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Colombian Fighters Return to Workforce

Colombian Fighters Return to Workforce, Bolstering Economy
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- A year after losing his left arm in an ambush, former Colombian paramilitary fighter Harold Luna is learning to read, write and grow crops at a government-run school in Mosquera, 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from Bogota.

``I want to work and earn enough money to support my family without having to fight,'' said Luna, 20, turning over a patch of alfalfa with a hoe grasped in his artificial hand.

The government has set up job training for as many as 14,000 paramilitaries, members of the private militias that are blamed for much of the country's drug trade. Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla said that bringing the fighters back into the labor force will reduce security costs and attract investment, boosting the $91 billion economy by as much as 1 percentage point.

The reduction in homicides and kidnappings, down by one third since President Alvaro Uribe took office in August 2002, is spurring growth. According to a survey of 13 economists by Bloomberg, the government will next week report the economy grew 3.7 percent in 2004, the fifth straight year of expansion. In 2003, the economy gained 3.8 percent.

``We would be a different country if we solved the security issue,'' Carrasquilla, 45, said in a Feb. 28 interview in Bogota.

Fighting between paramilitary forces, revolutionaries and government troops costs about 2 percent of GDP a year, according to the National Planning Department. The losses include damage to infrastructure, aid to villagers fleeing violence and ransoms for kidnap victims.

Economic Expansion

The decline in violence has encouraged investors. The benchmark stock market index has doubled in the past 12 months and the peso has gained 15 percent against the dollar. The benchmark bond due 2012 has climbed to 113 cents on the dollar from 77 cents in September 2002, cutting the yield to 7.5 percent, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Investors demand about 3.3 percentage points extra yield for the bond, down 1 percentage point a year ago.

The effort to disarm the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, the biggest paramilitary group, will fail unless the government spends about $900 million a year for the next decade, said Adam Isacson, senior associate at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

``There will be thousands of people with killing experience on the streets with nothing to do,'' said Isacson in a telephone interview. ``They will turn to crime, to drugs or will go hungry.''

Returning Home

Luna, the former militant, said that when his training ends in December 2006 he plans to return to Caqueta, a province in the south of Colombia, with his wife and child.

``I want to own my own farm and just be normal,'' said Luna, whose face was disfigured by shrapnel from the same mortar bomb that blew off his arm.

The group that Luna was fighting against, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was created in 1964. As Colombia's drug trade took off in the early 1980s, the rebels began selling protection to growers of coca, the raw material for cocaine, and to drug traffickers.

Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer. The rebel group, whose members total about 13,000, has refused to negotiate a cease-fire with the government.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, also raised funds by demanding money from business executives and landowners, who created their own private militias to protect themselves from kidnappings.

Protection Money

In 1997 the paramilitary groups created a coalition called the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia. Its members have dropped to 14,000 from about 20,000 two years ago

Uribe, 52, whose father was killed in a botched rebel kidnapping attempt, has made educating and training former fighters a priority. He is asking lawmakers to approve a bill to govern the treatment of ex-paramilitaries by June.

The program is open to both the paramilitaries and the rebel groups, and has prompted about 6,000 fighters to give up their arms since 1997, said Nora Elena Velez, who runs the education part of the program.

``If we are successful in disarming them, finding them employment and turning their ill-gotten gains into legal money, the economy could grow substantially,'' said Juan David Angel, director of the Interior Ministry's rehabilitation program, in an interview. ``If not, they'll be on the streets and we could have chaos.''

Financing

Uribe is spending about $800 a month for every paramilitary or rebel who abandons fighting. The costs, which include a salary, benefits for a spouse and children under 18 years old, and transport to the training course, have contributed to a growing budget deficit. The shortfall may grow to as much as 2.5 percent of GDP this year from 1.2 percent of GDP in 2004.

The U.S., which is helping finance Colombia's drug- eradication program, would consider helping fund the disarmament program once Colombian lawmakers pass a bill to ensure fighters guilty of human rights abuses or drug trafficking don't get immunity from prosecution, said U.S. embassy spokesman Jim Foster in Bogota.

``For an investor, anything they do to disarm the paramilitaries is better than doing nothing,'' said Arthur Byrnes, chairman of Deltec Asset Management Corp., which manages about $650 million in debt and equity, half in emerging markets such as Colombia. ``Even if only 5,000 of them get jobs, that's better than none at all. What would be cause for concern is if the government does nothing.''

Wasted Years

Noe Rodriguez, 54, deserted the Revolutionary Armed Forces last September after rebels killed his son for refusing to join. Rodriguez, who provided food and transport to the guerrillas, abandoned his farm and escaped to Bogota with his wife and two daughters. He says he would be killed if the rebels found him.

``I've wasted so many years working for a movement I thought I believed in,'' said Rodriguez, who supported the revolutionary group for 30 years, in a Feb. 24 interview. ``Now I have come to my senses.''

To contact the reporter on this story:
Helen Murphy in Bogota at Ext 224 or at hmurphy1 at Bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Laura Zelenko at lzelenko at bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 10, 2005 00:07 EST

By fill on Mar 10, 2005, 09:42 in Friendly Talkzone.