In his book, Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy, Father Javier Giraldo, a Jesuit priest and long-time human rights activist in Colombia, estimated that, between 1988 and 1995, more than 60,000 Colombians lost their lives to the internal conflict in Colombia - most of them at the hands of the state, either in the form of the official Colombian military or the paramilitary forces supported by the state.
As for the Colombian state's support for the paramilitaries, also known as "death squads," that is well-known. Thus, as the U.S. State Department has concluded in its annual human rights reports, the paramilitaries have received active support from the Colombian government and from the Colombian military which has provided the paramilitaries with weapons, ammunition, logistical support and even with soldiers. Given that the U.S. has aided the Colombian military with over $7 billion in military assistance since 2000, all the while knowing the military's close collaboration with the murderous paramilitaries, the U.S. itself is complicit in the paramilitaries' crimes.
The extent of the Colombian state's connections with the paramilitaries continues to be exposed, with former paramilitary leaders revealing the heights of the government support for their activities. Within the past days, for example, former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso confirmed that the current Colombian Vice-President, Francisco Santos, and the Defense Minister, Juan Manual Santos, had close ties with the paramilitary forces. Juan Manual Santos is expected to be the next President of Colombia.
Up till recently, the prevailing estimate of civilians killed specifically by the paramilitaries has been around 30,000. Father Giraldo, citing new estimates by Colombia's own Prosecutor General, has now shattered those original estimates, announcing that the Prosecutor General is currently investigating 150,000 extrajudicial killings by the paramilitary groups - killings which took place between the late 1980's and the current time. Even the prior, more conservative estimates would have made Colombia the worst human rights abuser in South America in recent times, having victimized more than Argentina's fascist junta and Chile's Pinochet dictatorship.
The new estimates place Colombia in a category all of its own as the worst human rights abuser in the Western Hemisphere. And, in terms of peoples internally displaced as a result of the conflict in Colombia - over 4 million - Colombia ranks only second in the world to the Sudan. And, not too surprisingly given the U.S.'s usual support for the worst human rights abusers, the Washington Post reported in an article by Juan Forero on April 19, 2010, that Colombia is "Washington's closest ally on the continent."
In this same Washington Post article, Forero relates that, even as the U.S. has provided Colombia with massive amounts of assistance - most of it military, of course - Colombia has continued to slip deeper and deeper into poverty, with 43% of its population now living in poverty and 23% living in "extreme poverty." As the Washington Post explained, Colombia is "the only major country in Latin America in which the gap between the rich and poor has increased in recent years, according to a report by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America."
Of course, as Father Giraldo noted in The Genocidal Democracy - a book which is sadly out of print - this is all according to Washington's plan to make Colombia a compliant country open to unchecked exploitation by U.S. companies with an endless well of hunger for Colombia's vast reserves of oil, coal, fruits, flowers and precious metals and gems, as well as for a desperate workforce willing to accept barely-subsistent wages.
With President Obama continuing to solidify the U.S.'s relationship with Colombia through a new deal which will give the U.S. access to 7 military bases, and through a Free Trade Agreement which Obama is now pushing, despite his campaign pledges to oppose it, this deadly game plan continues unabated. Only massive resistance in this country can end such destructive foreign policies.
*This article originally appeared in Counterpunch (counterpunch.org).
(La Fiscalía "afirma que la exploración en 400 municipios bajo influjo paramilitar arroja 300.000 denuncias referidas a 150.000 ejecuciones extrajudiciales", dijo Giraldo)
Quick and dirty translation:
(The Prosecutor General's office "states that the exploration of 400 municipalities under paramilitary influence has resulted in 300.000 claims referring to 150.000 extra-judicial executions", according to Giraldo)
Needless to say, for some people this statement alone constitutes the absolute truth...but not for me.
For instance, while I do not expect Mr. Dan Kovalik to approach this kind of statement critically, even in the absence of any verifiable information from the Prosecutor's office....I think that honest observers should do so. What are the specific documents or databases from the Prosecutor's Office that Mr. Giraldo is citing? Do all those claims refer to murders by the paramilitaries, or is that just how Mr. Giraldo is presenting them? There are many questions, all of them ignored by this article and by this author, that should come to mind.
I reject any and all death threats against Father Giraldo, whether they come from paramilitaries or from the government's agents, but I refuse to dumb down my critical thought processes when thinking about these subjects just because it would be inconvenient to ask questions. I don't think that's too much to ask.
The genocide part of the Colombia's mass killing machine, that was set up, had operating instructions supplied and ongoing re-arming of the killing machine by the US, are the indigenous people of Colombia. The vast majority of the military and para-military murders are committed against the indigenous peoples of Colombia under the guise of fighting FARC 'terrorists'.
The US run School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA has provided the training for the killers in addition to the other military assets it supplied. Now, the US is trying to drag Panama into the killing, although Panama is not supposed to have an army at all by its Constitution. Panama's wingnut President who was elected last year has decided that the Constitution is an inconvenience and he can do as he pleases. I suppose he is a graduate of the George W. Bush School of Governance.
Again, thank you for taking an interest in this deplorable situation. I'm sure the indigenous people of Colombia appreciate it too.
Whatever the merits of the charges of Kovalik's Liberation Theologist priest buddy, and I'm sure there's alot of context we could sort out in his body count estimate, we should not lose sight of the preeminent villains at the center of it all. The same villains Kovalik never remembers to mention.
As always, more right-wing ideology.
As always, more demonizing of others.
As always, more self-justification of Right-Wing Death Squads, mass graves, and the second-largest displaced population of refugees on the planet.
In a DEMOCRACY, there is no justification for death squads, extrajudicial killing without trial, and mass graves. Can I come into your neighborhood, claim your child is a communist and terrorist and doesn't deserve trial? Only right-wingers claim this.
And as always, the typical tired L-I E-S about Hugo Chavez, who strangely does NOT have death squads OR mass graves. How strange that you think Alvaro Uribe is more democratic.
For one thing, I don't believe in the Uribe worship practiced by the right anymore than I believe in the Chavez worship practiced by the left. Both of them don't deserve it and should be looked at much more critically.
Uribe's administration is responsible for many crimes, regardless of whatever merits might be objectively acknowledged, and they all should be denounced in a serious and careful manner, which doesn't mean that context and details should be thrown out the window.
In truth, I don't think this is a matter of "villains" and "heroes" but a grand tragedy, misunderstood both inside and outside Colombia by the political interests and sympathies of many individuals.