July 8, 1995 Call to Action! Oppose U.S. Acceptance of Colombian Diplomat and Consul Involved in Gross Human Rights Violations! 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. These outrages call to the skies for a response. One, Major General Juan Salcedo Lora, was responsible for the extralegal disappearance of Colombian citizen Manuel Reyes Cardenas in 1988. Salcedo Lora has been named as Military Attache 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 facts of recent Colombian history: the military's 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 "M.A.S." 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 'war on drugs'! And now Gacha's 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 Colombian 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 "Special Maintenance Orientation" which many of the hemisphere's worst human rights violators attended. In 1979, he was an "invited instructor" at the School of the Americas. Plazas Vega attended the U.S. Army's 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 "seal of the approval" from the U.S. for their command of subsequent disappearances and murders of 'opponents' 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 raise a bloody stink about these two criminals -- Demand their removal from these consular and diplomatic positions! 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 Narino, Bogota, Colombia; Fax: 011 571 2867434 If possible, send copies of your letters to the editor of your local newspaper and to your local congressional representatives. Please also send a copy to the Colombia Support Network (CSN). For a copy of detailed charges against Salcedo Lora and Plazas Vega, contact CSN at P.O. Box 1505, Madison, WI 53701; 608 255-6554; fax 255-6621 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (They are posted on the electronic conferences hr.americas and reg.andes on Peacenet , as well as on the soc.culture.colombia Usenet group)
