How Israel Facilitated the Guatemalan Genocide

[Judi Lynn]

10. Google translation from a Colombian publication. . .

How did Yair Klein arrive in Colombia?
Tue, 11/13/2012 - 12:00

In a Justice and Peace hearing that seeks to reveal the origin of paramilitary training schools in Colombia, and that is advanced against former paramilitary chief Ramón Isaza, and other desmo

In a Justice and Peace hearing that seeks to reveal the origin of paramilitary training schools in Colombia, and that is carried out against former paramilitary chief Ramón Isaza, and other demobilized people, Yair Klein, the mercenary who trained the Castaños in 1988, He said through a videoconference from Israel that the Colombian army supplied weapons and a military base for training to the Magdalena Medio self-defense group. Furthermore, he said that one of the people who witnessed the paramilitary training in the 90s was later elected President of the Republic. But he never said a name. “I'm not saying that he was one of the people he trained but that that is one of the people he paid. Some of the landowners in the area he paid like all the rest of the landowners,” Klein said. The Israeli mercenary also revealed that his stay in Colombia was sponsored, at the time, by the Ministry of Agriculture, an entity that had to sell several herds of cattle in order to finance his services and training. Klein trained the brothers Carlos and Fidel Castaño, and the hitman who would later murder Luis Carlos Galán. He was also involved in an arms transaction that ended up in the possession of “El Mexicano”, the boss of the Medellín cartel, as well as coup attempts in Honduras, Panama, Lebanon and some African countries. He was tried in absentia in Colombia and sentenced to more than ten years in prison in 2001. He was detained for three years in Russia, awaiting Colombia's extradition request, and in 2010 he managed to be sent to Israel, where he currently lives. * This is how Yair Klein arrived in Colombia: Klein traveled to Colombia with his papers in order. With the knowledge of his country and the Israeli embassy, ​​as well as Colombian authorities who formally received him. The first place he visited was Urabá, he toured the banana farms, met with employers and workers and made the first diagnosis of how to train the first self-defense groups that were beginning to organize for war. But the contract worked out for him in Puerto Boyacá, where the ranchers gathered the resources to bring him and the two instructors who accompanied him. The year 1988 began, the president was Virgilio Barco. At the El Dorado airport he was met by former army lieutenant Ariel Otero, who would be his guide. “An hour later we were sitting at one of the tables in a steakhouse in the center of the city. Two people from the administrative department of DAS Security arrived there (the director was General Miguel Maza Márquez) and the president of Banco Ganadero (…) They told me that they wanted me to train their people in Puerto Boyacá. The next morning we traveled. Before noon we arrived at Puerto Boyacá. The first meeting was with the mayor; with Henry Pérez, the president of the Board of Directors of the Livestock Association, a DAS official, and the colonel of the Army brigade in the area (Colonel Arsenio Bohórquez, commander of the Bárbula battalion). “They took me to see the training area.” Thus begins the story of what would become a bloody nightmare of pain for Colombia, a good part of whose protagonists are dead. From the hand of Yair Klein a war machine was started that continues to leave consequences. Klein's testimony could complicate the life of former general Miguel Maza, who has been accused and served several months in prison for the crime of Luis Carlos Galán. Das, under the direction of Maza, was one of the institutions that, together with some sectors of the Armed Forces, participated in the military training strategy of the group that became the genesis of the AUC, according to Yair Klein himself. In his book The Klein Case: The Origin of Paramilitarism in Colombia, he recounts in detail the events that occurred on the trip in which he completed his training contract for war: “The next morning was my appointment at the YOU GIVE. And I told them in general what he did and how it was done. They asked me how much I charged them. I didn't want to make money with them because it seemed more important to establish contact. So I told them: “20,000 dollars,” which is the price to pay the coaches. It was a very high-level meeting: there were the DAS instruction commander, the DAS operations commander; and when we were sitting there, someone opened the door, stuck his head in, looked at us and left. They asked me: “Do you know who he is?” "It's General Maza." *Extracted from the book The Klein case: the origin of paramilitarism in Colombia.By Olga Behar and Carolina Ardila from Ícono

Editores.
Colombia News

https://www.kienyke.com/historias/como-llego-yair-klein-colombia