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--- heikki sipil� <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >From: Global Community Centre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Date: January 17, 2000 7:45 PM
> >Subject: Global News Online #11
> >
> >
> >
> >This article, taken from the Fall/Winter 1999 issue
> of
> >�CovertAction Quarterly�, is part of Global
> Community
> >Centre's "News On Line" service.
> >
> >
> >Crossroads Of War and Biodiversity:
> >CIA, Cocaine, and Death Squads
> >
> >by the Eco-Solidarity Working Group
> >
> >
> > Forty million people, along with the most
> biologically
> >diverse, endangered ecosystems in the world, are
> under attack by
> >the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and
> mercenaries paid
> >by oil companies. This war is fought with bombs and
> bullets, as
> >well as with herbicides and media misinformation.
> The cause of
> >the war is as diverse as the region's terrain and
> its ethnic variety.
> >The rapacious greed of multinationals like
> Occidental Petroleum,
> >Shell, BP Texaco, and their counterparts in the
> Colombian elite
> >is the main problem, but cocaine use in the U.S. is
> the fuel that
> >fires this inferno. Drug exports pay for the
> weapons of the
> >rightwing govemment-backed death squads and the
> revolutionary
> >guerrillas.
> > For years Colombia was banned from receiving
> U.S.
> >military or drug fighting money due to its poor
> human rights
> >record and its failure to cooperate in the drug
> war. In 1998 they
> >received $89 million, and this year the total
> reached $289 million.
> >Despite continued human rights abuses. Colombia is
> now the
> >third largest recipient of U.S. military aid after
> Israel and Egypt.
> >Direct U.S. military intervention looms on the
> horizon for this
> >region, which exports more oil to the U.S. than the
> entire Middle
> >East. President Clinton is giving the nod to a
> death-squad
> >offensive. These squads work closely with Colombian
> military
> >and together they are responsible for the deaths of
> 25,000 people
> >this decade -300,000 since 1945. Violence has
> displaced 1.2
> >million people in the last three years (mostly
> women and
> >children).
> > Death squads guard petroleum facilities and
> shipments
> >of cocaine. The head of these squads, Carlos
> Castafio, is a key
> >player in the Cali Drug Cartel, according to the
> Drug
> >Enforcement Administration. Castafio took over the
> direction of
> >the death squads from another CIA asset, Colombian
> Army
> >General Van Martinez. CIA involvement in Colombia
> began in
> >the 1950s and grew along with the drug trade. In
> 1991 the CIA
> >established a Colombian naval intelligence group
> that became a
> >key part of the death squads' continuing terror
> campaign against
> >guerrillas and anyone who speaks out for change or
> peace. Many
> >death squad leaders graduated from the School of
> the Americas
> >in Fort Benning, Georgia, where thousands of Latin
> American
> >soldiers have been trained in counterinsurgency and
> torture.
> >Castafto proudly takes responsibility for his
> massacres. He has
> >kidnapped Colombian senators and he speaks in radio
> interviews
> >about the need for more killing. Arrest warrants
> for Castafio,
> >army officers and other death squad leaders gather
> dust on the
> >Attorney General's desk. Evidence mounts of
> collaboration
> >between the military and the death squads. In July,
> the largest
> >Colombian guerrilla group, Fuerzas Armadas
> Revolucionarias
> >de Colombia (FARC) launched an attack against the
> mountain
> >headquarters of Castafio, but were driven back by
> the Colombian
> >army with U.S. intelligence assistance.
> > Hundreds of U.S. military personnel are on the
> ground,
> >training elite units of the Colombian Army
> Sophisticated U.S.
> >spy planes, like the U.S. RC-7B, inform and direct
> combat
> >operations. DynaCorp and East Inc. operate a
> private air force
> >used to eradicate poppies and coca plants, dousing
> hundreds
> >of square miles of the countryside with herbicides.
> Monsanto's
> >Roundup is the toxin of choice, but the U.S. has
> pressured
> >Colombia to use Dow Chemical's more lethal
> tebuthiuron. Trade
> >named Spike, it comes in a granular form making it
> easier to
> >apply. Colombia is the only country in the
> hemisphere where
> >drug crops are sprayed from the air. Genetically
> engineered
> >viruses are also being developed for the drug war
> arsenal. Despite
> >this toxic rain, coca production has risen
> dramatically In July, two
> >DynaCorp employees were killed along with five U.S.
> military
> >personnel when an intelligence-gathering aircraft
> hit a mountain
> >or a FARC missile in southern Colombia.
> > The news media have confused the issues and
> kept secret
> >U.S. culpability in this dirty war. They create an
> impression that
> >the FARC and the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional
> (ELN),
> >Colombia's other major guerrilla group, have long
> controlled most
> >of the drug trade, but, in fact, �ELN until now has
> been a minor
> >player.� Moreover the guerrillas are presented as
> unwilling to lay
> >down their arms as part of a peace plan. In the
> late 1980s,
> >guerrillas put down the gun for the ballot box.
> They were met
> >with the votes of many people and a hail of bullets
> from the
> >death squads. Almost 5,000 members of the
> opposition political
> >party, Patriotic Union, have been killed by the
> right wing since
> >1989.
> > The oil companies and the government must be
> held
> >responsible for the violence and the pollution that
> is the
> >by-product of their oil operations. Oil is
> Colombia's most important
> >legal export (27 percent of total exports). Coffee
> is second
> >(15 percent). The U.S. imports 260,000 barrels of
> Colombian oil
> >every day In the U'wa region alone, 1.7 million
> barrels of oil
> >have spilled onto the soil and rivers in the last
> 12 years.
> >Colombia has the worst human rights record in the
> Americas,
> >and the area around the U'wa has the worst record
> in Colombia.
> >Robin Kirk, author of "War with Colombia and
> International
> >Law," supports the contention that the death squads
> make their
> >massacres as brutal and gruesome as possible to
> make sure the
> >message is understood. They often carry lists of
> trade unionists,
> >Catholic priests, human rights observers and
> guerrilla supporters.
> > A biological paradise, Colombia has the
> greatest number
> >of bird species (1,780) of any country in the
> world.
=== message truncated ===
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