Colombia This Week

Fri 10 – US publishes annual human rights report; Restrepo defends FARC demobilisation

· The US Department of State published its annual human rights report, which dedicated 55 pages to Colombia. The report mentions cases of collaboration between army officials and paramilitaries in massacres, in particular the killing of 8 members of the peace community of San Jose de Apartado in February 2005. The report also acknowledges the efforts of the Colombian government in preventing human rights violations and the reduction in most indicators of violence, El Tiempo reports.

· The High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, defended the demobilisation of 70 members of the FARC’s Cacica Gaitana front, which took place last week. The event had been criticised once it became clear that Raul Agudelo, one of the demobilised, had been in prison for two years, and that the plane that was handed in had already been confiscated by the state, Colprensa reports.

· Prisoners from the Bellavista, Itagui and Buen Pastor jails are publishing apologies to their victims’ families on newspapers, in order to get a 10% reduction in their sentences. According to Clara Velasquez, lawyer for the Peace and Reconciliation Programme, this would be in accordance with Article 8 and 70 of the Justice and Peace Law, which mention “symbolic reparation�?, El Tiempo reports.

· Patricia Perdomo and Regulo Madero were chosen as the two victims’ representatives for the National Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation. Perdomo is a member of the NGO Pais Libre, while Madero was one of the founders of the human rights organisation Credhos, El Tiempo reports.

Sat 11 – Jorge 40 demobilises; micro herbicide study approved by US Congress

· 2,000 members of the paramilitary group Northern Bloc, under the command of Rodrigo Tovar alias Jorge 40, demobilised at a ceremony in La Mesa (Cesar department). Jorge 40, a former businessmen and Cesar department treasury secretary, has been blamed for the murder of more than 100 civilians, in particular kankuamo indigenous people and their leader Freddy Arias. He is also wanted in the US on charges of drug-trafficking, the BBC and AFP report.

· The US House of Representatives approved a law that allows the US administration to conduct a study on micro herbicides as an alternative to aerial fumigation and manual eradication of illicit crops. Although the law does not mention which countries the study will be carried out in, anonymous sources in the Congress confirmed that both Colombia and Afghanistan will be involved. A similar study was proposed during the government of Andres Pastrana, but it was rejected because of potential risks to the human population and the environment, El Tiempo reports.

· President Uribe urged Colombians to defeat terrorism by casting their ballots at the legislative elections. He also said that a large turnout would be the best way to defend the Democratic Security policy, EFE reports.

Sun 12 – American hostages not found in mass graves ; soldiers die in FARC attack

· According to the US embassy in Colombia, the remains found in mass graves in Tolima are not those of three American citizens kidnapped in 2003. The three men were taken hostage by the FARC while working for a company contracted by the US Defence Department to locate coca plantations in the south of the country, Reuters reports.

· A policeman and three soldiers died in attacks by the FARC in Antioquia and Putumayo departments. The victims were part of the military convoys that were escorting vehicles during the armed strike. In Bolivar department, a 72-year old and a child were injured after a bus was attacked by the guerrilla group, El Tiempo reports.

· University student Oscar Leonardo Salas Angel died after he was shot last Wednesday during demonstrations against the Free Trade Agreement. The news of his death fuelled student riots in the streets of Bogota, RCN Radio reports.

Mon 13– Uribe coalition wins legislative elections; international support for demobilisation grows

· The coalition of the parties supporting President Uribe (U Party, Conservative Party and Radical Change) gained an absolute majority in the congressional elections. The victory suggests that Uribe will win a second term at the presidential elections in May. Although the predicted widespread violence did not materialise and the casting of the votes went ahead without major incidents, the abstention rate, blamed on fear, increased public apathy and confusion over recent changes in the electoral system, reached 66%, the BBC reports. Opposition parties also held primary elections to choose presidential candidates; Horacio Serpa and Carlos Gaviria were elected, respectively for the Liberal Party and the Democratic Alternative Party, AFP reports.

· According to Sergio Caramagna, head of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Mission in Colombia, the international community is providing more and more support to the paramilitary demobilisation process. While the Mission started with only 40 staff, it now counts with 100 people, thanks to financial resources provided by countries such as Holland, Sweden, Ireland, Mexico and Chile. Six foreign ambassadors were also present at the latest demobilisation ceremony in Cesar department, El Colombiano reports.

· Edgar Ignacio Fierro Florez, member of the Northern Bloc, was arrested three days after demobilising. The Attorney General Mario Iguaran said the ex-paramilitary did not remain in Santa Fe Ralito while being judged, as the Justice and Peace Law requires, Caracol Radio reports.

· 18-year-old Nelly Johana Durango was reportedly abducted by soldiers in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado. Members of the community informed the regional ombudsman’s office but as yet the authorities have provided no information on her whereabouts, Amnesty International reports.

· The FARC denied that the bloc Cacica Gaitana, which recently demobilised, belongs to the main guerrilla group and accused President Uribe of organising a false demobilisation for electoral reasons, EFE reports.

Tues 14 – UN Office condemns FARC ; new incident on Colombia-Ecuador border

· The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia condemned the FARC for the murder of Juan Ramirez Villamizar, former governor of the Makaguan de Caño Claro indigenous reservation in Arauca department, and his wife Luz Miriam Farias. In the 4th statement of this kind in two weeks, the UN Office said the actions perpetrated by the armed group are crimes against humanity and fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the UN News Service reports.

· The Ecuadorean Defence Minister, Oswaldo Jarrin, said a Colombian aircraft was picked up by radar while violating Ecuador’s airspace. Edgar Lemez, commander in chief of the Colombian Air Force, denied the incursion, but said the aircraft had been deployed after an attack by rebels who then escaped into Ecuador, the BBC reports.

· Confusion arose over the two congressional seats allocated to indigenous people, after 58% of their votes were found invalid. The new electoral law states elections must be repeated if more than half of the votes are invalid; however, the law does not regulate how the second election would take place, who would have to vote again and which parties would be allowed to participate, RCN Radio reports.

· A family which claimed it was displaced by paramilitaries in Bello might see their benefits removed. As paramilitaries have demobilised in the area, the authorities consider the family as victims of common criminals and not of the armed conflict, therefore not eligible for financial support, El Colombiano reports.

· Financial markets reacted positively to the results of the elections. Both the Colombian stock exchange and the public debt market remained stable, Caracol Radio reports.

Weds 15 – Poor quality of life in Pacific region; Uribe and Morales in trade talks

· According to a joint report by the National Planning Department, the United Nations Development Programme and the German development agency GTZ, the Index of Quality of Life in departments such as Choco, Cauca and Nariño is 18 years behind those of Valle, Santander and Quindio. While the quality of life has improved by 3 points at the national level between 1997 and 2003, in the Pacific region the index dropped by 12 points in the same period, El Tiempo reports.

· President Uribe met with his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales in La Paz to discuss trade relationships between the two countries and with the US. Uribe offered to mediate so that Bolivia can benefit from trade agreements with Washington. The Colombian president also offered credits to Bolivian farmers who will be affected by the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the US, especially in the soy sector, El Tiempo reports.

· According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), drug traffickers from Medellin, Cali and the Atlantic Coast are linked to paramilitary leaders who have recently demobilised. Ramiro Vanoy Murillo, alias Cuco Vanoy, who demobilised on 11 January 2006, was responsible for providing security for the shipping of cocaine to the US, Colprensa reports.

· President Uribe met with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and expressed his support for the work of journalists who report under threat of violence. He added that officials who interfere with the work of the press are committing a crime against democracy. Already in 2006, CPJ has documented three cases of journalists forced to flee their homes because of threats and intimidation, CPJ reports.

· According to the Environment Minister Sandra Suarez, in 753 municipalities of the country sewage reaches rivers without any treatment, causing environmental damage. The Minister specified that only 31% of Colombian municipalities have treatment plants, Caracol Radio reports.

Thurs 16 - $26.3m US emergency aid approved; FARC to free two hostages

· The US Congress approved $26.3m emergency aid to Colombia for the purchase of aeroplanes that will replace those destroyed in the last five years. The proposal of including Colombia in the emergency aid was put forward by a group of Republican members of Congress. These resources will be added to the $700m that had already been approved for the current financial year, El Tiempo reports.

· The FARC announced that they would free two hostages on 18 March in La Dorada (Putumayo department). The two policemen were kidnapped in October 2005 after the guerrilla group attacked a police base in the southern region of the country. The FARC asked for the presidential candidate Alvaro Leyva and the ex-president Alfonso Lopez to be present when the hostages are released, Caracol Radio reports.

· Guillermo Mejia, director of the National Electoral Council, said 39 out of the 59 parties that took part in the elections will lose their status after failing to win any seats in Congress. One of them is the group headed by the ex-mayor of Bogota Antanas Mockus, EFE reports.

· The ex governor of Meta department, Edilberto Castro, was arrested in connection to the murder of three local politicians. Euser Rondon, Nubia Sanchez and Javier Sabogal were killed by a paramilitary group led by the head of the Centaurs Block, Miguel Arroyave, El Tiempo reports.

· Antonio Garcia, spokesman for the ELN, criticised the decision by the government to give the guerrilla group political status for only three months, EFE reports.

Colombia This Week is a news summary produced and distributed by ABColombia Group. Sources include daily Colombian, US, European and Latin American newspapers, and reports from non-governmental organisations and the UN System. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the ABColombia Group.

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By Lionheart on Mar 17, 2006, 15:35 in Politics & the war.

juancegomez says on Mar 17, 2006, 17:54:

Comments: "The event had been criticised once it became clear that Raul Agudelo, one of the demobilised, had been in prison for two years, and that the plane that was handed in had already been confiscated by the state, Colprensa reports."

Two things. Raul Agudelo was in prison, but he was the one that contacted his FARC comrades in order to convince them to demobilize. Similar cases have occured during paramilitary demobilizations (Don Berna was in jail, but he was allowed to publicly participate in the demobilization of his men). So that isn't too out of the ordinary, even if it wasn't immediately clear at first.

Finally, the high initial confusion regarding the airplane matter was actually more important as far as the public controversy was concerned.

"According to the US embassy in Colombia, the remains found in mass graves in Tolima are not those of three American citizens kidnapped in 2003."

That was what the U.S. embassy initially said and, given the date in the report, refers to already published information. But the above statement isn't clear nor exact.

Specifically, what happened was that the U.S. embassy said that it currently had no evidence that they were indeed those men, but that they would continue to cooperate with Colombian authorities in order to fulfill the identification of the bodies.

In other words, this was part of a U.S. communique from last week, when the story originally broke and when the investigation was still proceeding. As of yet, the final conclusions of the investigation haven't been revealed, so this shouldn't be taken as an outright denial of what is still up in the air (publicly, at least).

"The FARC denied that the bloc Cacica Gaitana, which recently demobilised, belongs to the main guerrilla group and accused President Uribe of organising a false demobilisation for electoral reasons, EFE reports."

Yet, even before that communique, EL TIEMPO published that sources close to the FARC did identify several of the demobilized individuals as FARC members or militiamen.

"Euser Rondon, Nubia Sanchez and Javier Sabogal were killed by a paramilitary group led by the head of the Centaurs Block, Miguel Arroyave, El Tiempo reports."

Miguel Arroyave himself has been dead or disappeared for quite a while, and the former Centaurs Block split into several factions, at least three IIRC. Two of which are not in negotiations with the governments.

kernow62 says on Mar 17, 2006, 19:55:

How many pages are dedicated to the US?

poco says on Mar 17, 2006, 22:52:

The other side of the sea House of Commons
Foreign Affairs Committee
Human Rights Annual
Report 2005
First Report of Session 2005–06

Excerpts

One particular state of concern is Colombia. The FCO Annual Report has an extensive section on Colombia, which it classes as a country of concern. The report outlines the many human rights problems in Colombia, such as the murder of trades unionists. Human Rights Watch has also drawn attention to the culture of impunity and links between the army, paramilitary groups and criminal gangs and the grey area between the official military and those carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Oh-oh,, looks like the human rights watch and ABColombia,, you know,, those balmy blokes that issue “readers digest sized propaganda�? to serve their own agenda had a problem.

AB Colombia raised concerns about the UK’s military assistance to Colombia, stating: There are well established links between paramilitary groups and the State, and elements within the Armed Forces continue to carry out extrajudicial executions, torture and violations of due process…Despite this, the UK continues to express strong political support for the Colombian government, and provides significant military support to the Colombian government, with little or no analysis of its impact. In this context, it is difficult to assess how the UK government can guarantee, as it claims to do, that this cooperation does not end up in any way contributing to human rights abuses or to impunity in the absence of Colombia’s full implementation of the UN human rights recommendations.

THE BRITISH,, tactfully said to those bollock-brains,, WHAT MILITARY LINKS !!!!! hummm,,, must be ABColombia is confused?

The Annual Report states that the FCO uses “the best information available to assure ourselves that Colombian civil and military authorities benefiting from UK assistance are not engaged in activities that violate human rights, aid internal repression or are in collusion with paramilitary organisations.�?139 Additionally, the Minister defended the United Kingdom’s military assistance to Colombia in the evidence session. He said: “UK military assistance to Colombia focuses on mine-disposal training and human rights training…UK military training introduces security personnel to British defence concepts, including the importance of accountable and democratic action, and we use the best information available to assure ourselves that Colombian military personnel benefiting from UK assistance are not engaged in activities that violate human rights or that aid internal repression and that they are not in collusion with paramilitary organisations. This goes as far as including personal interviews and background checks.�? (I’d love to conduct that interview)

http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/feb/uk-hoc-foreign-affairs-rep.pdf

PDF document.

"Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent" - Isaac Asimov

kernow62 says on Mar 18, 2006, 04:31:

I knew that Tinto. ;-)

What is the link so I can see what they say about Israel on this topic?

I forgot how to use a search engine.

poco says on Mar 18, 2006, 16:06:

Seeking advise If people think it's a good idea for the U.S. executive branch to be the main clearinghouse for reports on the bad things the U.S. executive branch does, then they should write their congressperson and get the law changed.

Damn TINTO is there something you either don’t know about or are incapable of saying with a minimum of words?

Now folks are asking for help. Watchout,, this could become a full time job !!!!

Anyway,,, the U.S. State Department does toot it’s own horn..

Good deeds by the U.S. in Colombia Darn: it’s an archive file.

"Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent" - Isaac Asimov

poco says on Mar 18, 2006, 16:19:

Hash in the news (Rehash?) The US House of Representatives approved a law that allows the US administration to conduct a study on micro herbicides as an alternative to aerial fumigation and manual eradication of illicit crops.

Old news restated. Still an interesting topic.

This November 2004 article in Wired Magazine titled: "The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die."

The article is quite long but should give some a paranoia boost.

I think the same subject in a post or readers digest type article could be summed up with.

The U.S. fails to kill poppy plants.

"Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent" - Isaac Asimov