Colombia This Week

22/08/2005

Fri 12 – Uribe’s presidential adviser on the hook; indigenous denounce more abuses in Cauca.

• Colombian Congressman Wilson Borja accuses Jose Obdulio Gaviria, adviser of President Uribe Velez, of provoking ‘economic panic’ by giving out false information about Bogota’s telecommunication company (ETB). According to reports, Jose Obdulio sent various emails to the shareholders with financial information that was deliberately false. If charged by the Attorney General, he could be jailed for up to eight years, CM& reports.

• The Colombian National Indigenous Organisation (ONIC) denounces more abuses committed by the Colombian armed forces against members of their communities. A 19 year old girl was raped by four soldiers while she was leaving school in the community in Coconuco; a second girl was killed in the settlement of Villa Claret, when the Colombian army shot indiscriminately at a house where an entire family was taking refuge, killing one person and injuring another. The ONIC demands that the government and the control organism of the state investigate these killings, calling upon the Colombian army to refrain from attacking the indigenous communities.

• Director of ‘Noticias Uno’ and columnist in Semana magazine, journalist Daniel Coronell reports that he is leaving the country as a result of new death threats against himself and his family. According to reports, on top of anonymous invitations to his own funeral, he received ‘anonymous emails’ that he managed to track to Carlos Nader, a controversial former Colombian Congressman and personal friend of President Uribe who served a prison sentence in the US for drug-trafficking. The Attorney General’s office has questioned Mr. Nader regarding the accusation but he was released without charges. Coronell is going into exile, claiming that in Colombia today there is no freedom of press as journalists are targeted by the mafia and the armed groups with total impunity as a result of failure in investigating these cases, El Tiempo reports.

• In an article in Miami Herald, director of US-based NGO Colombia Support Network, Cecilia Zarate argues that the United States should not support the demobilisation of the Colombian paramilitaries. According to Ms. Zarate, the present legal framework, the so called ‘Justice and Peace law’, calls for sentences of at most five years, which is not proportional to the seriousness of those crimes. Other loopholes would lead some who have committed terrible crimes to serve no prison time at all, turning traditional human-rights law on its head. The paramilitaries have committed atrocious crimes, and they continue to traffic in drugs, which are their main source of income, using these ill-gotten gains to exercise political and economic control over entire regions as well as terrorising the population, Miami Herald reports.

• The Permanent Committee for Human Rights in Arauca denounces and condemns the killing of Jorge Mendoza Lesmes, a 32 year old man killed by a Colombian army patrol at a checkpoint near Arauquita (Arauca). The reports dismisses the information provided by the army that the victim was speeding and failed to stop at the checkpoint, noting that the person who was travelling with Jorge Mendoza in the same car and who witnessed the events was able to testify that the soldiers fired indiscriminately upon Mr Mendoza after he had safely halted the car.

• Lucas Gnecco, former governor of the department of Cesar has been captured in the city of Santa Marta. He is accused of corruption. Authorities also announced that the human rights office of the Attorney General is also investigating him, Caracol radio reports.

• A US soldier has pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine into the United States from Colombia using military aircraft. Francisco Rosa pleaded guilty to using, possessing and distributing cocaine and making a false official statement. On a military judge's recommendation, Rosa will spend five years in prison with a reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge. Other authorities, including the post's commanding general, could change the sanctions. Military investigators have said Rosa and three other US soldiers played roles in a plot to smuggle the drugs from a U.S. base in Colombia where they had been stationed, Washington Post reports.

• Two Catholic priests driving their car down a country road in Norte de Santander are killed when suspected guerrillas ambushed their car with gunfire. Two labourers travelling with the priests were also killed in that attack. The Catholic Church has played an active role in mediation efforts during Colombia's war, but the clergy's front line role in the peace efforts has come at a heavy price. An archbishop, a bishop, 60 priests and three nuns have been killed in the past 20 years, many of those by armed groups involved in the conflict, according to the church, AP reports.

• Military authorities in Medellin report that two members of the Carlos Alirio Buitrago bloc of the ELN group were killed in combat in Abejorral (western Antioquia). In other developments, combat with the 34^th front of the FARC in Urrao leaves another guerrilla dead, El Colombiano reports.

• According to a report published this week by the Colombian Auditor’s Office, half of Colombians do not have any waste collection service. The report warns that the situation is unsustainable as it is threatening the health of the public and the ecosystem, poisoning the waters and contaminating entire areas of the country. According to the report, more than 300.000 people make a living out of recycling rubbish in Colombia, El Tiempo reports.

• The FARC group reject a government offer to discuss a prisoner exchange. In a public statement, the Secretariat of this armed group alleged that "because of military reasons" they could not meet in the district offered by the government, adding they will only hold talks if military forces pull out of two western municipalities - a demand rejected by the authorities. The FARC holds 60 hostages who could be exchanged for imprisoned rebels. The hostages include former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US intelligence operatives, BBC reports.

• Four days after the search began to find passengers who had disappeared after an attack on a boat in the Orteguaza river in Caqueta, police in Putumayo confirm that six bodies have now been recovered. The police did not give any details about the armed group that attacked this group of civilians, Caracol radio reports.

• Carlos Moreno de Caro, Colombian Senator and member of the committee that has accompanied the peace process with the paramilitaries reports that the commanders of the Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) concentrated in the Ralito haven have left the area and nobody knows of their whereabouts, Efe reports.

• The president of the National Confederation of the Neighbourhood Action Committees Jorge Enrique Bossa, reports that these committees are to carry out a public consultation with their members on whether or not Colombia should sign a free trade agreement with the United States. Colombian Congressman Pedro Arenas said that this consultation is permitted by the Constitution and the results can be used to exert pressure on the Colombian Congress, the institution in charge of approving the final decision, Colprensa reports.

• The Colombian NGO platform Coordination Colombia-Europe-USA (CCEEU) and the Colombian Observatory for the Administration of Justice, (OCA) denounce in a report that the Colombian security forces have committed 6,332 arbitrary detentions between August 2002 and August 2004. In a public presentation, the organisations criticised ‘democratic security policies’ adding that these practices are based upon the stigmatisation of entire communities and villagers targeted as collaborators of guerrilla groups just because they live within their vast controlled areas across the country. The report also denounces that most of these massive detentions are carried out with informants encouraged by the payment of rewards, adding that most of this testimonies are not investigated by the Attorney General’s office before the detentions are made.

• US Ambassador in Colombia William Wood signs a US $120m aid contract as part of Plan Colombia. During the press conference, accompanied by Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco, he rejected the proposals for a possible exchange of prisoners by the FARC group, saying that this armed group is looking for a tactical advantage and not a humanitarian agreement, El Colombiano reports.

• Venezuela will deport 16 Colombians whom President Hugo Chavez has accused of being part of a paramilitary force that was preparing to assassinate him. The 100 remaining Colombians are in prison awaiting trial for military rebellion. Prosecutors are asking for 17-year jail terms for the men, who were arrested in brand-new camouflage uniforms. Venezuela's government says the Colombians were training at a remote farm to overthrow Chavez as part of an invasion plot hatched in Miami and Colombia, Reuters reports.

• An editorial in El Tiempo newspaper entitled ‘The looting of a country’ denounces the increasing number of corruption cases involving functionaries, lawyers, politicians and bureaucrats with the taxes of Colombians. Reviewing some of the most notorious cases, such as the national pension scheme, and national health service, the editorial concludes that corruption is an endemic obstacle within the Colombian system, and blames the government for not doing enough.

• Gunmen drag 32 year old Rev. Jesus Adrian Sanchez from a school and shoot him dead, bringing to three the number of clergy killed in Colombia this week, officials said. He was teaching a high school religion class in Chaparral municipality, in Tolima, when he was seized by the gunmen, said parish priest Lizardo Monroy. Monroy said he knew of no threats against Sanchez, whom he described as a good-humoured priest who often rode his motorcycle to villages to celebrate Mass, Colprensa reports.

• Four Embera indigenous people have been killed in Riosucio (Risaralda) after a group of armed men wearing military uniforms broke into the indigenous community at night. The attackers targeted all members of the same family. According to the testimonies, the attackers did not identify themselves and the local authorities do not know to which armed group they belonged, Efe reports.

• All three Irish men interviewed in Dublin after they secretly returned to Ireland, have been freed. The trio are wanted in Colombia where they have been sentenced to 17 years in jail for training the FARC group. The men had presented themselves at Garda stations voluntarily. It prompted speculation that their return had been part of a deal with the IRA and Sinn Fein. Colombian vice-president Francisco Santos has said he wants the men extradited but said he did not rule out allowing them to serve their sentences in Ireland, Reuters reports.

• Eight days after he was detained, a gunman has killed the military boss of notorious drug-trafficker Diego Montoya while in jail. Henry Jesus Agudelo, reportedly the military boss of Diego Montoya’s private army, has been accused by the Colombian police of transforming the militia into a paramilitary group in order to get the benefits offered by the Colombian government, El Pais reports.

• The Colombian Observatory for Human Rights summarises in a report the political transformation that has occurred in northeast Colombia during the last years. The Observatory, which represents 28 NGOs in the area, says the traditional political parties have lost importance in numbers and influence. According to the NGO ‘Compromiso’, the Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) now have a presence in 83 of the 87 municipalities in the department of Santander, Caracol Radio 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. If you would like to be put on the mailing list, please send an email message to Colombia_this_week@hotmail.com, indicating why you would be interested in receiving this summary.

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