Today, we focus events in Colombia. As we note in the first update, the U.S. State Department has noted some improvement in human rights in that Latin American country. However, as the following articles note, things are a long way from normal for many of its citizens.
U.S. State Department praises ‘improvement’ human rights in Colombia
A report by the U.S. State Department that was sent to Congress Wednesday praised the improvement of human rights in Colombia, but expresses concern about new paramilitary violence. Colombia Reports
Investigators find mass graves with possibly 1,150 corpses
Investigators of Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office found a number of mass graves in the central Meta department where, according to some locals, 1,150 corpses are buried. Colombia Reports
Rebels Kill Awá Indians as Army Informants
A local group of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas acknowledged that it had killed eight members of the Awá indigenous group, who it accused of being army informants. IPS
Another Illegal Wire Tapping Scandal
Last weekend, Semana news magazine revealed that some agents at the Administrative Security Department (DAS for its Spanish initials), Colombia’s “secret police,” had been illegally wire tapping politicians, journalists, magistrates, intellectuals, and -this time- even government officials close to President Álvaro Uribe, including his private and legal secretaries, and an official from his personal security staff. Even worse, according to the magazine, some of these agents allegedly had been “selling to the highest bidder,” namely guerrillas, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, the information obtained with the illegal phone bugging. Most of the recordings, the magazine says, were destroyed [es] between January 19-21. The story was echoed [es] early Saturday by other media as the magazine was hitting the stores. Global Voices
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