The commander of the Colombian army has abruptly resigned in a widening scandal over reports of the widespread murders of civilians by the military. General Mario Montoya announced his resignation Nov. 4, just five days after President Uribe fired 27 senior military officers—including three generals—all under investigation for their roles in the systematic killing of civilians. The officers reportedly organized the murder program to inflate rebel body counts in order to secure military promotion.
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On Oct. 7, Uribe announced the discovery of the remains of 19 men in an unmarked grave in Soacha Cundinamarca. He claimed the bodies belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and were guerillas killed in combat with the Colombian army.
Immediately, the families of the victims denounced the report as a flagrant lie. Most of the victims had gone missing only days earlier. They were all found dead wearing army fatigues and brand new army boots. The practice is called a “false positive”—an euphemism for the killing of civilians by the military, who are then presented as guerrillas with planted weapons or uniforms.
The massacre has unleashed investigations of similar cases throughout the country. Between July 2002 and June 2007, there were at least 1,122 cases of civilian deaths at the hands of the Colombian army. This is nearly three times the number just five years prior. More alarming yet are the 535 cases of “false positives” reported from January 2007 to June 2008, nearly one victim per day.
The cases often involve coordination between paramilitary forces and drug cartels to find victims for the military. Homeless and unemployed young men or impoverished street vendors make ideal targets. Some victims have reportedly even been kidnapped from neighboring countries.
Ex-paramilitary Daniel Alfonso Guerra Ruiz stated in an interview that he was contracted by Roberto Carlos Lopez Vega, a soldier in the Colombian army, to find seven ideal victims. Many of the family members reported the death of those victims only hours after they had left their homes to find work. As in other such cases, most of the victims were found with brand new army boots, and only one shot to the body. As in other such cases, army records of the supposed “combat battles” are completely inconsistent with both the manner and times in which the victims died.
Killings of union organizers, indigenous leaders, left-wing politicians, and other progressives are routine in Colombia. More union leaders are assassinated in Colombia than anywhere else in the world.
For over 40 years, “false positives” have been commonly recorded. However, the Democratic Security plan created by Uribe takes state violence to a whole new level, offering soldiers incentives to execute civilians. Under this policy, army officials are compensated with promotions, medals, monetary rewards, vacations and government favors for the effective killing of guerillas—or anybody they can pass for one.
From the government’s perspective, the policy’s usefulness as a counterinsurgency instrument is twofold. It not only targets actual guerrillas, it also instills fear and terror in the civilian population.
Democratic Security is only one small facet of the much larger Plan Colombia, Washington’s multi-billion-dollar counterinsurgency program. The plan uses Colombia’s military, in collusion with right-wing paramilitary forces, to fight as U.S. proxies in their long and brutal war against Colombian revolutionaries so that the country remains subject to U.S. corporate interests.
As Venezuela’s revolutionary process took off and progressive governments ascended in Bolivia and Ecuador, the regional geostrategic importance of Colombia as a U.S. garrison state grew exponentially. Washington has turned to the reactionary Uribe government to counterbalance the shift to the left in Latin America. Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez have clashed several times over regional issues. Colombia’s aggressive moves, including an airstrike carried out within Ecuador’s airspace, have made the threat of a military confrontation all too real.
U.S. support for the murderous Colombian state exposes its utter contempt for human rights. The Washington-Bogotá partnership is a threat to Latin American self-determination and sovereignty. End the war against Colombia’s peasants and workers! Hands off Latin America!
