The Examiner
Israel and Colombia
Aug 13--There is more than one reason why the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might have chosen to nickname Colombia "The Israel of Latin America."
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The establishment of a "Jewish homeland" in Palestine since the late 1800s created one of the world's most profound refugee crisis.
The great majority of Palestinians have been violently displaced, sometimes on more than two different occasions, through the use of threats, massacres, intimidation, land expropriations and bureaucratic policies that encourage the emigration of Palestinians in order to forcefully maintain a Jewish population majority in the land.
Like Palestine, Colombia has one of the highest rates of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world.
Colombia's displaced are forced out of their land by armed groups, through the use of violence, threats, massacres and intimidation.
As stated in Carlos Castano's autobiography, "Mi Confesion," the similarities between Israeli tactics and those of the Colombian armed groups are no coincidence. He flew to Israel to be trained in paramilitary warfare when he was only 18, before he went on to leave one of the bloodiest legacies in Colombia as chief of the AUC (see link).
Yair Klein, a Zionist of German origins who was implicated in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese camps of Sabra and Shatila, has a warrant in Colombia.
Read more here.
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