Colombia This Week

23/05/2005

Fri 13- Galan’s family calls for full investigation; FARC member extradited from Venezuela.

·         Speaking from the Colombian Embassy in London, after the detention of former Justice Minister Alberto Santofimio for the killing of Senator Carlos Galan, his son Juan Manuel Galan reports that he still has confidence in the Colombian Justice system after sixteen years. In an interview with Colprensa, he called for a full investigation, saying that the commander of the DAS (Colombian secret police) at that time, Gen. Maza, should not avoid responsibility for the security of the event in Soacha in which his father, presidential candidate Carlos Galan, was shot dead by gunmen.

·         Colombia's secret police (DAS) report the extradition of Juan Jose Martinez, a suspected member of the FARC, to face trial in Colombia. Martinez was arrested by Venezuelan officials in the country's Bolivar state last February on suspicion of helping in the kidnapping of the mother of Ugueth Urbina, a Venezuelan player for the Detroit Tigers. Police rescued her after five months in captivity, Associated Press reports.

·         An editorial in the US-based daily Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says Colombia has turned into a ‘sinkhole of money and military resources’ over the past five years: "Congress should scrap Plan Colombia now, rather than throw more good money after bad," the newspaper said, pointing out that availability of Colombian cocaine and heroin on U.S. streets appears undiminished. John Walsh, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said recently that "the drug war is failing to achieve its most basic objectives," Associated Press reports.

Sat 14 – High Commissioner urges action on human rights; Santofimio claims innocence.

·         In a press conference in Bogota, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour reports that “regarding the negotiations with the paramilitaries, I urge the Government and Congress to establish, as soon as possible, a legal framework which fully recognises and guarantees the rights to truth, justice and reparations for the victims. Impunity must be avoided while certain incentives and judicial benefits may be essential for success of the negotiations. The legal framework should also take due account of the situation of women, children and vulnerable minorities. Inadequate accountability for past atrocities is a further betrayal of those who rely on the law for their protection.  The minimum element to adequate accountability is the full respect of the right to truth. Without a public exposal of the truth, the reality of the lives of the victims is denied and it is not possible to offer them any form of justice and reparations. Moreover, without a full and credible account of their activities, the public can have no confidence that illegal armed groups have been effectively dismantled”.

·         Alberto Santofimio Botero, the former justice minister and senator who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of Luis Carlos Galan, declares that “there is no conclusive proof in this file that details the year, day, hour, date and place of the meetings that I supposedly had with Escobar and Popeye” ,-two well known drug-traffickers-. Santofimio made the declarations to the Attorney General's office, reported on local RCN television, Associated Press reports.

·         Colombian Oil Workers Union (USO) reports an assassination attempt on its local president Jorge Ortega in the coastal city of Cartagena. Despite being permanently accompanied by armed bodyguards, some days ago while he was travelling with his family, four armed men on motorbikes tried to ambush them in the centre of Cartagena,  but the bodyguards responded with armed fire. This new attack came four weeks after gunmen killed trade unionist Rafael Cabarcas and his bodyguard Andres Bohorquez in the same city.

Sun 15 – America's drug plan collapses in chaos; hostages are alive, says FARC commander

·         Washington's "war on drugs" in Colombia is collapsing in chaos and corruption, and the drug producers are winning. The so-called Plan Colombia, which has cost the US more than $3bn (£1.6bn) in the past five years, is over, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced. The scheme was eventually expected to cost $7.5bn. The government of Colombia has sent out an emergency appeal to the Bush administration for an extra $130m to supplement the $600m it expects to receive. The extra money, the Colombians insist, ‘is needed for more aircraft to increase the government's capacity to spray poison on the jungle patches where coca bushes grow’. Corruption in the Colombian government service is said by the Home Office in London to cost $4bn a year, The Independent reports.

·         Senior commander from the FARC Raul Reyes confirms that many of the hostages in their power are still alive:  The hostages were depressed that there had been no progress on their liberation, and some were suffering from diseases contracted in the country's jungles. The FARC group is holding some 60 high-profile hostages, including army officials, former governors, politicians, the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US defence contractors. Ms Betancourt was kidnapped nearly three-and-a-half years ago, with the last confirmed proof that she was alive in 2003, the Guardian reports.

·         In its bulletin Pertinentes, the Peace and Development Programme of the Magdalena Medio region reports on the new aggression against civil society in the rural area of Barrancabermeja, where last week local peasants received an ultimatum from paramilitary groups demanding a tax of $8,000 pesos per hectare, threatening trouble if they refused. The publication also says that kidnapping is on the rise in the region.

Mon 16 – Uribe accused of benefiting paramilitaries; death threat campaign against lawyers.

·         Hours after the Colombian media reported a drop in popularity in the latest polls, President Uribe made what the media has called ‘the first electoral speech in the electoral campaign’. Defending himself against the accusations made by former presidential candidate Horacio Serpa and former Mayor of Bogota and would-be candidate Antanas Mockus, he rejected the allegations about favouring the paramilitaries, after this armed group has increasingly gained control in Colombia during his mandate, El Tiempo reports.  

·         The Colombian NGO Lawyers’ Collective Jose Alvear Restrepo reports new death threats against Soraya Gutierrez after she received a postal parcel containing a decapitated doll with death threats against her and her family. Amnesty International urges the Colombian government to take these threats very seriously and protect the Lawyers’ Collective as in recent weeks unknown people have taken out adverts in the daily El Tiempo reporting  opportunities for human rights lawyers “to fill upcoming vacancies” in this NGO.

·         The mayor of a small Colombian town has introduced fines and jail sentences for those guilty of spreading "gossip".  Ignacio Jimenez, mayor of Icononzo (Ibague) said ‘false rumours can cost lives in Colombia’.  He said several people had been jailed after being accused of being members of an armed group "purely based upon gossip".  Those found guilty of spreading gossip can be jailed for up to four years. The decree follows a similar move by the mayor of the nearby town of Ibague who imposed fines on gossip, BBC reports.

Tues 17 – Authorities report displacement in Antioquia; UNHCR: displaced youth face violence.

·         After three days without public transport as a result of an armed strike declared by the FARC in western Antioquia, 108 families from the municipalities of Argelia and Nariño, (476 people) have been displaced to the city of Medellin as villagers report heavy clashes in the rural areas. Pastoral Social and the Italian NGO CISP are assisting the displaced families, El Colombiano reports.

·         Young displaced people in Colombia's cities are increasingly facing dangers like murder, sexual abuse and forced recruitment by armed groups, warned the UN refugee agency as it stressed the need for urgent actions to protect and assist these vulnerable youths. Recent incidents have highlighted that these young people are more vulnerable to violence than non-displaced persons. The latest example was last Wednesday's murder of at least two boys, aged 14 and 16, by unknown armed men in Altos de Cazuca, an area on the outskirts of Bogota that hosts more than 20,000 internally displaced people. Local witnesses attribute the killings and disappearances to failure to obey the curfew imposed by an irregular armed group in the area. In some city areas, armed groups have even imposed rules over personal behaviour, targeting women in short dresses and with body piercing, and men with long hair, UNHCR reports.

·         A joint initiative of the Colombian government and the International Organisation of Migration, (IOM) has reintegrated 2,370 of Colombia's estimated 11,000 child combatants into civilian life in the past five years. The programme is supported with a $285,000 grant from the Canadian International Development Agency, The Global and Mail from Toronto report.

Weds 18– Prominent journalists receive death threats; Prosecutor: treaty with US army invalid.

·         A string of anonymous death threats against prominent journalists in Colombia could seriously undermine press freedom in the country, Human Rights Watch reports. The threats came on Monday in the form of funeral wreaths, accompanied by notes of condolence, delivered to the homes and offices of three well-known television and print journalists: Hollman Morris, Daniel Coronell and Carlos Lozano. President Uribe condemned the threats, stating that he had given orders to increase the journalists' security and investigate the events, Reuters reports.

·         A treaty with the United States granting diplomatic immunity to American soldiers stationed in Colombia apparently violates Colombia’s Constitution; Inspector General (Procurador) Edgardo Maya said he would formally ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether the 1974 agreement is invalid. He said a study carried out by his office concluded the treaty was superseded by Colombia’s 1991 Constitution, El Tiempo reports.

·         Four influential members of Congress have sent a letter requesting $150 million in additional U.S. military aid for Colombia, providing a boost to President Uribe's uphill efforts to obtain more equipment for his anti-drug aerial spraying programme. The Bush administration has taken a cautious stance on the funding request.  Speaking to reporters after a hearing last week on Plan Colombia, White House drug czar John Walters said that getting the new aircraft into the field would take months, Miami Herald reports.

Thurs 19 – Tension in Caldono as DAS charges 200 people; 13 police officers killed in Choco.

·         The Regional Council for Indigenous in Cauca (CRIC) and the Regional Cabild of Indigenous authorities from the Norte del Cauca (ACIN) strongly condemn actions of the Colombian authorities as the Attorney General’s office and the Colombian secret police (DAS) are issuing arrest orders against 200 people from Toribio, Caldono, Santander de Quilichao and Jambalo.  Among the irregularities denounced, ACIN reports that the premises of Vicente Otero, former mayor in Caldono and leader of the indigenous campaign for a public vote on the free trade agreement (TLC), were raided, adding that the authorities took materials and files from his computer.

·         Members of the Guevarist Revolutionary Army (ERG) and the FARC ambush a police convoy and clash with government forces in separate violence, killing at least 13 officers and wounding five others, authorities say. The convoy was travelling on a remote jungle road in Choco State, a strategic corridor for arms and drug trafficking through Panama, when it came under attack in a hail of gunfire and explosions, said Choco Deputy Governor Freddy Lloreda, Associated Press reports.

·         Fighting in the southern, coca-producing province of Caqueta cost the lives of 16 FARC members according to Colombian Air Force commander General Edgar Lesmez. "The operation killed 16 rebels of the 49th Front of the FARC, with five more captured, four of them wounded," he said in Bogota, El Tiempo 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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