Posted on 12/05/2001 9:02:06 PM PST by al-andalus
World: War-torn Colombia in shock after civilian massacre
Copyright © 2001 AP Online
By JARED KOTLER, Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia (December 5, 2001 10:25 a.m. EST) - The bus was rambling along an arid, remote stretch of Colombian highway when gunmen in ski masks parked a car in its way and forced the driver to stop.
Then the travelers on board were forced off the bus and made to lie down in a row along the pavement. The gunmen then shot 15 people twice in the back of the head. Engineers. School teachers. The bus driver. When the corpses were found, many had their hands still clasped behind their heads.
Among the dead was John Fredy Poveda, a 17-year-old engineering student who was heading to his mother's home in the mountains for the Christmas holidays. He was buried Monday.
"He was an exemplary child," said his aunt, Mireya Bayona. "He was an innocent person."
The cold-blooded roadside slayings in central Boyaca state on Saturday were brutal by even the cruel standards of Colombia's 37-year war. Right-wing paramilitaries and their leftist rebel foes frequently kill civilians suspected of collaborating with the other side. But this time, the victims were 12 men and three women with no apparent connection at all to the war.
The mass slaying, which was apparently committed by the right-wing United Self Defense Forces of Colombia - or AUC - belies the group's claim that it would no longer commit massacres. A survivor, a 65-year-old woman, told investigators that the attackers identified themselves as AUC.
Officials also say it signals a push by the AUC into the mineral-rich region that has been a bastion of left-wing guerrillas.
As funerals took place around the Boyaca town of Sogamosa on Monday, home to most of the people killed in the attack, a parade of buses rolled through the town's streets, honking their horns in unison to protest the killings.
The mayor appealed for an end to the bloodshed.
"This is a peaceful town full of honest and hardworking people. We've never had massacres like this before," Edgar Espindola said by phone. "This fratricidal war has got to stop."
The bus intercepted on Saturday was heading from Sogamosa to Labranzagrande, a reputed guerrilla stronghold in Colombia's eastern Andes. Two years ago, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, attacked the town and drove out its police force. Rebels recently killed four government soldiers in a clash in the area.
An AUC unit based in the oil-rich plains of neighboring Casanare state, which is to the east, has been trying to penetrate the area and reportedly distributed pamphlets around Sogamosa last month, threatening to attack guerrilla sympathizers.
"Apparently, nobody took the threats seriously," said Luis Bernardo Diaz of the government human rights office in the state capital, Tunja. Diaz said there had been some selective killings in the area in recent months, but no clear indication there would be a massacre.
"It was terrible to see the savage way these people were killed," said Col. Jaime Otero, the police chief of Boyaca. When he arrived at the site, the bodies were laying beside the bus, which stood diagonally across the road, its tires shot out.
According to Otero, police were alerted to the killings by a 65-year-old woman, one of three surviving passengers. Two children, one of them the slain driver's 7-year-old son, were also spared.
Otero said the woman, whose name was not released, has told investigators that six men identifying themselves as Casanare-based AUC members parked a car across the highway, forcing the bus to stop. They did not accuse their victims of having ties to the rebels, but killed them anyway to send a message to others, according to her account.
"They said that this was a lesson, that people should stay away from the guerrillas," Otero said.
The AUC, which human rights groups say is supported by rogue members of Colombia's U.S.-backed military, has not confirmed or denied its responsibility
Poveda was one of three students from Boyaca universities killed in the attack, including a 25-year-old woman who had just begun medical school. He was remembered as a straight-A student.
When he boarded the bus, Poveda was planning to spend Christmas and New Year's with his mother in Labranzagrande, then go on to visit his father in Casanare.
Your jaw will drop and then you will wonder why you hadn't heard any of this info in the media before and then you will ask, "why do they even teach history if the State Dept. and the Executive branch isn't even going to bother using the information to make decisions?"
I always joked about guys that read SoF being goofs, well I guess I'm a goof now.
Castano is no angel, but he's serious about fighting FARC, whose leader has made statements expressing his desire to launch terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. He also played a crucial role in taking down Escobar. He's on our side.
The AUC has not attacked American personnel. FARC and ELN are willing to attack American personnel, ELN has tried (they were going after our ambassador and Senator Wellstone in an attempt broken up by the Colombians). Sorry, but the AUC is the least of our problems.
Time and the Washington Post have done interviews with him, and they could NOT make nay hit piece stick. With Pastrana practically appeasing FARC, Castano may be our best option in Colombia.
He is no angel, but he deserves much better than to be listed on the same list as Al-Qaida.
Naturally the main stream media has always hated SoF, because SoF has always been pro America, pro freedom, and anti communist.
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