Colombia This Week

30/08/2005

Fri 19 – Detained Spanish priest charged by Attorney; Trade unions announce big changes.

·         Ricardo Lorenzo Cantalapiedra, a Spanish priest living in Colombia since 1977 and based in the parish of La Uribe, (Meta) is formally charged by the Attorney General’s office in Bogota for collaborating with the FARC group. Among the accusations, the Attorney’s office named the testimony of a paid informant that accuses him for favouring this armed group. The priest is well known by the locals for its previous work in the parishes of Granada, La Macarena and Lejanias. He has the full support of his superiors, El Tiempo reports.

·         President of the Colombian central trade union group (CUT) Carlos Rodriguez announces important changes in the structure and representation model of the Colombian trade unions. According to the plans, they will merge all 746 trade unions into a group of 18 ‘industry unions’, depending on the productive sector to which they belong. Rodriguez also acknowledged that trade unionism is in crisis because most workers have temporary contracts and are not allowed trade union membership. According to the figures, only 1,7 m Colombians have permanent labour contracts, Caracol radio reports.

Sat 20 – Colombia orders army arrests in indigenous killing; paramilitaries hand themselves in.

·         Colombian state prosecutors order the arrest of 11 soldiers accused of killing an indigenous leader and falsely reporting that he died as part of a clash with leftist rebels. Kankuamo indigenous leader Victor Hugo Maestre was pulled from his home in Cesar province, by men dressed in military uniforms in October 2004, the attorney general's office said in a statement. His body later turned up at a local morgue, where relatives identified it. But the body was then taken by members of an army artillery battalion who had reported a clash with the leftist rebel group ELN, the statement said. Colombia's indigenous groups are among the most affected by the armed conflict. So far this year, 70 indigenous people have been murdered and dozens more forced from their homes by threats according to rights groups, Reuters reports.

·         In a statement to the press, Colombian National Police report that a group of 16 paramilitaries from the Centauros bloc of the Self-Defence Forces of Colombia have handed themselves in to a police patrol in the Casanare department. According to the authorities 1,622 people decided to give themselves up individually this year, El Colombiano reports.

Sun 21- ELN accepts responsibility for killing of priests; Mons. Castro calls for peace dialogue.

·         The National Liberation Army (ELN) acknowledges that its fighters killed two Catholic priests earlier this week, adding that the killing was a mistake and promising to punish those responsible. The two priests, Vicente Rosso Bayona and Jesus Emilio Mora, were killed along with two construction workers when gunmen ambushed their car on a remote country road in northeast Colombia. But a church leader, Monsignor Hector Fabio Henao, said the rebel apology was insufficient. "I think the ELN should pay for their mistake not just by asking for forgiveness, but by opening a peace dialogue," Henao, who often mediated in peace efforts during Colombia's 41-year-old civil war, told Associated Press.

·         In an interview in weekly El Espectador, the newly appointed president of the Colombian Bishop’s Conference, Luis Augusto Castro calls upon the government to do a u-turn in its peace plans with Colombian guerrilla groups. Referring to the current Uribe administration’s policies, he said: ‘We have had three years of war and we’re not much closer to peace now’, adding that the government’s attempt to deny the armed conflict ‘doesn’t make any sense’ and urging President Uribe to adopt a more comprehensive policy towards peace and dialogue with all the armed groups.

·         "The [Justice and Peace] law doesn't really make an effort to dismantle the paramilitary groups," says Cesar Gaviria, former Colombian president from 1990 to 1994 and now head of the opposition political party. ‘They will still have their full economic power, their political power, and they will be pardoned for everything they did’. Paramilitary groups are believed to be responsible for 12,999 killings since 1996, according to a report this year from the Colombian Commission of Jurists. They are also believed to control about half the cocaine reaching the United States, Washington Post reports.

Mon 22- Military penal system rejects army-para links report; Uribe accepts Church’s peace role.

·         The judicial military system of the Colombian army finds ‘no evidence’ to formally investigate the allegations made by three Bishops from the Dioceses in Choco department. Last May, in a letter sent to President Uribe, the three Bishops denounced that the afro-Colombian and indigenous communities were suffering as a result of the army blockades, adding that the Colombian army was openly working along with the paramilitaries in the area, urging the authorities to investigate those involved, Colprensa reports.

·         “The Government accepts the Church’s offer to facilitate the first steps leading to a dialogue that in turn would lead to a cease fire,” says President Uribe after meeting with the President of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Luis Augusto Castro, in Bogota. Uribe said that during the meeting they reviewed the efforts the Church has made in search of peace and reiterated the disposition of the National Government, with the ELN, to begin a serious and willing dialogue process on behalf of the illegal armed group, SNE reports.

Tues 23 – Demobilised paramilitary suspects behind killings; Newsweek: failed ‘Plan’ [Colombia].

·         Officials from the regional government in Antioquia call upon the office of the Peace Commissioner to investigate the killing of two people allegedly by demobilised members of the paramilitary faction Heroes de Granada, in western Antioquia. The victims, a mother and her son, were from the settlement of San Jose in the municipality of La Ceja, and according to the officials the same group killed the boy’s father last June, El Tiempo reports.

·         A report in Newsweek argues that the recent paralysis in Putumayo is the latest in a series of troubling signs that the US-backed war on drugs is faltering. The centrepiece is Plan Colombia, a multi-pronged counter-narcotics initiative that was unveiled five years ago in Cartagena with President Bill Clinton in attendance. Plan Colombia was designed to cut the country's narcotics production in half by this year, and the U.S. government has pumped $4 billion into the programme thus far. During its first three years, U.S. and Colombian officials touted estimates showing a steady drop in the amount of land used for growing coca, from a peak of 169,800 hectares in 2001 to 113,850 two years ago.  But for the first time since Plan Colombia's inception, the number of hectares planted with coca showed no decrease in 2004, according to U.S.  State Department figures. Wholesale prices for cocaine in the US have remained stable throughout the Plan Colombia era, even though seizures are up, belying government claims in both countries that the anti-drug program has reduced the quantities of cocaine being produced inside the country. Bruce Bagley, a Colombia expert at the University of Miami, commented: "The claims of success in reducing the overall flow of drugs from Colombia are highly exaggerated, and the profitability of the industry remains largely unimpaired," Newsweek reports.

·         The latest numbers on displaced people arriving in the city of Medellin as a result of the armed conflict in Antioquia this year are around 84,000, according to local newspaper El Mundo.

Weds 24 – 2 police killed in assault in Cauca; US to train prosecutors for Justice and Peace law.

·         Two policemen are killed in Almaguer (Cauca) in a joint assault by the FARC and the ELN group on the police station in this municipality. According to the reports the attack started on Monday night and lasted till the early hours of the next morning, when the guerrillas fled the area. According to witnesses they were no victims among the civilians and no destruction was reported after the attack, El Pais reports.

·         Colombian Attorney General Mario Iguaran Arana reports that the US Departments of State and Justice will collaborate in the training of prosecutors and members of the judiciary police, designated to the Justice and Peace Unit. The official was speaking after his meeting with US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales in Bogota: “The American Government, the Department of Justice and of State want to collaborate in the training of prosecutors of the Justice and Peace Unit, as well as the members of the judiciary police, whom by law were created to advance in the demobilization and reconciliation process in search for real justice, reparation and truth,” said Iguaran. Gonzales said that both nations “have never been closer”, SNE reports.

·         In a meeting with the directors of Fenacon (National Federation of Councillors), councillor representatives from the municipality of Montañita (Caqueta) report they have decided to work from the departmental capital, Florencia, because of safety reasons. They fear they are under threat by the FARC group. The Commander of the National police in the area, William Urrego said that ‘the security situation in the municipality is excellent’, dismissing the threats and suggesting that the councillors want to get the financial benefits offered by the Interior ministry to those under threat, El Tiempo reports.

·         Colombian Congressmen Alexander Lopez declares he has received more death threats. According to the testimony, last week he received anonymous threats which offered 1,600 m pesos for his assassination. According to Lopez, these threats have increased since he started denouncing the corruption within the municipal service company in Cali (Emcali), El Pais reports.

Thurs 25 – 12 people killed by FARC in Antioquia; UN system warns about electoral guarantees. 

·         FARC members reportedly massacre 13 coca harvesters and their cook, the latest victims of a feud between guerrillas and paramilitary gangs to control Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade, authorities report. According to the witnesses, they gunned down cook Flor Maria Gutierrez and 13 men as she was serving them lunch on a farm near Puerto Valdivia, (Antioquia). Three of the rebels were later reportedly killed by the Colombian army who were responding to the attack, El Tiempo reports.

·         With or without the re-election of President Uribe Velez, Colombia has not got the necessary legislation to guarantee the general elections in 2006, according to Jaime Barajas, UN representative for electoral matters in Colombia. The report he presented states that the Colombian Congress should legislate a clear procedure to guarantee the transparency of the process in case the Constitutional Court authorises the re-election, including the President’s faculty to suspend or postpone the elections for reasons of public disorder, etc. He added that these faculties should be given to the National Electoral Council (CNE), El Tiempo reports.

·         Brazilian police arrest a Colombian man accused of being an unofficial ambassador for Colombia's FARC group.  The arrest of Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazos came at the request of the Colombian government in order to extradite him to Colombia. Cadena has long acted as the FARC's spokesman to Brazil, and had been arrested once before in Sept. 2000 after his visa had expired, though he was released in October of the same year. At the time, the FARC acknowledged his role as an unofficial ambassador to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile for the leftist rebel group, Associated Press reports.

·         Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt denies there are more narcotraffickers among the commanders of the paramilitaries negotiating with the government in Santa Fe de Ralito. He was responding to the accusations of Senator Jimmy Chamorro who several days earlier said in Colombian Congress that Francisco Javier Zuluaga (a. Gordolindo), requested by the US authorities for narcotrafficking, bought his paramilitary command in order to benefit from the Justice and Peace law, El Colombiano 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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