Colonel Alfonso Plazas Vega

Senior Fellow in Political and Human Rights Leadership

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Colonel Alfonso Plazas-Vega is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in the fight against the Marxist guerilla network that dominates illegal drug trade in the Western Hemisphere and oppresses many tens of millions of people, not merely through the scourge of urban crime and systematic corruption of public officials, but also by funding Marxist guerilla movements and terrorism in numerous countries of North, South and Central America.

Col. Plazas’ career began in the Colombian Army, where he was given responsibilities in combat against the heavily armed Marxist FARC narco-mafia guerillas seeking control of his country. Later he was assigned vital duties in national security administration.  A historian and a coveted speaker and author, he is perhaps best known to human rights leaders, to the Colombian people and to the Castro-Chavez communist alliance with the Marxist drug networks for the role he played in the 1985 conflict at the Palace of Justice in Bogotá Colombia. Members of the terrorist group M-19 invaded the Palace of Justice taking over 300 people hostage, including 24 Supreme Court Justices of Colombia. The operation to retake the building was assigned to Colonel Plazas, then commander of an armored cavalry battalion.

In 2002 Colonel Plazas was appointed by then President Alvaro Uribe Velez as the National Director of DNE (Anti-Drugs office). During his administration, he achieved outstanding results against the Colombian drug cartels, the terrorist group FARC and the terrorist group AUC. Under the direction of the Minister of Justice, Fernando Londoño Hoyos, Colonel Plazas’ administration was able to confiscate more than two billion pesos in assets, bank accounts, and land. The damage that Colonel Plazas Vega was able to inflict on the drug cartels also came with a list of dangerous enemies. Unfortunately, many of his most powerful enemies are infiltrated members of the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of the Colombian Government.
In addition to his impressive list of achievements, Colonel Plazas is also the author of six books and more than 50 articles arising from his long research in history, military studies and high-level experience in the decades-long Colombian internal conflict between Marxist drug guerillas and the elected government.
Colonel Plazas graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the Universidad de America, with a Master of Advanced Management from the Universidad de los Andes. During his professional career, He has received 17 medals for his military service, and 13 medals during his service as a government official. Colonel Plazas led an extensive and distinguished military career, holding several positions including:
  • Commander of the 7th Cavalry Group “Guias del Casanare”, in Yopal, Colombia, 1982
  • Commander of the School of Cavalry in Bogota, Colombia, 1985-1986
  • Adjutant General of the Colombian Armed Forces Command, 1987
  • II Brigade Chief of Staff at Barranquilla, Colombia, 1988
  • Director of the Department of Military Strategy at the Colombian Army School of War, Bogota 1991
As a professor of military studies, Colonel Plazas lectured in several military institutions such as the Infantry School and the Colombian Army School of War. During his military career, he also made a significant contribution to the Colombian army by writing important military manuals and regulations.
As well as his impressive military career, Colonel Plazas has held several diplomatic and public service positions. In 1996 he was the Colombian Delegate at the IX International Trade Conference (UNCTAD) held in Midrand, South Africa.
In 1997 Colonel Plazas was assigned as an adviser of territorial sovereignty to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (a vital national security responsibility given the ongoing conflict with the Castro-Chavez backed communist guerrillas and drug traffickers in border regions.  In 1998 he was appointed Presidential adviser in the development of a strategies to prevent the kidnappings of Colombians by Marxist terror groups. Colonel Plazas also served as an adviser to the General Commander of the Colombian Armed Forces from 1999 to 2001.
Before his retirement from service in the Army, Colonel Plazas was accepted as a member of the Bolivarian Society of Colombia (a foundation dedicated to the studies of the historic heritage of the Colombian Liberator Simon Bolivar). Colonel Plazas is also a member of various academies and professional association of history, including the Colombian Academy of Military History, The San Martinian Institute of Colombia, the Boyacá Academy of History, and most notably, “The Colombian Academy of History”.
NOTE: In one of the great ongoing scandals underway in Latin America, Colonel Plazas is currently incarcerated in a Colombian military prison, having been arrested and imprisoned in July 2007 on orders of a judge acting in absence of any evidence, then belatedly in February 2008 actually accused of legally vague Orwellian “crimes” brazenly “convicted” and condemned to 30 years in prison in June 2010 again fittingly enough with no actual attempt to present any evidence, except a supposed testimony of a person signing as “Villarreal,” but using the ID of “Villamizar,” — testimony that had been taken in absence of the defense, and discarded by the Attorney General himself.  In the next month the Attorney General actually joined the defense in appealing the Orwellian sentence.
Complicit in this conspiracy were judges and other Colombian officials under the influence of Hugo Chavez, the Marxist dictator of neighboring Venezuela, who, with Castro’s Cuba, has funded and supported the Marxist revolutionary movements and terror groups in all countries of Latin America, and, many sources say, has bribed judges and other public officials in Colombia.  The conspiracy to make a frightening example of Colonel Plazas, a greatly beloved hero to Colombians and renowned far beyond his own nations borders, was a stunning operation that openly and brazenly violated the most basic rules of law and ignored numerous aspects of the Colombian Constitution.
The charges themselves — supposedly “forced disappearances” of Marxist guerillas — were not even of a nature that have real legal meaning, and were brought ex post facto using laws that did not even exist two decades earlier in the 1980’s when the supposed “forced disappearances” would have been committed.  No witnesses were brought to prove the accusation and powerful evidence in Colonel Plazas’ favor was not admitted — including testimony in his defense by a woman who was on the list of those whom supposedly Colonel Plazas “forced to disappear.”   Even his constitutional right to a trial in a military court was denied.  The Legislative and Executive Branches of Colombia sat passively while the corrupt judiciary carried out the vengeance of Hugo Chavez, the great enemy of Colombia.
The reason given for the entire government to allow an obviously innocent man, a national hero, to be sent to prison, was the claim that constitutional democracy does not allow “interference” into the affairs of the judiciary.  However a quick study of the Colombian Constitution (and a basic knowledge of the separation of powers in the republican form of government) disproves this plainly.  The balance of powers between three branches obligates all public officials to reject illegal and unconstitutional actions and orders from any persons or offices of government.
The orders of the corrupt judges were carried out nonetheless — ironically by reluctant officials in the Executive Branch who failed to exercise their true legal authority and fulfill their solemnly sworn constitutional duty.  Protesting that they were forced to “obey” judges engaged in treason and subversion of the Constitution, they unlawfully imprisoned Colonel Plazas and became obedient servants of foreign and domestic enemies of their nation engaged in a decades-long effort to overthrow the elected government and impose a Marxist dictatorship.
 

Websites: www.palaciodejusticia.org/ and www.freeplazasvega.org/