Colombia: 18,000 forced disappearances under Uribe

[RedStarOverChina]

http://www.piensachile.com/content/view/5107/10/
According to this Chilean article (which I think quoted a Spanish source), in the past 7 years, more than 18,000 people disappeared in Colombia under the Uribe regime. 7,163 people disappeared in the past two years alone. 5,507 of of the 18,000 disappeared in the capital city, Bogota.

It is reported that the mothers of those disappeared received phone calls threatening them not to report anything.

Extra-judicial killing and forced conscription are among the causes of the disappearances.

Curiously enough, I don't see this in any mainstream English media.

Was it like this back in Chile, 1973 too?

[cyu]

Thanks, can someone do a full translation of the article?

[manic expression]

Here are the first few paragraphs in English, remember my Spanish isn't very good, not nearly native, so I just did my best:

Uribe: 18 thousand forced disappearances in Colombia

The disappearances have increased dramatically between January 1, 2007 and October 21, 2008, according to a report from the National Commission to Find Missing Persons.

18,713 disappearances were reported in the last seven years in Colombia,

7,163 in the last two years.

In Engativa, Cudinamarca, 22 mothers have had no news of their children for six months. They left their houses because they had job offers in Meta and other regions. Since then no one has returned any knowledge of them, but their mothers have received threatening phonecalls.. They were told that if they didn't report in the "Fiscalia" they would continue to live.

The 22 youths of Engativa are part of an extensive list of disappeared persons, among them the most recent of Soacha, and their mothers pray that they are alive. But according to the statistics, for every 1,000 disappeared only 10 survive. What's more, few of those who have disappeared relatives are able to find their remains.

Rubiela Beltran saw for the last time her husband Gilberto Arias, 45, on May 27, 2007. He left his house at El Tunal, south of Bogota, travelled to Soacha, where he was to negotiate a rice farm. "After many days of searching, a person told me that they had seen men kill him and shoot him in a place near Soacha", said Rubiela, "I went to search for him and I found the blood-stained clothes, but the body was gone."

Other families have waited for 20 years. For example, that of Jorge Soto Gallo, who disappeared July 15, 1985, and Jaime Enrique Quintero, whose trail was lost on March 1, 1995, where after being present in the installations of the IV Medellin Brigade to define its military situation, was moved and since then there is nothing more known of him.

[Comrade B]

Hope this reaches the western media. People need to see what kind of fucked up people the US is supporting.

[RedSonRising]

I am Colombian, and the Colombian media is so obsessed with highlighting the FARC that the Paramilitary operations go by unnoticed and under-reported completely, and this has added to his popularity; most Colombians approve his presidency. The FARC is absolutely against popular interests, but the right wing government is no better.

[John Lenin]

Exhibit A of why the Left should always fight fire with fire.

Uribe needs to be overthrown by whatever means necessary.

[scarletghoul]

Wow, I didnt know it was that bad.

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

Uribe is a fascist. Let's hope the FARC succeeds in liberating the Colombian People.

[RedStarOverChina]

Thanks for the translation, maniac expression.

I had no prior knowledge of the horrors in Colombia either---and it's amazing the amount of stuff you can manage to dig up from foreign media that aren't available in English.

[cyu]

I had no prior knowledge of the horrors in Colombia


Another fact Colombia can be "proud" of: more union members are murdered in Colombia than the rest of the world combined. It's not just that Colombia tops the list of killing union supporters, but if you added up all the murders of unionists in all other countries, it would still be less than how many are killed in Colombia.

...plus, there are practically no convictions of anybody involved in these murders. If that doesn't scream oppressive government, I don't know what does.

By the way, the Colombian government is also one of the top receivers of U.S. foreign aid.

[Comrade B]

By the way, the Colombian government is also one of the top receivers of U.S. foreign aid.
I think I heard once taht they receive several million dollars annually to fight "drug trafficking and leftist militants," sooo by that we get that the US considers us
1. the same as cocaine traffickers
2. a bigger danger than Nazis (only leftist militants, Nazi uprisings not covered)

[RedSonRising]

The FARC are not popularly supported in the country and operate too many anti-civilian policies to "liberate" anybody.

I hate Uribe, but the FARC are hardly champions of the people.

Colombia needs another Gaitan.

[Comrade B]

FARC seems like they have given up on a lot of morals simply for the purpose of winning.

[Ismail]

FARC-EP, true to its pro-Soviet roots, also does a good job of killing other Communists, such as the Hoxhaists and other groups that didn't want a Soviet-funded and pseudo-socialist state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Liberation_Army

[Cumannach]

What's the matter with all of you?! And would you rather Uribe distract the workers from the great class struggle with bourgeois democratic socialist reformism?

[Ismail]

What's the matter with all of you?! And would you rather Uribe distract the workers from the great class struggle with bourgeois democratic socialist reformism?I support the FARC-EP against the government, but it's still worthy of being criticized, especially when they attack other Communists.

[Comrade B]

I support the FARC over Uribe because he is a disgusting pig, and when I hear that they lose a fight, I am disappointed, but I do not give the FARC the same kind of support I give the PFLP