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US-COLOMBIA: "Drug Lords" Getting Free
Pass on Worse Crimes?
By Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Yet another of
Colombia’s top paramilitary leaders was
extradited to the U.S. Thursday to be
brought up on drug trafficking charges
despite the objections of some rights groups
and questions raised by Colombian
politicians visiting Washington.
Éver Veloza García was put on a plane for
New York by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, making him the 15th
high-ranking paramilitary leader to be
extradited.
After decades of violent conflict, some of
those active in Colombian affairs worry that
the singular focus of the U.S. on
prosecuting drug crimes could prevent the
truth from coming out about human rights
abuses, the paramilitaries’ collusion with
the government, and answers to questions
about the locations of mass graves and
stolen lands.
Being in U.S. custody cuts off the
paramilitary leaders from Colombian access,
and some observers suspect that, amid a
political scandal connecting his supporters
to the paramilitaries, Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe may be whitewashing the record.
"A lot of the truth about Colombia’s
conflict left the country when these guys
were extradited," said Adam Isaacson of the
Centre for International Policy (CIP),
noting that while other Colombians have
tried to gain access to the men, Uribe’s
diplomatic corps have "not been asking about
any of this."
Further complicating the relationship
between Colombia and the U.S. is a free
trade agreement that was pushed for by the
then-George W. Bush administration and his
right-wing ally, Uribe.
But despite Bush’s glowing praise - over the
objections of rights groups, Uribe was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom -
Democrats in Congress were more sceptical
about the Colombian president’s human rights
record.
Many Democrats had objected to the trade
deal because they see protection of labour
and human rights as an essential
prerequisite for the trade agreement and
argued that those concerns had not been
adequately addressed. But Bush and Uribe
insisted that the situation in Colombia was
much improved.
"Colombia’s been the victim of a lot of
partisan squabbling in Washington," said
Michael Shifter of the Inter-American
Dialogue. But with the executive and
Congress unified, Shifter thinks
Washington’s mixed messages to Colombia will
likely end.
"They will be more clear about what they
want from Colombia," he told IPS, noting
that the trade deal would likely be
impossible without further Colombian
progress on human rights.
Details, however, haven’t been hashed out or
disclosed because U.S. President Barack
Obama has not yet put together his team to
deal with these issues.
Emphasising the strain put on the
U.S.-Colombia relationship - especially
between Congress and Uribe - Human Rights
Watch (HRW) released a statement this week
signed by eight U.S. rights organisations
and trade unions, including Human Rights
First, the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, the American Federation of Labour
and Congress of Industrial Organisations
(AFL-CIO), and the Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA).
The groups called for the "Colombian
government to respect the work of trade
unionists and human rights defenders in
Colombia and to retract statements that put
these workers at risk."
The statement was a reaction to threats
against Lina Paola Malagon, a lawyer with
Colombian Commission of Jurists who has
worked on rights issues and on behalf of
trade unions.
The threat to Malagon came just weeks after
she made a visit to the U.S. to present a
report on worker’s rights and violence
against unions to Rep. George Miller’s
Committee on Education and Labour.
In February, Uribe said that Colombians who
travel abroad and discuss the country’s
internal rights and union problems were part
of the "intellectual bloc of the FARC," the
acronym for the leftist rebel group the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Uribe also later said those who went before
Miller’s committee were practicing
"political hatred."
"Why are they so scared of what people are
going to say if things are so much better
[in Colombia]?" asked Gimena Sanchez of WOLA.
"Why are they censoring people?"
Uribe has been known to lash out against
Colombian rights groups, but usually steers
clear of speaking forcefully against
U.S.-based groups, though he has harshly
criticised HRW in the past.
But Uribe’s Vice President Francisco Santos
did not mince words when describing Miller
on Thursday, calling the Congressman "an
enemy of Colombia."
At the crux of these tensions is
paramilitary violence against unions and
rights groups. HRW reported that since 1986,
more that 2,600 unionists have been killed,
usually at the hands of paramilitary groups.
The paramilitary groups were formed in the
1980s ostensibly to protect farmers and
others from leftist guerillas, but since
then, they have grown into organised crime
groups and involved themselves in the drug
trade.
The paramilitaries are also well connected
to right-wing political movements in
Colombia. The country is in the midst of
being rocked by a scandal where huge numbers
of pro-government legislators have been tied
to the paramilitary groups.
As Colombia tries to dig out the truth
behind this scandal as well as other issues,
such as identifying huge swaths of land
seized by paramilitary groups and the
locations of mass graves, the investigation
turns to those arrested for information.
But by extraditing paramilitary criminals -
especially leaders - to the U.S., some
Colombians worry that the truth about these
events will be buried forever. The U.S. is
not trying the men for human rights
violations or mass murder, but is instead
pursuing them strictly as drug criminals.
The complicated situation spurred two
members of Columbia’s senate - opposition
politician Piedad Cordoba and Uribe
supporter Lara Restrepo - who were in
Washington this week meeting with U.S.
lawmakers and rights groups to ensure that
the now 15 men are all held accountable for
crimes against humanity.
Another crucial aspect of the delegation’s
trip is to secure the information needed to
flesh out Colombia’s history of atrocities
so that there may be reconciliation, said
Sanchez.
"It’s important that there is facilitation
between the U.S. and Colombia and that the
victims in Colombia have access to this
information," she told IPS.
Sanchez said that the men likely had
information about the paramilitary-politics
scandal, the locations of mass graves, and
the seizure of lands by paramilitary groups,
but that information could be buried if the
U.S. only focuses on drug charges.
But because the Obama administration has not
set out a firm agenda on Colombia yet, there
has been very little movement, and the
delegation this week wasn’t able to garner
much information.
"The visit raised more concerns than it
answered questions," said Sanchez, who had
been in contact with the delegation.
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