Reply #4: May 08: Forced displacement in Cimitarra Valley--a military objective?

[struggle4progress]

Deadly threats to the security of campesinos living in the Cimitarra Valley continue. They believe the very entities responsible for their safety and protection are promoting rather than preventing their forced displacement in an effort to expropriate their farms and territory

The untenable situation of the hamlets of San Pedro in south Bolivar –Paraíso, Alto Cañabraval, and surrounding communities—illustrates these threats. Local residents and community leaders described to a visiting human rights commission Colombian military operations in which community members were assassinated and then presented as guerrillas who died in combat. They said demobilized guerrilla and paramilitary informers pointed out their community leaders, whom the Colombian authorities subsequently accused of treason and arrested (See http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2007/10/72859.php). Currently six are in jail, and fourteen more have arrest warrants against them.

The residents told of how the Colombian authorities sprayed with poison crops that the local people had had planted as an alternative to coca ...

http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/05/07/colombia-forced-displacement-cimitarra-valley-military-objective