Jeremias de Castero – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
A recent discovery of a mass gravesite in the village of La Macarena, in the Colombian Department of Meta – a region that has been under contestation between the government and the guerrillas – has shed more light on the violence in Colombian society.
Approximately 2,000 bodies are buried in this grave, according to a February 10, 2010 letter issued by Alexandra Valencia Molina, the director of a government agency tasked to investigate government corruption.
The gravesite, located just outside a Colombian military base, is certain to have only been established after the guerrillas had left the area. This suggests that the Colombian military are the ones responsible for the bodies.
The mass grave, another in a long line of human rights atrocities committed by past governments of Colombia, is part of the ongoing ‘false positives’ scandal. ‘False positive’ is the term used for the killing of unarmed civilians by the Colombian military, and than after dressing the civilians up like guerillas, both the military and the government claim that the civilians were killed in combat. These horrendous crimes are part of a long list of outrages perpetuated by Colombia’s governments, and are not limited to the past decade of President Alvaro Uribe’s rule alone.
Other current scandals include the parapolitical scandal, wherein 65 senators and members of congress, mainly connected with the political parties supporting Uribe but including the Colombian Liberal and Conservative parties, were found to be involved with the paramilitary death squads, (29 of the 65 are now in jail), and the general system of state and capital corruption.
The government of Canada continues to push forward the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Accord (FTA). Meanwhile, the Obama-led US government has intensified the militarization of the region, with 600 military personnel in the country and the establishment of seven new military bases.
The majority of neither Colombians nor Canadians will benefit from the trade deal. The search for profit and the securing of geo-political interests are the main reasons for the FTA. The Canada-Colombia FTA is being built on mass graves by the bloody hands of big businesses and governments.
Working-class Canadians must say NO! to the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
