The dark history of President Alvaro Uribe is well known for its seedy connections to narco-traffickers, terrorists and murderers. When Mayor of the City of Medellin, narco-terrorist death squads sent thousands of civilians to the most horrific deaths. Now, mass graves with thousands of bodies have been uncovered.

Columbia is covered in a fine white powder. It is called cocaine. The leaves of the coca plant are crushed and pounded with a solvent. Wax is then removed from the solution and hydrochloric acid is added to the remainder to separate out the cocaine alkaloids. The crystals that are left are dissolved with methyl alcohol, are recrystallized and dissolved in sulphuric acid

Millions of doses worth billions of dollars flood the streets of the United States of America, and other countries, every year destroying families, sending crime rates soaring, tearing society apart. The USA backed Colombia's Mayor of Medellin, the epicenter of the narcotics trade, Álvaro Uribe in his bid for the Presidency of Colombia, despite his alleged links to AUC, a paramilitary group classified by Washington as a terrorist organization.

As Mayor of Medellin, in the early 1980s, the city was referred to as "The Sanctuary" because the city administration afforded protection to drugs traffickers such as Pablo Escobar, whose projects Uribe (son of the known narco-trafficker Alberto Uribe Sierra) supported. His chief of staff was Pedro Juan Moreno Villa, who controlled not only the cocaine precursor chemical industry (producing substances needed for the production of cocaine) but also the paramilitaries under whose reign of terror in the Department of Antioquia thousands of people disappeared, mainly Uribe's opponents. During the 1980s, Uribe's CONVIVIR vigilantes massacred thousands of civilians, before merging with the terrorist organization AUC.

As Director of Columbia's Civil Auronautics Agency between 1980 and 1982, Uribe handed out pilot licences to the Medellin drug cartel, for which he was apparently dismissed. As Senator between 1986 and 1994, he consistently supported legislation favourable to the drugs cartels.

President of Columbia since 2002, Uribe has had the chance to hide away the skeletons in his closet. However, in his case there are so many skeletons that the door has burst open.

In the village of La Macarena, 200 km from the capital city Bogota, a mass grave with 2.000 bodies has been discovered. The bodies, unnamed, have been deposited there by members of the Columbian Armed Forces since 2005. Meanwhile there have been thousands of rumours of Trade Union leaders, peasant leaders and political activists suddenly disappearing in Columbia under Uribe's reign of terror.

The mass graves have been uncovered after the admission of paramilitaries, who admitted that all the fighters in their units had to learn how to dismember people, "and this was often done when the people were still alive". The organization these paramilitaries fought for? AUC.

Columbian sociologist Professor Alfredo Molano declares "The General Inspectorate itself speaks of 25.000 'disappeared persons' so they had to be somewhere. There are enormous clandestine cemeteries in Columbia. It is also possible that they got rid of a lot of bodies in Nazi-style ovens".

Drug trafficking, terrorism, mass murder. Nazi style ovens...And the United States of America supports Alvaro Uribe?

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru

International media outlets are pandering to the disinformation spread by the Uribe regime in Columbia, which provides one side of the story only, claiming that the Government forces have defeated FARC-EP, the political and military movement fighting for democracy in Columbia and against the rule of terror imposed by Alvaro Uribe and his oligarchic minority.

What is the truth on the ground? The High Command of the Oriental Block of the FARC-EP Chief of Staff have sent PRAVDA.Ru information about what is really happening. This documentation shows the other side of the story: FARC-EP is alive and well.

The Commander of the Eastern Block of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionárias de Colómbia states in his report that "the aim of the Government propaganda is to manipulate public opinion to as to place it in the pocket of the darkest interests of the Government".

"To continue selling the false idea of a military defeat of the guerrilla movement as a panacea for a solution to the serious problems affecting the vast majority of the Columbian people," he continues, "is a sign of the extreme perversity among those who rule the country".

Accusing the Uribe Government of wishing to perpetuate itself for four more years, by violating every fibre of the Constitution, through cynical and corrupt manoeuvres, he claims that most Columbians live in abject misery, facing unemployment, hunger, lack of healthcare, lack of education, lack of basic public services and lack of democracy.

"The solution to our problems," he claims, "comes neither from US bases, nor spy planes, nor radars with cutting-edge technology, nor foreign military advisors, and nothing which comes from the increasing US influence in Columbia".

This "military aid" is a front for what is really happening, according to the same source, namely "robbery and sacking of our natural resources, leading us to a total neo-colonial dependence" while it provides a base for attacks on neighbouring countries (Venezuela and Brazil, Peru and Equador).

"To overcome 190 years of despotic, oligarchic and antipatriotic governments," FARC proposes a "broad consensus of democratic forces, progressive personalities and the best and most clear-thinking opinion makers" to work together towards the national interests, "the reconciliation and reconstruction of our country and its projection towards real economic development and social justice".

Military report negates Columbian government's claims

The military report from the Central High Command of the Oriental Block of FARC-EP concerning operations carried out in January would negate anything that President Uribe has claimed regarding anything near defeat of the People's Army, which operates in the mountains, plains and forests of around half the territory of Columbia, a terrain it knows well and where is enjoys overwhelming popular support.

Between January 1 and 31 2010, in 57 different combat operations in various areas of Eastern Columbia, 65 members of the Government forces were killed, 94 were wounded, three helicopters and 5 light aircraft were destroyed, while seven FARC guerrillas were wounded.

Given these figures, it appears crystal clear that the fight may be one-sided, however not pending towards a victory of the Government forces.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru

Has the policy of the United States of America changed substantially in Latin America? Judging by Washington's close friend and ally, Alvaro Uribe of Columbia, no, it has not. Murder of opposition activists, disappearances, threats and of course torture are the modus operandi in fashion in Columbia, where the USA has built up a considerable military presence. So much for the USA's "humane" foreign policy.

This is not good reading for those who are trying to digest their breakfasts, indeed it is not for people with weak stomachs or those who are easily impressionable. Attacks with acid in the eyes, burnings, horrific disfigurations are glaring tell-tale signs that Columbia is a horror state ruled by a monster, a pariah of Latin America, of the international community and a colossus of injustice, where all roads lead to Uribe, Washington's ally and friend.

These cases, and many more, can be read in the book "Death is not Dumb", a compilation drawn up by the National Trade Union School of the CUT (Trades Union Congress) in Medellin, capital of the Province of Antioquia, where Uribe was Governor before becoming President.

According to the book, which documents aggressions, threats and attacks against the physical integrity of Trade Unionists, every three days a Trade Union activist was murdered, there was a total of 2.704 assassinations between 1986 and 2009, a further 237 murder attempts against Trade Unionists and 190 disappearances; 4,418 death threats and 1,611 forced "removals" where activists had to abandon their homes and workplace due to pressure. The book connects these murders with Uribe, the one who opened up Columbia's bases to the USA, the one whose past is intrinsically linked with paramilitary forces, death squadrons and narco-terrorism.

Uribe's policy of extermination

Guillermo Correa Montoya, one of the authors of the work, claims that in Columbia there has been a systematic, structured, selective and continued program of violence by the Uribe Government against the Trade Union movement, calling it Uribe's "policy of extermination".

During Uribe's mandate in Medellin, it is claimed, 503 Trade Union activists were murdered, 37.9% of the total number of aggressions being perpetrated during the time he was Governor. The Columbian Committee of Jurists, which co-authored the book, states that there is a high degree of impunity among the murderers and criminals who carry out these attacks, because 98.3% of the murder cases are yet to be solved while the rate rises to 100% in the cases of disappearance, torture and home invasions.

In Columbia, tens of thousands of people have been murdered by the AUC (Autodefesas Unidas de Colombia), a fascist paramilitary organization which has admitted responsibility for 30,470 deaths in recent years. AUC is closely connected with large corporations with connections to Uribe, such as Chiquita (the banana monopoly). Chiquita also financed the extermination groups which worked under the façade of CONVIVIR, a group sponsored by Uribe himself (CONVIVIR were Cooperatives of Vigilance and Private Security used by the landowners supposedly to defend their latifundia against "terrorists" when the real terrorist attacks were perpetrated by these extermination groups).

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru