Colombia This Week

18/04/2005

Fri 08 – FARC frees 5 NGO members in Choco; China-Colombia signs co-operation agreement.

·         The FARC group release five members of the Bogota-based Inter Church Commission for Justice and Peace who were kidnapped March 31 during a humanitarian mission in the western province of Choco. According to the initial testimonies, they were forced by this armed group to leave the communities in the Jiguamiando river basin and were liberated five days later in an undisclosed location near the municipality of Carmen del Darien (Choco), El Colombiano reports.

·         ‘The rapid development of China's economy is not a threat, but rather an opportunity for co-operation with a huge market’, says President Uribe.  The two countries signed five agreements on plant and animal quarantine, information and telecommunications, film exhibition, economy and technology, said Uribe during a press conference at Colombia's Embassy in Beijing, Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily) reports.

·         People who claim that their relatives have been ‘disappeared’ at the hands of paramilitary groups stage a protest in the centre of Bogota, saying a bill that would give the groups leniency would not provide any peace to the country and would ‘legitimize violence’,  Miami Herald reports.

·         Investigators in San Onofre (Sucre) uncover another mass grave containing the bodies of four people, bringing to 40 the number of bodies founded in this municipality. According to the investigators, many bodies were showing signs of torture and were killed by suspected paramilitary fighters. Forensic experts have begun trying to identify the victims, apparently killed over many years. Four suspected paramilitary hit men have been arrested, the attorney general’s office said El Tiempo reports.

Sat 09 – Four killed in massacre in Valle; government denies plans to sell Ecopetrol.

·         A massacre in Victoria, a municipality in the southwestern province of Valle del Cauca, kills four civilians and injures five others. The authorities do not know who is responsible for the killings, El Pais reports.

·         President Uribe Velez reports that the government is not thinking of selling Ecopetrol. From China, he denied the story in a Brazilian magazine according to which the Colombian Government was studying a Petrobras proposal to buy 49% of the state’s oil enterprise. “The Government that I preside, has not thought, and does not think nor will it think of selling Ecopetrol”. He said that when the government reported that it wanted to reform the entity’s collective labour convention, it had already been explained to the country and to the Ecopetrol workers that this government was not going to privatise the enterprise; on the contrary, the aim was to make it ‘sustainable’, Colombia Week reports.

·         Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the 75-year-old head of the Vatican’s office for priests, is among Latin Americans considered a contender to become pope. In the western city of Pereira, where he spent 22 years as a bishop, he is remembered as fearless in actions as well as words, Caracol radio reports..

·         The mayor of Barrancabermeja, a municipality in the province of Santander and site of the country’s largest oil refinery, resigns from the left-leaning Independent Democratic Pole (PDI). A PDI leader from Bogota said the party was planning to expel Edgar Cote for alleged paramilitary ties, Vanguardia Liberal reports.

Sun 10 – AUC threatens to ‘end negotiations’; Justice sector targeted by armed groups.

·         The United Self-Defence forces of Colombia (AUC) threaten to halt talks with the government and “return to the mountains” if Congress approves legislation that would imprison paramilitary leaders for up to eight years for massacres and other atrocities. Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, the chief government negotiator, shrugged off the threat and called on lawmakers to pass the bill, El Espectador reports.

·         According to the register of the Fund for Victims of the Judicial Branch (Fasol), in the last 15 years more than 233 judges, attorneys and investigators from the Colombian attorney general’s office have been killed while they were investigating massacres and crimes against humanity, largely committed by paramilitaries. According to the register of the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ) in 2003 alone, 28 Colombian functionaries from the judicial system and human rights lawyers were killed, Semana magazine reports.

·         Although indicators for social investment and unemployment are getting worse, President Uribe Velez reports in a press conference that he is not dissatisfied with the pace of his country’s economic growth, though many believe last year’s 3.96 percent growth rate was too small to cut poverty, which affects more than half of Colombia’s population of 45 million, Colprensa reports.

Mon 11 – Another lawmaker killed near Ralito; alarm as new paramilitary group appears in Cali.

·         Gunmen murder provincial lawmaker Orlando Benitez, his sister and his driver in the municipality of Valencia (Cordoba). Valencia, in Cordoba, is near the site of strained peace talks between the government and Colombia's 20,000-strong illegal paramilitary militias. Benitez, a Liberal Party member, served in the Cordoba legislature. Police said they did not know who carried out the attacks, Reuters reports.

·         A communique presented during the Forum for University Initiatives celebrated in Cali this weekend announced the formation of a 500-member paramilitary group in the southwestern province of Valle de Cauca, where the 550-strong Calima Bloc from the Self-Defence forces of Colombia (AUC) “demobilised” last December, El Tiempo reports.

·         The Permanent Assembly of the Colombian Civil Society for Peace reports new death threats against some of its representatives across the country. Tomas Ramos, representative of the CUT trade union in Barranquilla, and Ariel Diaz, representative from the CUT in Cali, have been threatened by letters signed by the Self-Defence forces of Colombia.

Tues 12 - US: war vs. Colombian rebels being won; congressmen reject political status for paras.

·         Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, says ‘the war against Colombian rebels is being won and that pressure must be maintained until final victory’. The assessment by the General came despite a spate of FARC attacks that have killed about 70 Colombian soldiers in the past three months. Myers also encouraged neighbouring Venezuela to fully cooperate in ‘the war on terrorism’. ‘It's like Iraq: you can't have neighbours of Iraq, in the case of Syria and Iran that are not helping with that stability" he said, Associated press reports.

·         Colombian Senate and Chamber of Representatives committees vote down a provision of paramilitary demobilisation legislation that would have granted paramilitary warlords political status and helped shield them from US extradition on drug-trafficking charges. The rejection dealt a blow to President Uribe Velez, but Minister Sabas Pretelt said he didn’t think it would sink the entire bill or government negotiations with paramilitaries, El Tiempo reports.

·         The stage is being set for possible peace talks between the Colombian government and the country’s second largest rebel group, National Liberation Army (ELN), reports Andres Valencia, the Mexican diplomat mediating between the two sides. He met in Medellin with Francisco Galan, leader of the 5,000-strong rebel group. Valencia told reporters they discussed ways "to reduce and eliminate differences in order to make a meeting possible in Mexico." He gave no time frame for the possible encounter, Reuters reports.

·         Venezuelan officials decide to extradite to Colombia Jose Martinez Veja, a reputed member of the FARC according to the Colombian authorities. He was arrested in Venezuela last February on drug charges, Washington Times reports.

Weds 13 – 88 killed by paramilitaries in Ciudad Bolivar this year; rights activists work on CHR.

·         At least 88 people have been killed this year by paramilitary groups (sometimes called ‘groups of social cleansing’) in Ciudad Bolivar, south Bogota. According to Hernan Arias Gaviria, human rights official in Bogota, the majority of the victims are under 25 years old; he reported that the killers identify themselves as ‘paramilitaries’, while they distribute pamphlets. After visiting the area, Mayor of Bogota Lucho Garzon said he would ask President Uribe to raise this issue in Santa Fe de Ralito, where the paramilitary commanders are ‘concentrated’ while negotiating with the government, RCN reports.

·         Colombian activists believe that this year's session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will issue a more harshly worded declaration than ever on the atrocities being committed in their civil war-torn country. The human rights groups base their prediction on the critical tone of the report presented to the Commission on Tuesday by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, and the statements made by the countries that have shown the greatest interest in the Colombian crisis. Deputy Secretary-general of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Federico Andreu observed that "the forcefulness of the High Commissioner's report was remarkable." Moreover, the reactions of the European Union, as well as Canada, Norway and Switzerland, were "very strong," he told IPS.

Thurs 14 – UN: Human rights situation in Colombia is critical; FARC attacks in Cauca and Narino.

·         Colombia's human rights situation was "critical" in 2004 with not only the country's illegal armed groups torturing and murdering but members of the State security forces as well, the United Nations said. The annual report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights says the main violators in Colombia are left-wing guerrilla groups and far-right paramilitary militias, engaged in a war for control of lucrative cocaine producing territory in this impoverished Andean country. But the report also said that the UN received reports throughout last year of killings and forced displacements attributed to government security forces. "In comparison with 2003, there was an increase in allegations regarding extrajudicial executions and violations of due process," the report said. "A large number of allegations continued to be reported concerning arbitrary detentions, illegal searches, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and forced disappearances… Excessive use of force and other abuses of authority in repressing acts of protest and attacks on freedom of opinion and expression were also recorded," Reuters reports.

·         Hundreds of members of the FARC group attacked five towns in the south-western provinces of Nariño and Cauca, killing four National Police officers and at least two children and wounding 23 people. Army and police said the FARC battled with government forces after attacking the towns of Ricaurte, Samaniego and Gachavez in the province of Narino, as well as Jambalo and Toribio in Cauca province. FARC attacks since 1 February have killed at least 101 government security force members, Reuters reports.

·         Colombian authorities are investigating the death of two Colombian soldiers who died last year in a collision allegedly involving a US Army sergeant. A mother of one of the victims said Jonathan Marshall was intoxicated and driving a motorcycle at high speed when he crashed into her son and a friend on 29 August 2004 near the municipality of Apiay, a military base in the province of Meta, Prensa Latina reports.

·         Commander of the National Police in Cundinmamarca, Colonel Yesid Vasquez has been charged along with another 25 members of this institution by the Prosecutors office for allegedly have authorised corruption in the use of gasoline for the vehicles used by police agents, El Espectador 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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