|
CounterPunch
October
16, 2002
Colombian Army
Hacked Handicapped Man to Death
by MARIA ENGQVIST
A Colombian army patrol hacked a 34-year old man
with Downs's syndrome to death with a machete in the village
of Santiago Perez. Possible motive: vengeance
"Pirinolo" was the nickname
that villagers from the tiny hamlet of Santiago Perez in central
Colombia used for the good-humoured 34-year old Ulises, a native
of the town of Chaparral. He suffered from Down's syndrome also
known as "mongolism".
The locals at the market used to give
the strongly built Pirinolo small jobs carrying sacks of coffee
and bundles of firewood. But since the evening of Saturday September
29th, the villagers have been marked by fear after witnessing
the public execution of Pirinolo at the hands of the Colombian
Army, writes the weekly paper Voz.
Around 23.30 that night, thirty soldiers
from the Caicedo Battalion of the Colombian Army entered the
village where the streets were filled with weekend revellers.
As they came across Pirinolo some of the soldiers grabbed him
and started beating him and kicking him around.
One of the soldiers took a machete and
apparently tried to cut Pirinolo's neck with a strong blow but
only injured him badly in the back. Bleeding heavily, Pirinolo
crawled to the next street corner where he collapsed. The soldiers
followed him and finished him off with four gunshots in the chest
before leaving the corpse in the street.
The villagers of Santiago Perez in the
Tolima department told Voz's correspondent that the possible
motive for the slaughter of the defenceless Pirinolo was revenge.
According to the locals, a brother of one of the soldiers in
the patrol from the Caicedo Battalion was killed in the same
village two years ago. The soldier's brother was a suspected
member of a right-wing death squad allied to the Colombian Army.
Maria Engqvist
writes on Colombia for AnnCol.
Yesterday's
Features
Anthony Gancarski
Safe
and Sorry:
Notes on DC Snipers
Jeffrey St. Clair
Iraq
as Prison State
Uri Avnery
One Big
Hizballah
Richard Thieme
Flesh:
Letelier, Torture, Chile and the CIA
Ben Tripp
A Bird Lover's Guide to the Chickenhawks
Brian Willson
An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq
Aaron Michael Love
Israel and White Supremacy
Sani Rifati
The Roma
and Humanitarian Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 9,
2002
Hesham Hassaballa
Here
We Go Again:
Rev. Falwell's Slurs
Ann Pettifer
Brainwashing
in America
Anita Ramasatry
Airline Security Run Amok
Josh Frank
Iraq: It's
About Globalization
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
Iraq:
the Double Standard
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Illogical War Speech
David Vest
Dylan in
Eugene
October 4,
2002
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
of War and the Ailing American Economy
Norman Madarasz
The
Truth and Violence
of a Symbolic Act
William Hughes
Political
Show Trial for
Marwan Barghouti
Ron Jacobs
The Struggle
Against
Another Oil War
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Bush War
Plan:
Blind and Improvident
Michael Schwalbe
The
Costs of American Privilege
Ralph Nader
Holding
Politicians' Feet to the Fire on Corporate Crime
Robert Buzzanco
Pacifica
Caves in to Zionist Smear Campaign
October 3,
2002
Gary Leupp
Talking
to Your Kids About Fascism
Will Youmans
The New
Anti-Apartheid Movement: The Campaign to Divest from Israel
Deb Reich
Report from a Mad World
Todd Chretien & Sue Sandlin
"It's All About Power on the
Docks"
Kurt Nimmo
Poetry
as Treason
Amiri Baraka
Somebody
Blew Up America
Alexander
Cockburn
October Surprises
October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
Rotten in Klamath
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|