Advisory Council COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK Rev Daniel Berrigan S.J. P.O. BOX 1505 Activist, Writer, Poet MADISON, WISCONSIN 53701 February 6, 2012 Larry Birns The Council on Hemispheric Affairs THE COLOMBIAN ARMY: TERRORISM, THIEVERY, BUNGLING AND MASSACRES Blase Bonpane Colombia The Office of the Support Americas Colombian ex-President Alvaro Uribe’s policy of democratic security was based on Network building con!dence in public institutions. "at is as it should be, and many millions in Herbert (Tico) Braun P O Box 1505 University of Virginia U.S. taxpayer dollars have supported and continue to support the policy. Unfortunately, Madison, WI the Colombian institution that has received most of the U.S. millions, (more than $8 53701-1505 Noam Chomsky Massachusetts Institute billion to date) the Colombian Army, has demonstrated repeatedly that it is not worthy Street Address of Technology of public con!dence. It is not worthy of U.S. taxpayer funding. 29 E. Wilson St # 202 Rev. John Dear S. J Madison, WI 53703 Activist and Writer "e following is an outline that dates back to 2006. It covers events reported o#cially or in the U.S. and Colombian media, describing terrorism, thievery, bungling and (608) 257 8753 John Dugas Fax (608) 255 6621 Universitly of Kalamazoo massacres by the armed forces of the government of Colombia. Individuals and nongovernmental organizations report many more such examples. "is outline Kathleen Falk was compiled by the Colombia Support Network, a nongovernmental organization Dane County Executive headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. For updated information, see the Al Gedicks Colombia Support Network website http://www.colombiasupport.net. University of Wisconsin La Crosse * February 5, 2012. Colombia’s Minister of Interior, German Vargas Lleras, complains Rev. Thomas that members of the Colombian National Police are aiding criminal gangs. Juan Carlos Gumbleton Auxiliary Bishop of Pinzon, Minister of Defense, insists that every such allegation will be investigated and Detroit corrective measures taken. Edward Herman Activist and Writer Source: Vanguardia, Bucaramanga, February 5, 2012. Adam Isacson * February 5, 2012. Colombian animal rights groups complain about photos showing www.colombia Colombia Expert support.net Colombian Navy sailors apparently eating live animals and others showing the sailors Dan Kovalik roasting a live dog on a grill. Military authorities promise to investigate. [email protected] United Steel Workers Robert McChesney Source: Caracol Radio, RCN Radio, and El Espectador, Bogota, February 5, 2012. Chapters University of Illinois Austin, TX Mark Pocan * February 2, 2012. Retired Colombian Army General Rafael Alberto Neira, former Central New York Wisconsin Legislature commandant of the Army’s 18th Brigade, testifying in the trial of 2d Lt. Raul Munoz (Cortland, ithaca, Syracuse) Mark Sherman Linares for sexual assault of two young girls, and the murder of one of the girls and Kansas City MO,KS Attorney her two young brothers in October 2010, stated that when he asked his men for Dane County, WI Organizations listed for information, two of them told him that, after the !rst sexual assault, the mother of identification purposes only the victim came to the headquarters to complain. Apparently nothing was done to investigate the complaint. "e General’s records also showed that witnesses had seen the defendant leave the encampment with his ri$e and a machete and return, agitated and sweaty and demanding an immediate haircut. "e General’s testimony is in page 1 addition to physical evidence showing that the defendant’s semen was found on the dead girl’s body. Source: Semana, and Attorney General’s web site, Bogota, February 2, 2012. * January 28, 2012. A Colombian Army noncommissioned o#cer, retired, has been arrested and charged with bribery. Prosecutors allege that he and a civilian demanded money in exchange for the processing of government document in Manizales (Caldas Province) early in 2010. Authorities are investigating other similar instances. Source: El Pais, Cali, January 28, 2012. * January 28, 2012. Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, alias “Don Berna”, convicted drug tra#cker and paramilitary commander, testifying under oath from his prison in the United States, asserted that Captains Fernando Tabares and Jorge Alberto Lagos, chiefs of intelligence and counterintelligence at the DAS (Colombian FBI) met regularly with paramilitary commanders in 2005 and provided them with protection and assistance. “"e DAS was almost in the service of the paramilitaries”, he said, stating that the DAS gave them bodyguards, facilitated movements and gave them information. Source: Semana, Bogota, January 28, 2012. * January 24, 2012. Four Colombian National Police O#cers have been jailed after prosecutors charged that they failed to report their capture of a large cache of cocaine in Medellin. "ey have admitted to the o%ense and returned part of the cocaine. "ey are accused of aggravated drug tra#cking, !ling a false complaint, and abuse of authority. A civilian alleged to be the owner of the cache is charged with drug tra#cking. Source: El Tiempo, Bogota, January 24, 2010 and Attorney General’s web site, January 23, 2012 * January 13, 2012. Four Colombian Army soldiers and one noncommissioned o#cer, all now retired, have been formally charged with taking part in the disappearance and murder of !ve men, three women, and a child on February 23 and March 1, 2006. "e defendants presented the bodies of !ve of the victims as guerrillas killed in combat in a rural area of Aracataca (Magdalena Province). Remains of the others have not been found. "e defendants are charged with aggravated kidnapping, turture, homicide, forced disappearance and criminal conspiracy. Source: El Espectador, Caracol Radio, and Attorney General’s web site, Bogota, January 13, 2012. * January 13, 2012. Colombia’s Supreme Judicial Council has decided that the murder charge against a Colombian Police O#cer who killed his !ancé must be heard in civilian page 2 courts, since it was not commited “in the line of duty” and thus is not eligible to be heard in a military court. Source: El Espectador, Bogota, January 13, 2012. * January 13, 2012. Retired General Mario Montoya Uribe, former Commander of the Colombian Army, in a three-hour interrogation by o#cials of the Supreme Court, denied that he had collaborated with paramilitaries in return for money. Montoya is also facing two other charges, including a charge that in 2006 he hired street people to pretend that they were guerrillas surrendering to his forces. Source: El Tiempo, Bogota, and El Heraldo, Barranquilla, January 13, 2012, RCN Radio, Bogota, January 12, 2012, and El Mundo, Medellin, January 11, 2012. * January 12, 2012. Retired General Mario Montoya Uribe, former Commander of the Colombian Army, is scheduled to respond to charges by demobilized paramilitary commanders that he worked with them in a bloody “clean-up” of alleged guerrillas in Medellin in 2002. He was then commander of the Army’s Fourth Brigade in Medellin. Another demobilized paramilitary commander has testi!ed that he paid Gen. Montoya 1,500 million pesos (about $750,000) to help him defeat an internal rival. Some of his former subordinates, a captain and three colonels, have also alleged that Montoya knew about paramilitaries working with the Army in the 2005 massacre of eight (8) people in San Jose de Apartado. Source: El Tiempo and Semana, Bogota, January 12, 2012. * January 11, 2012. Semana’s verdadabierta.com section o%ered more evidence of General Montoya’s connections with the paramilitaries. Semana reports, along with the other claims, that the Centaurs Bloc of the paramilitaries gave Montoya 500 million pesos (about $250,000) in 2004 and that deceased paramilitary leader Miguel Arroyave gave him an apartment worth 400 million pesos (about $200,000). Another demobilized paramilitary commander claimed that General Montoya helped his group in Antioquia Province and that he was on the payroll of a criminal group based in Medellin. Finally, extradited paramilitary alias “Diomedes”, testifying from the United States, stated that in April 2002 Montoya had personally delivered seven ri$es and a van to his troops. Source: Semana’s verdadabierta.com, January 11, 2012. * January 11, 2012. Colombian Army Lt. Marco Fabian Garcia Cespedes has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for ordering the murder of a farmer in the town of Tamara (Casanare Province) in December 2006. "e victim was !rst dressed in a Colombian Police uniform, then killed and his body presented as a guerrilla killed in combat. "e defendant was convicted of homicide and falsifying a public document. "e court also ordered an page 3 investigation of the responsibility of General Henry William Torres Escalante and Colonel Carlos Alirio Buitrago Bedoya of the Army’s Fifth Division in connection with the murder. Source: El Mundo, Medellin, January 11, 2012, and Attorney General’s web site, Bogota, January 10, 2012. * January 11, 2012. Two Bogota police o#cers have been arrested and charged with drug tra#cking, preparing and carrying illegal drugs and falsifying public documents. Prosecutors allege that on March 2, 2010, the two attempted to place illegal drugs with a street vendor in Bogota. Source: Radio Santa Fe and Attorney General’s web site, January 11, 2012. * January 10, 2012. "ree Colombian Army soldiers have been charged with murder in the deaths of two farmers, Saul Ortiz Munoz and Danilo Yepes Pineda, on March 22, 2006 in the town of Bruselas (Huila Province). "eir bodies, accompanied by a pistol and a revolver, were presented as guerrillas killed in combat. An investigation revealed that there had been no combat and one of the guns was inoperable. Source: Caracol News and Attorney General’s web site, Bogota, January 10, 2012. * January 10, 2012. Colombia’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, has ordered the Colombian government to pay 570 million pesos (about $318,000) in damages to the families of two young men from Medellin who were killed and two others who were injured by Colombian National Police.