“Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize.”
Thomas Andrew Lehrer — American satirist
The Nobel Peace Prize 2016 was awarded to Juan Manuel Santos “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
QUESTION: How does one get the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE … ALONE? I would have thought that it takes two to tango…
A different picture
General Fredy Padilla de León, Defense Minster Juan Manuel Santos and Natalia Paris (2008/12/01)
‘Who’s that Girl’
Natalia París Gaviria (born August 12, 1973, Medellín, Colombia) is a Colombian model, She is one of the most recognized models in Colombia and offers her own brand of personal care products under her name.
HOWEVER…
“The biggest love of Natalia Paris, widely considered one of Colombia’s sexiest models, was a wealthy (former) drug trafficker until he mysteriously disappeared in 2001. He is now featured in one of Colombia’s most popular soap operas.
Julio César Correa a.k.a. Julio Fierro or La Señora is probably dead. He had joined a cooperation program with American justice in 1995 after he was caught smuggling two tons of cocaine to Miami. He disappeared when he returned to Colombia for a holiday.” [Colombia Reports]
Actually, Julio was Escobar’s most trusted contract killer.
‘Los Falsos Positivos’
The “false positives” scandal (Escándalo de los falsos positivos in Spanish) was a series of murders in Colombia, part of the ongoing armed conflict in that country between the government and guerrilla forces of the FARC and the ELN. Members of the military had poor or mentally impaired civilians lured to remote parts of the country with offers of work, killed them, and presented them to authorities as guerrilleros killed in battle, in an effort to inflate body counts and receive promotions or other benefits.
As of June 2012, a total of 3,350 such cases have been investigated in all parts of the country and verdicts have been reached in 170 cases. Human rights groups have charged that the judicial cases progressed too slowly.
The name of the scandal refers to the technical term of “false positive” which describes a test falsely detecting a condition that is not present. [WIKIPEDIA]
UN INVESTIGATION
In June 2009, UN special rapporteur Philip Alston carried out an investigation of extrajudicial executions in Colombia. He reported:
“ The victim is lured under false pretenses by a “recruiter” to a remote location. There, the individual is killed soon after arrival by members of the military. The scene is then manipulated to make it appear as if the individual was legitimately killed in combat. The victim is commonly photographed wearing a guerrilla uniform, and holding a gun or grenade. Victims are often buried anonymously in communal graves, and the killers are rewarded for the results they have achieved in the fight against the guerillas. […]
I interviewed witnesses and survivors who described very similar killings in the departments of Antioquia, Arauca, Valle del Cauca, Casanare, Cesar, Cordoba, Huila, Meta, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Santander, Sucre, and Vichada. A significant number of military units were thus involved. […]
Evidence showing victims dressed in camouflage outfits which are neatly pressed, or wearing clean jungle boots which are four sizes too big for them, or lefthanders holding guns in their right hand, or men with a single shot through the back of their necks, further undermines the suggestion that these were guerillas killed in combat. […]
I have found no evidence to suggest that these killings were carried out as a matter of official Government policy, or that they were directed by, or carried out with the knowledge of, the President or successive Defence Ministers. On the other hand, the explanation favoured by many in Government – that the killings were carried out on a small scale by a few bad apples – is equally unsustainable.” [WIKIPEDIA]
About JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
The International Federation for Human Rights produced a report on the phenomenon in May 2012, alleging over 3,000 civilian victims between 2002 and 2008. The group asked the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court prosecutor to open an investigation, as “those who bear the greatest responsibility for these crimes are not being investigated or prosecuted in Colombia.”
Santos was named Minister of Defence on 19 July 2006. He resigned on 18 May 2009.
In 2008 the ‘false positives’ scandal was uncovered, referring to revelations concerning extrajudicial executions carried out by members of the military in order to artificially increase the number of guerrillas killed by the Army and claim rewards from the government.
On 4 November 2008, Santos admitted that the military had carried out extrajudicial executions and he pledged to resolve the issue. Twenty-seven military officers, including three generals and eleven colonels, were sacked after an internal army investigation concluded that they were responsible for administrative failures and irregularities in reporting enemy casualties and operational results. The Commander of the Colombian National Army, General Mario Montoya, resigned.
REFERENCES
‘When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died’
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2016 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE JUAN MANUEL SANTOS — Does anyone remember ‘Los Falsos Positivos’?
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