US considers intervention in Colombia

Washington mulls tough response to kidnapping of CIA 'agents'

Martin McNamara in Caqueta, Colombia
Sunday February 23, 2003
The Observer

The United States is considering direct military intervention in Colombia for the first time following the murder of an American and the kidnapping of three others, all suspected CIA agents.
The US embassy in Colombia has recommended Washington make a 'major response' to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels responsible, and American officials have confirmed that military action is being considered to recover the men from the dense jungles of the southern province of Caqueta.

They were captured after their plane crashed into the jungle suffering engine trouble. Despite the swift arrival of the Colombian army, the rebels spirited three survivors away after executing one American and the Colombian pilot who are thought to have put up a struggle.

Washington has refused to release any information about the men, entrenching the belief that they were CIA agents on a surveillance mission.

For the people of Caqueta, the prospect of a US military incursion into the province is yet another nightmare. In the past year, since the collapse of the peace process, they have seen the suspension of local government and are living under a form of martial law. Scores of ordinary people have been tortured and murdered by right-wing paramilitaries and they face a constant campaign of bombing and kidnapping by the Farc.

The murder of the first US government worker in Colombia's bitter war has again focused attention on Caqueta. This isolated province first hit the headlines in 1999 when it became central to a truce under which the Farc were given effective control of a Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) the size of Switzerland.

San Vicente del Caguán became its unofficial capital and the site for peace talks between the government and the guerrillas, but now the threat of US action hangs over the town, just a few kilometres from the scene of the plane crash. A search for the kidnapped men has been launched by troops, backed by US helicopters and intelligence planes.

Sister Bernadette, a nurse who has worked here for 20 years, said: 'Farc ran everything. They were able to train and recruit and build up their strength. That is what the peace process achieved.'

The DMZ ended a year ago and thousands of troops poured back into the region, but the Farc still control much of Caqueta.

'In the jungle and the villages, this is still a demilitarised zone,' said Father Gabriel, a local priest. 'The Farc control everything and if we want to do anything we go to them, not the military.'

The military confine themselves to San Vicente and the main roads, but even so are only partly successful. Two bombs went off near the town's central plaza last month and kidnapping has become almost a mundane activity.

Local guerrillas have perfected a technique they call pesca milagrosa - miracle fishing. The name comes from the biblical story of Jesus telling his apostles to cast their nets on the water and how they emerged bursting with fish. The guerrillas will stop a convoy of cars and buses, and take hostage those they suspect have rich friends or families.

There was a local administration and police force in San Vicente, but when the DMZ ended, they all left - or were murdered. The town hall is closed, the police station was blown up and the area left without any form of non-military government.

Then the paramilitaries turned up. 'They arrived in town one night and the next day there were five bodies in the Caguán river,' said Fr Gabriel. Funded by ranchers and cocaine barons, the paramilitaries have grown into a fearsome force in Colombia. And although illegal, they have strong links to the military. Often no one can be sure which side is responsible for murders in Caqueta.

For anyone working with the community, the risk is from both sides. The guerrillas murdered a colleague of Sister Bernadette who was seen talking to the military. She herself was stopped at an army roadblock and her medical supplies confiscated. Every day for a week she went to the local military commander's office to demand their return but also visited the local Farc commander to explain her trips, lest he decide she was an informer.

A delegation from Amnesty International recorded 17 politically motivated murders, with 78 more noted.

Areas of the Caqueta jungle have been cleared for coca growing and it is targeted by US-backed anti-cocaine measures. Coca is grown by small farmers, but the crop is the Farc's main source of income and they control every aspect of production.

Locals complain the coca spraying destroys crops and wildlife, poisons the land and causes illness. The US has just increased its budget to the Colombian government to fight the cocaine trade and bring peace to the country.

'We'll believe it when the bodies stop floating down the Caguán River,' said Fr Gabriel.

http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,901180,00.html

Audioreport:
http://stream.guardian.co.uk080/ramgen/sys-audio/Guardian/audio/2002/02/21/0221hodgson2.ra

(Edit: Die rookmongool in de link moet je vervangen door een : en een 7)

US chemical warfare against Colombia:
http://www.globalexchange.org/colombia/washpost031601.html

Drug war according to Dr. Mengele:
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair1224.html

US Biological warfare against drugs:
http://www.tni.org/drugs/links/bwarfare.htm

Znet's Colobia Watch:
http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Colombia/colombiatop.htm

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door Oebe op 23-02-2003 19:20]

FARC is 'n marxistische rebellen groep als ik me niet vergis die 'n gedeelte van columbia in handen heeft... ook wel FARC-Land genaamd, maar ondanks dat de VS zich er niet mee hoort te bemoeien geef ik ze wel gelijk in het aanpakken van de coke handel.

ach we wisten het al met die bush

overvolle agenda hebben die lui...

clean up time

Farc ook een groep die kapot mag, vuile dope dealers zijn het.

of ziet Oebe het Anders?


[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door linknl op 23-02-2003 20:22]

De uitspraak is gebaseerd op een verkeerd begrip van hoe de cokehandel werkt. Om daar een inzicht in te krijgen zul je toch wat onderzoek moeten doen. Als ik je wat aan mag bevelen dan zou ik het boek Whiteout lezen.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1859841392/002-2658928-8357611?vi=glance

Bush was trouwens zelf ook niet vies van het spul http://www.sonofbush.com/cocaine.htm
en de berichten wijzen uit (dochters in jail) dat de hele familie jong en oud nogal aan de snuif is.

De hele familie Bush zit zelf ook tot over de oren in de drugshandel. Vader GHW Bush is bekend van een aantal nogal prominente zaken.

http://www.wethepeople.la/indict.htm

De Bush-Cheney drugs empire:
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/bushcheney.html

http://www.akasha.de/~aton/GNNBushHardDrugEmpire.html

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/bush-cheney-drugs.html

Als je verder niets aanklikt lees deze dan wel:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12420

http://www.wf.net/~aardvark/ee/essays/chomsky.htm

ik lees liever hier:
http://www.janes.com/

Off topic: zeg oebe, niet om grappig te doen, maar echt serieus een vraag: Is die anti-Amerika houding een hobby van je?

Nogmaals, nee, geen grap.

Ik heb helemaal geen anti-Amerika houding. Ik ben juist pro-Amerikaans. Het is alleen Washington die anti-Amerikaans is geworden. De ergste anti-Amerikanisten in jouw definitie zijn dan Amerikanen die achter de oude principes staan en hun kritiek nogal wat sterker formuleren dan ik dat doe en die ik hoog heb.

Anti-Amerikanisme wordt tegenwoordig net zo gebruikt als antisemitisme. Een antisemiet ben je tegenwoordig wanneer je kritiek hebt op de onderdrukking van de Palestijnen en de bezettingspolitiek van o.a. Sharon. Een kwestie van fatsoen dus. Een anti-Amerikanist ben je dus als je tegen de imperialistische en soms ronduit fascitische praktijken van Washington bent, deze keer bevolkt door een wel heel erg abjecte kluit. Ook een kwestie van fatsoen dus.

Dus dan is een fatsoenlijk weldenkend mens een antisemiet en een anti-Amerikanist. Het zij zo, ik lig daar niet wakker van.

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door Oebe op 24-02-2003 7:33]

BTW, mensen (Dargull) dat land heet ColOmbia met een O!!
ColUmbia is waar Washington D.C. zit!!
En ik ruik een quagmire voor Amerikaanse troepen.

quote:

---

Op 24 februari 2003 9:16 schreef MBMarduk het volgende:
BTW, mensen (Dargull) dat land heet ColOmbia met een O!!
ColUmbia is waar Washington D.C. zit!!
En ik ruik een quagmire voor Amerikaanse troepen.

---

hehehehe best dom als ze perongeluk Columbia gaan aanvallen.....

ach ze doen maar

Waar halen ze al die soldaten vandaan........

quote:

---

Op 24 februari 2003 7:22 schreef Oebe het volgende:
Ik heb helemaal geen anti-Amerika houding. Ik ben juist pro-Amerikaans.

---

Vandaar dat die quotes op de site in jouw profiel in het engels zijn

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door ghoulliette op 24-02-2003 10:21]

Even wat achtergrond van de "current events"

Op 14 februari maakte een vliegtuig met 5 inzittenden, 4 Amerikanen en een Colombiaan, een noodlanding in de door FARC (linkse rebellen tegen de Colombiaanse ultrarechtse regering van Uribe, vrienden van the US of A) gehouden gebied. De Colombiaan en 1 Amerikaan kwamen bij de gevangenneming door FARC om.

De VS wou niet zeggen wie deze mensen waren en zelfs de naam van de dode is niet vrijgegeven. Dus was er iets te verbergen.

Ze waren niet zoals officieel is opgegeven drugs aan het bestrijden (kleine boeren en hun gezinnen onderspuiten met vergif) maar maakten een spionagevlucht om de FARC te lokaliseren.

Waarschijnlijk waren het dus huurlingen die het Pentagon wel vaker inhuurt van Dynacorp (bekend van het sexslavinnenschandaal in Voorm. Joegoslavie.) en meer van dat soort fijne bedrijven.

Inmiddels is bekend dat de dode, een Northrop Grumman (bommenwerperfabrikant) medewerker en Vietnam veteraan (ze worden echt nooit meer normaal), inderdaad daar was om FARC leiders te lokaliseren voor een liquidatie-missie door Colombiaanse regeringstroepen, geholpen door VS Special Forces.

De identiteit van de drie overige gijzelaars worden nog steeds geheim gehouden door de VS en Colombia's ultrarechtse regering.

FARC heeft aangeboden ze te ruilen tegen gevangen genomen FARC leden, maar de VS en Colombia weigeren dat (dat heet een zwakte te zijn) en gaan liever met 3000 Colombiaanse soldaten, VS gevechtshelicopters en VS militaire "adviseurs" (commando's) en FBI "adviseurs" (geheim agenten) achter ze aan, wel wetende dat de kans dat de gijzelaars dat overleven praktisch 0 is.

Bush heeft de nadruk van het rookgordijn waarachter het Colombiaanse volk wordt onderdrukt en de oliebelangen (Chevron-Texaco en Uribe werken naar privatisering, d.w.z. overname olieraffinaderijen en pijpleiding, tezamen met het verlengen van de - 12 jaar - contracten voor het exploiteren van de gasvelden in La Guajira, deze zouden volgend jaar zijn afgelopen) worden verdedigd, verlegd van de war on drugs (= war for more drugs) naar de war on global terrorism (= war of globalized US state-terror.) De reden hiervoor zou kunnen liggen in het internationaliseren van de "interventie" (= onderdrukkings) macht.

De vakbond van de petroleumwerkers USO worden bedreigd door de regering net zo te worden behandeld als de FARC en de ELN als ze doorgaan met protesteren tegen het 'militariseren' van de raffinaderijen, het bezuinigen op onderhoud (gevaarlijk en milieuverontreinigend) en het verkopen van de bedrijven aan buitenlandse multinationals (Texaco[Halliburton, Cheney]-Chevron[Condoleezza Rice])

"The union has also denounced a deal between the government and Texaco-Chevron that cedes control of one of the country’s main natural gas fields in La Guajira to the multinational for another 12 years after the current contract expires next year. Under the existing deal, Ecopetrol was to take over both the gas reserves and the infrastructure in December 2004.

The union, the USO, has also pointed to deals ceding control of pipelines to the foreign oil companies, the elimination of subsidies on gas prices, the slashing of maintenance budgets for the refineries and a halt to independent exploration for new oil reserves as warnings that the Uribe government is planning to sell off the country’s petroleum resources to the multinationals."

Lid zijn van een (olie)vakbond in Colombia is gevaarlijk. Ze worden constant onder druk gezet door het regeringsleger en tevens door de (CIA opgerichte en onderhouden) doodseskaders. Sinds 1988 zijn 80 arbeiders, inclusief een aantal vakbondsleiders vermoord, zonder verder onderzoek of vervolgactie tegen hun moordenaars.

Het doel hiervan is duidelijk:

The oil workers union issued a statement denouncing the repressive measures of the Uribe government and linking them to the Bush administration’s war drive: “behind the policy of smashing the USO there is hidden a perverse proposal for paving the way to the liquidation of Ecopetrol as the public property of the Colombians and to deprive the nation of the exploration, exploitation, refining, transportation, distribution and technological investigation of petroleum and other strategic fuels for national development.


En dus om de zaak nog wat duidelijker te stellen op een meer praktisch niveau:

(Dit is een artikeltje van 4 mei 2001, sindsdien is de situatie verder geescaleerd.)

Paramilitary death squads are tearing apart Columbian families and culture as they defend U.S. oil interests. Monsanto produced defoliant is sickening thousands. Bush is asking for an increase in military aid to Columbia, up from 1.3 billion dollars this year.

I attended a disturbing lecture last night. A human rights worker came to speak about her visit to Columbia. She works with Columbia Support Network. She traveled with a high level delegation that included U.N. representatives and people trying to stop School of the Americas. They visited several villages in war torn areas, as well as meeting top officials in Bogota.

She showed us pictures that she took of devastated crop fields where banana trees were lying dead, an plantains rotting. Monsanto Roundup is being sprayed indiscriminately on everything. Four planes fly overhead, spraying the herbicide, flanked by fighter jets or black hawk helicopters. They spray very high and the spray drifts everywhere. They spray Roundup at a strength five times what Monsanto recommends for U.S. crop spraying.

In one village, three hundred people were hospitalized after they were sprayed. Children are suffering nausea and dying of diarrhea. But that is not the worst of it.

Paramilitary death squads are gaining strength. They travel from town to small city in the coca and oil producing regions, terrorizing the inhabitants and forcing them off their farms and out of their homes. They kill human rights leaders and farming leaders. Our presenter described how she had to meet with many human rights leaders in secret because if they talk to Americans they can be killed. During one meeting, the leader of a woman's shelter that takes in refugee women and children, received a telephone threat from the paramilitary death squad while the American delegation was meeting with her.

We saw pictures of the homeless encampments in Bogota where the refugees forced from their villages take refuge in the lower levels of parking structures and under bridges. Many are women with children whose husbands were killed by the paras.

The area where paramilitary activity is highest is near the center of Columbia. Strangely enough this is not a big coca producing area. Rather it is where the majority of Columbia's oil is produced for U.S. companies. The paramilitary comes in to town, driving in jeeps and announcing they will kill everyone. Then they come back and chop up the town leaders in front of everyone. They say they will return in one week. Mostly everyone leaves town. Property is then available for drilling, at no cost. Texaco and BP have hired local paramilitary groups for "security," as the left-wing guerillas from the FARC often target the oil pipelines.

The whole thing is very disturbing. We saw pictures of one small town in the Putamayo region where the mayor is constantly surrounded by bodyguards carrying Uzis. He has been in office one year and is proud that he has lasted longer than any mayor in recent years. The others were killed by the paramilitary groups.

A local refugee from Columbia spoke about how he and his family were forced to flee because of his father's connections with the FARC. His father was a farmer and social activist, and received death threats. The man had been a policeman and described how the police were paid to go to refugee encampments in villages and kick over their cooking pots and throw away their food. He was crying as he spoke, but so happy that people here are learning about the problems.

Poverty is intense in Columbia. The land is very rich, and farming could be very profitable, but food distribution is not set up. Many farmers do not have trucks and even if they do the roads are bad. So they grow a lot of food, but they cannot get it to market. They grow great chocolate, but none of it goes direct to the U.S. market. The distribution channels are not set up, so they cannot make very much money off their crops.

When FARC rebels offer to help them grow cocaine and pay them one hundred times what they make off food crops it is very enticing. They can send their children to be educated. They can buy different foods for their family.

Then the FARC says they will pay more if they will fight with the guerillas. Then the paramilitary groups come in and offer even higher pay if they will fight with the paras. The paramilitary even offers health insurance - and how can they do that without total state complicity.

The woman named Kate, who presented the slides an photographs showed pictures of the delegation's meeting with Columbia's attorney general. The attorney general showed copies of warrants for the leader of the paramilitary (AUG) forces, and many of his top killers, but neither the military nor the state police will take action on the warrants. These military and police received 1.3 billion in aid from the U.S. this year.

President Bush, Dick Cheney and their friends are heavily invested in companies that do business in Columbian oil and military supply. Bush is asking for an increase in the military aid we are providing to Columbia. An increase from the current 1.3 billion dollars.

Please try to write to your Congresspersons and tell them to oppose military aid. Out of the 1.3 billion dollars, 80% goes to the military. 20 % is designated for social programs, but these social programs have not materiliazed. We should demand that any aid package be designated for social programs, not military activity.

[Het is nu 2 miljard dollar]

The fumigation program is sickening thousands at the profit of Monsanto corporation.

Thousands have disappeared in Columbia, similar to past situations in Nicaragua and El Salvador. It is time that we act to stop these atrocities. Families are being torn apart and poverty is increasing as Columbians are forced off their family farms and out of their villages. Strangely enough, cocaine acreage has increased over the last five years by five times! The paramilitary leader, in an interview on national television, said that the paramilitary gets seventy percent of its money from cocaine.

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door Oebe op 01-03-2003 16:20]

hmm...als de VS zich nou eerst met hun problemen in eigenland zoals Armoede en zo aanpakken in plaats zich in andere landen te gaan bemoeien