Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A new Inquisition?

This article forewarns of a new Inquisition in Colombia, in the form of a witch hunt of supposed collaborators of the FARC. This has already seemed to have happened in the case of Piedad Cordoba.

According to the article, the prosecution of so-called "FARC-politics" (to contrast with "para-politics") has numerous goals:

a) To continue using the terrorist menace to distract the media from issues facing the poor, such as the health system, unemployment, protests about selling natural resources to foreign companies, adjustments in the national budget, etc.

b) To downplay the crimes committed by paramilitaries and agents of the State.

c) To finger opposition leaders as collaborators and accomplices of guerrilla groups.

d) To encourage the feeling that it is unjust to prosecute and condemn those politicians associated with right-wing death squads.

e) To neutralize the elements within the new government that might seek true justice vis a vis returning stolen lands to victims of forced displacement, or vis a vis crimes committed by Colombia's internal investigation service.

f) To revive the idea of a "final law" or a "forgive and forget law" in the war so as to offer permanent impunity to those involved with war crimes.

As I said in a prior post, things seem to be getting ugly again in Colombia.

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