[Marxism] Colombian defense minister says ties with Israel are strong

[Eric Johnson <ewjohnson72@xxxxxxxxx>]

              Last update - 18:34 07/02/2008               Colombian defense 
minister says ties with Israel are strong         By The Associated Press       
  
Tags: Colombia, Shimon Peres      
Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday praised his country's 
long defense relationship with Israel, saying he sought to boost it further by 
setting up a bilateral fund for technological research and development. 

Hosting Santos at his official Jerusalem residence, President Shimon Peres said 
that in the 1950s, Colombia defied international embargoes to ship weapons to 
the newly created Jewish state, a statement from Peres' office said. 

"In recent years the situation has come full circle, and Israel is able to 
repay Columbia in kind," it quoted Peres as saying, without elaborating. 
          Advertisement    Israel does not publish details of its arms exports 
but local media reports have said it is a major supplier of military hardware 
and expertise to Colombia. 

Israeli media reported last week that Israel has been supplying Bogota with 
drone aircraft, arms, ammunition and electronic equipment for use in combatting 
the country's drug lords, quoting the Colombian weekly Semana as saying that 
Santos had confirmed that Israeli advisers had been working with his men. 

"I have come to strengthen cooperation, not only in the defense field but in 
every area," Peres' office quoted Santos as saying. Israeli government data 
list overall exports to Colombia last year as worth $151 million. 

During a fall trip by Santos to Washington, Amnesty International and Human 
Rights Watch called on Congress to extend a freeze of $55 million in military 
assistance to Colombia and ask the minister to explain what the groups called a 
steep rise in reports of illegal executions by the country's military. 

Information on Santos' visit to Israel was scanty. The Colombian Embassy in 
Israel said only that he arrived Sunday and was scheduled to return home on 
Friday. 

The Foreign Ministry referred inquiries to the Defense Ministry, where 
officials said Santos had met his Israeli host Ehud Barak but gave no details 
of their talks. 

One issue the two were expected to discuss was the fate of a former Israeli 
army officer wanted by Colombia for training the country's right-wing death 
squads. 

Yair Klein, a former lieutenant colonel, was detained last August at a Moscow 
airport on an arrest warrant issued by Interpol. Bogota is seeking his 
extradition. 

A Colombian judge convicted and sentenced Klein in his absence to 10 years in 
prison for his role in the 1980s training of far-right paramilitary groups 
responsible for mass murder and widespread land theft. Klein and two other 
Israelis are also accused of training the private army of druglord Pablo 
Escobar, shot dead by police in 1993 
       
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