Colombia This Week

17/11/2006

• Members of Congress took doctors to visit the FARC rebels detained in the Buen Pastor prison in Bogota, a step that they hope will convince the guerrilla group to allow a medical mission to visit kidnapped Colombians. Meanwhile, the FARC released a communiqué addressed to US intellectuals and civil rights activists, such as Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson and Oliver Stone, asking them to pressure President Bush to back a humanitarian exchange and reiterating that the three American citizens held hostage are alive, Reuters and the Guardian report.
• The UNHCR expressed its concern over the critical situation in Nariño department. According to the UN agency, 800 people were forced to leave their homes last week to escape fighting between armed groups, and have taken refuge in Los Andes. Also, for the third time this year, Awa indigenous communities in two reservations have been trapped in fighting between the army and an irregular armed group, the UNHCR reports.
• Daniel Mejia Angel, alias Danielito, was released from the La Ceja prison, where demobilised paramilitaries are detained, for lack of charges against him. Mejia used to manage the Oficina de Envigado in Medellin, a criminal organisation set up by paramilitary chief Don Berna and financed through extortion and drug trafficking, El Tiempo reports.
• General Jose Leonardo Gallego, former chief of the Medellin Police, was suspended after the Inspector General’s office denounced that he had infringed the International Humanitarian Law during operations in the Comuna 13 neighbourhood in 2002, El Tiempo reports.
• According to the representative in Colombia for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Bruno Moro, the current policy of subsidies for water and sanitation needs to be revised. Subsidies are currently benefiting the rich and preventing the provision of basic services to the poorest sectors of society, Caracol Radio reports.

• The Supreme Court ordered an investigation of a further five politicians from Sucre department, one day after having ordered the arrest of three members of Congress over their alleged ties to a paramilitary group. Congressman Erik Morris and senators Alvaro Garcia and Jairo Merlano, who are all supporters of President Uribe, deny the charges. Garcia is also accused of murder in connection with the Macayepo massacre where 15 peasants were killed, the BBC reports.
• Vicente Castaño, paramilitary chief still at large, was included in the list of the 12 most wanted Colombian drug traffickers, alongside one of the Mejia brothers, alias Los Mellizos. The government also increased to US$5 million the reward offered to anyone who can provide information on Castaño’s whereabouts, Colprensa reports.
• Spain gave Colombia 380,000 euros for a project on the defence of women’s rights. The project is part of the agreement signed by the Municipality of Madrid and the government of Colombia in July 2005, RCN Radio reports.
• Washington Vladimir Angulo, member of the Afro-Colombian organisation Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN), was kidnapped by four armed men in Bogota. The men identified themselves as paramilitaries and threatened to kill Angulo for his involvement in the organisation, PCN reports.

• According to the human rights ombudsman for the Uraba region, Daniel Sistoque, the 14 municipalities of the area are still under the control of paramilitaries, despite their demobilisation. Former members of the Bananero and Elmer Cardenas blocks have been seen walking the streets dressed in paramilitary clothes, Caracol Radio reports.
• Six people were shot to death, including a six-year-old, and six others were injured by a bomb in Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca department), bringing the city’s death toll to 305 this year. The murders were blamed by police on drug traffickers, who have turned Buenaventura into a major shipping point for cocaine, AFP reports.
• Mayors and congressmen criticised the results produced by the National Department of Statistics (DANE), which, according to them, would imply a cut in financial resources destined to local authorities. According to the Colombian Confederation of Municipalities, the actual population numbers are higher than those portrayed in the survey, Caracol Radio reports.

Mon 13 –FTA to be signed in November ; accused politicians cannot be granted J&P benefits

• During a visit to Washington, President Uribe said that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US will be signed on November 22^nd and that the deal will increase Colombia’s exports by 10%. However, it is hard to predict if it will be approved by the American Congress, now that the Democrats, who oppose it unless it contains stricter labour laws, have won the majority, Reuters reports.
• The Interior Minister, Carlos Holguin, said that the three congressmen who are wanted on charges of links to paramilitaries will not be able to benefit from the Justice and Peace Law. In order for them to have benefited from the law, they would have had to demobilise together with the paramilitary group they belonged to, Caracol Radio reports.
• Miguel Angel and Victor Mejia Munera, wanted drug traffickers and paramilitary chiefs, sent a letter to the daily El Tiempo, where they said that they are ready to hand themselves in to the authorities and that they have already been confiscated assets worth 30 billion pesos (c.US$13m). The brothers also denied the accusation that they are taking up arms again in Arauca department, El Tiempo reports.
• More than 2,000 victims have claimed reparation to the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (CNRR)’s section in Antioquia department, 935 of whom are from Medellin. However, the CNRR is not in charge of providing compensation, but can only ensure that the victims make their claim to the appropriate tribunals, El Colombiano reports.

• The corruption scandal in Sucre department widens. Wilmer Ignacio Guerrero, a former police officer, was identified as one of the bosses of the paramilitary group in the region. According to the authorities, Guerrero, alias Luisito, is responsible for 16 murders in Sucre department and for obtaining two tonnes of cocaine that the police had confiscated in 2004, El Tiempo reports.
• Fighting between the army and the FARC has resumed in the Medio Atrato region in Choco department, affecting the communities of Vegaez, Belen and Isleta. The communities are suffering from lack of food and health services, while schools had to be closed due to heavy bombardments. Also, the teacher Jesus Elias Perea Quejada, was killed by the FARC in Belen, the human rights organisation Redher reports.
• 200 members of the indigenous people Nukak Maku were forced to displace again by the FARC, while they were returning to their land after month of displacement in San Jose del Guaviare (Guaviare department). The Nukak Maku, one of the last nomad tribes in the world, have been threatened and displaced by the FARC since 2003 and their cultural survival is now in danger, SNE reports.
• President Uribe said that foreign investment in Colombia has increased substantially in the last few years. According to Uribe, the country is receiving at least US$6 billion a year in investments from foreign companies, El Tiempo reports.
• Oscar de Jesus Chavarria Velasquez, a Liberal Party councillor in Anza (Antioquia department) was kidnapped by an armed group. The town’s mayor said that he was surprised by the event, as Chavarria had not received any threats, Caracol Radio reports.

• Demobilised paramilitary chiefs, detained in La Ceja near Medellin, said that they are willing to tell authorities about their links with politicians. Salvatore Mancuso said that "the time has come for former paramilitaries to tell the whole truth". Congressman Erik Morris handed himself in to the authorities in Bogota, while the senators Jairo Merlano and Alvaro Garcia are still in hiding. Meanwhile, President Uribe was criticised by the opposition for not taking a more openly critical stance on the links between paramilitaries and members of his own coalition, Reuters and Colprensa report.
• More than 2 million residents of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region marched from Pueblo Nuevo to Buritaca, blocking the Troncal del Caribe road for several hours. The demonstrators were protesting against the new paramilitary group Black Eagles, which is creating havoc in the region, Indymedia reports.
• Representatives from the Nasa indigenous people denounced human rights violations by the armed forces in several of their communities in Cauca department. In one of these attacks, the child Fabian Hurtado was killed, El Colombiano reports.
• While visiting her hometown Barranquilla (Atlantico department), the singer Shakira announced that she plans to open a school for nearly 2,000 pupils as part of a programme to educate children displaced by the conflict. The singer’s Fundacion Pies Descalzos has already built five smaller schools in the country, Reuters reports.

• A commission made up of three magistrates produced a report on the seizure of the Palace of Justice by the guerrilla group M-19 in 1985, when 100 people died and 11 were disappeared. The report revealed that the M-19 had been paid by drug trafficker Pablo Escobar to stop the application of the extradition treaty with the US, which was being debated in the Palace. The commission also accused the government of the then-president Belisario Betancur of not taking measures to prevent the massacre, and the armed forces of acting in retaliation against the guerrilla and not protecting the hostages. In relation to the event, the Attorney General’s office ordered the arrest of former colonel Edilberto Sanchez Rubiano, who was head of the 13^th brigade’s intelligence services at the time, the BBC reports.
• Jorge Noguera, former director of the police intelligence services (DAS), was accused by the Inspector General’s office of collaborating with paramilitaries and for failing to act over alterations to the organisation’s database. According to investigators, Noguera held ten meetings with paramilitary leaders in various towns of the Atlantic coast, where he handed in confidential information, El Tiempo reports.
• US Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kohl urged jurors to convict FARC rebel Ricardo Palmera, alias Simon Trinidad, saying that he should be held responsible for a plot to kidnap three Americans. Palmera was extradited to the US in 2004, after he was captured in Ecuador. If convicted, he could face 30 years in prison, the Guardian reports.
• The Court Martial of a group of soldiers who killed six children in Pueblorico (Antioquia department) in 2000 began . The soldiers said that the deaths were due to mistaken identity while they were looking for ELN fighters, El Colombiano reports.
• Three people, including a child, died in Villamoreno (Nariño department) due to heavy floods. Five children were also killed in Medellin (Antioquia department) when a mudslide hit their house, RCN Radio reports.

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