COLOMBIA: A Compass for Colombia Policy

Following the U.S. presidential election by just two weeks, thousands of human rights activists will converge on November 21-23, 2008 at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to demand a new direction in U.S.-Latin America foreign policy and the closure of the School of the Americas/ Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC). Army commanders fired for killings received U.S. training and assistance By John Lindsay-Poland Colombian Army commander Mario Montoya resigned today, in the wake of a scandal over army killings of civilians that a United Nations official on Saturday called " systematic and widespread." A protégé of the United States, Montoya received training at the notorious U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) and has also taught other soldiers as an instructor at the SOA. Montoya was an architect of the "body count" counterinsurgency strategy that many analysts believe led to the systematic civilian killings. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced the dismissal of 27 military officers on October 29, including three generals and 11 colonels and lieutenant colonels, for human rights abuses. The abuses include involvement in the killings of dozens of youths who were recruited in Bogotá slums and shortly after were reported as killed in combat by the army, hundreds of miles away. The dismissal is a positive action, which we applaud. Officers responsible for killing civilians must face consequences, or the killing will continue. Human rights organizations have documented more than 500 reported extrajudicial killings by the army since the beginning of last year. This week, Amnesty International issued a scathing report on worsening conditions in Colombia, including massive displacement of internal refugees, increased extrajudicial killings, and attacks on human rights defenders. A New York Times front-page story on October 30 also highlighted the problem, and cited FOR's research on extrajudicial executions, as did a Los Angeles Times story. But it was the report that poor Bogota youths whose families said they had disappeared, had been recruited by the army or others, then reported as dead in combat, that detonated the issue. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos admitted that the army still harbors "holdouts who are demanding bodies for results." The dismissal of officers also demonstrates extensive U.S. complicity with the abuses. The United States gave military training directly or assisted the units of nearly all of the officers implicated in the killings. At least eleven of the officers, including Brigadier Generals Paulino Coronado Gamez and José Cortes Franco, were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, and Cortes even served as an instructor at the school in 1994. Most of the officers commanded units that had been 'vetted' by U.S. officials for human rights abuses and approved to receive assistance in 2008, or received training for some officers, in spite of extensive reports that their units had carried out murders of civilians. Yet the dismissal, which focuses on officers operating in a northeastern region of Colombia where the disappeared youths were found, addresses only a small number of the army units responsible for civilian killings. In the oil-rich Casanare and Arauca departments, the U.S.-trained 16th and 18th Brigades have reportedly committed dozens of killings, as has the U.S.-supported 9th Brigade in the coffee-growing department of Huila. In southeastern Valle and Cauca, the Third Brigade's Codazzi Batallion receives U.S. support and reportedly committed at least nine killings of civilians last year, as may be implicated in firing on peaceful indigenous protesters this month. In southern Meta and Guaviare departments, the United States supports multiple mobile brigades in areas where the army has committed a large number of civilian killings. Army chief Montoya is replaced by Major General Gilberto Rocha Ayala. In 2003-04, Rocha commanded the army's Second Brigade in northeastern Colombia. Under his command, Colonel Hernán Mejia, then commander of the La Popa Battalion, is under investigation by the Colombian Prosecutor General for reportedly engineering the killing of paramilitaries and passing them off as guerrillas. Rocha also commanded the army's Ninth Brigade in 2002-03, with jurisdiction in Huila province, where human rights groups report some six extrajudicial executions occurring during his command. Rocha Ayala was an instructor at the School of the Americas in 1995. In addition, most of the army's current leadership - including 17 of 24 brigade commanders - were trained by the United States at the School of the Americas, on top of U.S. training provided to Colombian officers at dozens of other military schools and in Colombia. Washington is involved in the army's human rights problem through and through, and journalists, activists, and Congressional staff ought to ask when the United States will stop financing such murderous criminal operations. We believe the time is now. By John Lindsay-Poland. More...

INTERCONNECT: a newsleter you should know about and read

Topics in this issue:

Haiti Update
US/UN Policy on Haiti
Responding to the Crisis in Haiti
Crisis in Cuba
Crisis in Bolivia
Venezuela, the US 4th Fleet, Russian Military Maneuvers
Ecuador Passes Constitutional Referendum
Honduras' Zelaya
Argentina Update
Uruguay Good News
What Direction for the New Paraguay?
Dear Senator Obama
RESOURCES
Movement News in Brief
More...

NICARAGUA September-October Monitor: http://www.nicanet.org/?page_id=447

Articles include:
"North and South Join: Close Down the School of the Americas!" By Lisa Sullivan
"The Ortega Government and Opposition from within Sandinismo," By Chuck Kaufman
"Genesis: The Beginning of a Better Life," By Becca Mohally-Renk [The story of the Genesis Spinning Cooperative in Ciudad Sandino]
"Multiethnic Autonomy: Self-Governance or Pragmatic Compromise," by Mary Finley-Brook [An update on Atlantic Coast autonomy]
"The News from Nicaragua" and more!

IMMIGRATION: Analysis of new legislation

Amnesty International Midwest Regional Conference October 24-26

Midwest Regional Conference 2008
October 24-26, 2008
Hilton St. Louis Airport
10330 Natural Bridge Road
St. Louis, MO 63134
314-426-5500

You are invited to a great celebration for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!

This conference will be not only joyful, fun, and energetic, but dynamic. It's the new era for Regional Conferences in the Midwest.

This Regional Conference will embrace the spirit of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!!

Draft Agenda
Friday, October 24, 2008
Participants arrive at Hilton STL Airport Hotel
4PM-9PM Conference Registration
Ideas Fair
7PM-9PM Welcome Plenary and Awards
• Welcoming Remarks: Congressman William Lacy Clay
• Ms. Karin Ryan, Director Human Rights Program Carter Center
• Larry Cox, Executive Director Amnesty International USA
9PM-10:30PM Film "Women in Liberia: Fighting for Peace"


Saturday, October 25, 2008
9AM-10:30AM Plenary Session: "Rights in Action: Bringing War Criminals to Justice"
• Melanie Partow, Helmer Friedman, LLP
10:30AM-10:45AM Break
10:45AM-12:15PM Workshop Session 1
• Event Planning
Sarah Natwick, AI USA Local Group Coordinator
Tarah Demant, AI USA Area Coordinator

• Organizing
Amanda Flott, AI USA Field Organizer
Nakisha Chaney, AI USA Local Group Coordinator>

• Human Rights as a Career

• Teach-in and Stop Torture
AI USA Counter Terror with Justice Campaign Staff

• Displaced: Bring the Darfur Experience to Your Community and End the Violence
AI USA Darfur Campaign Staff

• The Women of Atenco Speak Out:
Poplar Room
Women of Atenco / Bárbara Italia Méndez and Ana María Velasco; Bryna Subherwal, AIUSA Individuals at Risk Campaign

• Convincing Conversations: Getting Activists Excited about the Death Penalty
AI USA Death Penality Abolition Campaign Staff

• Advocating for Change: Put Stopping Violence Against Women at Center Stage
Ana Polanco, Stop Violence Against Women Campaign Director

12:30PM-2PM Lunch (Local and Student Group Caucus)
2PM-3:30PM Resolutions Working Party
2PM-3:30PM New Member Orientation
Katherine Jonas, AI USA State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator
Haji Dokhanchi, AI USA Country Specialist for Libya,
Member of Midwest Regional Planning Group, Co-Advisor to the AI Student Group at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
3:30PM-4:30PM Snacks and State Receptions
4:30PM-6:00PM Workshop Session II

• Build to Win, Build to Last! From Issues to a Human Rights Movement.
Gouri Sadhwani, AI USA Deputy Executive Director, Organizing, Membership & Campaigns

• Human Rights and the Arts
Big Poppa E

• Recruitment and Retention Donna Schneweis, AI USA Activist and
Regional Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator
Sam Snyder, AI USA Student Area Coordinator

• Teach-in and Stop Torture
AI USA Counter Terror with Justice Campaign Staff

• Displaced: Bring the Darfur Experience to Your Community and End the Violence
AIUSA Darfur Campaign Staff

• Individuals at Risk
Women of Atenco/Mendez Case with possible visit from Barbara Italia Mendez; Bryna Subherwal AIUSA Individuals at Risk Campaign Staff

• Convincing Conversations: Getting Activists Excited about the Death Penalty
AI USA Death Penalty Abolition Campaign Staff

• Advocating for Change: Put Stopping Violence Against Women at Center Stage
Ana Polanco Stop Violence Against Women Campaign Director

6:00PM-8:00PM Dinner break
8:00PM-10PM Poetry Slam: Human Rights and the Arts
• Big Poppa E
8:00PM-10PM Film "At the Death House Door"


Sunday, October 26, 2008
9AM-10:30AM Plenary: "The Face of Human Rights"
Gouri Sadhwani, AI USA Deputy Executive Director, Organizing, Membership & Campaigns
• Women of Atenco/ Mendez Case with possible visit from Barbara Italia Mendez;
• Larry Bresler, Executive Director, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

10:30AM-10:45AM Break
10:45AM-12:45PM Resolutions Voting Plenary
1:00PM Adjourn




The Hilton St.Louis Airport is offering Amnesty International conference attendees a special room rate of $79.00 single or double, plus local taxes and fees. Conference attendees must make their own reservations directly with the hotel at the phone number listed above or online. Be sure to mention "Amnesty International Regional Conference" to obtain this special group rate. Further information including keynote speakers, workshops, special events, and conference schedule will be posted as it becomes available. Check this site for updates!

Conference Agenda (PDF)