The governor of the southern Colombian department of Caquetá, Luis Francisco Cuellar Carvajal, was found murdered in the rural part of his department Dec. 22. The FARC guerillas had reportedly had kidnapped him the day before. The body was found by security forces taking part in the search for the governor. Troops were not able to immediately recover the body as it was found in the middle of a mine field, presumably planted by the guerillas to exact further casualties.
The hunt was ordered after heavily armed men abducted Cuellar from his home in the department capital Florencia Dec. 21. This apparently marks the FARC’s first kidnapping of a Colombian governor. (Colombia Reports, Dec. 22)
In Washington, Human Rights Watch harshly condemned the attack. “With this savage crime, the FARC is once again showing its ruthlessness and complete disregard for the laws of war and the well-being of civilians,” said HRW Americas director José Miguel Vivanco. “The FARC seems to care nothing for the pain and suffering it causes to its victims and their families.” (HRW, Dec. 23 via ReliefWeb)
See our last post on Colombia and the FARC.
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FARC and Caqueta Govenor
according to ANNCOL (excerpts and translation by me)
When President Uribe ordered the rescue with blood and fire, there could have been no other result.
As far as the governor of Caqueta goes:
Almost 90% of the country ignores that the governor was prosecuted on 11th of March, 2009 for his links with paramilitaries.
Just like 80% of the ranchers of this country, the assassinated governor had plenty of paramilitary links, and in fact, he was responsible for arrival to the paramilitaries to the region of Caqueta. That is to say that he participated in the armed conflict. He was not a simple civilian… He was an instigator, financier of the paramilitaries. He was an actor in the armed conflict. When he was Mayor of Morelia, he was considered a good mayor, not for his work with the city, but for his commitment to counterinsurgency. En Caqueta, everyone knows of his relationship with the mafia and the paramilitaries, like Cristo Malom (Luis Alberto Medina Salazar), Leonida Vargas, Micky Ramirez and Uriel Henao.
… as Ward Churchill might ask, “to whom does this death serve?”
… we do not believe that the Uribe regime could have established the veracity of the claims that the FARC was indeed the authors of this crime, especially because the the slightest proof has not been presented.
http://anncol.eu/noticias-del-mundo/4/a-uribe-le-cabe-toda-la-responsabilidad…324
Some questions re. Caqueta govenor
Thanks for bringing that to our attention. However, we do find it curious that Cuellar Carvajal’s indictment has not been reported elsewhere that is readily available online. Extensive poking around on Google has revealed nothing. We’d like to see it corroborated in another source—better, in a news story rather than an editorial, and in one that actually mentions Cuellar Carvajal’s name, which the piece you link to fails to!
I should also point out you made a few translation errors, including confusing Winston with Ward Churchill.
Bogotá’s El Tiempo does report Dec. 23 that Cuellar Carvajal had been abducted by the FARC four times before, beginning in 1987. A popular guy.
cuellar carvajal
this popular fellow – found references to investigation into links with paras … looks like there was no conviction.
Gobernador en versión libre ante la Fiscalía
La Nación, Florencia
26. marzo 2009
http://www.lanacion.com.co/…Gobernador-en-version-libre-ante-la-Fiscalia
Inician investigación contra Gobernador
Wendy Barrios Gasca LA NACION, FLORENCIA
05. noviembre 2009
http://www.lanacion.com.co…Inician-investigacion-contra-Gobernador
another “editorial”
¿Por qué mataron al gobernador Luis Francisco Cuéllar en Colombia?
http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org…