Latin America

Yair Klein (Hebrew: יאיר קליין; also known as Jair Klein) is a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, who established a private mercenary company called Spearhead Ltd. Through Spearhead Ltd, Klein provided arms and training to armed forces in South America, Lebanon, and Sierra Leone.[1][2] Klein and his company were accused of training the death squads of drug traffickers and right-wing militias in Colombia in the 1980s.[3]

He was convicted by judicial authorities in Colombia for training several members of Colombian paramilitary groups and the militias of drug traffickers, including Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar Gaviria. The Colombian government made unsuccessful attempts to obtain his extradition from Israel. In a 2007 interview with Caracol TV, Klein claimed that he was sent to Colombia by request of the National Police in order to train its members, and stated that he was willing to go back and help destroy the FARC guerrillas. He also criticized the demobilization of the paramilitaries, saying it was "stupid" to do so while the guerrillas remained a threat.[4]

Guns to Colombia via Antigua

Klein, with the help of Bruce Rappaport,[5] was heavily involved in the Guns for Antigua scandal of 1989, helping Maurice Sarfati launder guns from Israel through Antigua to Colombia, intending to supply Israeli-made weapons to the Medellin Cartel. He was also intended to run the training school for mercenaries that was to be set up on Antigua through which the guns were to be laundered, however, the plan was exposed before this could be set up.[6] Klein was put on trial for three counts of exporting military equipment and expertise without the requisite licenses at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Courtd he had acted "in good faith and in the belief that my actions were within the law.[7]

Klein, with the help of Bruce Rappaport,[5] was heavily involved in the Guns for Antigua scandal of 1989, helping Maurice Sarfati launder guns from Israel through Antigua to Colombia, intending to supply Israeli-made weapons to the Medellin Cartel. He was also intended to run the training school for mercenaries that was to be set up on Antigua through which the guns were to be laundered, however, the plan was exposed before this could be set up.[6] Klein was put on trial for three counts of exporting military equipment and expertise without the requisite licenses at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. Klein pleaded guilty and was convicted in late November 1990. During the trial, he explained that he pleaded guilty "to put an end to the witch hunt running rampant in some of the press, based on rumours and speculation which are harming the state and me." He claimed he had acted "in good faith and in the belief that my actions were within the law.[7]

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Klein

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The Colombian Left Has Every Reason to Condemn Israel

By
Luca DeCola

This week, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, severed diplomatic ties with Israel over Gaza. It’s a long time coming: Israeli mercenaries aided in the wholesale slaughter of Colombia’s insurgent leftist party, Patriotic Union, in the ’80s.

On International Workers’ Day, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, announced that the country would sever diplomatic ties with Israel over its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. “Tomorrow we will break diplomatic relations with the state of Israel for having a government, for having a president who is genocidal. . . . If Palestine dies, humanity dies,” Petro said.


Petro has been one of the foremost critics of Israel on the Left in Latin America. On October 16, Israel suspended arms shipments to Colombia after a diplomatic spat between Petro and Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat. In the dispute, Petro condemned Israel’s siege on and sanguinary bombardment of Gaza, as well as the involvement of Israeli mercenaries in the mass murder of members of the Patriotic Union (UP) party in Colombia. “Neither Yair Klein nor Rafael Eitan will be able to describe the history of peace in Colombia. They unleashed massacre and genocide in Colombia,” Petro tweeted.

The involvement of Mossad intelligence operative Rafael Eitan and Israeli lieutenant colonel Yair Klein in the mass extermination of the UP is a buried chapter of Colombian history. In the wake of the government’s unprecedented suspension of diplomatic ties with Israel, it’s a history worth revisiting.

The Patriotic Union
The UP was born out of El Acuerdo de La Uribe, a 1984 peace deal between the FARC guerrillas and then president Belisario Betancur. Its emergence was a serious rupture in Colombian politics, a left-wing alternative to an archaic electoral duopoly among two sects of the country’s ruling elite. The party’s electoral platform promoted agrarian reform, the cancelation of foreign debt and International Monetary Fund structural adjustment programs, and the nationalization of Colombian oil, gas, and mineral resources. The UP brought together a coalition of university students, trade unions, members of the Colombian Communist Party, and peasants. For many, the UP represented a potential end to Colombia’s then quarter-century-long internal conflict.

More:
https://jacobin.com/2024/05/colombia-israel-patriotic-union-genocide