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Santos: Military Killed Thousands of Civilians in Colombia

teleSUR | June 11, 2021

Former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged Friday that thousands of civilians were executed by the military in Colombia because of the pressure they received to produce results in the fight against the guerrillas and asked for forgiveness for those crimes.

“There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the original sin, what in the end gave rise to these atrocities, was the pressure to produce casualties” as well as “the rewards for achieving it,” Santos said in a voluntary statement to the Truth Commission investigating the half-century conflict with the now-defunct FARC.

The commission is an extrajudicial body created under the 2016 peace accords pushed by Santos that led to the disarmament of the rebels.

Santos held power between 2010 and 2018 and previously served as defense minister under Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), under whose rule thousands of civilian killings were perpetrated and then presented as guerrillas killed in combat.

Moved, the former president apologized to the families of victims present at his appearance.

“I apologize to all the mothers and all their families, victims of this horror, from the depths of my soul. May this never happen again,” he emphasized.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which tries the worst crimes of the conflict with the FARC, documented 6,400 killings of civilians at the hands of the military during Uribe’s term, three times the number estimated until recently by the prosecutor’s office.

The military high command has always denied that the killings, encouraged by a “body count,” were a systematic practice in the military.

However, Santos affirmed that they are “an indelible stain on the honor of an army that has every reason to boast, but which must also have the fortitude to recognize the truth and ask for forgiveness. It is one of the ways to repair the damage”.

Known in military jargon as “false positives,” the executions of civilians are the biggest scandal involving the Colombian army. Officers and soldiers have confessed their involvement before the peace tribunal, seeking criminal benefits.

Santos told the Truth Commission that he learned of the military’s crimes as soon as he took over the defense portfolio in 2006. Still, he played down the credibility of the allegations.

According to the former president, warnings from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross were fundamental to investigate and sanction 30 officers and non-commissioned officers.

“Later, we found out that the paramilitaries were collaborating with members of the military forces to produce these false positives,” he concluded.

June 13, 2021 - Posted by | Civil Liberties, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , ,

3 Comments »

  1. “I apologize to all the mothers and all their families, victims of this horror, from the depths of my soul. May this never happen again,” he emphasized.”

    That’s very nice of Mr Santos. IT didn’t happen like that when President Nixon pulled the American Army out of Vietnam. No one has ever apologised for the 58,600 American conscripts who died for no reason at all in Vietnam.

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    brianharryaustralia's avatar Comment by brianharryaustralia | June 13, 2021 | Reply

  2. OVERTHROWING OTHER PEOPLE’S GOVERNMENTS:
    THE MASTER LIST
    By William Blum – Published February 2013

    [The United States routinely interferes with elections of dozens of other nations and even “installs” political leaders through various CIA operations, including CIA-led coups and assassinations of foreign leaders].

    Instances of the United States overthrowing or attempting to overthrow, a foreign government since the Second World War. (* indicates successful ouster of a government)

    •China 1949 to early 1960s

    •Albania 1949-53

    •East Germany 1950s

    •Iran 1953 *

    •Guatemala 1954 *

    •Costa Rica mid-1950s

    •Syria 1956-7

    •Egypt 1957

    •Indonesia 1957-8

    •British Guiana 1953-64 *

    •Iraq 1963 *

    •North Vietnam 1945-73

    •Cambodia 1955-70 *

    •Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *

    •Ecuador 1960-63 *

    •Congo 1960 *

    •France 1965

    •Brazil 1962-64 *

    •Dominican Republic 1963 *

    •Cuba 1959 to present

    •Bolivia 1964 *

    •Indonesia 1965 *

    •Ghana 1966 *

    •Chile 1964-73 *

    •Greece 1967 *

    •Costa Rica 1970-71

    •Bolivia 1971 *

    •Australia 1973-75 *

    •Angola 1975, 1980s

    •Zaire 1975

    •Portugal 1974-76 *

    •Jamaica 1976-80 *

    •Seychelles 1979-81

    •Chad 1981-82 *

    •Grenada 1983 *

    •South Yemen 1982-84

    •Suriname 1982-84

    •Fiji 1987 *

    •Libya 1980s

    •Nicaragua 1981-90 *

    •Panama 1989 *

    •Bulgaria 1990 *

    •Albania 1991 *

    •Iraq 1991

    •Afghanistan 1980s *

    •Somalia 1993

    •Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *

    •Ecuador 2000 *

    •Afghanistan 2001 *

    •Venezuela 2002 *

    •Iraq 2003 *

    •Haiti 2004 *

    •Somalia 2007 to present

    •Honduras 2009

    •Libya 2011 *

    •Syria 2012

    •Ukraine 2014 *
    AFGHANISTAN 2017

    Unless Americans study, THE CIA AS ORGANIZED CRIME and THE PHOENIX PROGRAM, by Douglas Valentine, they will continue to live in La La Land!

    Start in chapter 13 of THE CIA AS ORGANIZED CRIME! This will show you what the CIA is doing TODAY and then you can go back and start reading the rest of the book.

    The CIA is the greatest Terrorist Organization, in the world!

    THE PHOENIX PROGRAM IS IN PROGRESS IN AMERICA, EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST.

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    Pip's avatar Comment by Pip | June 14, 2021 | Reply

    • The ‘overthrow of the Australian Government in 1973-75, shows that even the USA’s allies are not safe from the CIA. That Coup de Etat saw the democratically elected PM of Australia(Gough Whitlam) forced from office after he was totally demonised by the arch propagandist Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch was relentless on Whitlam, and if he had been the PM of a South American country, he would most likely have died in a “Nasty Accident”.

      Murdoch then went on to become a powerful “King Maker” in Britain and then, the USA…….Nobody on this planet can trust ANYTHING that Murdoch says………

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      brianharryaustralia's avatar Comment by brianharryaustralia | June 14, 2021 | Reply


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