In early September, it was learned that the U.S. had not granted Plazas Vega
a visa, thereby blocking his appointment -- undoubtedly as a result of the
opposition that was presented to the U.S. State Department by many folks
from all around the U.S. (THANK YOU to all who sent letters and faxes!) At
the same time, it was clear that the U.S. government was not about to
contest the already-in-place Colombian military attache (Major General
Juan Salcedo Lora).
Here is the information that was issued in Action on Colombia in late July:
Two Colombian military officers responsible for egregious human rights violations have been named by the Colombian government to diplomatic and consular positions in the U.S.
Major General Juan Salcedo Lora was responsible for the 1988 disappearance of Colombian citizen Manuel Reyes Cardenas. Salcedo Lora has been named as Military AttachŽ to the Colombian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The other, retired Colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega, is directly responsible for two of the worst repressive acts of recent Colombian history: the militaryÕs mass murder of the Colombian Supreme Court justices in November 1985 at the Palace of Justice (following the M19 guerrilla takeover of the building), and the formation of the death squad ÒM.A.S.Ó in 1980 in league with the Drug Trafficker Rodriguez Gacha. Rodriquez Gacha was the military head of the Medellin Cartel, against which U.S. spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Ôwar on drugsÕ! (He was murdered by U.S. paramilitary agents in Colombia.) And now GachaÕs associate Plazas Vega thinks he can waltz into San Francisco!
Plazas Vega was named honorary Consul to Hamburg Germany in April 1995. The German government protested his appointment because of his horrendous human rights violations and forced the Colombian authorities to rescind his appointment. The Colombian authorities now have decided to name him Consul for San Francisco, California!
These men are no strangers to the U.S. Government. In 1971, Salcedo Lora attended a mysterious School of the Americas course entitled ÒSpecial Maintenance OrientationÓ which many of the hemisphereÕs worst human rights violators attended. In 1979, he was an Òinvited instructorÓ at the School of the Americas. Plazas Vega attended the U.S. ArmyÕs Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth Kansas from 1983 to 1984. Both have used their high positions to escape legal proceedings initiated in Colombia.
It is an outrage that U.S. taxpayers pay for murderers like these to come to U.S. institutions, receive all kinds of benefits and then gain, de facto, the Òseal of the approvalÓ from the U.S. for their command of subsequent disappearances and murders of ÒopponentsÓ in Colombia! Labor activists, critical journalists, community activists, third party candidates -- are being murdered in Colombia at a rate of 8 a day under the orders of military officers like Salcedo Lora and Plazas Vega. The U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, Myles Frechette, must be called to answer for failing to adequately screen out these two human rights violators.
We call on all people of conscience to protest the granting of diplomatic and consular status to these two and demand their removal. Short letters or faxes from scores to hundreds of people will make a difference. The heat is on the Colombian government. Please write to:
1) U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher: 2201 C. St. NW,Washington,
D.C. 20520; Fax: 202 647-7120
2) U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette: U.S. Embassy, Bogota,
Colombia; Fax: 011 57 1 287 9397
3) U.S. President William Clinton: The White House, Washington, D.C. 20500
4) Colombian President Ernesto Samper: Palacio de Nari–o, Bogota,
Colombia; Fax: 011 571 2867434
(Please send copies to CSN)
In the Bay Area, contact: Cololombia Human Rights Information Committee,
415 282-6941
The Colombian Procuraduria General determined that Salcedo Lora ordered the extrajudical disappearance of Manuel Reyes Cardenas, 6/19/88, in the vicinity of the town of Curuman’, Cesar, (Disciplinary Finding No. 022/73.048). The disappeared person was rescued by a commission from the Procuraduria 8/24/88 in the military base of the ÒSantanderÓ Battalion, in the city of Oca–a, Department of Norte Santander. The Procuraduria discovered an official letter signed by the officer Salcedo Lora wherein he gave the order to seize and hide the victim. Although on 11/1/89, the Procuraduria selected by the Armed Forces formulated charges against the officer Salcedo Lora for the illegal detention of Reyes Cardenas, the legal proceeding was shelved for disciplinary action in December 1993.
Colonel (retired) Luis Alfonso Plaza Vega has just been named Colombian Consul in the city of San Francisco. As shown by investigations done in 1982 by the Judge of the Juzgado 1 Superior of Villavicencio and the Procuraduria General of Colombia, concerning many assassinations of members of the political opposition between 1980-82 by the paramilitary group ÓM.A.S. - Muerte a SecuestradoresÓ, Plazas Vega was directly implicated in the creation and leadership of this paramilitary group. Plaza Vegas was never officially linked in any of these investigations, given the climate of fear and impunity afforded the military in Colombia.
According to the testimony given to the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, by the retired Army official and former paramilitary member Oscar de Jesus Echandia Sanchez, the Commander of the Cavalry School created and directed, in 1985, a paramilitary structure in the northwest region of the Department of Cundinamarca, with the help of the Drug Trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, alias Òel MejicanoÓ. Plazas Vega was, in 1985, the Cavalry School Commander.
The same year, 11/6-7/85, the officer Plaza Vega took part in the bloody recovery of the Palace of Justice in Bogota, which had been taken over by an insurgent group (the Army knew in advance and let the guerrillas in!). According to legal findings, the officer Plazas Vega, who used the codename ÒArcano 5Ó during the military operation, gave the order to disappear Irma Franco Pineda, a member of the guerrilla group. A leg-al charge was processed by military judges but nobody was found guilty--the standard operating procedure.
In August, 1986, the officer Plazas Vega ordered the capture of Alvaro Falla in the city of Bogota. On August 15 Mr. Falla was captured by a military patrol in a house at calle 67 No. 48-60 in Bogota. Alvaro Falla has been disappeared ever since.
In April 1993, the Government of Germany denied permission for a visit by Major General Juan Salcedo Lora when he attempted to visit Germany together with three other Colombian officials. The decision by the German government was due to the human rights violations of this officer.
In 1995, Colonel (retired) Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega was named honorary Consul in the city of Hamburg, Germany, by decree No. 585 of April 4. The German government expressed its unhappiness with this appointment to the Colombian government, because of Mr. Plaza VegaÕs human rights background. The Colombian authorities then decided to name him as Consul in San Francisco.
*From information received from N.C.O.S., Vlasfabriekstraat 11, 1060
Brussel, Belgium. Fax 322 539 1343. NCOS published the book El Terrorismo
de Estado en Colombia in 1992 which exposed the Colombian military's
horrendous record. Some info also from InfoSOA.