US helps Colombia kill FARC leaders: Report

RT
Sun, 22 Dec 2013 04:38 UTC

© Unknown

Colombian soldiers patrol across a field in a mountainous area in the town of Miranda in the country’s Cauca department.

US intelligence agencies have secretly helped the Colombian government kill at least two dozen leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a report says.

On Saturday, the Washington Post published the report revealing that both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) provided the Colombian government with technology to terminate the rebel leaders.

The report was based on interviews with more than 30 former and current American and Colombian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity since the program is classified and ongoing, the newspaper said.

According to the report, Washington provided Colombia with Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment that can be used to transform regular munitions into so-called smart bombs.

These explosives can accurately pinpoint specific targets, even if the objects are located in dense jungles.

In addition, the NSA provided "substantial eavesdropping help" to the Colombian government, the report stated.

In one of its operations, Colombian forces killed top FARC commander, Raul Reyes, in March 2008, while he was in a FARC-operated jungle camp in neighboring Ecuador. The newspaper reported that a US-made smart bomb was used in the killing.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos commented on the report, telling the newspaper that the CIA has been "of help, providing Colombian forces with "better training and knowledge." The CIA, however, did not want to give any comments regarding the revelations.

The report also revealed that the multibillion-dollar program was secretly funded on top of the nine billion dollars in aid that the US has openly provided to Colombia, mostly in military assistance. The covert program was authorized by President George W. Bush and has continued under President Barack Obama.

The Colombian government and FARC have been holding peace negotiations since November last year in Cuba.

The two sides have agreed upon the matter of land reform and rural development, while four others issues still remain unsolved, including FARC's participation in politics.

FARC is Latin America's oldest insurgent group and has been fighting the government since 1964.

Bogota estimates that 600,000 people have been killed and more than 4.5 million others have been displaced due to the fighting.

Comment: Colombia is a brutal regime, where opposition figures and union leades are regularly killed, yet no international outcry or call for democracy and freedom. The reason is that Colombia is a client state of the US and western corporations.

From Justice for Colombia:

Colombia is infamous for being the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. According to the database of the CUT trade union federationi, nearly 2,800 union activists have been assassinated since the CUT was established in 1986. Contrary to claims sometimes made by Colombian officials, all of these men and women were killed as a direct result of their trade union activities.ii

As of the end of June 2010 at least 32 trade unionists - more than one per week - had been murdered.iii This is the highest rate of killings for some years, again contradicting official accounts which allege that the numbers of murders are falling.

In addition to the assassinations, nearly 200 trade union activists have been forcibly disappearedvi whilst others have been subjected to arbitrary imprisonment or physical attacks. Torture of trade unionists has also been well documented and trade unions and their members receive regular death threats, leading to many thousands of members fleeing their homes and jobs, sometimes into exile abroad.