COHA: President Bush to Visit Colombia

[struggle4progress]

Council On Hemispheric Affairs
MONITORING POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC
ISSUES AFFECTING THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
Press Releases, Colombia, Front Page

President Bush to Visit Colombia as Part of his Trip to Latin America, Where He Will See No Evil

... Soon President Bush will be visiting Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the hemisphere, where he is expected to discuss the current state of U.S. - Colombian counter-narcotics initiatives. However, this trip inauspiciously comes at a time when Bogotá is witnessing an unprecedented series of political scandals. After the surrender late last year of Salvatore Mancuso, ex-leader of the notorious right-wing paramilitary group, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), international focus has ironically shifted from his crimes to those of his captors. After turning himself in and ceremoniously giving up his pistol, Mancuso admitted to participating in acts of kidnapping, drug trafficking, murder, and torture during his time in command of the AUC. His confession, which gained him near-unlimited immunity, has expanded, though, to accuse many top Colombian politicians of supporting and aiding the AUC in the militia’s merciless crusade that has devastated rural communities and killed thousands of campesinos. To corroborate these accusations, Mancuso provided the court with a copy of the “Ralito Agreement”, a veritable treaty of cooperation signed by leaders of the AUC, as well as eleven members of the Colombian Congress, two provincial governors, and five mayors.

Formed in 1997, the AUC began as a small militia available as hired vigilantes to local ranchers being threatened by kidnapping, physical assault, or even murder by leftist guerillas. Although it continued to claim that its intention was to check the power of groups like FARC and ELN, the AUC’s mission grew increasingly violent as it began working solely as a right-wing death squad to further the interests of the wealthy political elites. Continuing under the guise of its “patriotic” pursuit, the AUC committed grievous crimes against thousands of innocent victims and escalated internal strife in Colombia ...

To fund its efforts the AUC found a comfortable niche in the Colombian drug-trafficking industry and with its considerable military power and wide-spread ideological support, it was able to achieve notable successes within this violent and dangerous trade. As a result of the rise in the group’s financial resources, the paramilitaries gradually began focused on participating in Colombian politics. By the end of the 1990s, the AUC began coercing votes for a cadre of selected national and local candidates who were already sympathetic or potentially supportive of its cause. During this period, the AUC also expanded its use of narcotics’ profits to bribe or eliminate less ideologically-friendly politicians, police, and armed forces’ personnel. The success of these efforts, according to Mancuso, was that the AUC rapidly came to control numerous local governments and a stunning third of the national legislature by 2001 ...

With such dramatic levels of drug-fueled corruption being met with almost affable indifference by U.S. officials, it is not difficult to assume that there may be a double standard at work. Colombia is the United States’ closest ally in South America and the importance of its willingness to comply with U.S. initiatives is crucial because of the recent political successes by leftist candidates in the region. It may be plausible that the U.S. has been turning a blind eye to Colombia’s corruption with the hope that right-wing paramilitaries could stem the leftist tide within the Andean nation ...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0703/S00009.htm

[Atman]

1. He's outta blow

Jenna and Babs raided his stash.

.

[ClusterFreak]

3. Outta blow.

:spray:

[jwirr]

2. Once there he will never come back. Coke is readily available.