This video from Colombia is about Bogota against Álvaro Uribe and George W. Bush.
By Bill Van Auken and Ascher Brum:
Colombia’s President Uribe implicated in paramilitary death squad probe
24 April 2008
The arrest of in Bogota of ex-Senator Mario Uribe Escobar, the cousin of Colombia’s president, on charges of involvement in the country’s paramilitary death squads has deepened the political crisis of Bush’s closest political ally in Latin America.
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has also admitted to the media that he himself is a target of an investigation implicating him in the organization of a massacre by the paramilitaries.
Uribe Escobar, the former head of the Colombian Congress, is not only President Álvaro Uribe’s relative, but was also one of his closest political collaborators. He was arrested Tuesday as he left the Costa Rican embassy, where he had sought political asylum.
The Costa Rican government rejected the appeal as “inappropriate.” Protesters, who had gathered outside the embassy hanging the names and pictures of death squad victims on its gates, jeered and jostled the ex-senator as he was led away.
Colombian prosecutors announced that Uribe Escobar is wanted in connection with a probe into his meetings with paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso in advance of the March 2002 elections that brought his cousin to power. The former senator played a key role in getting Álvaro Uribe elected, and apparently mobilized the country’s death squads to help secure political victory.
Colombian extraditions aimed at covering up Uribe’s death squad ties, see here.
Guatemala tries soldiers on massacre charges: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Scandal hits Colombian president
Australian News.Net
Monday 21st April, 2008
Colombia’s president has been accused of corruption by former Colombian MP, Yidis Medina.
Ms Medina has accused President Alvaro Uribe’s government of offering her illegal favours in 2004 if she voted in favour of an amendment which allowed the president to stand in the 2006 presidential election.
Colombia’s Supreme Court is investigating Ms Medina’s allegations, who says she never received the favours she was promised.
Two days ago, an investigation was also launched into Senate Speaker Nancy Gutierrez, who is suspected of having ties with outlawed paramilitary groups.
Dozens of President Uribe’s political allies have also been caught up in the investigation into paramilitary influence in congress.
LikeLike
ACTION ALERT UPDATE PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!
Agrofuels on Stolen Lands Continue to Threaten Colombian
Rainforests and Communities
By Ecological Internet, http://www.ecologicalinternet.org/
May 6, 2008
TAKE ACTION
It is gravely unethical and ecologically devastating to
expand production of biofuels by allowing land to be stolen
from local Afro-Colombian communities; and at the expense of
Colombia’s ancient primary rainforests, food security, water
resources and regional climate
http://www.rainforestportal.com/alerts/send.asp?id=colombia_biofuel
Plantation expansion for agrofuels remains a major threat to
the lives, livelihoods and the environment of Afro-Colombian
and other peasant communities in Chocó, Colombia. This is one
of the world’s most biodiverse regions, with large areas of
rainforest now facing destruction. The Chocó rainforests are
home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant
species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current
palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed.
Communities and rainforests are under threat from palm oil
and sugar cane expansion for agrofuels in other parts of
Colombia, too, for example around Tumaco, near the border
with Ecuador, in Santander and in Magdalena. If agrofuels —
growing food for fuel — continue to expand in Colombia, food
prices are bound to rise and the nation’s food security erode
as is happening around the world. Please ask the government
to stop and reverse those policies and to protect Colombia’s
communities and rich environment from further destruction for
agrofuels.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.rainforestportal.com/alerts/send.asp?id=colombia_biofuel
DISCUSS ALERT:
http://www.rainforestportal.com/issues/2008/05/alert_agrofuels_on_stolen_land.asp
LikeLike
The International Action Center
issues urgent appeal for solidarity with the people of Colombia and to
support the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal in Bogotá, Colombia July 21-23
Join with the International Action Center and U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange on a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations in Colombia and attend the Tribunal!
In the last 20 years, more than 4,000 unionists have been killed in Colombia. Four million people have been displaced from their homes due to a U.S.-backed war against the civilian population and the social movement. Progressive people, including journalists, human rights activists, community leaders and student organizers, have been killed, threatened or attacked for mobilizing against economic and political repression.
These attacks are carried out by forces trained, funded and endorsed by the U.S. government. It is part of a war that has dangerous ramifications against the other countries in the region.
You can help end this war by supporting the Colombian people and by demanding that the U.S. government and corporations stop supporting state terror by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s regime.
What you can do: (go to http://www.iacenter.org/colombia/delegation for details)
* Join the fact-finding delegation to Colombia July 19 to July 27!
* Donate here to support the international fact-finding mission to Colombia!
* Send messages of solidarity to the Tribunal!
The Colombian labor union SINALTRAINAL, which represents Coca-Cola workers, together with other progressive organizations invites the international community to participate in a Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal in Bogotá, Colombia on July 21-23, and to be part of a labor delegation which will visit hospitals, schools and worker centers, and meet with social organizations from July 19 to July 27.
The International Action Center is working with the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange to take a delegation of labor, anti-war and other progressive activists on a fact-finding mission that includes participation in the Tribunal. The delegation will meet with labor and other social activists who are leading the struggle in Colombia for political, economic and social justice and equality. The trip will help participants understand how U.S. policies abroad affect workers in Colombia and in the U.S.
The fact-finding delegation will bring back the truth to activists in the U.S. about the U.S. role in Colombian repression against students, unionists, human rights activists and other progressives. This will help to build the solidarity movement with the Colombian people.
Background of Peoples’ Tribunal: The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is an international independent tribunal that examines and judges complaints regarding violations of human rights that have been submitted by the victims. The Tribunal was founded in June 1979 in Italy by legal experts, writers and other intellectuals. It followed the Bertrand Russell International War Crimes Tribunal, which held two sessions in 1967 to expose war crimes committed against the Vietnamese people.
The upcoming Tribunal session in Bogotá, entitled “Transnational corporations and crimes against humanity,” will be the last held there after four prior hearings on (1) how foreign-owned agribusinesses have affected farmers and Indigenous peoples; (2) the mining companies’ role; (3) the impact of transnational corporate-controlled development on biodiversity and the environment and (4) oil companies and human rights violations.
The Tribunal is an extremely important event that will help expose the dangerous, and escalating U.S. corporate-backed state repression against people’s movements.
It will also reinvigorate the many peoples’ movements and progressive forces with the solidarity that international delegations bring.
Edgar Paez from SINALTRAINAL says of the Tribunal’s purpose: “Through this process we will increase the exposure of the relations between paramilitarism, transnational corporations and the policy of impunity and terror of the Colombian state. Its main purpose is the search for truth, justice and complete reparations. Several transnational corporations have been accused at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal–Colombia Session, regarding their responsibility for the murder of union leaders for the violation of union freedom and the right of association.”
This is a critical situation! It needs the attention and help of progressive people throughout the U.S.! Go to http://www.iacenter.org/colombia/delegation to help support the IAC delegation to the Tribunal.
* Join the delegation if you can! Tell your friends about it!
* Make a donation to help send students, anti-war and community activists, and working people to document U.S.-backed abuse in Colombia. Help with costs of videotaping and publishing reports from the trip–and more!
* Send messages of solidarity to the Peoples’ Tribunal! Ask community, union, religious, anti-war and other organizations and activists to email messages of support!
* Post messages here
For information on travel arrangements, contact U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange at laborexchange@aol.com
LikeLike
Pingback: Dutch government cuts aid to poor countries | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Blackwater mercenaries for UAE dictatorship | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Colombian journalists oppressed | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: US government helped murdering Chilean minister | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Colombian, Guatemalan human rights violations | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Democratically elected Colombian mayor sacked for not privatising | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Colombian trade union woman interviewed | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: ‘BP complicit in torturing Colombian trade unionist’ | Dear Kitty. Some blog