Judge leaves Colombia after receiving death threats

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Xinhua

Judge leaves Colombia after receiving death threats
13:46, June 23, 2010

A Colombian judge, who handed down a 30-year sentence to a retired Army colonel for involvement in the disappearance of civilians in 1985, had fled the country after receiving death threats, an attorney of the judge said on Tuesday.

Judge Maria Jara Gutierrez had left Colombia with her son after receiving threats from alleged "illegal armed groups," Jorge Molano told local Caracol Radio Station.

Two weeks ago, the judge sentenced retired colonel Luis Plazas Vega to 30 years in prison for his role in the disappearance of 11 people during a military operation against the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in the taking of the Palace of Justice in Bogota 24 years ago. Plazas led the operation, in which 55 people were killed, including 11 judges.

The court found colonel Plazas guilty of retention and disappearance of ten civilians and one member of the FARC.

Gutierrez left Colombia after the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) gave her shelter as a precautionary measure and as a response to her repeated complaints of threats after receiving criticism from President Alvaro Uribe.

Read more: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/7036876.html

[ck4829]

1. Yeah, but it's not Venezuela, so nobody really cares all that much. Sad. K&R.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's an odd, odd reality, isn't it? Apparently political assassinations,

assinastions of working people, indigenous leaders, human rights workers, journalists, teachers, clergy, even a political humorist are all absolutely welcome, absolutely anything, incluing public torture and execution by chainsaw and machete of villagers to instill terror, and submission, compliance, the hordes of homeless people, driven out of their homes where their families had lived for generations, sent to wander without resources perpetually, the SECOND LARGEST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN THE WORLD, ONLY SMALLER THAN SUDAN, mothers forced to beg to find money to buy bus tickets for their sons so they can travel to dig up their brothers from mass graves for proper burials, all that's absolutely fine, along with the lessons on splitting open the bodies so they will sink better when you throw them in the water, it's all cool if the Colombian President is a right-wing suck-up to the U.S., with his hand out for billions of U.S. taxpayers' hard-earned dollars.

It can make you dizzy, leave you dazed trying to imagine how twisted consciences have to get to make those dazzling spins and twists to never even acknowledge they've heard of or read of any of these atrocities which are happening CONSTANTLY with full U.S. funding.

These people are going to learn in time, you can't hide from your conscience forever.

[The Magistrate]

4. There You Go, Sir

It is a simple, easily understood rule: if you cannot call the perpetrator a socialist, no abuse of human rights occurs....

[Judi Lynn]

3. Inter-American Court Finds Colombia Guilty in Senator's Murder

Inter-American Court Finds Colombia Guilty in Senator's Murder
By Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Jun 24, 2010 (IPS) - Time does not heal everything. Finding the Colombian state guilty in the murder of Patriotic Union (UP) Senator Manuel Cepeda, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered the 16 years of impunity enjoyed by the masterminds behind the killing an aggravating factor.

The sentence, issued on May 26 and published Jun. 23 on the web site of the Inter-American Court, is the Court's first decision involving the extermination of the UP, a left-wing party that emerged from the peace agreement reached by the government of Belisario Betancur (1982-1986) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Under the 1984 peace deal, the guerrillas were to participate in political life through the UP, seeking political and institutional reforms through peaceful channels.

The UP was founded in May 1985, with government support. The Communist Party, of which Cepeda was one of the leaders, formed part of the new political force.

Cepeda was also a journalist, heading the Communist Party newspaper Voz for 18 years.

The day he was killed, Aug. 9, 1994, the senator was on his way to Congress when his car was cut off by gunmen in another vehicle. At least two army sergeants, who were later convicted, were involved in the assassination.

The UP was physically eliminated, with over 5,000 of its leaders and supporters killed. It shrank so much that it finally lost its status as a political party.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51941

[The Magistrate]

5. And Yet, Ma'am, Our Local eager Beavers On The Topic Of Human Rights Can Find No Comment....

After all, it was done to a leftist and a left party by rightists in U.S. pay, so how can it be a violation of human rights or an infringement of liberty?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Apparently when he died, Jesse Helms actually left a few Jesse Jr's. and Jessicas behind him

to carry on his work. He cared so much for the right-wing of Latin America.

~snip~
The problem, say those familiar with his network, is that the information it provides is one-sided. "When I bring people to his office to tell him what we've seen, we aren't even allowed in," says Gail Phares, who leads delegations to Central America through Witness for Peace. "I remember when one delegation managed to get in and told his staff what they'd seen and heard in Nicaragua about the contras killing doctors and nurses and children, their response was, 'Well, they're just Communists—they deserve to die.'"

http://motherjones.com/politics/1995/05/what-you-need-know-about-jesse-helms

It turns a lot of time back to the poster if he/she can simply ignore, or shout over the information the rest of us study in order to arrive at a better understanding.

[The Magistrate]

7. Perhaps Via Jean Kilpatrick, Ma'am

Who famously opined that there was a moral difference between torture by a rightist regime opposing communism and torture by a communist regime, such that it was right and good to support the former while denouncing the latter.