Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalHow to steal land the size of a small country Part VI: the crook in a toga
by Adriaan Alsema March 16, 2020
Jorge Pretelt )Image: Colprensa)
Colombia’s former constitutional court president isn’t just any criminal; he was sentenced over land theft while already in prison for corruption.
Former magistrate Jorge Pretelt may not have made it very far in life had his father not been a Conservative Party mogul from the northern Cordoba province and had his friend not been former President Alvaro Uribe.
Thanks to his father’s fortune, Pretelt was able to study law, and thanks to his friend he was nominated to one of Colombia’s top courts in 2005.
Had he been blessed with intelligence and honesty, he could be enjoying a lofty pension by now, but he wasn’t.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/how-to-steal-land-the-size-of-a-small-country-part-vi-the-crook-in-a-toga/
Audio proves Duque's party conspired with narcos to rig Colombia's presidential election
by Adriaan Alsema March 16, 2020
Maria Claudia Daza and President Ivan Duque while partying with a drug money launderer.
Wiretap recordings made public on Sunday proved that President Ivan Duque‘s party conspired with an alleged drug money launderer to rig Colombia’s 2018 presidential election.
The bombshell recording proved that the then-assistant of former President Alvaro Uribe, Maria Claudia Daza, was conspiring to rig the election with Jose Guillermo Hernandez, the alleged money launderer and “political arm” of the drug trafficking organization of Marquitos Figueroa.
The recordings from April 2018 proved that Hernandez and Daza did not just seek election fraud in the northern La Guajira and Cesar provinces as a previously leaked wiretap transcript made clear.
The alleged money launderer and Uribe’s former personal assistant also coordinated election fraud in Magdalena, implicating House Representative Edward Rodriguez of Duque’s far-right Democratic Center party, former Defense Minister Guillermo Botero and Colombia’s ambassador to Italy.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/audio-proves-duques-party-conspired-with-mafia-to-rig-colombias-presidential-election/
Any time is the right time for Colombia's former
President Uribe to have a steaming refreshment,
this time it's a cup of cofefe.
A Powerful New Telescope is About to be Screwed by Elon Musk's Starlink Constellation, Research Sugg
By George Dvorsky on 14 Mar 2020 at 7:00AM
As astronomers eagerly await the opening of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, anxious operators have run tests to see how well the system might work when low Earth orbit is cluttered with satellite megaconstellations, similar to the one being built by SpaceX. Unsurprisingly, the results were not good.
New research from the Rubin Observatory Project Science Team (PST) shows that a megaconstellation consisting of 42,000 satellites will wreak havoc on the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which is slated to begin late next year and end in 2032.
Nearly one in three LSST images are expected to contain at least one satellite trail, while practically all images taken at dusk or dawn will be marred by at least one satellite trail, according to the research. If nothing is done to mitigate this pending problem, the team expects it will have to add an additional four years of work to the project.
Named in honour of Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in dark matter research, the observatory should come online late next year. Astronomers will use the Rubin Observatory’s 8.4-metre (27.5-foot) Simonyi Survey Telescope and the 3,200 megapixel LSST Camera to capture 1,000 images each night, surveying nearby stars and galaxies far, far away. The Rubin Observatory, in addition to helping with astronomy and cosmology, could conceivably detect dangerous asteroids approaching Earth.
More:
https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2020/03/a-powerful-new-telescope-is-about-to-be-screwed-by-elon-musks-starlink-constellation-research-suggests/
'They came into the house. They broke my teeth'
Carmen Castillo, survivor of the 1970s coup in Chile, is still fighting oppression
about 21 hours ago
Lara Marlowe Paris Correspondent
https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.4199862.1583940381!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg
Carmen Castillo in Paris recently. Photograph: Andrew McLeish
The demonstrations that rocked Chile at the end of 2019 were a source of joy for the Franco-Chilean film-maker Carmen Castillo.
France gave Castillo asylum after the late dictator Augusto Pinochet had her husband assassinated, and nearly killed her, in 1974. Now 74 she returns to her home country for several months each year, to teach in a co-operative that trains disadvantaged Chileans in cinematography.
. . .
Pinochet enlisted “Chicago boys” trained by Milton Friedman, the father of neoliberal economics, to transform the Chilean economy. “The neoliberal bible was followed more in Chile than in the US,” says Castillo, quoting the Canadian activist Naomi Klein.
“They made Chile a neoliberal utopia. They reversed agrarian reform and privatised everything, even the water supply, creating colossal fortunes. They dismantled trade unions and laws on social protection.”
More:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/they-came-into-the-house-they-broke-my-teeth-1.4199868
Cats kill up to 10 times more wildlife than natural predators -- so keep them indoors
Domestic cats kill millions of birds and other mammals every year.
Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu March 13, 2020
The vast majority of U.S. households own at least one pet and according to a national pet owners survey, there were approximately 95.6 million cats living in households in the United States in 2017. Along with dogs, cats are the most popular pets — but while many of us truly adore these sweet fur balls, pet felines are natural-born killers that can wreak havoc on ecosystems.
Researchers at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences distributed GPS trackers to pet owners in six countries, most of which were used in the U.S., U.K, Australia and New Zealand.
By the end of the study, the researchers had collected data on the movements and prey-catching of 925 house cats — and the results were gruesome.
The cats killed up to 10 times more wildlife than a comparable predator in the wild. Most of the carnage took place close to home, around a 100-meter radius of the household where cats spend most of their time outside.
More:
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/cats-kill-up-10-times-more-wildlife-than-natural-predators-so-keep-them-indoors/
'Love for Medellin': how state propaganda and terrorism instilled a culture of fear in Colombia's 2n
‘Love for Medellin’: how state propaganda and terrorism instilled a culture of fear in Colombia’s 2nd largest city
by Adriaan Alsema March 13, 2020
Pablo Escobar never made Medellin the world’s most dangerous city. Local authorities and media who turned a public relations campaign into a terrorism campaign did, according to multiple studies.
There is no doubt that the late drug lord was a terrorist, but Escobar never invented the “for every dead cop at least 10 dead young people” policy that ended up killing more residents of Colombia’s second largest city than the Medellin Cartel between 1988 and Escobar’s death in 1993.
The terrorism practices became particularly common after newspaper El Colombiano’s owner Juan Gomez became mayor in 1988 and late army General Harold Bedoya embarked on “Plan Genesis.”
Multiple studies of the violence in Medellin indicate that most homicides committed during the city’s most traumatic years were not committed by the Medellin Cartel , but death squads with ties to the security forces and the local elite.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/love-for-medellin-how-state-propaganda-and-terrorism-instilled-a-culture-of-fear-in-colombias-2nd-largest-city/
'Aguilas Negras' put half Colombia on their latest death threat
by Adriaan Alsema March 12, 2020
The “Aguilas Negras,” which appears to be tied to Colombia’s security forces, sent out a death threat to so many people it barely fit on one paper.
The death threat again included Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, victims organization and countless social leaders, and this time added the country’s ombudsman, all of whom allegedly are “camouflaged guerrillas and militia members doing counterintelligence” that seek to “destabilize and gain power.”
Human rights organizations, leaders and defenders of human rights throughout the country, indigenous people, Afro-Colombian people, Diverse Mothers for Colombia who are nothing more than a group of fucking guerrillas camouflaged by the lesbian Claudia Lopez, the Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres, La Mesa de Mujeres Victimas, Viva la Ciudadania, Yira Castro, National Victims Table, the district table, the departmental table, local tables, rural tables, Sisma Mujer, organizations that are on the lists of the central command of the Aguilas Negras as military objectives because they are spaces for guerrillas and militias doing counter-intelligence in the cities and towns, seeking with this to destabilize and gain power. These organizations or spaces disappear along with the following people. Your time is up and as you can see we have you located. Many have already fallen and you don’t believe us and we won’t stop, so be prepared to see how we recruit your sons and daughters, and the others leave or die.
Aguilas Negras
Human rights attorney Alirio Uribe, who defends a woman who was murdered by the military, asked President Ivan Duque to “stop the persecution” not even doubting the military was behind the death threat.
“How curious, the army’s ‘opposition’ list looks like the military objectives of the ‘Aguilas Negras’,” Political scientist Sebastian Quiroga noted in reference to a National Army social media watch list accidentally made public earlier this week.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/aguilas-negras-put-half-colombia-on-their-latest-death-threat/
"Aguilas Negras" (Black Eagles) are a rearranged grouping of former death squad paramilitaries known as the AUC.
Colombia's war crimes tribunal to investigate Uribe's former security chief
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to investigate Uribe’s former security chief
by Adriaan Alsema March 12, 2020
Mauricio Santoyo (C) (Image: Migracion Colombia)
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal assumed the investigation into the role of the former security chief of former President Alvaro Uribe in the killing of human rights defenders.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) took over the investigation from the Prosecutor General’s Office into the disappearances of two human rights defenders in 2000 when General Mauricio Santoyo was the chief of anti-kidnapping unit GAULA in Medellin.
The investigation could not just clarify the forced disappearances of human rights defenders Angel Quintero and Claudia Monsalve, but how the Medellin Police Department and public utilities company EPM got to work for local crime lord “Don Berna” and now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC when Uribe was governor in the late 1990s.
After being extradited to the US on drug trafficking charges, a New York court convicted Uribe’s close ally in 2012 for assisting a designated terrorist organization, the AUC.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombias-war-crimes-tribunal-to-investigate-uribes-former-security-chief/
~ ~ ~
Mauricio Santoyo will be deported to Colombia. Will he respond to justice?
ByGeneral EditorPosted on 03/14/2019
Mar 14 CI.- The former security chief of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, sentenced to 13 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking, will be deported to Colombia by the North American authorities after paying 93 months in prison. They are investigating him in the country for the disappearance of two human rights defenders in 2000, for their ties to paramilitaries and for obstructing investigations in the case of the murder of Jaime Garzón.
Mauricio Santoyo, former security chief of today's senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, was sentenced in 2012 to 13 years in prison for helping paramilitaries send drugs to US territory. The retired general, who surrendered to agents of the Drug Control Administration -DEA, in Bogotá, accepted before a court in the Eastern District of Virginia to have collaborated with the Envigado Office and paramilitary blocks between 2001 and 2008.
According to a document from the US justice system, Santoyo accepted having illegally intercepted more than 1,800 telephone lines to deliver information from human rights defenders and leftist leaders to the paramilitaries.
Some commanders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia -AUC- who are serving sentences in United States prisons, have stated that Santoyo was a man close to the armed structures of this organization in Antioquia. Juan Carlos "El Tuso" Sierra, Salvatore Mancuso and Carlos Mario Jiménez "Macaco" have claimed before US authorities and Justice and Peace Courts that the former officer shared intelligence information to identify leftist leaders. In addition, they have assured on several occasions that he had meetings with Carlos Mario Aguilar, former head of the Envigado Office and that he was a trusted man of Carlos Castaño.
Google translated from:
https://www.colombiainforma.info/%EF%BB%BFmauricio-santoyo-sera-deportado-a-colombia-respondera-a-la-justicia/
More at link.
Jaime Garzón
Former Colombia intelligence chief ordered legendary comedian’s assassination
by Mathew Di Salvo August 14, 2018
A former top official of Colombia’s now-defunct state intelligence agency ordered the killing one of Colombia’s most beloved comedians, a court ruled Tuesday.
Possible state involvement is also being considered, with an army colonel with alleged links to paramilitaries being investigated for the murder, reports El Tiempo.
Narvaez was already in prison for his involvement in the spying on Colombia’s Supreme Court in 2008 when the DAS was reporting directly to former President Alvaro Uribe, whose cousin was on trial for ties to death squads at the time.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/top-intelligence-official-convicted-for-killing-colombias-most-popular-comedian/
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142133708
~ ~ ~
Earlier Wikipedia, Jaime Garzón, the murdered comedian:
Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero (October 24, 1960 – August 13, 1999 in Bogotá) was a Colombian comedian, journalist, politician, and peace activist. He was popular on colombian television during the 1990s for his political satire. In addition to his work on television, he also had roles as a peace negotiator in the release of FARC guerrillas' hostages. He was murdered in 1999 by right-wing paramilitary hitmen, with suspected support from members of the Colombian military and security services, according to testimonies of former paramilitaries commanders.[1][2] The case remains open and unsolved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Garz%C3%B3n
Jaime Garzón memorial
Another Jaime Garzón memorial
Former Colombia intelligence chief ordered legendary comedian’s assassination
by Mathew Di Salvo August 14, 2018
A former top official of Colombia’s now-defunct state intelligence agency ordered the killing one of Colombia’s most beloved comedians, a court ruled Tuesday.
Possible state involvement is also being considered, with an army colonel with alleged links to paramilitaries being investigated for the murder, reports El Tiempo.
Narvaez was already in prison for his involvement in the spying on Colombia’s Supreme Court in 2008 when the DAS was reporting directly to former President Alvaro Uribe, whose cousin was on trial for ties to death squads at the time.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/top-intelligence-official-convicted-for-killing-colombias-most-popular-comedian/
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142133708
~ ~ ~
Earlier Wikipedia, Jaime Garzón, the murdered comedian:
Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero (October 24, 1960 – August 13, 1999 in Bogotá) was a Colombian comedian, journalist, politician, and peace activist. He was popular on colombian television during the 1990s for his political satire. In addition to his work on television, he also had roles as a peace negotiator in the release of FARC guerrillas' hostages. He was murdered in 1999 by right-wing paramilitary hitmen, with suspected support from members of the Colombian military and security services, according to testimonies of former paramilitaries commanders.[1][2] The case remains open and unsolved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Garz%C3%B3n
Jaime Garzón's car, after assassination.
Key suspect in 2018 election fraud scandal leaves Colombia day before investigations kick off
by Adriaan Alsema March 12, 2020
The former assistant of former President Alvaro Uribe reportedly left the country before she was called to testify on Thursday over her role in a conspiracy to rig the 2018 elections.
According to W Radio, Uribe’s former right hand, Maria Claudia Daza, left the country on Wednesday “to attend a family commitment.”
“She fled,” said opposition Senator Ivan Cepeda.
Daza, who allegedly coordinated vote-buying with an alleged drug money launderer, left the country a day before Congress’ Accusations Committee asked the prosecution to bar Daza and former Miss Colombia Maria Monica Urbina, the widow of late mafia figure Jose Guillermo Hernandez, from leaving the country.
The House of Representatives’ Accusations Committee is investigating President Ivan Duque‘s alleged involvement in the election fraud his mafia associate was coordinating with Daza while he was being wiretapped.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/key-suspect-in-2018-election-fraud-scandal-leaves-colombia-day-before-investigations-kick-off/
Why Colombia Keeps Electing Presidents Tied to Murderers
To understand the Iván Duque Márquez victory this weekend, you need to understand the man behind him: former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
By STEVEN COHEN
June 18, 2018
Of the five presidential elections Colombia has held since 2002, Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez has now won four: two under his own name, and two more on behalf of his hand-picked candidates. Yesterday, that candidate happened to be Iván Duque Márquez, a one-term senator and longtime international development technocrat. Duque made it to Congress on the strength of Uribe’s closed-list ticket: you vote for all the candidates, or you vote for none of them. Now he will move to Casa de Nariño, on the strength of Uribe’s coalition opposing the government’s ongoing peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). With stately grey hair, a decent singing voice, and a seemingly sincere passion for the virtues of market-friendly tax adjustments, the forty-one-year-old was not, as many critics argued, too young to govern. He was just young enough to be (relatively) untarnished by his links to Álvaro Uribe Vélez—who, among a great many crimes, both proved and alleged, is currently being investigated for murder.
Uribe, the next Colombian president’s sponsor, left the presidency in 2010, when the Constitutional Court prevented him from extending term limits a second time. (Top Uribe ministers had bribed legislators to approve the first extension.) His administration was praised for bringing security to broad swaths of Colombia, which experts had predicted would become a failed state. Increasingly, it’s also remembered for illegal wiretapping and intimidation; extensive collusion with right-wing narco-paramilitaries; and the systematic murder of civilians to inflate the number of guerrilla deaths the military could claim for its success metrics. Members of Uribe’s inner circle have been convicted of political crimes ranging from the essentially venal to deeply authoritarian. But Uribe himself has yet to fall, and the eponymous right-wing uribista movement is resurgent.
In February, the Supreme Court began investigating Uribe for intimidating key witnesses—one of whom was later murdered outside Medellín—against him and his brother, Santiago, who is currently on trial for leading a death squad. The following month, Uribe’s Democratic Center party won a plurality of seats in the upcoming Congress; Uribe, the single most-voted candidate, will likely be Congress’s next president. In May, the U.S.-based National Security Archives released newly declassified evidence that Uribe launched his career with the support of Medellín’s cocaine mafia. Two days later, Duque won 40 percent of the first-round election vote. The week after that, the Supreme Court declared four incidents for which Uribe is being investigated—three paramilitary massacres during his governorship of Antioquia deparment and the assassination of the human rights lawyer who denounced them—crimes against humanity.
. . .
I spent the week before the elections speaking with Duque supporters in Uribe’s hometown of Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city, where Duque won 72 percent of the vote. Fear of Petro, “populism,” and the Castro-Chavist menace came up often, as did total faith for Uribe’s leadership. (“That gentleman has big, big balls,” said a street vendor hawking pirated DVDs across the plaza opposite the Mayor’s Office.) There was the devout Evangelical couple that warned me of Petro’s plan to close churches and impose “gender ideology” on young school children. A university student wearing a bright green polo shirt lectured on the economic benefits of cutting taxes for “job creators.” Some supporters refused to believe Uribe could be guilty of all the nasty things he’s accused of—“Fake News,” one middle-aged mother of three called it. But many others, like the small restaurant owner, “poor but hard-working,” from the paramilitary-ravaged Caribbean banana zone, believed the accusations and didn’t care. “I’ve never been a violent person,” said the owner. “But don’t you see how many addicts and muggers and bums there are in the cities now? When they did the social cleansings, all of that disappeared.”
More:
https://newrepublic.com/article/149185/colombia-keeps-electing-presidents-tied-murderers
I missed this when it was originally published, and totally appreciated finding it today. It still holds true, of course.
Profile Information
Member since: 2002Number of posts: 160,525
