(THEN AND NOW)FREE TRADE,BILATERAL AGREEMENTS,LICENSING AND SUBSIDIZING OPIUM TRADE UNDER MEDICINAL PURPOSE EXCUSE...The Political History of Turkey’s Opium Licensing System for the Production of Medicines: Lessons for Afghanistan
The Political History of Turkey's Opium Licensing System for the ...
Analogous to the current situation in Afghanistan, in the 1960s Turkey was one of theworld’s main opium producing countries. During this period the United States faced significant drug consumption problems, associated with the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War, through heroin-consuming American soldiers. Increasingly, the US Government perceived Turkey to be the source of much of its heroin, and by the late
1960s Turkish opium production became a significant issue in the two countries’ political relationship.After several years of tense negotiations, political pragmatism prevailed, resulting in Turkey switching from unregulated crop growing to licensed poppy cultivation for the production of medicines. The Turkish political dynamic was such that poppy farmers’interests were key to the stability of the country. When Turkey deemed total eradication both technically and socially impracticable, the US and the Turkish Governments worked together to implement a poppy licensing system for the production of opium-based medicines, as an alternative means of bringing poppy cultivation under control. Turkey was then able to resume poppy cultivation, under a strict licensing system supported by the United Nations and a preferential trade agreement with the US.The Turkish experience shows that the United States has actively supported a switch from un-regulated to licensed, legal poppy cultivation for the production of medicines as a drug supply reduction strategy.In addition, in 1979 the United Nations asked those countries manufacturing opium-based

medicines to purchase their narcotic raw materials from traditional producer countries such as India and Turkey.30 In 1981 the US gave legislative effect to this request,extending ‘special protected market status’ to Turkey (and India) under a Drug Enforcement Agency Regulation, commonly known as the ‘80-20’ Rule.31 Under thisrule the United States must purchase at least 80% of its narcotic raw materials fromTurkey and India. To this day, the US continues to support the Turkish opium industry through its Department of Agriculture and Drug Enforcement Agency.3 Conclusion Turkey’s successful transition from a culture of widespread, unregulated poppy cultivation to a licensed, controlled system of poppy cultivation for the production of medicines provides an interesting model for Afghanistan. Like Afghanistan, a significant sector of Turkey’s rural population made, and continues to make its living from the cultivation of poppy. In both countries, large rural communities play important roles,both politically and socially.Turkey’s transition to a system of licensed poppy cultivation was possible because all parties understood that total eradication was impracticable and only pragmatic solutions would resolve Turkey’s opium crisis. Ultimately, the solution came about with the help of the international community, and through a specific bilateral trade agreement with the United States. In a similar fashion, Afghanistan could be helped solve its opium problem through targeted development aid, technical support and the implementation of a system of licensed poppy cultivation in some of its rural areas

poppy cultivation in some of its rural areas
BUSINESS - Turkey top opium producer

Turkey’s opium poppy farms make up 54 percent of the total opium areas in the world, according to the average of the last five years’ data from the Turkish Grain Board (TMO), Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.[[[[[[ Nearly 70,000 Turkish farmers in 13 provinces are allowed to plant opium poppy and produce unscratched opium poppy capsules in a 700 million square meter area,]]]]]] a limit set by the United Nations. The global consumption of opiate, which is a chemical found naturally in the opium poppy plant and has uses for medical and scientific purposes, is nearly 350 tons per year. The largest importer of this substance, the United States, supplies 80 percent of its imports from Turkey and India.
Government-Controlled Opium Production Is Way of Life in Turkey
[ed notes:Turkish govt controlled means they are benefiting from it as is us govt..click link for whole piece,just citing few excerpts...the report mentions decades ago over 50-70 thousand turkish opium farmers,thats alot of opium (alot of money)...now im no genious but after it gained   ''special'' us licensing status and at that time(imagine at todays prices)the us adopted approach of importing 80% of it,how much was in turn distributed towards medicine, vs the (U.S. GOVT/ CIA)  heroin epidemic of the 70's- 2000's in united states cities?Turkey is possibly the U.S.'s second Colombia type colony giving it legalized access to such a  lucrative drug market(wich us and allies of course figth to monopolize)...im wondering  whos behind the turkish farmers associations in Turkey and their relations to ruling akp elites...(wish i spoke turkish),anyway on another note coca cola corporation  has a similar status regarding us Got Cocaine? Coca-Cola imports 100 tons of cocaine ingredients each year http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/06/got-cocaine-coca-cola-imports-100-tons.html   [ED NOTE:KNOWING THE HISTORY OF CIA/DEA IN DRUG RUNNIING,AND EVEN US PRESIDENTS CLOSE TIES TO DRUG SMUGGLING AND FINANCING ,YOU REALLY THINK HEADS OF COCA-COLA AND US  GOV INSIDERS WERENT/AREN'T ALSO PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTING REAL COCAINE  AND OPIUM  AFTER IMPORTING IT WHILE CLAIMING ITS ''ONLY'' FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES?

Colombia emerald czar linked to AUC massacre: Declassified US cables
US NATIONAL ARCHIVES- Lifting the Veil on Colombia's "Emerald Czar" U.S. Embassy cable from 1991 characterizes Carranza as a "big-time narco"
A notorious Colombian emerald dealer is accused of perpetrating a massacre of 12 people in southern Colombia in 1997, local media reported on Thursday.According to a declassified United States government report, Victor Carranza, also known as "The Emerald Czar" because of his control over emerald exploitation in Colombia, was accused of facilitating a massacre in Miraflores with the help of the right-wing paramilitary group AUC. The accusations in the report were backed up by a former AUC member, Fredy Rendon Herrera, alias "El Aleman," Caracol Radio reported. The U.S. report stated that a former paramilitary leader, going under the alias "Clodomiro Agami", suspiciously similar to "Clodomiro Agamez", the alias used by Carranza, "freely admitted that he and men under his command were responsible for the October, 1997 killings in Miraflores." However, the report does not explicitly state that Carranza nor Clodomiro Agamez was the mastermind.The report gets even murkier when it notes that the Colombian army, which was rife with corruption and AUC supporters at the time, allowed paramilitaries to travel to a remote airport with the intention of carrying out the killings. [ed notes;us military advisers were training colombia military under plan integrated action in meta region,with auc paramilitary members present,scene of false positive mass graves,it would be later discovered!that wa sjust in one of last theaters of us operations of course! ] The report states that "elements of the Colombian army had been fully aware in advance [of the] plans and activities in Miraflores."The massacre ended in the death of 12 people with hundreds more being displaced. The report indicated that it was an AUC-led three-day operation, with possible help from the army, to gain control of the area, generally inhabited by left-wing guerrilla supporters.This is not the first time Carranza has been accused of having ties with the AUC. According to local media, the Emerald Czar escapes conviction every time he is brought to court because witnesses get killed or threatened.

[ed notes:carranza helped finance the israhelli mercenary yair kleins training of deathsquads in Colombia,under a secret c.i.a. operation according to sentenced paramilitary leader involved in the scheme... carranza,farouk,yair kleins financiers Colombi... - THENAKEDFACTS  this is why us refuses to even ask for his arrest and extradition today![[[(why doesnt us govt prohibit his businesses from operating on global markets?where is the zionist us treasury blacklist of carranza?)]]]...anyone who pays close attention to us colombia relations,knows that us requests extraditions of major colombian paramilitaries tied to rightwing politcians in colombia who are guilty of major crimes,this of course is to hamper national proceeding wich reveal the relationship between washingtons backed elite politicians in colombia and those extradited(the extradition offers EVEN BIGGER reduced sentences,then colombias justice for peace laws and hampers deeper revelations of these connections,wich would embarass/expose and pose a risk to continual genocidal/colonial us policies in Colombia..The fact carranaza financed an israhelli mercenary is another reason why us wont dare press the issue,because yair klein had contacts and was aided thru us funded DAS agency!anyway,to sum it up.. A document from the U.S. DEA indicates that the Colombian police(under us funding and training) wanted the "emerald czar" hunting work with Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel leader who had escaped from prison in 1992 and walked fugitive. The cable, discovered by journalist Mark Bowden in his book Killing Pablo, said the National Police of Colombia was "trying to contact Victor Carranza emerald dealer in hopes of collecting information about the location of Escobar."(the hunt for pablo was a ''CIA OP''(pablos crimes were exposing and embarassing washington,who channeled major funds under guise of combatting drug trade there)...to prove that,,is fact that after pablo was killed ,us intelligence files on one of medellin cartels rising top narco traffickers, ex president(at time a local politician, senator)alvaro uribe,who later would come to power,and get full backing and support by washington!!!see.. 

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN (EX-)PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991 Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm
[ed note;i hate  articles,wich fail to mention the most pertinant and relevant facts,wich are ...the us govt is cumplicit in crimes committed by these groups,and war criminals it 
protects...heres a question..since us had these files on carranza,and his crimes ,what benefits did carranza receive under us colombia free trade agreements>?surely as one of worlds top emerald czars,im sure he benefitted greatly from shipping them to us markets!!!the fact there is no virtually no info on the emerald king and us trade and chamber of commerce dept in colombia tells me washington,was very well connected with business as usual policy,in fact why didnt us prohibit him from doing business with us markets?(wich seems to not even be reported anywhere!)

us plan mirida and mexico,the consequences... Enforced silence-Violence against journalists in Mexico
A 20 minute documentary presenting the main findings of the 2011 annual report by Article 19 on attacks against journalists and the media. Based on 50 hours of interviews with 60 journalists across 13 cities in Mexico.

Mexico bishop inspires, infuriates with activism
Mexico Bishop Inspires, Infuriates by Telling 1,000s Gathered in Stadium That Politicians are Tied to Organized Crime, Lawmakers' Attempts to Curb Money Laundering are Intentionally Weak, & New Labor Reforms are a Way to Enslave Mexican Workers.  [[[[How, Vera asked, can Mexicans follow leaders "who are the ones who have let organized crime grow, who have let criminals do what they do unpunished, because there's no justice in this country!"]]]In a nation where some clergy have been cowed into silence by drug cartels and official power, Bishop Raul Vera is clearly unafraid to speak. That makes him an important voice of dissent in a country where the Roman Catholic Church often works hand-in-hand with the powerful, and where cynicism about politics is widespread and corrosive.

[ed notes:he can expect a visit by C.I.A real soon!the war on drugs(racket) and mirida initiative are highly lucrative for us defense contractors,all of wich us politicians have stock options in and a vested interest in...his remarks wont be overlooked i assure you...he is now on the same road as arch bishop romero in el salvador,who was murdered by cia backed groups for issuing statements against those northern interests and their proxies..

Chilean Defense squares off with triad US-Colombia-Israel http://www.elciudadano.cl/2012/12/23/62059/defensa-chilena-se-cuadra-con-triada-eua-colombia-israel/

All indications are that the former interior minister doctrinaire continue a line copied from Colombia and assume the objectives of U.S. Southern Command, established for the base they built in Concon. Meanwhile, in the context of the new crisis in Gaza (Palestine) would seem appropriate that the new minister clarify its ties with Israel. And it is clear the plan will be piñerista of the Armed Forces dedicated to combating the insurgency, crime and drug trafficking, as in Mexico and Colombia.One of the worst ministers evaluated and questioned, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, on November 5 Sebastián Piñera was appointed as a starter in the Defense Ministry. The arrival of the ombudsman, known political profile / doctrinal and prone to argument-based efforts and authoritarian, raised a number of doubts and uncertainties regarding the path that will take the Ministry of Defence. With his predecessor, Andres Allamand right also, this body brought a queue of suspicion and criticism, by clear signs of subordination to foreign policy to apply in Chile, which could be considered in violation of national sovereignty.There are indications that Hinzpeter, from the hand of President Piñera, will seek to push through the so-called 'first National Security and Defence', in particular, opens the door for the military to participate in operations within the territory against national citizens of the country, to take on tasks related to fighting crime in its various forms.Also there are reports that former interior minister will end supporting the Secretary of Defense, Oscar Izurieta (former commander-in-chief, who happened to be a man of the political right and therefore agreed to work in the administration piñerista), where intention of creating an instance from Intelligence called Early Warning Plan, which would be above the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the agencies that perform this function within the Army, Navy and Air Force. This means that you would be giving priority to a superpower of Defense.Installed the idea to create the figure of a National Security Adviser, which some consider almost as a 'minister' or 'Czar' of that area, which in fact would be above civil authorities and official government FF. AA.

To all this is the high expenditure in the budget of the military institutions, the continuing veiled threats to neighboring countries, special considerations and military establishments ideological coincidence of high military commanders with the right, as shown by the political fate virtually all commanders of Army, Navy and Fach when they finish their mission in office. This obviously accommodates Rodrigo Hinzpeter.A recent image shows where could reach the ombudsman of National Renewal militancy in its management at the head of the Defense Ministry. Shortly after taking police agreed to receive the medal of "Honorary" for "his outstanding contribution to the development of the institution" as Minister of theInterior and Public Security.

The support denied citizenship-watched the polls and their decision not to bet on a nomination to Congressthat could lose some security-police gave it. On 15 November, the PDI also paid tribute, where he was given a replica of the service plate used by detectives.Hinzpeter again showed his face, which remain unchanged in Defense. He stepped over the newspaper reports, the concerns of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, of the reports of NHRIs and the latest study by the Human Rights Center at the University Diego Portales, about repression, abuses and crimes committed by members Carabineros (documented in court and led to several soldiers to be processed).He said, before the police troops formed in front of him: "You acted with stoicism and responsibility, often responding and accepting meekly and with nobility such abuse given to them ... I rebelled and I'm going to rebel, I was outraged and I'm to outrage. "All portends that this will be the tone of closeness and Defense work with the generals and admirals.

LINKS WITH ISRAEL

"A Jew will be the next interior minister and chief of staff to President-elect Piñera" headlined on occasion the Jewish News Agency. In these weeks, Israeli circles in the Israeli Embassy in Tel Aviv and the appointment of Rodrigo Hinzpeter is not to be lost.Various means have long spread the defense minister is now close to American Jewisch Committee(AJC), powerful group of influence in the United States and Latin America. A note on his profile published in the magazine Que Pasa Hinzpeter said "Study is believing Jew ... Judaism and regularly attends an Orthodox synagogue."In August last year The Citizen published an article where Matias Rojas said: "In March 2011, while President Sebastian Pinera effected his Middle East tour, a delegation of the American Jewish Committee, composed of 18 members, was received quietly in the currency Hinzpeter Minister and the ambassadors of the United States, England and Israel. Although the visit lasted three days, the national media did not cover some of what was discussed, who attended and what agreement was reached ... Hinzpeter also listed as a participant of a conference held between Latin American Jewish communities in November 2006, organized by the American Jewish Committee in Miami. The final statement available on the website of the Committee said that the representatives of the various communities "affirm their solidarity with the State of Israel in its historical legitimacy."The leader of the right-wing sector of the Jewish community in Chile, Gabriel Zaliasnik Israelite wrote in Word, which is the defense minister of "people with political leanings and interest that the cause of Israel" should be heard. Congressman Eugenio Tuma said at the time that Hinzpeter "is a militant of the Israeli cause".Itching was caused when the citizen, in his Facebook account, published on November 5 a poster which stated that Rodrigo Hinzpeter had military service in Israel and the inconvenience of someone with such background assumptions could assume the leadership of the Ministry of Chilean Defense (which drew the ire of the Jewish Community of Chile and a subsequent response of the medium through a public statement posted on their website ). Ignacio personero James wrote that "he went to Israel to do his military service to complete their secondary education, which usually lasts two years and three for those who continue their education in the casualty unit Intelligence Mossad . " The note referred to Qué Pasa,Andrés Jana, Hinzpeter personal friend, said that together were "study trip to Israel" at the time of students. Some people put on Twitter that "Hinzpeter is a Mossad agent". Hinzpeter never clarified what happened in Israel, if indeed did military service or received any type of instruction army has not denied links with the Mossad .There are strange things. As he took over as Minister of Defense, on the website of the portfolio, he published his biography and said: "Rodrigo Hinzpeter graduated from Alexander Fleming A67 Liceo"and allusion was not passing through the Hebrew Institute ...Nobody worried about the issue, moreover, could obviate the key role played by Hinzpeter, as Minister of the Interior, in the case of detention of Pakistani Saif Khan , where he put together a plot involving the CIA, a service Private security U.S. Embassy in Chile, the FBI and the PDI.
THE COLOMBIAN LEAGUE There is another issue that can not be ignored. Will Rodrigo Andrés Hinzpeter Allamand line in defense policy to assimilate military, security and intelligence of Colombia, taken at the meeting of Sebastián Piñera, Alberto Espina and Allamand himself with senior military and Colombian agents?The design devised by the far-right former President Alvaro Uribe, materialized in the Democratic Security Policy Document (PSD) which are removed thesis and visions Piñera's government introduced in the text of the First National Security Strategy and Defence by Allamand and now try and impose Hinzpeter resume.Basically, as in Colombia, which is Armed Forces to interfere in matters of internal security, fighting crime and domestic organized crime, and in the fight against violent or subversive groups. That figure includes the National Security Adviser, similar to the Security Council of Colombia, Piñera received instance, Thorn and Allamand, keeping it secret until today what was being discussed and reported. The publication Cambio21mentioned that this project "in academia is related to the Plan Colombia", the legal spearhead U.S. financial and in that nation to fight the guerrillas, narco and lead to the Colombian military . In an interview withCNN, the expert Eduardo Santos said that this whole plan is "bad copy of American reality."Piñera was more than clear on the plan they want to implement and that, so far, was arrested by the Congress. "The global context, said the president-security of all countries has changed today transcends the traditional field of defense, which is the safeguard of sovereignty, territory and the sea of ​​our country, as the emergence of new threats is that expands and extends to issues that were not traditional part of what is meant by the concept of defense and, among these new threats include arms trafficking, drug trafficking, organized crime, piracy and many more. "

Admiral Gonzalez is greeted by head of the Southern Command of the United States, John F. Kelly, during his recent visit to Chile (18 to 20 December). / Photo: Navy communications.

The armed forces stuck in those battles. As inMexico and Colombia, where today all military branches are dark and dramatic linked to corruption and crimes by participating in the "war on drugs" and organized crime.The Democratic Security Plan Uribe lies its power and operate at the Ministry of Defense and the President, the First National Security Strategy and Defense Piñera lies in the Defense Ministry and the Presidency.Both, incidentally, include increasing the budget, and as Chilean Congressmen expressed their objection to defense monies will gain $ 325 million to nearly 700 million U.S. currency, after the repeal of Law Reserved Copper.
REMEDIES AGAINST HINZPETER

The whole plan of the Ministry of Defence has objected to Rodrigo Hinzpeter will have to face, starting questioning belligerent tone against Bolivia andPeru emerged from the current administration piñerista when Jaime Andres Allamand Ravinet and occupied the chair of defense ministers.Deputy Patricio Hales clearly raised the need for "clear confusion between police work and military task" to assume the military He added emphatically: "Chile has to take care not to militarize the fight against crime." The deputy also Ricardo Rincón said "the armed forces have their role defined in the Constitution of the Republic, and in any items are assigned duties in connection with drug trafficking, human trafficking or internal security."On the Early Warning Plan sponsored by former army chief and current deputy defense secretary, Oscar Izurieta, the director of " Aainteligencia "Andrea Lodeiro, wrote that" competition has emerged to control the flow of information between the portfolio Defense and the National Intelligence Agency (ANI), a service that by law is solely responsible for exercising a coordinating role of the National Intelligence System (SIN) ". In line Allamand project, in this case, according to the specialist, opens "the way to advance a plan that would tend to militarize the system lie in defense and administration of highly sensitive information."There is a topic that questions Andera Lodeiro, but that is in tune with the doctrine Hinzpeter. "Among the points which was the tendency to overestimate declaring security strategy as 'politics of policy' and, in this context, to propose the figure of a security advisor with broad access and control over the area of ​​intelligence." Lest the minister to name former prosecutor Alejandro Peña in the post ...
Concon BASE AND DAVID PETRAEUS
Surely something that Rodrigo Hinzpeter not review and initial without more, is the permanence of the U.S. military base in the town of Concon. As reported in the article by Mauricio Becerra in these pages ( No. 123, April 2012 ), the military unit is in the Fuerte Aguayo, and despite being formally assigned to taskspeacekeepers UN dependency control and operation responds to the Southern Command of the United States. Everything was tuned and done with a handshake former Defense Minister Andres Allamand and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
Uruguayan political analyst Raul Zibechi said on October 8 in Punta del Este, in the tenth Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, Panetta "faced with several defense ministers of UNASUR, but had the enthusiastic support of Chile -who was in charge of raising the proposals previously negotiated with thePentagon - and from Colombia, South American allies. He could not prevent Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia,Ecuador, Nicaragua, Suriname and Venezuela refused to accept a system of "humanitarian" military coordinated, while Guyana and Uruguay abstained ". This role of 'spokesman U.S. interests in Latin America', as evidenced in the interview that the citizen was performed in August 2010 to Juan Emilio Cheyre, former commander in chief of the Chilean Army (2002-2006). The Director of the Center for International Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, said, "The Unasur, so far, is a statement of intent. To be successful you need [...] something very important, not having a vision of confrontation with other relevant agencies. The Unasur I do not see to replace the OAS. The OAS is the only forum in America where we sat with the United States and Canada. Consider having illegitimate covenants without the United States and Canada. "

tomb reads:
reserved for victims
of us intervention
in Colombia

International network in Solidarity with Colombia’s Political Prisoners (INSPP) Statement on the Colombian Peace Process http://afgj.org/inspp-statement-on-the-colombian-peace-process 

The International network in Solidarity with Colombia’s Political Prisoners (INSPP) joins the outcry of the majority of the people for peace and, as part of the social movement that has been key to this process, salutes the dialogue between the FARC-EP and the Colombian government to establish the bases upon which to put an end to 60 years of political, social and armed conflict that continues in the country.The INSPP is comprised of national and international organizations that work for the immediate release of all the political prisoners of war and of conscience held in the nation’s prisons or abroad, realizing that they are the result of the internal armed conflict, of the application of state terrorism, the persecution and criminalization of social protest.The interference of the US in the national prison system, the illegal nature of the extradition ofColombian citizens and the gifting of national territory to multinational companies violate national sovereignty and put at risk the sustainability of a lasting, democratic peace.More than 11,000 political prisoners in Colombia, subjected to every type of physical and procedural torture, are crammed into the jails of the so-called System of High and Medium Penitentiaries and Prisons (EPCAMS), which is inspired in its concept of high security by the US. Additionally, insurgentcombatants have been sent to the US, ignoring their status as political prisoners of war, given absurd sentences and imprisoned in undignified conditions violating their basic rights as in the cases of Simon Trinidad, Sonia and Ivan Vargas of the FARC-EP.The INSPP struggles for the immediate release of all the political prisoners. In the specific case ofSimon Trinidad, we join the call to President Obama and the government of Colombia for theirintercession aimed at making possible his participation in the discussions in Havana.A peace process without a truce, an insurgent negotiating commission with restricted mobilization andthe escalation of military operations on the part of the government exacerbates the social conflict and
crisis. For this reason we consider that the unilateral truce decreed by the FARC-EP during the
Christmas period must be welcomed by the government and guaranteed during the whole process of
negotiation. Dialogue accompanied by a durable ceasefire and humanitarian accords such as the
freeing of all the political prisoners may open the doors to a negotiated political solution and the
structural transformations that allow the elimination of the objective causes of the conflict.
The recent condemnation of the insurgency on the part of the International Criminal Court (ICC),
which passed over the criminal atrocities of paramilitaries acting as part of the establishment, the
demonization of the insurgency by the official press, the bellicose displays of the Minister for Defense,the Fascist positions of Uribe, the condemnation in every sphere of what are said to be the crimes against humanity carried out by the FARC-EP with complicit silence regarding the crimes of state terrorism and the manipulation of the position of the Indigenous peoples are not at all by chance. On the contrary, they are the conscious contradiction that seeks nationalist support for the war and asmoke screen in the plan approved by the military to legitimize impunity and once again protect the perpetrators. We firmly believe that mass participation by the people through their grass-rootsorganizations can impose upon the short-sightedness of the warmongers and the opportunisticpragmatism of the government.We support and join the deeper analysis of the agrarian question. Without resolving the problem ofland, there will be neither peace nor social justice. On the contrary, the food crisis will become moreacute, as will displacement, inequality and dependency and once again, as happened during the last century, dispossession will become legitimized. Colombia is the country with the second highest rateof internal displacement in the world, after Sudan. Ten per cent of the population has abandoned their land for lack of possibilities. In spite of the confessions of some of the paramilitaries and General
Santoyo, Uribe’s head of security for four years, who admitted to working with the ‘Oficina de
Envigado’, from where thousands of Colombians were assassinated or burned in crematory fires, theColombia state remains immune to its political responsibility for such grave crimes.A comprehensive agrarian reform, in spite of the opposition of landowners and the Federation of Cattle Owners (FEDEGAN), justice, truth and economic and moral reparations to the victims are keyelements for peace in Colombia and we don’t believe that gifting territory and its natural resources tomining or bio-fuel transnational corporations will generate peace or social justice.Seeking to exclude matters such as mining and energy policy or military doctrine from the negotiationsis an outrage. The growing allocation of national territory (40% in 2008) by means of concessions tothe mining and energy transnationals of which 52% are Canadian, creates irreparable environmentaldamage and exacerbates the grave humanitarian crisis and the crisis of human rights that have alreadyreached intolerable levels.The counter-insurgent war, financed and aided by the US and the free trade agreements signed by Colombia with Canada, the USA and the European Union that provides strong protection of foreign investment is nothing more than a declaration of war against the people. The growth in activity of the mining and energy sectors corresponds to an increase in violations of human rights according to various studies. Examples of this are the popular struggles, the demands of workers and the cases of repression and displacement of projects like the “Pacific Rubiales” and the “Gran Colombia Gold/Medoro Resources” at Marmato.The INSPP calls on the international community to mobilize for a political solution to the conflict, forthe structural changes and the democratization of political spaces for peace with social justice.

[ed notes:also read... "New Penitentiary Culture": US Designs for Colombian Jails Colombia's Political Prisoners - NicaNet

9/11 flying teacher faces drug charges

AP, Dec 17 2012

The ex-owner of the Florida flight school where two of the 9/11 hijackers learned to fly has been ordered jailed without bond after he was arrested in Houston on drug trafficking charges. Rudi Dekkers is charged with two drug conspiracy counts. Court documents show he was nabbed Dec 2 in a federal drug sting while representing an international drug trafficker. A federal complaint says that after meetings and lengthy surveillance, Dekkers was found in possession of about 40 pounds of cocaine and about two pounds of heroin. The Dutch national is held without bond as a serious flight risk. Dekkers formerly owned the Florida flight school where investigators say Mohamed Atta and Marwan el Shehhi learned to fly.

Colombia Watch- Former anti-narcotics chief faces corruption charges
Carlos Albornoz, the former director of Colombia's anti-narcotics agency, faces conspiracy, embezzlement and malfeasance charges, the Prosecutor General's office announced on Friday.Prosecutors ordered the arrest of Albornoz on charges related to the disposal of dozens of business assets seized from mafia bosses. According to local media, the charges also claim that Albornoz ordered the liquidation of a business for which he had no authorization.Albornoz will be charged with administrative irregularities including the appointment of Camilo Bula, the former head of liquidations at the National Anti-narcotics Agency, who is is under investigation for the "liquidation" of businesses that allegedly continued to function in the hands of friends and associates. Albornoz is a former senator and an important political figure in Nariño. He held the post at the anti-narcotics agency from 2006 until 2009.

[ed notes:the former director of anti narcotics agency(an agency wich received funds and  us govt assistance),was former pres. war criminal and narco trafficker Uribes appointment of course.... http://web.presidencia.gov.co/fotos/2009/junio/19/foto2.html

President Alvaro Uribe greets Carlos Albornoz, director of Narcotics, at the beginning of the meeting that was held on Friday at the Presidential Palace, where they met the results of monitoring of illicit coca crops for 2008, presented by the Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Aldo Lale-Demoz.

Banks Are “Where the Money Is” in the Drug War
Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wachovia (acquired by Wells Fargo in 2009), HSBC Holdings,ING Bank, Standard Chartered, American Express Bank International, and not a few others, have a common bond beyond ranking among the largest banks in the world.All have been accused within the past five years (and several this year) of failing to comply with US anti-money laundering laws — thereby enabling, collectively, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of suspicious transactions to move through the banking system absent adequate monitoring or oversight.Yet not one these banks, nor any of their top executives, has been hit with criminal sanctions.All, with the exception of Britain’s HSBC (which is still under investigation), have agreed to pay fines for their alleged transgressions after being served cease-and-desist orders or have entered into so-called deferred-prosecution pacts — under which a lender agrees to pay a fine and to comply with the law going forward in exchange for dismissal of all charges at the end of a specified government monitoring period.But again, not one bank has been charged with a crime nor have any top executives been forced to do the perp walk, bound by handcuffs, in front of the adoring media throng.Imagine if you or I were pulled over by the cops while transporting in the trunk of our car even $10,000 in bills that traced back to individuals suspected of being involved in illegal activities, such as narco-trafficking. What are the odds that we would walk away with only a traffic ticket? Read more ? [ed note:this is just preface to expose,click read more link for rest...

Colombian Military and a Local Businessman Agree to Build a Base on Stolen Land [1] ILO Convention 169, Law 70 of 1993, etc. etc.
The Colombian army is building a base in Llano Rico, one of Curvaradó’s 23 communities. The government is supposed to consult the members of the community before doing so in order to take into account the impacts of the base’s construction on the collective territory of Curvaradó.[1] Instead of consulting the rightful owners of the territory—the black community of Curvaradó—the military consulted Darío Montoya, a businessman that illegally occupies the territory. Mr. Montoya willfully consented to the construction of the military base on a plot of land that belongs to the Afro-Colombian community. The community’s complaints to government officials fell on deaf ears, and construction continues. Members of the community are not necessarily opposed to the military’s presence, but they do want the military to respect Colombia’s Constitution. The communities wonder why the government is building a military base while it is supposedly promoting peace. Concerns of ties between the military and paramilitaries are still valid. The community demands protection around its perimeter, but that does not require the construction of a base that will increase the impacts of the armed conflict in its territory. A free, prior, and informed consultation is the proper way to discuss these concerns, but it never happened.History is a clear indicator that neither the government nor business interests are interested in consulting the communities. The government feels more comfortable negotiating with political and economic elites that are more amenable to their plans for “progress” and “development” (hence the conspicuous deal with Mr. Montoya).

International Verification Commission warns of a possible paramilitary slaughter in Lower Atrato http://justiciaypazcolombia.com/Comision-internacional-de-6055 Responding to the request of the Community of Santa Rosa del Limón to verify related harm Jiguamiandó plugging and impact of unauthorized works company Maderas del Darién on structural issues of territory, the International Verification Commission held, between 27 and 29 November 2012, a visit to the Curvaradó, Jiguamiandó Lemon and Santa Rosa.The situations underscore the complaint could state permanent communities about the possibilities that these new situations arising will result in forced displacement. We identified the following facts, which are considered particularly serious circumstances:The mission received direct testimony that report the presence of paramilitary forces in the area. Threats are reported. Particularly worrisome is the presence of about twenty paramilitary camouflage uniforms and rifles, identified as Autodefensas Gaitanistas of Colombia (AGC). The paramilitaries are occupying civilian homes in Guamo. The Commission heard testimony from a representative of the community that paramilitaries are planning a slaughter in the area.At the same time we have seen the construction of a military base in Llano Rico, Curvaradó. According to sources, the construction began in September 2012. There was no prior consultation Curvaradó communities, but according to testimony received agreed with Mr. Dario Montoya, bad faith occupant of that property. Several members of the community councils who spoke to the Commission expressed deep concern over the construction, noting that there are still links between paramilitaries in the area and the military forces.
In Bijao communities and New Union, and Mancilla peguita basin, several families are threatened if they return  back to their territory. This situation occurs after your requirements have been neglected by the competent state institutions, including the National Land Restitution. Families reported being attacked and driven from their homes by workers Administrator Juan Guillermo Gonzales Moreno, who has had close relations with paramilitaries and was imprisoned for it, as recorded in public media. With respect to illicit crops in areas of the community of Santa Rosa Limon Sandy Area, which was verified by the International Mission in March of this year, the community complained that the same people are still farming, harvesting and coca processing under the supervision of paramilitary forces, armed forces without regular army taking effective measures, which is worrisome for the obvious risks they pose to the community. Signed at Rio Sucio, on November 30, 2012 Katío Association (Spain)
Mensen met een Missie (Netherlands) France Amerique Latine (France) Ethics Commission
Colombia Land Rights Monitor (USA) Kolko - Colombia Human Rights (Germany) Dr. Stephen Haymes De Paul University (USA) Ethics Commission

[ed note: also see..The Impact of the U.S.-Colombia FTA on Afro-Colombian Territories ...

Seasons of Self Delusion: Opium, Capitalism and the Financial Markets
 Jarius won the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2011 for his book Theory as History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation.

Colombian Army Officers Implicated in Killings to be Promoted

Recent US news has been flooded with stories of generals David Petraeus and John Allen, both involved in what is perceived as improper conduct. The scandals cost Gen. Petraeus his position as head of the CIA and Allen’s promotion to command US troops in Europe. The speedy strict consequences in both cases contrast with the fate of four Colombian army officers who, despite their involvement in outrageous crimes, have been chosen for promotion. That is the case of Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Espinosa Beltran and Lieutenant Alejandro Jaramillo, who participated in the February 2005 San José de Apartadó Peace Community massacre. Jaramillo was even sentenced to 34 years in prison for murder by an appeals court last June.Officers chosen for promotionOther officers to be promoted to general include Emiro Barrios Jiménez and Jorge Navarrete Jadeth, who paid a thousand dollar booty for the extrajudicial killings of two civilians in Manizales (Caldas), one of the cases known as “false positives,” the killing of unarmed civilians to bolster the officers’ body counts.We learned about these cases from human rights defenders Jorge Molano and German Romero, who represent the victims in both cases. Both have received death threats, presumably due to their efforts to halt these promotions. In Molano’s view, promoting the officers amounts to “protection of those who are responsible for crimes, an invitation to emulate those actions, and a threat to the victims. It puts in doubt the seriousness of [Colombia’s] human rights policy.”The San José de Apartadó 2005 massacre

Victims of February 2005 massacre. Photos: Susana PimientoDuring the first week of February 2005, the Colombian Army was trying to recover from an ambush by FARC leftist guerrillas that resulted in 18 soldiers dying, an episode known as El Porroso, in Mutata (Antioquia). The army’s response was Operation Fenix, a joint military-paramilitary operation, carried out by troops of the Army’s 17th Brigade, along with over one hundred men belonging to the Heroes of Tolova death squads, a paramilitary group that had sown terror in the region for over a decade. Fenix was conceived by then-commander of Second Division, General Mario Montoya, and a group of high officials, including General Héctor Fandiño, the head of the 17th Brigade and the commander of the Velez Battalion - and currently a candidate for promotion - Colonel Orlando Espinosa Beltran.For five days, from February 18 to 22, the Army and death squads patrolled the San José region. Jaramillo commanded one of the platoons thatparticipated in the operation, which carried out one of the most brutal massacres of the last decade in the Colombian armed conflict. Among those killed were not only charismatic Peace Community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra, but three children (Diener, 11, Natalia, 6 and 18-month-old Santiago were chopped in pieces with machetes.

The cruelty of the massacre caused an international uproar and demand for justice and accountability. But in a country in which 98% of the crimes against civilians go unpunished, the Peace Community massacre proved no exception. Seven years later, despite mountains of evidence of how the operation was planned and carried out with collective Army participation, only a couple low-ranking officers have been convicted. Proceedings against higher-ranking officers, such as Generals Montoya and Fandiño, which require action by Colombia’s Prosecutor General, have been stalled for years in their preliminary phase. The generals haven’t even been requested to give a deposition, much less charged with any crime.Mid-ranking officers, including Espinosa and Jaramillo, were prosecuted and acquitted by a lower court in 2010. Last June, an appeals court confirmed the acquittal of Colonel Espinosa Beltran and other soldiers. The appeals court found four officers, including Alejandro Jaramillo, guilty of homicide and conspiracy, and sentenced them to 34 years each. Incredibly, to this day, the military has not even requested Jaramillo to report to serve his sentence. He continues his life as a free man and active duty officer.False Positives in Manizales On March 17, 2008, the head of the 8th Brigade, with headquarters in the coffee growing town of Manizales in Caldas state, Colonel Emiro Barrios Jimenez, and his deputy commander, Colonel Jorge Navarrete Jadeth, signed a receipt for a bounty paid to a civilian for information that lead to “the killing in combat of two (2) unidentified terrorists, male, allegedly members to criminal bands in the service of drug traffickers,” which took place on February 8, 2008.A planned military operation took the lives of Darbey Mosquera (23) and Alex Ramirez (31). José Didier Marín’s life was spared: when his turn came to be shot, the soldier’s rifle jammed and Marín was able to escape. Marin became a witness under protection.

As with many other “false positive” cases, the three victims were recruited by a deception in their hometown Pradera, in Valle state, transported to another town, Pereira and then, in taxi, taken to Java, on the outskirts of Manizales, where army officers were expecting to kill them, plant weapons on them, and report them as killed in combat.

None of them were members of a criminal band, as the army reported. The three men were desperate for money, had a history of problems with the law and were contacted by an army soldier with the offer of a good paying job, a blackmailing operation. According to Human Rights Colombia, they fit the profile for the ideal victim of extrajudicial killings: “They were perfect bait to be presented as combatants. Their problems with the law would guarantee that they would be unlikely to be missed once they were killed.”In March 2012, a lower court in Manizales sentenced seven low-ranking Army officers to 42 and 43 years each for the extrajudicial killings of Darbey Mosquera and Alex Ramirez. Proceedings against the soldiers’ commanding officers, including Barrio Jimenez, have not gotten beyond an initial deposition.Bleak Prospects for Justice in ColombiaAs mentioned above, Colombia has a 98% impunity record for serious human rights violations. Recent legal reforms to the judicial system, made in the framework of peace talks between the Colombian government and the leftist FARC guerrillas to end the five decade armed conflict, would have the effect of only exacerbating this bleak scenario.On June 19, the Colombian Congress approved the Legal Framework for Peace, opening the door to a transitional justice system that would be applied to the guerrilla combatants and army soldiers. The law prioritizes cases against those most responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes; conditionally dismisses all other cases; and suspends selected sentences. Among the beneficiaries of the suspension of selected sentences would likely be the very few top army officers who have ever been sentenced to lengthy sentences for serious crimes, thanks to the arduous effort of human rights defenders.Such victories can be counted with one hand and include, General Rafael Uscategui, sentenced to 40 years for the Mapiripan massacre; General Rito Alejo del Rio, head of the 17th Brigade and sentenced to 25 years for the brutal killing of a Marino Lopez Mena, an Afro-Colombian leader, in a joint military-paramilitary operation in the Urabá region; and, most notably, Colonel Jorge Plazas Vega, sentenced to 30 years for the disappearance of 11 persons in connection with the military’s retaking of the Palace of Justice in November 1985. Senate president and author of the bill, Roy Barreras, in a June 5 radio interview, conceded that the sentence of any army officer for a crime in the framework of the armed conflict, including Plazas Vega, could be terminated.Human rights defenders paid a steep price to achieve Plazas Vegas’ conviction: human rights lawyer Eduardo Umaña, who represented some of the victims of the case, was slain in 1998. Jorge Molano and German Romero have continued his work. Prosecutor Angela Buitrago lost her job, and the judge that convicted Plazas Vega, Stella Jara, received so many threats that she was forced into exile shortly after issuing the ruling.Another bill making its way through the Colombian Congress is a constitutional amendment that would send cases of human rights violations - including war crimes - to military jurisdiction. The bill, which has already passed six of the eight debates required for a constitutional amendment, has stirred an outcry in the Colombian and international human rights community. In an unprecedented move, eleven United Nations special rapporteurs and working groups sent a an open letter on October 22 to the Colombian Government and Congress stating that “such a reform would represent a historic setback to the progress achieved by the State of Colombia in the fight against impunity and respect and guarantee of human rights” and urged “the Government of Colombia and the Congress to seriously reconsider this constitutional reform project.” Three weeks later, over 230 organizationsissued a call to the Colombian government to withdraw the bill.

The Colombian Senate partially gave in to international pressure, expanding the list of crimes that would be excluded from military jurisdiction. The House version only included genocide, forced disappearances and crimes against humanity, which in itself excludes anything that is not systematic. The Senate sponsors of the bill submitted a report that added to the list extrajudicial executions, sexual crimes, forced displacement and torture. Still outside the civilian courts, are the crimes highlighted by the UN in its open letter, “arbitrary detention; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; and other violations such as violence against the person and mutilation; taking of hostages; outrages upon personal dignity, including humiliating treatment; and the obligation to treat persons taking no active part in the hostilities humanely in all circumstances, without any distinction on grounds of ethnicity, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria, prohibited by virtue of common article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.”The fact that both bills are being debated or have been passed in the framework of the ongoing talks between the FARC and the government makes them especially problematic. Undoubtedly, after five decades of war, Colombians yearn for peace, but nevertheless, whether peace can be achieved without justice continues to be a valid question. That is the big challenge for any transitional justice system.Furthermore, for a society that strives for reconciliation, the requirements to achieve such a goal acquire a new sense of urgency. As Ivan Cepeda so movingly articulated in his April 2011 speech in which he forgave the killing of his father, the elements needed for such reconciliation are justice, truth, reparation and a guarantee that the events will not re-ocurr.

 Read more…
[ed notes:also read..  
Even Those who Chose Peace Suffer in this War Zone  International Court Investigates Colombia for “False Positive” Killings

Colombians living in fear as battle for control rages around them ...In October 2011 US president Barack Obama signed the US-Colombia free trade agreement (FTA) that saw 80 per cent of US consumer and industrial exports become duty free overnight. A supposedly protective labour action plan was implemented in April 2011 but since it has been in place, a reported 38 trade union workers have been murdered.Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos says the deal will bring in some 100,000 jobs a year but some experts feel the huge influx of capital can only bring more carnage.“Large-scale development projects are tied to the root causes of violence or directly tied to violence. Our biggest concern with the FTA is that the paramilitary structures have not been dealt with and that the violence will increase,” says Gimena Sánchez, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America.In Buenaventura the pressure is already mounting, with the expedited expansion of the port and a mooted tourism project on the water’s edge threatening to bulldoze neighbourhoods such as La Inmaculada and La Playita and displace more than 17,000 families.
In places such as Caloto, Corinto and Suarez, life seems almost pedestrian, but since a paramilitary upsurge around 1998, this region has seen incredible terror. In the years which followed, the Cauca river became known as “the cemetery”.People were often dismembered alive with chainsaws and thrown into the waterways, or beheaded in town squares to spread panic. The land vacated when people fled this type of horror then became fair game.High above Suarez, at La Toma, community council leaders Francia Márquez and Lisifrey Ararat are fighting tooth and nail to save their historic village, home to an Afro-Colombian gold mining community since 1636. Here, locals use the same methods practised by their ancestors to mine the hills by hand. Now, they are caught in the middle of a three-way war between the guerrillas, the army and the paramilitaries.A decade ago, when the government began granting mining concessions in the municipality to outside investors, Colombian and multinational corporations took notice. In the years that followed, 35 new concessions were granted locally, ignoring a prior community consultation process guaranteed under Colombian law. Then the eviction notices came.‘Social cleansing’ When La Toma protested, the paramilitaries moved in. Death threats and promises of “social cleansing” from the Águilas Negras followed; on April 7th, 2010, armed men at nearby Alto Ovejas massacred eight miners.Attempts to evict 1,300 families at La Toma were most recently thwarted in April of last year, after locals took a case to the Colombian constitutional court. The new licences were suspended as they had not adhered to prior consultation, but locals fear the breathing space is temporary.Though it is widely accepted that under Santos genuine efforts have been made to address past human rights abuses, people here are still wary of an army which worked brazenly with the paramilitaries for so long. In Caloto, Col John Mesa’s 14th mobile brigade has seen heavy fighting with the guerrillas. Although he cannot ignore the past, he says the military respects human rights.“Maybe some cases are real,” he says of the accusations.“I cannot be sure because I have never participated. This is an army that has received the most rigorous human rights training in the world.”Márquez and Ararat scoff at the notion of a benevolent military and, like the terrorised locals in Buenaventura, they do not feel peace talks will improve their situation.“The government wants to open the door for multinationals and create more misery and displacement and death in our communities,” says Márquez.“We don’t have much hope for this process here. There is no hope at all.”In the 1980s, the construction of the giant Salvajina Dam in the valley below displaced a large number of families. Many moved to higher ground at La Toma, with others destined for a life of misery in urban slums.They have learned a hard lesson, they say. Peace or no peace, there will be no more moving. “These lands are our life, mining is our life,” La Toma’s leaders are agreed. “We have said as a community that we’ll leave these territories, but only when we are dead.”With millions across Colombia living on some of the most sought-after land in the world, the view is widespread that communities in the crosshairs are little more than an afterthought at the talks.“Neither side is telling the truth,” they say at the PCN office in Buenaventura.“Our struggle is about fairness. We live off our own work and the things that we produce in our territories. They just want to exploit the resources. They represent their own economic interests.”

[ed notes;colonel john mesas argument that colombias army has received the most rigorous human rights training in world is orwellian double speak..if by human rights training he means training in counterinsurgency operations thru military advisers and leaders trained at school up assassins at fort benning usa,then sure yes,they have been well trained,in everything from extrajudicial assassinations to eradicating peasant resistance to an exploitative preditory system wich has plundered and mobilized to expropriate their lands for decades..as far as  human rights are concerned,please this is same army who after false positive scandals broke out,threw clown parties for soldiers and their families involved in the process  Clowns, Aromatherapy and Suckling Pig for the 46 Soldiers Charged with ‘False Positives’  A day for the “false positives” suspects   ...anyway also see.. NGO: 'Alarming' link between US aid and 'false positives' - Colombia ... Plan Colombia 101  http://www.cipcol.org/?cat=41