Colombian paramilitaries rearming after peace deal

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian paramilitaries rearming after peace deal
10 Feb 2007 18:39:29 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Former right-wing Colombian warlords say junior members of their ranks are re-arming to take over the criminal networks they left behind, a trend that would put the country's paramilitary peace process at risk.

Pedro "The Knife" Guerrero, former paramilitary chief of the southern jungle province of Guaviare, said in a letter published by local media on Saturday that he fears this new generation of militia will assassinate him if he turns himself over to authorities as part of a deal promising reduced jail time.

"I am hiding in order to preserve my life," says the letter to the government from Guerrero, who authorities say earned his alias by using a knife to kill and mutilate peasants suspected of supporting left-wing rebels.

The letter followed a statement last week from former paramilitary boss Salvatore Mancuso saying that 5,000 former militia fighters have taken up arms again, backed by politicians and drug smugglers in what promises to be a "disastrous" turf war over cocaine-producing land.
(snip/...)

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10249202.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. US asks Congress for $3.9 billion for Colombia

US asks Congress for $3.9 billion for Colombia
(Reuters)

8 February 2007

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will ask Congress for $3.9 billion over the next seven years to help Colombia fight illegal drugs and boost funding for social programs, a State Department official said on Wednesday.

Under the plan, $626 million would be earmarked for this year, $589 million for fiscal 2008 and similar amounts for the remaining five years of the program, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Bush administration’s strategy is to gradually reduce US funding for drug eradication in the coming years and increase “soft” aid to build schools and roads, for example, the official said.
(snip)

Washington has pumped in about $4 billion in aid since 2000 under Plan Colombia to fight traffickers and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, accused of using the drug trade to finance Latin America’s longest insurgency.
(snip/...)

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/February/theworld_February233.xml§ion=theworld&col=

[Peace Patriot]

4. And Bush Boy is going to hand-deliver that GREAT BIG CHECK in March.

Been trying to figure out why he would go to a continent where most of the people would like to see him pushed out his airplane, like his fascist brethren did to leftists and peasants in the '80s--and where I'm sure millions of baskets of rotten fruit are, even now, being prepared for his motocade. Nixon redux.

Why do I just assume that our lame-ass 'Democrats' in Congress are going to rubber-stamp the Bush Cartel's resource war against the Andean democracies? Real leftists getting too out of hand down there, pissing on Clintonesque "free trade"?

It's getting late, and my mood grows dark.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The Privatization of War: Colombia as Laboratory and Iraq as Large-Scale Application

February 2007

The Privatization of War: Colombia as Laboratory and Iraq as Large-Scale Application
by Dario Azzellini and Lize Mogel

A mapping project
{The King of England} is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. ¬¬¬—United States Declaration of Independence, 1776



Today, the privatization of military services is a worldwide business worth $200 billion a year. The mercenary armies so reviled by the authors of the Declaration of Independence have become today’s Private Military Contractors (PMCs), an acceptable part of many global economies. PMCs prefer to distance themselves from the term “mercenary,” to the point where they formed a powerful lobby called the International Peace Operations Association.

The first PMCs were formed some decades ago to assist with military logistics. During a boom in the 1990s, hundreds of companies were founded mainly by former military officers in the US (where the majority of PMCs are based), South Africa, Great Britain, Israel, Russia, France, Germany, Italy and others. Civilian companies also take on missions that are entirely part of the contemporary war machine. For example DHL, a German company which normally operates an international parcel service, provides cargo transport for the US Army and other contractors in Iraq.

The “products” PMCs offer nowadays range from logistics (i.e. building and managing military facilities and prisons) to strategic support (i.e. managing radar equipment or designing combat strategies) to open combat and special sabotage missions. Huge PMC conglomerates have been formed and are traded on the stock market, such as KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton).

Hiring PMCs has various advantages for a government—as private corporations, they are less accountable to the public. In the United States, PMC contracts under $50 million do not need approval by Congress, although costs for military interventions do. American enlisted troops are accountable to military law; PMC operatives are not, as they are considered civilians. In addition, many contracts excuse them from civil prosecution.

As Myles Frechette, former US ambassador to Colombia, has observed, “It’s very handy to have an outfit not part of the U.S. armed forces. Obviously, if somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say it’s not a member of the armed forces. Nobody wants to see American military men killed.”
(snip)

If Iraq is a large-scale application of the privatization of war, then Colombia might be a functional laboratory for the concept. Colombia is rich in natural resources: oil, petrol, gold, emeralds, and water. It is the fifth-largest oil producer for the US and is the fifth-largest market for US goods in Latin America. 400 of the largest US corporations have investments in Colombia.
(snip/...)

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007-02/express/pirvatization

(My emphasis)

[0rganism]

3. Where are all the Chavez-bashing capitalists? 20+ hours and still nothing

Don't they have any desire to offer up compliments for the most excellent regime that we spend billions propping up in Venezuela's next-door neighbor? Won't someone jump in to defend poor maligned Pedro Guerrero from accusations promoted by the lying leftist press?

C'mon, people, President Uribe's doing a great job! Really! :puke:

[redqueen]

5. kick

:kick: