Regarding Death Squads, Vigilantes, and Paramilitary Politics in Colombia |TODAY|

Submitted by dan. on 2007-09-05 20:48.
Community Action | Law Enforcement | Victim Support

Every Colombian expresses public support for the cessation of violent acts which bloody the nation. There is also apparent consensus that restorative justice must be the foundation to any peace process, that victims should be afforded reparations, and that those involved should tell the whole truth about their acts of violence as a pre-requisite to becoming beneficiaries of society’s generosity. Disclosure of the whole truth in particular appears to be the first step towards justice and reparations.

All of the ways in which violent groups derive their power must be effectively eradicated so that Colombians may empower themselves to resolve their economic, social and political conflicts without recourse to weapons of war.

But it is also true that the seeming consensus has been absent from the beginning of President Uribe’s peace process with paramilitary vigilante groups and that the government, as we shall demonstrate below, has not delivered on its promises regarding the importance of discovering the whole truth about the activities of paramilitary squads and their links with a variety of leading political groups. Instead, the government has used its enormous power to cover up the truth and obfuscate.

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