Colombia's Alvaro Uribe investigated for 'militia links' (right-wing death squads)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News

9 January 2013 Last updated at 06:20 ET
Colombia's Alvaro Uribe investigated for 'militia links'

Colombia's attorney general's office has reopened a preliminary criminal investigation against former President Alvaro Uribe.

Mr Uribe is accused of involvement with far-right paramilitary groups while he was a state governor in the 1990s.

~snip~
The prisoners say Mr Uribe had strong links to the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) and was involved in ordering a killing, while governing the state of Antioquia.

~snip~

A number of closes aides of Mr Uribe's, including his cousin Mario Uribe, have been found guilty of collaborating with the AUC.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20956820b

[Mutatis Mutandis]

1. the animating spirits behind the United Fruit Company model of hemispheric oligarch control trod on

Good dictator, bad dictator : United Fruit Company and economic nationalism in Central America in the twentieth century

http://www.econbiz.de/en/search/detailed-view/doc/all/good-dictator-bad-dictator-united-fruit-company-and-economic-nationalism-in-central-america-in-the-twentieth-century-bucheli-marcelo/10003732041/?no_cache=1

[Judi Lynn]

3. United Fruit, now Chiquita, has made its imprint upon the lives of Colombian workers,

in ways that have left dead and grieving Colombians for longer than memory itself.

Horrifying, shameful, unworthy behavior for human beings. Apparently, as a member of a corporation, one no longer is restrained by ordinary moral concerns.

Thank you, and welcome to D.U.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Prosecutor explains why case against Alvaro Uribe was repoened .

Prosecutor explains why case against Alvaro Uribe was repoened .
Friday, 11 January 2013 11:24 Rob Edmond

The prosecution against Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe on Thursday revealed why the case accusing him of having ties to the now-disbanded paramilitary group AUC has been reopened.

Uribe is charged with playing an important role in founding paramilitary groups and providing personal training to key members on his own property while he was governor of the department of Antioquia. The former president has always proclaimed his innocence despite mounting testimonies. The "parapolitics" case against Uribe was closed in 2000, only to be reopened again 13 years later.

A 13-page document reportedly sent to Colombian newspaper El Espectador notes that Uribe’s long-standing political enemy, human rights advocate and house representative Ivan Cepeda, who is again spearheading the campaign against the former president, collected numerous statements from imprisoned ex-members of the AUC. Among the statements is one from Pablo Hernan Sierra, alias "Alberto Guerrero," the former member of a militarized AUC block, who stated that in Antioquia sometime in the mid-90s, a "private army" was created by numerous people, including Uribe.

Another statement came from, Juan Monsalve Pineda, the son of the man who owned the farm Uribe apparently used for the inception and training of the AUC. The man reiterated that the group the former president formed, was responsible for massacres across the country.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/27662-prosecutor-explains-why-case-against-alvaro-uribe-was-repoened.html

[center]



Alvaro Uribe and his American friend.[/center]