Random articles on violence in Colombia

Here's a video of the relatives of people who disappeared in the government's attack on the Palace of Justice in 1985. Basically a guerrilla group had broken into the Palace of Justice in the center of Bogota to steal some documents relating to legal proceedings against its members. The Colombian Army decided that they were holding the workers of the Palace hostage, and proceeded to barrage the building with tank shells and live fire. Many people died, mainly judges and other people that worked for the Justice department. Some disappeared without a trace, presumably whisked away by the army to be tortured, killed, and buried in unmarked graves.

Here's an article reporting that in 2009, of the 101 murders of union leaders in the world, 48 were in Colombia.

Here's a damning article in which a UN investigator discusses the links between paramilitary groups and politicians. 93 congressman are being tried for links to paramilitarism, with 22 sentences already passed down by the Supreme Court. There are also proceedings against 13 state congressmen, 12 governors, 166 mayors, and 58 city councilmen! Unfortunately the majority of paramilitary criminals have not been prosecuted. Some paramilitaries are being extradited to the US to be tried for drug trafficking crimes as opposed to being tried in Colombia for crimes against humanity. This means they don't produce useful testimony about their worst crimes, and we don't know all we should about their links to politicians. Further complicating the situation is that Colombia's internal investigation service has been harassing judges and human rights advocates that try to bring these criminals to justice. Even the President of Colombia (who might be heavily implicated were there a transparent investigation of paramilitary crimes undertaken) is trying to mess up the justice process by denouncing and intimidating judges and trying to stack the courts with judges that are favorable to him.