these moments of crisis of Uribe, some sectors do not want to hear this part of the story. Especially those who currently occupy the House of Nariño.
https://misionverdad.com/memoria/salvat ... n-colombia
Google Translator