Replacement for General Montoya

By John Lindsay Poland

President Uribe announced this afternoon that the replacement for Army chief General Montoya will be General Oscar Enrique González Peña http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/articulo88095-oscar-gonzalez-nuevo-comandante-del-ejercito.General

González Peña was commander of the Fourth Brigade, based in Medellín, from December 2003 to July 2005, when the army reportedly committed 45 extrajudicial executions in eastern Antioquia, according to a report last year by a coalition of human rights organizations known as Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Observatory. (http://www.dhcolombia.info/spip.php?article362)

González Peña also commanded the 11th Brigaade in Cordoba in 2002-03, when the paramilitaries were operating freely in the area and the Army. In 2005, he commanded the Seventh Division, with jurisdiction over the brigades with among the worst human rights records in the Army: the 11th, 17th, 4th and 14th Brigades.

He attended the School of the Americas in Panama in 1980.That General González Peña also brings to the army leadership a history of extrajudicial executions under his command reinforces the observation we made earlier in the day – it is hard to identify Colombian army commanders who have not commanded units committing gross human rights violations. And most of them have received US training or assistance.

What is happening in Cauca?

CIP Colombia Program

Thousands of indigenous activists gathered yesterday for a protest in northern Cauca department, part of a nationwide day of indigenous mobilizations to commemorate what we in the United States call "Columbus Day."

By several accounts, as the protests - and accompanying road blockages - entered a second day, the Colombian government has begun responding violently.

The worst case appears to be in La María, in the municipality of Piendamó, in Cauca department. Information received so far has been sketchy, but the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC) reports that Colombian security forces have fired into a crowd, wounding as many as twenty-five people, some very seriously.

It is unclear what is going on, but our inbox is filling up with alerts. A main source of information, the website of the Indigenous Cabildos of Northern Cauca (ACIN), has been down - and reportedly blocked - since late this morning.

We are monitoring the websites of the CRIC, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), and the Colombia Indymedia page.

Meanwhile El Tiempo, Colombia's largest newspaper, has nothing about the events in Cauca. Instead, its website is featuring soccer news on its front page, along with an article exhorting readers to wash their hands before eating, and an article about a man in Florida who tried to pay for his food with marijuana.