| Army Commanders Fired for Killings |
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| Written by John Lindsay-Poland | |
| Friday, 21 November 2008 | |
Colombian Army commander Mario Montoya had to resig in the wake of a scandal over army killings of civilians that a United Nations official on Saturday called "systematic and widespread." A protégé of the United States, Montoya received training at the notorious U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) and has also taught other soldiers as an instructor at the SOA. Gen. Mario Montoya The dismissal is a positive action, which we applaud. Officers responsible for killing civilians must face consequences, or the killing will continue. Human rights organizations have documented more than 500 reported extrajudicial killings by the army since the beginning of last year. This week, Amnesty International issued a scathing report on worsening conditions in Colombia, including massive displacement of internal refugees, increased extrajudicial killings, and attacks on human rights defenders. A New York Times front-page story on October 30 also highlighted the problem, and cited Fellowship of Reconciliation FOR's research on extrajudicial executions, as did a Los Angeles Times story. But it was the report that poor Bogota youths - whose families said they had disappeared - had been recruited by the army or others, then reported as dead in combat, that detonated the issue. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos admitted that the army still harbors "holdouts who are demanding bodies for results." The dismissal of officers also demonstrates extensive U.S. complicity with the abuses. The United States gave military training directly or assisted the units of nearly all of the officers implicated in the killings. At least eleven of the officers, including Brigadier Generals Paulino Coronado Gamez and José Cortes Franco, were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, and Cortes even served as an instructor at the school in 1994. Most of the officers commanded units that had been 'vetted' by U.S. officials for human rights abuses and approved to receive assistance in 2008, or received training for some officers, in spite of extensive reports that their units had carried out murders of civilians. Yet the dismissal, which focuses on officers operating in a northeastern region of Colombia where the disappeared youths were found, addresses only a small number of the army units responsible for civilian killings. In the oil-rich Casanare and Arauca departments, the U.S.-trained 16th and 18th Brigades have reportedly committed dozens of killings, as has the U.S.-supported 9th Brigade in the coffee-growing department of Huila. In southeastern Valle and Cauca, the Third Brigade's Codazzi Batallion receives U.S. support and reportedly committed at least nine killings of civilians last year, as may be implicated in firing on peaceful indigenous protesters this month. In southern Meta and Guaviare departments, the United States supports multiple mobile brigades in areas where the army has committed a large number of civilian killings.  General Peña, Gen. Montoya's replacement as the head of the Amry is also an SOA graduate. Set as favorite Bookmark
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  written by John P Ovando, April 16, 2009
Uribe is suspect in the killing of his own father during a botched deal with Drug runners that would've benefitted himself but dad was wary, and was shot right in front of his helicopter., enraged that the capos present for the failed deal didn't have "the balls" to do what they knew was "necessary" .., The FARC would later take the blame in what was dubbed a flawed kidnapping attempt.., The former head of AUC Carlos Castano Gil was offed by his own men, and his brother Fidel Castano Gil was also killed by orders of Castano himself, And yet a third brother is currently missing and is presumed dead, So much infighting and family feuding puts into doubt the familiar parroting of "the FARC did it"...
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 written by tony b, April 08, 2009
Uribe once pal of Pablo Escobar now U.S. puppet: http://www.newsweek.com/id/54793
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 written by SOA Watch, April 01, 2009
Instead of being charged for his crimes and his proven connections to paramilitaries, Gen. Montoya was named by Colombian president Uribe the ambassador to the Dominican Republic. To read the article, visit: http://www.dominicantoday.com/...ppearances
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