Colombia This Week
05/10/2006
Fri 29–Miners protest after leader’s murder; new threats to human rights groups
· 1300 miners, their families and other residents of Mina Gallo (Southern Bolivar department) are staging a protest after Alejandro Uribe, a community leader, was murdered on September 19th. The Diocese of Magangue described Alejandro’s murder as the culmination of a series of attacks committed by members of the Nueva Granada Battalion of the Army’s 5th Brigade. Local residents claim the militarisation of the area is part of a campaign designed to force people off their land in order to make room for the multinational company Anglo Gold Ashanti, Ekklesia reports.
· Several Colombian human rights organisations received new emails signed by groups claiming to be linked to paramilitaries and containing death threats. The latest in the series was received on September 15th and clearly stated that the armed groups would carry out their death threats beginning on September 22nd. Several organisations’ offices have also been raided and computers have been stolen, the US based Washington Office on Latin America reports.
· According to the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), during Uribe’s first mandate more than 11,000 people were killed or disappeared, a higher number than that of the victims of Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship in Chile. More than a million people have also been displaced between 2002 and 2006, Infosud reports.
· Diego Rojas Coronel, a Colombian aid worker who had been kidnapped in Afghanistan nearly three weeks ago, was released unconditionally. President Uribe had been criticised for the handling of the case by families of kidnapped victims in Colombia, who accused him of offering to pay a ransom, Reuters reports.
Sat 30–Uribe open to humanitarian exchange; FTA negotiations with Central America
· President Uribe released a communiqué stating that the government accepts the request of the FARC to negotiate a humanitarian exchange. However, the president remarked that the area where this would take place could not be used as a crime haven, implying that no armed guerrilla presence would be tolerated. On the other hand, the FARC insist on the demilitarisation of the municipalities of Pradera and La Florida (Valle del Cauca department) and on the presence of armed rebels to guarantee the safety of the negotiators, AP reports.
· The 4th round of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Colombia and Central America was successfully completed. According to official sources, in the last five years Colombia has increased its exports to the region by $100 million, RCN Radio reports.
Sun 01– FARC want demilitarisation decree ; new Justice and Peace Law decree produced
· The FARC demanded concrete evidence of the government‘s willingness to demilitarise an 850 square kilometre area in Valle del Cauca department and said that this could lead to a ceasefire and a political solution to the armed conflict. During an interview with Colprensa, Raul Reyes, the FARC spokesman, also said that the three US military contractors captured in 2003 are still alive and that representatives of France, Spain, Switzerland, Cuba and Venezuela should be present for the negotiations, AFP and AP report.
· The government produced a new decree regulating the Justice and Peace Law, after it received criticism of the two drafts published on the internet. The new decree is more in line with the sentence of the Constitutional Court, as it does not qualify paramilitarism as a political crime and states that paramilitaries have to provide a truthful and complete confession. Meanwhile ten paramilitary chiefs who are still at large, including the Mejia brothers, withdrew from the negotiation process, El Tiempo reports.
· The government launched the Network of Social Protection against Extreme Poverty, a plan that seeks to reduce the number of very poor from 14.7% to 7.2% by 2010. The main instrument will be the Families in Action Programme, which is already providing monetary support to 682,307 families and has been praised by the World Bank, Cambio reports.
Mon 02 – Mass detention in Arauca ; senators accused of links to Jorge 40
· 16 people, including the political leader and trade unionist Miguel Antonio Rodriguez Diaz, were arbitrarily detained in Arauquita (Arauca department). The situation in the department remains critical due to the increased militarisation, forced displacement and high levels of poverty and unemployment, the Colombian organisation Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights reports.
· The senators Zulema Jattin, David Char, Álvaro García y Dieb Maloof are being investigated by the Attorney General’s office after their names were found in the computer of former paramilitary chief Jorge 40. The senators are believed to have received monies from the paramilitary for their electoral campaigns; however, they all deny the accusations, Semana reports.
· The fourth round of exploratory talks between the government and the ELN was announced. It will take place in Cuba on October 16th and will consist of three sessions: one with the specialized teams, one with the government and one with civil society representatives, Caracol Radio reports.
· During a meeting of Latin American defence ministers in Nicaragua, the Colombian defence minister Juan Manuel Santos accused the FARC of being the biggest drug cartel in the world and called on his counterparts to unify their efforts to combat drug trafficking and terrorism, Caracol Radio reports.
· A plan to assassinate two members of the antinarcotics team of the Attorney General’s office was discovered. The plan, which had been devised in the Combita prison, was intended to intimidate the team, which has managed to recover 1,572 properties belonging to drug traffickers this year, El Tiempo reports.
Tues 03 – UNHCHR accepts review of office mandate ; IOM alerts on human trafficking
· The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Louise Arbour, accepted to review the role of the organisation’s office in Colombia, after the Colombian vice-President Francisco Santos announced the renewal of its mandate for one year. The Colombian government is trying to restrict the role of the office to one of technical assistance rather than monitoring of the human rights situation in the country, El Tiempo reports.
· The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported an increase in the number of Colombians who are taken out of the country under promises of marriages or employment opportunities and end up exploited by networks of human trafficking. Although the Colombian authorities received only 211 complaints between 2002 and 2004, the IOM estimates that between 2 and 10 people who leave the country each day are at risk of being exploited, El Colombiano reports.
· The government expressed its surprise at the employment figures produced by the National Department of Statistics (DANE). According to the DANE, unemployment increased from 11.3% to 12.9% between August 2005 and August 2006; 650,000 jobs were also lost in one year, mainly in the agricultural sector, despite a 5.7% growth of the economy, Colprensa reports.
· Speaking at the National Forum “Colombia Challenges Poverty”, the economist Muhammad Yunus, who funded the Grameen Bank 20 years ago, recommended that Colombian banks create subsidiaries specialising in microcredit and lending money to poor people. He explained that small credit can lift people out of extreme poverty, El Tiempo reports.
· Only 150 of the 2,800 demobilised paramilitaries in the Uraba region are formally employed. Although the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace destined 17,000 million pesos (c. $7m) to productive projects in the region, the money has not been made available by banks yet, El Colombiano reports.
Weds 04 – Coca-Cola lawsuits dismissed; OHCHR condemns violence in Sincelejo
· A US judge, Jose Martinez, dismissed lawsuits that claimed that Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia conspired with paramilitary groups to kill, torture and intimidate people in order to eliminate labour union activity. The lawsuits were filed in 2001 by the trade union Sinaltrainal, which reacted to the sentence by reaffirming its will to pursue truth, justice and integral reparation, Sinaltrainal reports.
· The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia (OHCHR) condemned the violent events which occurred in Sincelejo (Sucre department) on October 3rd, when armed men threatened newspaper sellers. The armed men were trying to stop the sales of the El Meridiano de Sucre, which contained information on the links between four senators and the former paramilitary chief Jorge 40, OHCHR reports.
· The former minister Alvaro Leyva Duran said that, although the statements by President Uribe on potential peace talks with the FARC are positive, they risk delaying the humanitarian exchange. According to Leyva, the government should concentrate on the exchange of prisoners for kidnapped people, and only subsequently talk of peace negotiations and a constitutional assembly, El Colombiano reports.
· The demobilised paramilitary Jose Barrera Ortiz, alias Chepe Barrera, was released from the La Ceja prison, after the authorities found no evidence of his involvement in crimes against humanity. Barrera had demobilised with a group of 47 paramilitaries known as Los Chepes who operated in the south of Magdalena department, Caracol Radio reports.
· Two members of a new paramilitary group linked to the Norte del Valle drug cartel were killed by the army in Nariño department. In the last weeks the armed forces killed or arrested 25 members of the Machos and Rastrojos criminal gangs, which operate in the area, El Tiempo reports.
Thurs 05 – CCJ will challenge decree in court; Uribe responds to Chavez
· The Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ) said that it will challenge decree 3391, which regulates the Justice and Peace Law, in the courts. Although the organisation acknowledges some positive elements in the decree, it criticises the article that considers the time that the demobilised spent in Santa Fe de Ralito as part of their prison terms, in disregard for what stated in the Constitutional Court sentence, El Tiempo reports.
· President Uribe said that Colombia maintains good relationships with both Venezuela and the US, after the Venezuelan President Chavez asked him to clarify if he was worried by the purchase of weapons by Venezuela. Chavez’s request came after the US Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld said that Venezuela’s neighbouring countries were worried that the new weapons could fall in the hands of terrorist groups, RCN Radio reports.
· During his visit to Colombia, the newly-elected Mexican president Felipe Calderon praised the Democratic Security policy and said that he would apply it to his country in order to combat drug trafficking and crime, El Tiempo reports.
· Negotiations for a free trade agreement between Colombia and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) started in Bogota. The countries that make up the EFTA are Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, El Colombiano reports.
· Two children who had been kidnapped by an armed group were found dead in Tumaco (Nariño department). According to official sources, 915 children were killed in the country last year, 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.
ABColombia Group
Mezzanine 2nd Floor
1, London Bridge
London SE1 1BG
Tel: +44-(0)20-7 785 6595
www.abcolombia.org.uk
Top
| 