The General, The Diplomat, and the Mass Grave

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."

The General, The Diplomat, and the Mass Grave
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/5/12/11400/0057

Plus: Venezuela calls US DEA a "drug cartel,"
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2291

and the Guardian of London interviews Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2077921,00.html

, all on Narco News:

http://www.narconews.com

From somewhere in a country called America,

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

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