[narconews] Donahue: The General, The Diplomat, and the Mass Grave
 
Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 11:00:43 -0500 (CDT)


May 14, 2007
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague,

Former US Ambassador to Colombia Anne W. Patterson now heads the
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the
State Department. But the recent discovery of a mass grave with 105
bodies in Colombia's Putumayo region cast doubts upon her actions in
the US-imposed "war on drugs."

There, in Putumayo, paramilitary death squads enjoyed the cooperation
of the US-funded Colombian Armed Forces, particularly between the
years of 1999 and 2001. Patterson became Ambassador in 2000. Narco
News co-publisher Sean Donahue was in Colombia in 2001 when human
rights organizations informed Patterson of the official complicity
with the paramilitaries. She and the US Embassy not only looked the
other way, but defended continued US aid to the regime that protected
the death squads. Today, the mass grave stands as testimony to the
mortal consequences of their selective enforcement of the drug war:

Sean Donahue reports:

"...The discovery of the mass grave raises serious questions about
Patterson's commitment to breaking the ties between the Colombian
military and the paramilitary groups that are responsible for not
only the country's worst atrocities but also the production and
export of most of the cocaine that reaches the U.S.

"...Yet, at a meeting in January, 2001 when the human rights
delegation I traveled with confronted Ambassador Patterson and her
senior staff about what we had learned in La Hormiga, they vigorously
denied the possibility that U.S. military aid could be assisting any
units with paramilitary links."

Plus: Venezuela calls US DEA a "drug cartel," and the Guardian of
London interviews Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos, on Narco News:

http://www.narconews.com

 From somewhere in a country called Amirica,

David B. Briones
Webmaster
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
webmaster@narconews.com

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