Protest Georgetown U's honoring of Colombia's Uribe
From SOA Wacth, Sept. 2:
Keep Colombian Ex-President Alvaro Uribe out of Georgetown and send him packing to La Picota prison in Colombia!
Georgetown University has recently announced that former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe will be named a "distinguished scholar in the practice of global leadership," and will soon begin giving seminars at the university's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS). Uribe has said it is a "great honor" for him, and that his "greatest wish and happiness is to contribute in the continuous emergence of future leaders."
Uribe's 8-year tenure in Colombia was rife with corruption, human rights violations and widespread impunity. In a letter in June to the White House, Human Rights Watch expressed "serious concerns" about the Uribe administration's record on and commitment to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
More than 3 million Colombians (out of a population of about 40 million) have been forced to flee their homes, giving Colombia the second-largest population of internally displaced persons in the world after Sudan.
More than 70 members of the Colombian Congress are under criminal investigation or have been convicted for allegedly collaborating with the paramilitaries. Nearly all these congresspersons are members of President Uribe's coalition in Congress, and the Uribe administration repeatedly undermined the investigations and discredited the Supreme Court justices who started them.
Colombia has the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world.
A clandestine gravesite of 2,000 non-identified bodies was recently discovered directly beside a military base in La Macarena, in central Colombia. When the news became public, Uribe flew to the Macarena and said publicly that accusing the armed forces of human rights abuses was a tactic used by the guerrilla. These comments put the lives of those victims who spoke at the event in grave danger.
Starting in 2008, reports came out that the Colombian military was luring poor young men from their homes with promises of employment, then killing them and presenting them as combat casualties. The practice not only served to stack battle statistics, but also financially benefited the soldiers involved, as Uribe's government had, since 2005, awarded monetary and vacation bonuses for each insurgent killed. Human rights groups cite 3,000 or more "false positives".
For more information on Uribe and human rights violations, click:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/26/colombia-obama-should-press-uribe-rights
Students, community activists and religious leaders have already spoken out against
the university's decision, and will be planning actions of protest for this fall.
Take action NOW, by signing this letter to Georgetown University President, Mr. John
J. DeGioia:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4711
See our last posts on Colombia, the paramilitary terror and the legacy of Álvaro Uribe.
Uribe is the best thing that has ever happened to Colombia.
Personally I don't even know where to start with my comments.
All I can say is that I'm pretty sure the majority of you do not even have the slightest clue where Colombia even is never mind what it has been like to live here in the last 20-30 years.
Alvaro Uribe is by a real frigin long shot, the best thing ever to have happened to this country.
The links in your post with incredibly politically weighted statistics are laughable to say the least.
I really think there are much better things to be protesting than the visit of one of the strongest and best supported leaders of any country at this moment in time (albeit ex leader).
You really really need to get your facts and figures right before spouting any more of this drivvel, and protest placards.
Uribe is the best thing that has ever happened to Colombia.
If you want to stick your nose into Colombia's business get down here and see it for yourself instead of hiding behind shitty t-shirts, and protest placards. Better still talk to any Colombian (I'm sure there must be some students in the University).
You really have got your shit all twisted here I'm afraid folks.
Regards,
Brit in Colombia
Another war criminal fan heard from
You accuse us of inaccuracy, but fail to say what "facts and figures" you are taking issue with.
We mentioned nothing about t-shirts or protest placards. We did, however, link to a page from Human Rights Watch, which has also had some rather unpleasant things to say about Hugo Chávez—making it unlikely that they are a part of some left-wing anti-Uribe conspiracy.
Speaking for myself, I have traveled nearly throughout Colombia, and got too close for comfort to FARC, paramilitaries and government troops alike. In my admittedly limited experience, the government troops were the scariest.
Another view on Uribe
You may say wathever you've heard or read. It does not prove anything. This is the reality as I PERSONALLY perceive it living in colombia:
-Uribe has has made a very big progress in overall national security while stategically attacking and reducing the guerrilla(subversive) groups: Farc, ELN etc...
-Uribe has repeatedly declared war on "terrosist subversive/guerrilla groups" but has failed to include or even admit the Paramilitary forces into that category. Therefore his self-stated main achievement is incomplete. (Paramiliraties have been responsable for some of the biggest massacres in America since the mid 90's)
-Many of his closest political coleagues/helpers have been involved in ilegal activities involving Paramilitary's help for campaign financing. Some of his family members are also involved in this type of situation, including his cousin, who is required in extradition by the authorities.
-The displacement rates rised while a wide section of the altantic region that used to serve as farmlands for natives and small-production farmers are now entitled to politicians involved with Paramilitaries, family and friends of Uribe. There is a current bill looking forward to give these lands back to their original owners, but it has recieved hash criticism from the Conservative(Republican) Party, which basically consists of Uribe followers.
-Although the overall sensation in the country is the one of a more peaceful country than that one before Uribe, the huge investments made into war against guerrilla has translated into a financial deficit and lack of investment in social areas as education, healthcare, retirement funds and infrastructure.
-The life-cost dramatically rised and the overall economy sunk while alltime big economic groups declared having a positive balance. These big economic groups, whose main activity is exporting, make the biggest economical transactions in Colombia and therefore are able to dictate the official economic statistics(growth) but in no way represent the real life-style or trends in internal economy. Its surpluss reaches less than 3% of the population and the method used by Uribe to assure those positive numbers was: spendding money from the nation's account for buying millions of dollars on a daily basis to prevent the dollar from dropping(even more) in order to heal the trading currency.
-Uribe left the precidency leaving behind a trail of felonies and scandals that are still under investigation, being one of those comparable(or worse than) to Watargate. Where he used the national intelligence DAS (FBI-equivalent) to spy on his political opositors and their families (kids included)
you are so right!!Mr.Uribe
you are so right!!Mr.Uribe is the best thing that has happened to Colombia!!!!!!Mr Uribe thanks for everything you have done in Colombia!!!!most of the colombians support you!!!!!!!
Juan montreal.