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Duque travels to US for 1st time as Colombia’s president-elect

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Ivan Duque will travel to Washington DC on Wednesday on his first trip as Colombia’s President-elect, his communications team said Tuesday.

The South American country’s future leader will have meetings in the United States capital on Thursday. His press team, however, did not reveal with who he would meet.

Before the elections, Duque also traveled to Washington DC and met with Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a political ally of Duque, his hard-right Democratic Center party and former President Alvaro Uribe.

Colombia’s president-elect spent most of his professional career in the American capital. Between 2001 and 2013 he worked for the Inter-American Development Bank.

Duque has already spoken on the phone with US President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence who both congratulated him on the results of the elections in which he defeated the leftist candidate Gustavo Petro.

Colombia is one of the US’ staunchest allies in the region. The two countries have worked intensely, yet unsuccessfully to combat cocaine trafficking between Colombia, the world’s largest producer of the drug, and the US, the world’s top consumer.

Following his election on June 17, Duque has held multiple meetings with both national and international political actors.

On Tuesday, the president-elect met with Jean Arnault, the mission chief of the United Nations in Colombia, to discuss an ongoing peace process.

Duque is set to take over from outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos on August 7 and is expected to be in office until 2022.

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US supports Colombia’s decision to resume aerial fumigation of coca

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The United States government on Thursday reportedly expressed its support for the resumption of the aerial fumigation of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine, in Colombia.

According to Spanish news agency EFE, a spokesperson of the US Department of State said that “the United States believes that all tools must be used to “reverse the sharp increase in cocaine production.”


Some things you should know about Colombia’s cocaine trade


The government of the US, the world’s largest cocaine consumption market, is Colombia’s main financial sponsor to counter the coca cultivation, cocaine production and drug trafficking.

The decision to resume aerial fumigation using drones was a “sovereign decision” of the Colombian government, the spokesperson reportedly said.

US “drug czar” Jim Carroll said Monday that Colombia’s record cocaine production was “unacceptable”


Colombia’s out-of-control cocaine production ‘unacceptable’: US


Fumigation using aircraft was banned in 2015 because of the environmental damage and health concerns for farmers living in coca-growing areas.

The production of cocaine has been going up since 2013, according to the United Nations on Drugs and Crime, which monitors coca cultivation and drug trafficking.

Last year, the area used for coca cultivation reach an all-time record; 188,000 hectares according to the UN and 209,000 hectares according to the US.

Global cocaine consumption levels also hit record levels last year, the UNODC said in the 2018 World Drug Report that came out earlier this week.

Coca naturally grows in the Andean region. Its leaves are traditionally chewed by indigenous peoples, particularly in areas that are located higher up the Andes mountain range.

The drug became highly popular in the United States and Europe in the 1970s and became a top counter-narcotics priority on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1980s.

The UNODC has rejected the repressive methods preferred by the US and has claimed on several occasion that the only way to effectively reduce coca production is through development.

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Duque returns to Washington, this time as Colombia’s president-elect

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Colombia’s President-elect Ivan Duque on Thursday held his first formal trip to Washington DC, the city where he spent years working as yet another anonymous official.

Many in Colombia hardly knew Duque until recently either; until half a year ago he was the guy sitting next to Alvaro Uribe, the former president who is investigated for murder, in his country’s senate.

But Colombia elected the 41-year-old heir of a political dynasty president and Duque returned to his former city not to return to his boring nine-to-five job at the Inter-American Development Bank, but to meet with the big shots of US foreign politics as his country’s future head of state.

The trip, though, appeared to be more about Venezuela than Colombia, where Duque will be put in charge of an ongoing peace process in August and drug trafficking is doing better than ever.

A congressional warm-up

Duque began on Thursday with a visit to Marco Rubio, an influential Republican senator from Florida and Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego from Arizona.

Rubio is powerful. According to “New Yorker” magazine, “Many see Rubio as an architect of the Administration’s hawkish new approach to Cuba and Venezuela, and he said he is working with the White House on those and other issues.”

The senator is also a member of the committees of Foreign Relations, Intelligence and Appropriations. Gallego is a member of the House’s Armed Services Committee.

According to Duque, the three talked about the importance of strengthening relations between the US and Colombia.

Rubio added that they talked about the regional efforts “to put an end” to an ongoing crisis in Venezuela “and restore its democracy.”

Rubio and Trump have openly suggested a military coup in Venezuela, which has been categorically rejected by outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos and all other regional leaders.

Duque is close to members of Venezuelan political dynasties that also oppose the increasingly authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but has been ambiguous about his proposed strategy as president.

Trump’s men

Duque then met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Francisco Palmieri, one of the State Department’s top aides for hemispheric affairs.

A National Security Council spokesperson told Spanish new agency EFE that John Bolton, the national security adviser of US President Donald Trump, “will meet with Duque while on his visit to the capital.”

Bolton is one of the most militaristic members of the Trump administration and a favor of an aggressive policy in Latin America against countries that undermine US interests in the region, a senior administration official told McClatchy.

According to Blu Radio, the incoming Colombian president would also meet CIA chief Gina Haspel and Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, for some high-level political mingling, but this was not confirmed.

Details about the content of these meetings were not immediately revealed, but they must have been more interesting than the ones he had at the IADB between 2001 and 2013 when he returned to Colombia.

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Colombia asks Trump to urge end to Russian support for Venezuela

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Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos asked his American counterpart Donald Trump to urge Russian leader Vladimir Putin to stop supporting Venezuela’s government.

Santos took to Twitter on Saturday to ask Trump to address Russia’s support for the authoritarian government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The governments of both Colombia and the United States fiercely oppose Maduro. Russia, however, has been accused of helping Venezuela evade sanctions imposed by Washington DC.

Furthermore, Venezuela’s military appears to have received thousands of Russian surface-to-air missiles, according to news agency Reuters.

“To contribute to the crisis in Venezuela I am asking President Trump to request Putin to stop supporting the Maduro regime,” Santos said.

According to US media, Moscow secretly helped Venezuela launch a state-backed cryptocurrency in an effort to raise money and avoid US sanctions imposed on the South American country in August last year.

Whether Trump will have time or attention for South American issues when both leaders meet in Finland is uncertain as ties between the US and Russia have “NEVER been worse,” according to the US president.

According to Trump, the traditionally complicated relationship has worsened because of “stupidity” of his predecessors and an inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Relations with Russia have been strained since 2014 when Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. The situation got even more complicated after reports emerged that Putin helped Trump get elected.

According to the eccentric US president, criminal investigations into Russian meddling are a “Rigged Witch Hunt” despite multiple guilty pleas by some of his closest aides during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The two leaders met behind closed doors in Helsinki to “talk in detail about our bilateral relations and various problem areas in the world. There are a lot of them,” according to Putin.

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Colombia to request extradition of alleged child sex tourists

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Colombia will ask the United States, Germany and Argentina to extradite alleged sex offenders, the South American country’s prosecution said Monday.

The two Americans, one German and one Argentine allegedly paid for sex with girls under 14 in Cartagena, a popular tourist destination where authorities claimed to have dismantled a child prostitution ring.

The organization allegedly recruited girls from families that had been displaced from other parts of the country and neighboring Venezuela.


Colombia claims cops and foreigners took part in Cartagena child prostitution ring


The four foreigners are accused of having sought sex with minors and were already put on Interpol’s Blue Notice list that seeks to establish the exact location of the suspected child molesters.

The extradition request, however, is a novelty; never before did Colombian authorities seek the extradition of alleged sex offenders. Alleged sex offenders have previously been expelled from the country.

Whether the US, Germany and Argentina will effectively extradite their citizens depends on local authorities that will examine each case individually.

The foreigners could face prison sentences of up to 37.5 years, the prosecution said.

The extradition requests followed a major operation in Cartagena, which has been plagued by sex predators from both Colombia and abroad that seek to exploit children from the Caribbean city’s impoverished neighborhoods.

The US State Department said in 2012 that Cartagena and Medellin had become popular destinations for sex predators.

Both cities have traditionally had lively sex industries that catered locals and have become popular among foreign “mongers” and pedophiles.


The other side of the debate; Colombia’s sex tourists get a say


Local NGOs and church organizations have been calling for actions against the growing phenomenon of child prostitution for years.

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US ambassador visits displaced Venezuelans in Colombia

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The United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, announced another $9 million in aid to Colombia for humanitarian aid for displaced Venezuelans.

Haley took the opportunity to visit a shelter for displaced on Wednesday, a day after she attended at the inauguration ceremony of Colombian President Ivan Duque the day before.

According to the Washington Post, the administration of President Donald Trump had already provided $60 million in aid through state humanitarian agency USAID.

From the border crossing just outside the Colombian city Cucuta the top US diplomat made it clear on Twitter that according to her government the authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolas #Maduromustgo.

Thousands of people escape Venezuela every day, walking hours in the heat over this bridge, simply to get a meal or medicine for their families. Due to the corrupt Maduro regime, Colombia is now home to a million Venezuelans on any given day.

Nikki Haley

Colombia grants temporary visa to more than 440K migrants from Venezuela


Both the US government and Colombia’s new administration are fierce critics of the Maduro administration, which has assumed almost absolute power in the neighboring country.

The socialist government’s finances, however, have collapsed after the bursting of a global commodity bubble in 2014 that sent the price of oil, Venezuela’s primary export product, plummeting.

On top of that, political tensions between Maduro and the country’s coalition of opposition parties have been increasingly polarized; violent clashes killed more than 150 protesters in 2017 last year.

According to Colombia’s migration agency, the country is currently home to more than 870,000 registered Venezuelan with an unknown number of Venezuelans and Colombian residents of the neighboring country crossing the border without registration.


Where did the Venezuelans go?


Apart from the United States, the South American country is also receiving aid from international organizations like the Red Cross and the United Nations.

The European Union pledged $40 million in June to attend the displacement crisis that has left a major impact on Colombia, especially in the traditionally neglected border region.

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US defense minister to visit Colombia during South American tour

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United States’ Defense Secretary James Mattis will be visiting Colombia this month as part of a South American tour, the Pentagon said Thursday.

According to the US’ Department of Defense, Mattis will first visit Brazil on Sunday, and then travel to Argentina and Chile in an attempt to strengthen military ties with the continent’s largest economies amid instability in the region.

Colombia will be the secretary’s last stop before returning to Washington DC.

According to the Pentagon, “the White House declared 2018 the “Year of the Americas”, and the secretary’s trip underscores the department’s strong defense ties with Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.”

“These relationships are critical to a collaborative, prosperous and secure Western Hemisphere,” according to the administration of President Donald Trump.

Mattis’ trip to Colombia serves to “meet members of the newly elected administration” of President Ivan Duque, who took over the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday.

The conservative Duque, who worked in the US capital for most of his professional career, has expressed unequivocal support for strong US influence in the region.

When he was still president-elect, Duque’s first foreign trip was to Washington DC where he met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and John Todd, the commander responsible for US military activity in Central and South America.

Ivan Duque (L) with Kurt Tidd, commander of the US Southern Command. (Image: Democratic Center)

One Colombian radio station reported that Duque also met with Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly.


Duque returns to Washington, this time as Colombia’s president-elect


Both Colombia’s new government and the Trump administration have been vociferous critics of the government of Venezuela, where socialist President Nicolas Maduro has gradually implemented a virtual one-party state.

Unlike Trump and some of his hard-line allies in the White House, Duque has so far rejected the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela.

In regards to cocaine trafficking to the US, the world’s largest cocaine consumer, Duque — unlike his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos — has echoed American proposals for more repressive policies to curb cocaine production in the country.

While the president and many of his conservative and far-right allies have expressed approval of the current American government, average Colombians told pollsters they disapprove of the US president almost as much as Maduro.


Nicolas Maduro and Donald Trump, the most disliked leaders in Colombia

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US soldier caught trying to smuggle cocaine from Colombia in military aircraft: report

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A decorated United States Special Forces soldier has been arrested and charged with drug trafficking after he tried to smuggle cocaine from Colombia in a military aircraft, according to NBC News.

The US television network reported on Saturday that it talked to two defense officials who confirmed that Army Master Sgt. Daniel Gould, assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group, was arrested after 40 kilograms of the illicit drug were found on a plane bound for the US.

The two packages were discovered by a service member who reported the alleged attempt to smuggle the cocaine to counter-narcotics agency DEA which proceeded to arrest Gould, NBC reported.


Colombia’s renewed war on drugs could get ugly, and solve nothing


According to the television network, an unidentified ally of Gould loaded the drugs hidden in two “punch out” bags onto the military aircraft after the military official had already left for the US after a vacation in Cali, Colombia’s third largest city.

“We are aware of recent allegations concerning a US soldier assigned under US Army Special Operations Command for reportedly attempting to smuggle narcotics from Colombia into the US,” spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bockholt wrote NBC.

According to the spokesman, the Special Operations Command is “cooperating fully with law enforcement officials concerning this matter.”

The official declined to make further comments “in order to protect the integrity of the investigation and the rights of the individual.”

Colombian drug traffickers commonly try to bribe officials in order to weaken decades-long attempts to curb the trafficking of cocaine from Colombia to consumption markets across the globe.

Multiple Colombian airport and seaport officials have been arrested this year on charges they were paid to allow drugs being loaded onto ships and private aircraft.

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Colombian priest caught performing oral sex in Miami

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Police in Miami have arrested a Colombian priest for engaging in oral sex with another priests in a public place.

Father Edwin Giraldo, 30, was arrested Monday by Miami Beach Police along with fellow priest, Father Diego Berrio, 39, in Miami, Florida.

The two were having oral sex in full view of the public passing by in the tourist area of Ocean Drive and the sidewalk

When police approached the car, they needed to knock on the window to get the attention of the two men. .

“I observed defendant Berrio in the passenger seat, performing oral sex on defendant Giraldo who was seated in the driver’s seat. Giraldo’s pants were unzipped and his genitals exposed,” the Miami Herald quoted the arresting officer as saying.

Berrio has been charged with lewd and lascivious behavior along with Giraldo, who was in the driver’s seat of the Volkswagen Beetle with his genitals exposed.

Giraldo was released from custody on a bond of $1,500 while Berrio was released on a bond of $250.

The police report stated that each gave his occupation as ‘priest’ and the address for the Mission of San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

Originally from the city of Soacha in central Colombia, Giraldo had moved to Chicago but has now been removed from his position. He had served as an outside priest in the local diocese for the month of August this year but will not have any further involvement in the parish.

Following the arrest, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that both priests would no longer be permitted to work as priests in the archdiocese.

“Archdiocese representatives have been in contact with Fr. Cortes’ home diocese of Soacha, Colombia and informed them that Fr. Cortes will not be granted additional faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago,” the statement read.

Additionally Fr. Berrio has had faculties to minister withdrawn in the Archdiocese of Chicago following the revelations.

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Colombia’s military emerges as a global player in US-led alliance

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Colombia’s military is rapidly becoming a major cog in the United States wheel of global security strategy as the South Americans become more and more aligned with their US counterparts.

The city of Cartagena will this week host a 12-day naval exercise off the country’s Caribbean coast involving the navies of eight Latin American countries, plus the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.

This year’s version of the long-running naval war games is notable because it showcases the emergence of Colombia as a significant component of the United States’ global security strategy.


Colombia’s navy to test modernized fleet during international naval exercise


It’s well-known the US has for twenty years supplied Colombia’s security forces with equipment, training and intelligence. The aid has cost the US than $7 billion, according to WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America), a Washington, D.C. human rights organization.

What is not well-known is that Colombia is no longer merely a recipient of US help. The relationship has evolved to the point that Colombian soldiers directly embed in the US command structure, helping construct a multinational military force, and serve as proxy for US troops worldwide.

Colombia is now a “net exporter of security,” US Navy Adm. Kurt W. Tidd told a Congressional hearing earlier this year. Tidd heads the Pentagon’s Southern Command (SouthCom), which from its base in Florida oversees all US military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Colombian President Ivan Duque (L) with Kurt Tidd, commander of the US Southern Command. (Image: Democratic Center)

Coming-of-age for Colombian military

Colombia has become an active component of US global security strategy. According to Southern Command, it has served as proxy for US forces in more than 60 countries globally, where Colombian soldiers train local militaries at less cost and less political exposure than would exist with the direct use of US forces.

This coming-of-age by the Colombian military raises an obvious question. If they’re so good, why can’t they restore security in the country’s rural regions and stop the mass assassinations of community leaders?

The answer to that lies in the political arena, but from a purely military point of view, there is no doubt that Colombia has reached a very high level of competence.

In one recent development, the US Marine Corps is using a Colombian naval Infantry officer as the key figure in assembling what SouthCom calls a “multinational amphibious task force” to operate in waters and coastal areas throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The Colombian is Lt. Col. Erick Del Rio, the first foreigner to literally embed as a senior staff officer of Southern Command. His appointment earlier this year was the first step in “taking the vision of a multinational task force from concept to reality,” as a SouthCom news release put it.

“Over the next few years,” it continued, “we desire to see Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Mexico follow suit.”

A blessing and a curse

This “”multinational amphibious task force” illustrates both the potential benefits and drawbacks of the growing integration of Latin militaries with the US.

On the one hand, such a multi-national force could be more effective in disaster relief and drug interdiction than a single-nation effort. And the US could use it to nudge Latin American militaries toward professionalism and away from politics.

On the other hand, it could also be a way the US could accomplish regime change or some other political objective in a South or Central American country.

For example, no single country might willingly go alone in a military intervention. But a multi-Latin force with US participation might be politically palatable.

National Security Adviser John Bolton (L) met with Duque in Washington, D.C. shortly after Duque’s election. (Image: El Tiempo)

With President Donald Trump’s appointment of John Bolton—the leader among US strategic hawks—as National Security Advisor, Washington’s possible use of such tactics is not so far-fetched.

The Colombian military’s world-class status and emergence as an operational partner of the US has been chronicled by SouthCom in many ways.

  • In July this year, during an air-to-air combat training exercise in Nevada, a Colombian Air Force aerial tanker for the first time refueled a US jet mid-air.
  • In May, Colombia became a member of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the first Latin country to do so, though its Pacific and Caribbean coasts are far from the North Atlantic.
  • In April, a Colombian submarine for the first time joined with the US Navy in anti-submarine exercises off the coast of South America.
  • In July, a Colombian team won the Fuerzas Comando (Commando Forces) competition among elite special forces from 17 Western Hemisphere nations. Colombia’s team beat out the US squad and won for the ninth time in 14 competitions.
  • In June, its troops were among those caught off guard when Trump abruptly cancelled South Korean military exercises. It would have been the country’s fifth participation in the Far Eastern war games.
  • Last fall, Colombia coordinated a multi-nation parachute drop in Washington State, using Colombian Air Force planes.
  • Colombia’s partnership with the South Carolina National Guard has involved live-fire artillery drills in the US and aerial maneuvers with US F-16s over Colombia.

Colombian military’s global reach

Colombia has long been the US’ strongest and most reliable Latin military ally, a consequence of the two-decade long Plan Colombia in which the US used the cocaine trade and the FARC rebellion as justification to strengthen the Colombian military.

But Colombia’s security forces are now capable of doing far more than fight drug-runners and rebels.

Former US Marine Gen. John Kelly, now Trump’s Chief-of-staff, concluded his active military career by heading Southern Command, where he said: “The beauty of having Colombia—they’re such good partners, particularly in the military realm…When we ask them to go somewhere else and train the Mexicans, the Hondurans, the Guatemalans, the Panamanians, they will do it almost without asking.”


US donates 6 boats to Colombia navy to curb drug trafficking


It’s unclear in how many countries Colombian troops have been used, but a 2015 SouthCom release noted that “more than 60 countries around the world have benefited from training with the Colombian Armed Forces.”

Topics have included “maritime interdiction, jungle combat, antiterrorism intelligence and tactics to fight extortion, kidnapping and drug trafficking,” according to the London-based Financial Times.

Colombia does more than just train. In Yemen, hundreds of its war veterans were hired by the United Arab Emirates as mercenaries to fight against Iran-backed forces. Emirati officials hired them because they are “battle tested in guerrilla warfare, having spent decades battling gunmen of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,” reported the New York Times.

Colombia’s militarized economy

Colombia is also an increasingly active supplier in the global arms market, having manufactured handguns for Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Ecuador; military and police boats for Brazil, South Korea and Honduras; and parts for Israeli-made rifles, according to Diálogo, a SouthCom publication, and the Financial Times.

Colombia’s economy is as fully militarized as the US’. Both countries spent 3.1% of their GDP on the military in 2017, far more than any other nation in the Americas, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In January, while Bolton was auditioning for the National Security Advisor job, he wrote an influential opinion piece in the Washington, D.C. publication “The Hill,” headlined: “Pay attention to Latin America and Africa.”

Bolton cited an increasing Latin American presence by China, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in support of the view that “we need greater involvement” in that region.

From the last years of the Bill Clinton administration and continuing uninterrupted into the Trump administration, the US has invested heavily in Colombia’s security forces. That $7 billion has failed to curtail coca production. But as the US uses Colombia’s military around the globe, it is reaping a different kind of return on that investment.

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Duque appoints Santos’ hard-line cousin as Colombia’s ambassador to Washington DC

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President Ivan Duque on Thursday swore in Francisco Santos, the cousin of former President Juan Manuel Santos, as Colombia’s ambassador in the United States.

Santos, who inherited much of his political power, will be in charge of maintaining ties with the administration of US President Donald Trump.


Power through manipulation: The story of the Santos family


Colombia’s new ambassador to the US is controversial, mainly because he has been accused of aligning himself with far-right AUC paramilitaries in 1997 when he was editor-in-chief of family newspaper El Tiempo.

Within the strategy of obtaining political recognition and expressing ourselves to the nation, commander [Carlos] Castaño sought to build bridges to the media with the intention of showing reality and seeking allies who agreed with the paramilitary ideology, which is how I knew the then journalist Francisco Santos.

Salvatore Mancuso

His receptiveness surprised me when we met … Santos praised the model we exposed, how we operated in Cordoba …. Among circles in the capital there was concern about the advance of the guerrillas, how they were approaching the capital, which could not be allowed because democracy would be affected, according to what Santos said.

Salvatore Mancuso

Santos has been a long-time ally of Duque’s political patron, former President Alvaro Uribe, who is also facing accusations of ties to the paramilitaries that escalated the armed conflict to unprecedented levels of violence.

Santos was appointed Uribe’s vice-president when taking office in 2002. Duque has now asked the dynasty politician and former media mogul to “strengthen the bilateral relations between Colombia and the United States, [and] along with me ‘de-narcofy’ them, which is what we want most.”

Duque also asked Santos to “continue strengthening the military and commercial cooperation” between the two countries.


Colombia’s military emerges as a global player in US-led alliance


The president said that his latest controversial appointee is “a man of transparent soul, thought and words” who “knows how to call things by their name.”

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Colombia can count on US in case of Venezuela attack: ambassador

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The United States will defend Colombia against possible Venezuelan military aggression, the US ambassador said after Bogota ended its opposition against possible military action against its neighbor.

In an interview with El Tiempo newspaper, US Ambassador in Colombia Kevin Whitaker said President Ivan Duque recently spoke with US Defense Secretary James Mattis about the possibility of Venezuelan aggression.

“Colombia can count on us,” Whitaker told the newspaper, adding that he believed an attack is unlikely.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and President Duque talked recently. They discussed the issue. What I’m going to say as a product of that meeting is that Colombia can count on us.

US Ambassador Kevin Whitaker

Colombia stands down against possible military intervention in Venezuela


Tensions are mounting between the two South American countries that cut virtually all ties under former President Juan Manuel Santos years ago.

While Santos consistently aligned with neighbors and opposed the possibility of military intervention, Duque recently refused to sign a statement by the so-called Lima Group in which the countries reiterated its opposition to possible military intervention.

The Lima Group – made up of 14 countries – was established last year to promote a peaceful solution to Venezuela’s crisis and the restoration of the country’s deteriorated democracy.


Venezuela would bomb Colombia if US attacks: lawmaker


An economic crisis and political tensions has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee their homeland due to shortages of food and medicine. Colombia and other neighboring countries are struggling to deal with the exodus.

Described as a potential “humanitarian catastrophe” by the United Nations, US Vice President Mike Pence and Duque talked on Friday and, according to the White House, agreed to increase pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.

Duque has demanded that Maduro be investigated for crimes against humanity while Maduro has accused Colombia on multiple occasions it was plotting with opponents and the US to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

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Trump praises Duque at UN meeting in pledge to fight cocaine production

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US President Donald Trump on Monday praised Colombia’s new leader Ivan Duque for winning on an anti-drug platform and pledged to partner with his administration to “eradicate coca in his country.”

Speaking to the United Nations at the “Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem” event, Trump said cocaine and opium production had hit record highs – and called on countries to work together to tackle the problem.

Last year Trump blasted Colombia as cocaine production hit record levels.

But during his address at the meeting of the UN, he promised to work with the South American country to “stop all forms of trafficking and smuggling that provide the financial lifeblood for vicious transnational cartels.”


Some things you should know about Colombia’s cocaine trade


“Today, we commit to fighting the drug epidemic together,” Trump said, decades after the two countries joined forces to combat drug trafficking between the world’s largest cocaine producer and the world’s largest consumption market.

Newly elected President Duque, Colombia, campaigned on an anti-drug platform, and won a very, very impressive victory. Congratulations.

US President Donald Trump

“We look forward to partnering with his new administration to eradicate coca production in his country. All of us must work together to dismantle drug production and defeat drug addiction,” said the controversial US president.


Colombia’s renewed war on drugs could get ugly, and solve nothing


Trump added that “the call is simple: reduce drug demand; cut off the supply of illicit drugs; expand treatment; and strengthen international cooperation.”

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine. Most of the drug the country produces ends up in the US.

Coca, the base ingredient of the drug, has shot up – and is now more than 10 times the estimated production of 1993, the year in which drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that some 171,000 hectares or 660 square miles were used for coca cultivation last year.

President Duque of the hard-right Democratic Centre party has promised to tackle Colombia’s drug production problem aggressively, by destroying coca fields.

His scheme to use drones to spray coca crops with glyphosate has been criticized by the World Health Organization who say the herbicide is more than likely carcinogenic.

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Duque meets with Trump for first time since becoming Colombia’s president

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Colombia’s President Ivan Duque met with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday while in New York City for the UN General Assembly.

The meeting was private and no details about the agenda was made public either by the White House or Colombia’s President’s Office.

The two leaders are expected to have discussed the two countries’ joint efforts to curb drug trafficking between Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, and the US, the world’s largest consumer of cocaine.

Additionally, the two leaders likely talked about an ongoing crisis in Colombia’s neighbor Venezuela, which has spurred millions of Venezuelan citizens to abandon their country.

Both Duque and Trump are meeting with multiple world leaders who are attending the UN’s annual meeting of heads of state.

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US, Colombia, Venezuela in political standoff as world leaders seek solutions

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US President Donald Trump slammed sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s “inner circle” on Tuesday as tensions between the US, Colombia and Venezuela escalate.

The sanctions, which target Maduro’s wife and high-ranking Venezuelan officials, are just the most recent move in a highly chaotic geopolitical chess game between the three countries as other world leaders seek peaceful solutions.

On Tuesday, Trump met with President Ivan Duque to discuss the Venezuela and the peace process, later saying that “’we’re going to take care of Venezuela.”

“What is going on in Venezuela really is unacceptable,” Trump said in a press conference with Duque, “And I know from the standpoint of Colombia and other nations fairly close by, it’s very unacceptable also.”

Maduro responded almost immediately, and militarized the border with Colombia.


Venezuela ‘militarizes border with Colombia’ as tensions grow


Escalating tensions

The two neighbors had already cut ties, and Maduro and Duque in weeks previous have slung accusations at each other.

Maduro accused Colombia of a botched assassination attempt on him last month while Duque has accused Maduro of a human rights abusing dictator.

But tensions have come to a head as the future of a possible US military intervention between the two countries has become more and more imminent.

A growing list of US officials have hinted that their country would take military action against Venezuela, the most recent coming from US Vice President Mike Pence, who called the Venezuelan militarization an “obvious effort of intimidation.”


Colombia can count on US in case of Venezuela attack: ambassador


“Let me be clear, the United States of America will always stand with our allies for their security,” Pence said in a United Nations General Assembly. “The Maduro regime would do well not to test the resolve of the President of the United States or the American people.”

Trump meanwhile told reporters Wednesday morning before the annual gathering of world leaders that “all options are on the table” and that he would also be willing to meet with Maduro. Previously, the American threatened the possibility of forcibly removing Maduro.

“I would certainly be open to it, I’m willing to meet with anybody,” Trump said. “We’re going to take care of Venezuela, if he’s here and he wants to meet, it was not on my mind, it was not on my plate, but if I can help people that’s what I’m here for.”

The Colombian government in September ended its opposition to possible US military intervention in Venezuela and broke from regional allies, dubbed the Lima Group, that sought to seek peaceful solutions to the growing crisis.

Seeking solutions

In the midst of political head bashing between Colombia, the US and Venezuela, world leaders at the UN General Assembly are grappling with how to address growing instability in the country and the corresponding exodus of migrants from the country.

The Colombian government said in June that over one million Venezuelans entered to the country in 14 months. Other estimates say over 4,000 people flood over the Venezuela-Colombia border daily.

They flee food and medicine shortages caused by rampant hyperinflation and violence by the Maduro regime. They migrants cross through dangerous areas along the border, arriving into neighboring countries, oftentimes without prospects for food, documentation and a job.

The mass migration has strained the resources of the Colombian government and aid organizations across the country.


UN agrees to fund to help Colombia and neighbors deal with displaced Venezuelans


UN chief Antonio Guterres announced Monday that the UN would, at Duque’s request, set up a fund to help Colombia and other neighboring countries handle the migration crisis.

“We need the world to understand that there must be a global response to the humanitarian and migratory crisis caused by the Venezuelan dictatorship,” Duque said Sunday.

Separately, a countries in the Lima Group, Colombia among them, held private conversations Tuesday night to discuss recent developments in the crisis. The Colombian Foreign Minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo announced that the group would call for a investigation against Maduro for human rights abuses by the International Criminal Court, among other measures.

They are going to adopt additional measures,” Trujillo told El Espectador, “Actions to produce the best effect with the goal that the brotherly Venezuelan people can live once again in democracy and liberty.”

The post US, Colombia, Venezuela in political standoff as world leaders seek solutions appeared first on Colombia News | Colombia Reports.


Is war between Colombia and Venezuela inevitable?

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Promoting or supporting sanctions, wars, or “humanitarian interventions” is easy, any fool can do it.

The difficult thing is to see the whole picture of the issue, or what intellectuals call having a holistic view. When one makes an effort to look beneath the surface, one begins to notice great complexities, half-truths, lies, and even sometimes discover that the good are not so good, and the bad are not so bad. Venezuela seems to be one of those cases.

Now that the issue of Venezuela is in fashion — mainly because of the massive and heartbreaking migration of Venezuelan citizens — it has been said that what could be necessary is a change of regime, which repeatedly is called a “dictatorship.”

According to many western critics of Venezuela’s socialist government, the cause of the humanitarian crisis is the “dictatorship” led by President Nicolas Maduro and the “21st Century Socialism” of his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

It is true that the inflammatory discourses of Chavez and Maduro – filled with accusations, self-victimization, accusations and threats – generates rejection and division, both within Venezuela and of other governments. It also generates rejection and suspicion among the citizens of other countries.

It is also true that to see that Venezuela has armed itself significantly, and possesses weapons, equipment and state-of-the-art systems, that generate sincere concerns among many, including ordinary citizens.

21st-century socialism has yet to fail or succeed

In spite of its declared good intentions and interesting projects in the fields of economy and social services, the “Bolivarian” government of Venezuela has not been able to consolidate most of its domestic policies. Much of this is due to the lack of committed, capable and even honest personnel. Nor has Caracas been able to maintain its international policies, due to the complex and changing dynamics of geopolitics.

Until a few years ago, Latin America had different leftist governments that supported each other. Today, once again, there has been a shift to the right, which disrupts, minimizes or repudiates the achievements of previous governments.

Venezuela, with its experiment of “21st century socialism,” is increasingly isolated. Big capital needs that experiment to fail, and it is failing.

For them, it would be inconvenient that the good things that have been done (or tried) in Venezuela become examples that shake the structure of economic, cultural and military domination in which we are immersed.

US President Donald Trump said in the UN General Assembly that he does not rule out a military intervention in Venezuela, and asked for support to “restore democracy” in that country after pointing out that a military coup in Venezuela could succeed very quickly.

All his statements are undoubtedly a manifestation of hostility, and go beyond the thin line of diplomacy.

But the US president makes everything clear when he alludes to Venezuela’s political-economic model, saying that “people flee Venezuela because of Maduro’s socialism… socialism has led to poverty in Venezuela, which used to be a very rich country.” What Trump basically is saying is that socialism once again failed, that it is a model that serves no one, and that the capitalism the US president represents is the panacea.

Venezuela is not a dictatorship

Let’s tackle the Venezuela issue in parts. In the first place, it is important to clarify that the government of Nicolas Maduro is not a dictatorship. There were presidential elections in which he was elected, so he is the constitutional president of a sovereign country, and enjoys no less legitimacy than other Latin American countries with weak electoral systems, for example Colombia.

Inside Venezuela there is a heated political debate between the followers of the ideas of Chavez or “Chavistas” and the opponents of the government.

Unlike Colombia, where in one way or another traditional elites continue to divide power and contracts, in Venezuela the Chavista government keeps the opponents out of the bureaucracy.

It is clear that, since they are not represented, the opponents are not directly responsible for the government’s mistakes, except in the governor’s offices and mayors’ offices that they have won by popular election.

In another sense, Maduro’s government has done everything possible to close spaces to the opposition, violating the healthy balance that prevents a concentration of power in a group or in a person, and thus prevent possible abuses.

He is also blamed for the indoctrination and politicization of the military, which defines itself as “Chavista and anti-imperialist.”

All of which seems to suggest that – although Maduro is not a dictator because of his legitimate origin – it could be argued that his actions excluded political participation of the opposition, and by co-opting all state agencies for his political project, he would be moving away from democratic way towards something similar to a one-party state.

Maduro, who is despised for coming from a trade union and for having been a bus driver, has been more astute than all his opponents, who enjoy international funding, and massive political and media support. Despite all the combined forces striving to destroy him, Maduro and his 21st century socialism have consolidated power.

The immense forces that oppose the Venezuelan political project, who have not been able to defeat it politically or economically, now consider doing so militarily. After all, they have already weakened him enough.

But we must clarify that that war against Venezuela not is a future possibility; this war has been going on for years.

Warfare is more than exchanging bullets and bombs

Modern warfare is multidimensional, and doesn’t necessarily involve the deployment of ships, tanks and planes, in order to – as Carl con Clausewitz would say – subdue the adversary to your will.

Perhaps, given that the succession of political, diplomatic, economic or psychological operations has failed to bring down the Venezuelan “regime”, direct methods will now be tried, using military force.

This is bad in itself, since the international system advocates the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the self-determination of peoples, condemning interventionism.

But it gets worse when the idea is that Colombia should play a role there.

President Ivan Duque’s intervention before the UN General Assembly shows that Colombia will be an important actor in the tightening of the ongoing siege against the Venezuelan government, which has begun with the signing of a document asking the International Criminal Court to initiate an investigation against the Venezuelan government for crimes against humanity.

This request is also signed by the governments of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, and other countries may join in the coming days.

Maduro arrived in New York almost surprisingly, to speak before the UN General Assembly, carrying “the truth of Venezuela,” defended his position, told some of the things his government is doing to stabilize his country, spoke about Syria, asked for the end of the blockade of Cuba, and expressed once again his support to the Palestinian people.

He also blamed the United States for the recent attacks against him, in which explosive drones were used. Finally, he was emphatic in stating that he was willing to meet with Donald Trump to reach agreements, but within a framework of equality and transparency.

At the end of his speech he was applauded, which was not the case with Duque. Trump’s speech even generated laughter in the auditorium. What did those diplomats who gave him a standing ovation see in that bus driver that others do not see?

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is very real

 

The crisis in Venezuela became completely evident with the migration issue. How can one deny a crisis when thousands and thousands of people leave the country, even on foot?

The first thing one must ask is, what does the crisis consist of?

For a humble Venezuelan, things are not simple. Many, many companies and businesses have closed, so it is difficult to get a formal job and there is a dramatic shortage in food and medicine. Wages are low and the prices of products found in commerce are high. There is a hyperinflation that causes prices to rise every day.

Venezuela’s Bolivar is depreciating against the dollar, which spurs inflation even more. But in addition, strangely enough, cash disappears from the streets and disrupts all trade.

People lack the capacity to save, and if they do, it is pointless saving money that is devalued every day. In such a complicated economic situation and in the face of the need to survive, people resort to strategies that go against their own collective interest, such as contributing to price increases, hiding/selling cash, trading in dollars, hoarding products, and relaxing ethics by engaging in morally questionable activities like prostitution or crime.

In short, in Venezuela you can’t find a good job and if you do you are underpaid, the money you receive is depreciated every day and loses purchasing power. If you want to buy food, there is shortage, and what you find is exaggeratedly expensive or they want to sell it to you in cash, but cash is not available, you can only make bank transfers.

Since you don’t have cash you can’t pay for bus tickets (the drivers don’t have a point of sale), you can’t eat a hot dog in the street or buy a beer or a soda, you can’t give money to a beggar, you can’t contribute to the church, nor can you give something to your children for the school meal.

If you want to have cash, you must buy it at 700% of its actual value, sometimes even at 1000%, whatever money traders decide. You make them a bank transfer and they give you cash. The opposite also happens, they buy your cash and then resell it. Meanwhile, your goods deteriorate, your shoes wear out, your underwear wears out, your pants wear out, your TV stops working. If you barely have enough for half a meal, you’re not going to be able to replace your deteriorating property.

The situation is so sad that even the brothels have disappeared, not because there are no prostitutes or gentlemen who need their services, people lack solvency to go whoring.

So, many Venezuelans began to migrate to neighboring countries, and told others about the improvement in their living conditions, and about migratory requirements. This generated a wave of migrants that has only now slowed down, due to the limitations that are being established.

Currency control, free market and the mafia

Is Maduro to blame for all this tragedy? In large part, yes, due to bad decisions and the confrontational attitude of his government. He has also contributed to the legal insecurity in Venezuela, which drives away investments and discourages entrepreneurs.

But other factors that influence the crisis and worsen it cannot be ignored.

The internal confrontation in Venezuela, propitiated by Chavez, is a conflict between social classes, which still continues.

Businessmen gradually withdrew from the market and today, after 20 years of socialism, the Venezuelan productive sector is only a pale shadow of what it once was. Those who remain are true business wizards, who sustain themselves in such a complex environment, should be teaching at universities.

However, some of them also engage in malpractice, such as hoarding and speculation, which generates or worsens shortages, or tax evasion or bribery.

Faced with a shortage of basic necessities, the Venezuelan government has resorted to subsidizing imports of raw materials or finished products, putting products on the shelves at prices far below their equivalents on the international market.

This has proved a too attractive temptation for smugglers, who, especially from Colombia, have for years massively and blatantly been smuggling, generating millions of dollars in profits for them.

The issue is so complicated that even though the Venezuelan government closed its borders to vehicular traffic.

If you visit San Antonio del Tachira in Venezuela, you will see that there is an overwhelming shortage in good. When you cross the bridge and visit the “La Parada” sector in Villa del Rosario in Colombia you will see a multitude of businesses with merchandise up to the roof. The curious thing is that these businesses sell mainly Venezuelan products.

Some shops in San Antonio de Tachira, on the Venezuelan side of the border, have been forced to close because there is nothing to sell. (Image: El Estimulo)

Products meant for Venezuelan consumption are sold illegally in “La Parada.” (Image: La Opinion)

Even a stupid person can understand that there is a serious smuggling crisis, carried out in collusion with the national guards and other officials in charge of customs. There was corruption before the economic crisis, and this has worsened with the crisis.

Right there, in “La Parada”, there are multiple money exchange businesses where transactions are made in pesos, bolivars and dollars. The value given by the Venezuelan government to its own currency is irrelevant there; the invisible hand of the market comes into play. It is supply and demand that defines the price on the bolivar, or at least that is the official version.

I have observed that the Venezuelan website dolartoday.com works with a kind of mafia from the Colombian border city of Cucuta to which many (or all) money changers seem to subscribe voluntarily or involuntarily, and through which the bolivar is gradually devalued, contributing enormously to the Venezuelan economic crisis.

Without pretending to be an economist, there are obviously ill-willed attempts that seek to disrupt Venezuela.

For example: when the government of Venezuela establishes that the exchange rate for the day is 20 bolivars to the dollar, dolartoday.com (which does economic sabotage with the support of various media and businessmen) says no, that the “real” exchange rate in the street is 40 bolivars per dollar.

Because the Venezuelan government’s currency control, obtaining dollars legally is virtually impossible. There are two ways to buy dollars in Venezuela; one is on the black market, where the price is defined by dolartoday, and the other is to go to Cucuta, where the dollar is cheaper, and even more if you buy it in cash.

Venezuelans who want dollars because they need to travel, or need foreign currency to buy something abroad or save money, carry their cash to Cucuta, and the bolivar bills disappear from the streets of Venezuela.

After several years of this procedure, plus repeated – and malicious – warnings about cash shortages by opposition media, people began to hoard their cash, effectively aggravating the problem.

Then the business of buying/selling cash emerged. Let’s say that in any city traders buy your cash at 130% of the official value and sell it at 140%, a very profitable business for those who commit these kinds of financial crimes.

But there’s more. If you sell your cash in Cucuta, Colombian money changers would buy it at 150% of its value. In other words, if you take them 100 bolivares in cash, they transfer 150 bolivares to your bank account. These numbers are fictitious and only meant to exemplify what is going on.

The reality is that today people are buying Venezuelan cash at 400% of its original value. Imagine that cycle happening massively every day: cash is taken out of the economy, but virtually 400% (or more) of what was physically taken out is reinserted digitally.

At the same time, every day, through a suspiciously coordinated operation between the Colombian exchange houses and, among others, dolartoday, the Venezuelan currency is depreciated while cash is disappearing.

The Colombian government knows this, and does nothing to prevent it.

Now, if you’re one of the mafia bosses with the power to move millions every day, you really are in big business. If you help depreciate the bolivar, you can buy a lot of cheap bolivars with which you can buy subsidized Venezuelan products, then smuggle them to Colombia, where you sell them at the Colombian market price. This way your wealth multiplies several times in a very short time.

I have yet to mention Venezuela’s gasoline, which is the cheapest in the world, and has been tremendously popular among Colombian smugglers. An entire illegal industry has prospered, also in Cucuta.

A Venezuelan analyst told me once that he believed Cucuta’s economy has prospered over the past decades mainly because of smuggling from Venezuela, in association with related crimes such as drug trafficking. Having explained all of the above, it is understandable that he believes that.

Faced with this complex panorama, and in order to overcome especially food shortages, the Venezuelan government created a house-to-house supply system called CLAP (Local Supply and Production Committees), by means of which basic food supplies are delivered to people’s homes at cheap prices on a monthly or biweekly basis.

These inputs would have been previously acquired from the national producers, but mainly imported, and paid with the oil revenue. This has prevented the collapse of Venezuelan society or its surrender to hunger.

In Colombia, several containers of CLAP boxes were recently retained for no compelling reason. Other governments have also sabotaged the sale or delivery of food purchased for that purpose.

Venezuela’s provisional reaction

As oil production in Venezuela hit historical lows, and its main source of foreign currency is the oil industry, it is very important for that country to have its foreign exchange in order to be able to acquire more food and continue supplying the population.

The United States has blocked accounts of the Venezuelan government and has subjected it to a series of economic sanctions that prevent or hinder international business, limiting access to foreign exchange and therefore to food and medicine that must be purchased abroad.

It is undeniable that there is an economic war against Venezuela, which adds to the errors of the government of that country, and the aggravation of the humanitarian situation in Venezuela.

If we acknowledge that the incompetence and errors of the Venezuelan government are not the only causes of the crisis that the country is going through, there are other internal and external factors that fuel it.

The hyperinflation, the lack of food and medicine, the lack of cash in the streets, unemployment, political polarization, the progressive decrease in the quality of life, among many other factors that make life difficult if not unbearable, are elements that together have generated the massive migrations to other countries that we have seen in recent times.

There is more than one solution

It is clear that a change of government in Venezuela could be a solution, but it could also trigger a civil war that would further destabilize that country and the region.

There are presumably many other ways to help Venezuela overcome its humanitarian crisis and prevent its state system from failing.

For example, the US government could stop happily and unilaterally sanctioning the Venezuelan government by unfreezing its foreign currency accounts, lifting the ban on trading new debt or bond issues by the Venezuelan government or the PDVSA company, as well as ceasing to prevent the payment of dividends to the Venezuelan government.

All those currencies that now do not arrive in Venezuela, would undoubtedly help to acquire more food and medicines, and in general would reinforce the social plans in the South American country.

Blaming Maduro for the crisis is absurd and even perverse, when you do everything possible to tie his hands and prevent him from overcoming Venezuela’s problems.

From Colombia’s side, we could start by not seeing Maduro as the spoke in someone else’s wheel, but look at our own humanitarian crisis and our own problems, both political and economic.

To then understand that for decades Colombia’s internal problems spilled over to Venezuela with phenomena such as drug trafficking, violence by illegal armed groups, extortion, kidnapping, forced displacement, and all sorts of crimes of different magnitudes.

We must also remember that Venezuela received millions of Colombians who migrated there in search of better living conditions. Colombia is not and never has been Switzerland; we have multiple problems, just like Venezuela.

A turn of fate has changed the direction of migration. Now we are the ones who must attend to and help those people who flee their country.

But more importantly, the Colombian government must stop turning a blind eye to the cross-border crimes that occur along the 2,219-kilometer border with Venezuela, and especially in border towns like Maicao, Cucuta, Arauca, and Arauquita.

The smuggling of gasoline, food, medicine or any other merchandise affects both countries – because in neither of the two countries they pay taxes – but affects Venezuela more. The items that were initially subsidized for consumption within that country do not only generate shortages when taken, but cause a significant economic detriment.

Smuggling these products only enriched Colombia’s mafias, who are surely involved in other crimes that affect Colombian society.

But perhaps more importantly, the freedom with which the exchange houses of Cucuta are operating, behind which there are people or governments with a lot of money, is structurally affecting the Venezuelan economy and worsening its crisis.

The Colombian government cannot continue turning a blind eye to this situation, because doing could imply criminal complicity.

The US’ provisional reaction

Because the depreciation of the currency triggers all other problems, Venezuela has tried to make fundamental changes to curb it. Caracas created the “Petro” cryptocurrency, guaranteeing that this cryptocurrency is backed by Venezuela’s oil and gold reserves.

So, in order for the Petro to be negatively affected, the oil and other markets would have to collapse simultaneously.  The government later said that the bolivar will be anchored to the Petro and not to the dollar.

As it seems a good idea, that would help macroeconomic stabilization if it works, the US government sabotaged the measure and issued an executive order prohibiting transactions in Petros, specifically prohibiting “all transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018 wherein US jurisdiction is implicated.”

Here, Washington’s desire to sabotage the Venezuelan economy becomes clear, and it is clear that an economic war is indeed underway and is being waged on different fronts, and of which Colombia is a part through its exchange houses.

The measures with which the Venezuelan government is attempting to confront the economic aggression to which it is subjected include the entry into circulation of a new currency as of August 20, 2018.

This time they have removed five zeros from the currency to make transactions more manageable. They have decreed a new national minimum wage (plus an additional bonus), and have agreed with the producers a price scale for basic necessities, which make it possible for the population to resume purchases and at the same time allow profitability for the producers.

Additionally, the process of acquiring dollars through public auctions has been simplified, and exchange houses will be opened throughout the country where dollars will be traded at official prices that are much cheaper than those on the black market, and where international transfers can be made.

Until now, remittances sent by Venezuelans abroad arrived in Venezuela without paying taxes. With this new measure there will be greater control over these remittances and additional income for the state.

The government ordered Venezuelan banks to block the accounts of those who manage their accounts from abroad, without having previously announced that they would leave the country. This would minimize the flow of ghost capital and increases controls.

In addition, the Petro was effectively linked to the price of a barrel of oil, and the Bolivar at the Petro. The minimum wage was also anchored to Petro.

Furthermore, a system was put into practice to save in gold by buying certificates of deposit guaranteed by the Central Bank of Venezuela, an effective return to the safe and reliable gold standard, which cannot be affected by inflation. This way, savings do not lose value.

Finally, a national transport census was carried out to find out exactly how many cars there are in the country and where they are. From there, an increase in the price of fuels was planned, to link them to international oil prices, with a direct subsidy to Venezuelans who possess a so-called “Carnet de la Patria,” an ID card that allows all citizens access to social services

This is very interesting because it effectively links a biosecure identification system to gasoline purchases and prevents the mafias from buying the cards to continue smuggling gasoline at low prices.

As the border with Colombia is where Venezuela suffers the highest crime rate, smuggling of extraction and presence of destabilizing factors, the Venezuelan government is making an effort to have a greater presence there, and above all to be more efficient by curbing the corruption of state agents.

One month after these measures were taken, the trend has been positive and the situation seems to be stabilizing little by little.

Venezuela has received international support from China and Russia, as well as Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua, among other small countries.

Confidence is recovering to the point that several thousand Venezuelans abroad have asked their government for help to return to their country, and in this context the “Return Home Plan” has been activated to arrange their return and grant them some facilities for their social and economic readjustment.

At the time of writing and in less than a month, 3,364 Venezuelans have returned to Venezuela. This being so, this is the only case in which people who had left a socialist country, return to “a dictatorship” on their own free will.

The measures Venezuela has taken are unorthodox, divergent, and tend to grant it economic sovereignty. Now with the Petro issue, the only crypto currency backed by a State, and backed by oil reserves and gold reserves with which Venezuela is going to conduct its international business, the country has an opportunity to return to the path of prosperity.

From economic to ballistic warfare?

Venezuela is a country that resists political and economic domination, that for decades has endured an economic war, that has been destabilized in different ways, and where – this cannot be denied – its government has made countless mistakes and abuses, but in which it has fundamentally defended the right of the people to a dignified life.

It is also this country that has the largest proven reserves of oil in the world and occupies the top position in proven reserves of gas and gold. This is a very appetizing prey for big capital.

With its wealth, which could be converted into welfare for its population, and under a different ideological, political and economic model, Venezuela could become a “bad example” for the rest of the world, and people could want to imitate its model.

As big capital and its allied governments have not been able to defeat the “Bolivarian revolution” in Venezuela after 20 years of attempts and dozens of elections, and now risk that the measures for economic stabilization and prosperity may work. So, a wave of attacks and accusations has been unleashed to justify military intervention and remove the chavistas from power. This is where the problem lies, in my opinion.

It seems to me that a war between Colombia and Venezuela can be avoided if society as a whole rejects it on the basis of a more holistic knowledge of the situation.

But, given the intellectual capacity of the masses in Colombia, who were proposed the option between peace and war, and war chose war, where they were asked to choose between transparency and corruption, and they chose corruption, it is possible that the masses succumb to the strategies of psychological warfare that are being applied.

It should be made clear that military war has its own complexities, which we will analyze later.

Author Douglas Hernández from Colombia is the founder and director of military website Fuerzasmilitares.org, and a journalist specialized in security and defense. He is a contributor to the Air and Space Power Journal, the institutional magazine of the United States Air Force, and Brazilian military magazine Segurança & Defesa. He is a Sociologist and has a Master in Education from the University of Antioquia, where is is also a PhD student. He also has a degree in International Relations.

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One Colombian woman may have shifted the trajectory of the US Supreme Court

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As sexual assault accusations swirling around a United States Supreme Court nominee turn Washington DC into a deafening roar, one voice may have risen above the noise: Colombian activist Ana Maria Archila.

A Senate committee was ready to pass through the nomination of judge Brett Kavanaugh, who testified Thursday about an alleged sexual assault, when Archila confronted one of the committee’s senators on Capitol elevator.

“What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court,” she yelled at Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. “This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. I have two children. I can’t imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing, sir?”

Flake, a Republican who acts as a Congressional “swing vote,” is one of the most powerful voices in the Senate right now. Earlier in the day, Flake announced he was voting for the appointment of Kavanaugh. But as Archila and other sexual assault victims told their stories to him, Flake shrunk into the corner of the elevator. Archila is a Colombian activist for the organization Center for Popular Democracy and has lived in the US since 1997.

The video of her story captured national attention and seemed to shake Flake.

The senator walked into the committee hearing with a sour look on his face, requesting that the controversial nomination of Kavanaugh be pushed back so officials can investigate. If Flake has a change of fate, it might shift the trajectory of the nomination process and decades of judicial decisions in the country.

The move was unprecedented in many ways and prompted by Archila’s voice, which seemed to rise above the noise of political pundits.

“Do you think he’s able to hold the pain of this country and repair it?” Archilla said in the elevator. “That is the work of justice. The work of justice is you recognize harm and you take responsibility for it, and then you begin to repair it. You’re allowing someone who is unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions and own the harm he has done to one woman, actually, three women.”

Following the encounter between Archilla and Flake, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said it would investigate the alleged sexual assault cases of which the Supreme Court nominee after which the US Senate will vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

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“They’re killing us:” Colombia’s social leaders take their case to Washington

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Social leaders traveled from Colombia to Washington DC this week to meet with the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) and US officials to seek protection after the assassination of more than 340 since 2016.

Around the time President Ivan Duque met his American counterpart Donald Trump in New York, social leader Hector Marino Carabali from Cauca arrived at the iACHR offices to talk about the mass killing of land claimants, human rights defenders and other activists.

While all the camera crews were in New York, Carabali met with State Department officials, US senators and human rights organizations to draw attention to the plight of Colombia’s social leaders.

“The world must know that they are killing us and the government does nothing,” Carabali told newspaper El Espectador.

The social leaders who fight for peace with social justice and for the defense of the countryside are an obstacle for those who have historically lived off the war and who do not want the peace agreements to be implemented. In other words, the crime that we social leaders commit is to defend the lives of all Colombians.

Hector Marino Carabalí

How to steal land the size of a small country and get away with it


Leaving behind everything

Carabali was forced to flee his home in Buenos Aires in July after masked men kidnapped and murdered his friend Ibes Trujillo, and the “Aguilas Negras,” an elusive far-right collective, threatened that he would be next.

The Cauca native is not sure when or if he can go home, he told El Espectador. Carabali is not the only one, partly because Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office is apparently reluctant to adequately investigate the violence, or arrest the alleged masterminds behind the killings.

IACHR officials reviewed some cases of murdered leaders and which are part of the organization’s body of evidence to make the coming human rights reports on Colombia. They are extremely concerned, because despite the recommendations they have made to the Colombian government, the murders and threats against social leaders continue. In addition, there is a concern about the role that the Prosecutor General’s Office ought to play and does not want to do well.

Hector Marino Carabali

According to Carabali, the situation only worsened after the June election of Duque, a conservative who opposes the peace process promoted by many of the killed and threatened social leaders.

There is a general alert in the countryside because of the bills that the Duque administration is presenting in Congress and that go against the peace agreements. For example, the modification of the Victims and Land Restitution Law, and the bill that seeks to criminalize small farmers growing coca, marijuana and poppy. We are also concerned about the criminalization of social protest and the violence that could be unleashed in the face of protests in the countryside over the activation of fumigation [of illicit crops] with glyphosate.

Hector Marino Carabali

Carabali and US human rights organizations have been seeking support in Washington in particular, because of the US’ involvement in counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations.

“Colombia’s peace is also the United States’ peace, many of that country’s citizens say,” according to Carabali, who bashed the apparent discrepancy between Duque’s promise before the UN to promote peace while escalating tensions in Colombia.

Last week, President Duque was in New York and quoted Nelson Mandela’s words to say that Mandela was a man of peace who gave his all to bring about social change in South Africa. However, Duque’s rhetoric is contradictory to what is happening in Colombia. Through Congress they want to take away the autonomy of the territories where we survive and they kill us for opposing this.

Hector Marino Carabali

Colombia’s Duque talks peace at UN summit while inching his country towards war


To further seek Americans’ attention for the plight of Colombia’s social leaders, Carabali will be present at a screening of the documentary “They Are Killing Us” of filmmakers Tom Laffay, Emily Wright and Daniel Bustos in New York on Friday before returning to an uncertain future in Colombia.

The post “They’re killing us:” Colombia’s social leaders take their case to Washington appeared first on Colombia News | Colombia Reports.

The DEA in Colombia: Losing the drug war, but having a lot of sex

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The DEA’s office in Colombia came under fire again on Wednesday after reports that one former official passed classified information to narcos and the outgoing regional director used government funds to visit prostitutes.

The scandals come in the same year that the United Nations said Colombia’s cocaine exports broke all-time records in 2017, the DEA nearly derailed the country’s peace process, and the United States government refuses to cooperate with a UN-led strategy to eradicate coca, the base ingredient for cocaine.


Potential cocaine exports from Colombia


Prostitutes

Richard Dobrich (Image: LinkedIn)

The most recent scandal involves the DEA’s outgoing Regional Director Richard Dobrich, who is investigated for using US embassy vehicles and drivers “to procure sex workers,” Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday.

Dobrich is set to leave the office and denied the claims. He wrote AP that only a “complete idiot” would use American tax payers’ money to engage in prostitution “given his office’s history,” according to the news agency.

The regional director was reportedly brought to Bogota in the aftermath of a 2015 scandal involving DEA’ officers in Cartagena where multiple agents were sanctioned for engaging in sex parties with prostitutes who were paid for by narcos in accommodations paid for by the American government.

Despite the gravity of the apparent ties between the regional DEA office and the local drug traffickers, no officer received a penalty harsher than a 10-day suspension.


DEA Agents in Colombia had drug-funded ‘sex parties’


DEA spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger did not respond to emailed questions about Dobrich’s departure but wrote that the agency “takes very seriously any allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct by our employees.”

Associated Press

The DEA’s narco-paramilitary links

Cartagena’s port and luxury condos (Image: Wikipedia)

Buzzfeed News reported in April that former DEA agent Jose Irizarry, who was also stationed in the port city of Cartagena, was investigated on charges he provided classified information to drug traffickers.

Cartagena is Colombia’s largest port city and processes more than 7,000 shipping containers per day.

According to local authorities, the port is used to export cocaine of the AGC, a paramilitary group that is considered the country’s largest drug trafficking organization and called the “Gulf Clan” by Colombian and American authorities.


The rise of the AGC, Colombia’s criminal powerhouse


Despite US investigations officials telling the news website that “this is big,” and “a major case,” no further developments in the investigation have been reported since.

Alleged ties between the US’ counter-narcotics agency and Colombian narco-paramilitaries are almost as old as Colombia’s cocaine trade itself.

DEA agent Javier Peña allegedly colluded with “Don Berna” when the DEA and the founding commander of paramilitary group AUC were trying to take down the Medellin Cartel in the early 1990s.

Using controversial policies in foreign politics

For decades, The DEA has been coercing drug suspects to “snitch” on others by offering judicial benefits in exchange for compromising material, or “kompromat” as the Russian intelligence community calls it.

In Uniontown, Alabama, the controversial method of coercing informants led to “the largest drug bust in history” in 1997 after a local drug dealer, Cedric Jones, “snitched” on family members and neighbors, according to investigative journalism program Frontline.

Seventy of the community’s 2,000 inhabitants were arrested without any drugs being found on any of the detainees but the informant.

What would you do if the government came knocking on your door telling you that you’ll get 30 years in prison unless you inform on somebody?

Anonymous DEA informant via Frontline

While Dobrich was allegedly using tax payers’ money to get laid, his agency plunged Colombia’s peace process in crisis in a similar komprobat scheme.

According to the DEA, an agent entrapped “Marlon Marin,” a small-time hustler from the south in the country, in mid-2017 by pretending to be a Mexican cartel member looking for cocaine.

Marin voluntarily flew to the US and disappeared from the radar earlier this year after he “snitched” on “Jesus Santrich,” a long-time ideologue of the demobilized Marxist FARC guerrilla group.

The blind Santrich had never been implicated in drug trafficking, but was a close friend and former brother-in-arms of Marin’s uncle, the FARC’s political leader “Ivan Marquez.”

Is he telling the truth to the government? I can’t see any truth to what he’s saying, if he’s calling us constantly saying “They’re telling me what to say. And I have to please them, I got to help myself.”

Uniontown resident Sally McGee via Frontline

Without presenting any compelling evidence, Colombia’s chief prosecutor Nestor Humberto Martinez arrested Santrich on the DEA charge that the demobilized rebel leader would be conspiring to ship 10 tons of cocaine to the US and should be extradited.


How FARC leader ‘Jesus Santrich’ got tied up in an alleged drug deal


Around the time that Marin allegedly made the drug deal with the DEA, Colombia’s chief prosecutor was embarrassed by the agency. The DEA accused Martinez’ personally appointed anti-corruption chief, Luis Gustavo Moreno, of allegedly extorting a former governor in Miami in September 2017.

The chief prosecutor was never accused of complicity in his assistant’s alleged extortion practices, but the arrest of Santrich did plunge Colombia’s peace process in crisis.

Marquez went underground after US media cited anonymous Justice Department officials that the FARC’s political chief was also a suspect. Hundreds of demobilized FARC members abandoned the ongoing peace process and dissident groups swelled.

People in Colombia will probably never know if Martinez was involved in the alleged extortion of other government officials or if the small-time hustler from Florencia really planned to make the biggest drug shipment in the history of Colombian drug trafficking.

While the DEA controversially uses criminal informants and the US government refuses to cooperate with the United Nations to voluntarily replace coca with legal crops, the country is slowly being submerged in the violence.

Many coca farmers who were cooperating with the UN in an attempt to push the country towards peace have been assassinated, while hundreds if not thousands of demobilized FARC members are rearming.

The cocaine exports that broke historical records while Dobrich was in office are providing the drug trafficking groups with all the weaponry that 1 million kilograms of cocaine can buy.

The post The DEA in Colombia: Losing the drug war, but having a lot of sex appeared first on Colombia News | Colombia Reports.

Did a DEA hoax devastate Colombia’s peace process?

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Audio leaked on Saturday appears to confirm FARC claims that the United States fabricated drug trafficking charges against a former guerrilla leader that nearly sunk Colombia’s peace process.

The US Justice Department requested the extradition of FARC ideologue “Jesus Santrich” on a vague claim he conspired to make one of the biggest cocaine deals in the history of drug trafficking.

The extradition request plunged the country’s peace process in crisis. The demobilized guerrillas have consistently claimed that the DEA and chief prosecutor Nestor Humberto Martinez’ had “framed” Santrich.

“Ivan Marquez” and “El Paisa” are among more than 30 FARC leaders who went into hiding after the arrest of Santrich.

Evidence undermines drug trafficking claim

Newspaper El Espectador revealed a recording in which Santrich is heard talking to DEA informant Marlon Marin.

In the wiretap, the virtually blind FARC leader agreed to meet with businessmen to discuss reintegration projects for demobilized FARC guerrillas, and not a drug trafficking deal with an undercover DEA agent as claimed by the foreign counter-narcotics agency.

The phone call was reportedly made on February 1, a week before DEA agent Brian Witek met with Santrich and Marin. According to the DEA, Witek pretended to be a Mexican drug trafficker seeking to export 10 tons of cocaine to the United States.

Wiretaps and a photograph made by Witek were released to the media after Santrich’ arrest in April, but did not support the US charges that Santrich was conspiring to traffic drugs.


How FARC leader ‘Jesus Santrich’ got tied up in an alleged drug deal


The newly revealed recording makes it appear that the DEA agent and his informant did “frame” Santrich as claimed by the FARC.

Local media reported that Marin voluntarily flew to the United States after Santrich’ arrest and has since vanished.


Prime suspect in ‘FARC’ drug trafficking case vanishes after trip to US: report


The audio

Marin: Hello, comrade. How are you?

Santrich: Fine, brother. What’s up?

Marin: Glad to hear, comrade. Our friends who got you that bottle as a present the other time are here in Bogota, right? So, they tell me that they only ask for five minutes with you so you can tell them that we will begin with the projects… So they tell me “We only need him for five minutes. We won’t talk about anything else, just that he confirms that everything is ready to begin working on the productive projects we were considering, so we can begin working.” It’s all they need.

Trouble looms for DEA and Martinez

The newly released audio all but undermines the claim that plunged the peace process into crisis just as both Martinez and the DEA were already under unprecedented fire.

The country’s war crimes tribunal accused Martinez earlier this month of trying to “categorically meddle with” and even “intimidate” the transitional justice system that is investigating crimes against humanity left neglected by the prosecution.

The DEA was embarrassed earlier this month when Associated Press reported that the agency’s regional director had been using American tax payers’ money to visit prostitutes in Colombia’s capital Bogota.


The DEA in Colombia: Losing the drug war, but having a lot of sex


Political consequences

The apparent hoax is likely to increase tensions between the United Nations and the US. The UN monitors the peace process that the DEA covertly could be undermining.

The US government and the DEA refuse to cooperate with the peace process’ voluntary coca crop substitution program that is promoted and monitored by the UN.

The international organization has long criticized the militaristic counter-narcotics policy promoted by hard-liners in Washington DC and Bogota.

Martinez’ position would have become untenable months ago already had he not had a pile of criminal cases against members of Congress, the only body that can investigate the Prosecutor General.


The United States vs Colombia’s chief prosecutor


Who’s afraid of justice?

Colombia’s peace process in the meantime seems to have come to a virtual halt, with the exception of the war crimes tribunal and the truth commission that operate independent from the government.

Promises made to victims have not been fulfilled and former FARC guerrillas have massively abandoned the camps where they were supposed to be reintegrated into society.

President Ivan Duque has fiercely opposed the peace process, and in particular the transitional justice system that could spur criminal charges against many of his political allies and economic backers.

Crimes against humanity carried out during the conflict by the guerrillas, the state and the private sector has left millions of victims.

The possibly tens of thousands of victimizers of these crimes have long enjoyed a virtually absolute impunity rate.


How to steal land the size of a small country and get away with it

The post Did a DEA hoax devastate Colombia’s peace process? appeared first on Colombia News | Colombia Reports.

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