Colombia This Week
19/01/2007
Fri 12 – Colombia establishes military command on border; EU “fails to fill leadership void on human rights”
· Minister of Defence, Juan Manuel Santos, has declared that as soon as Colombia has finished its aerial fumigations of the border region with Ecuador it will establish a military command to ensure that illegal crops are not re-grown. Spraying of the border region is due to finish in the next few days but will continue for another couple of weeks in Nariño department, El Colombiano reports.
· Human rights abuses are getting worse across the world, and no great power is effectively defending them, according to the Human Rights Watch annual report. Writing in the Financial Times, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, faults the EU for failing to fill the "leadership void" on human rights. "As a collection of democracies founded on respect for the rule of law and the rights of the individual, the EU should be a natural human rights leader," he says. "Yet the sad truth is that the EU is punching well below its weight." The report, which focuses on the Bush administration's alleged use of torture and arbitrary detention, says the US's credibility as a human rights champion "has been tarnished by the abuses it practises in the name of fighting terrorism", the Financial Times reports.
Sat 13 – Colombia learns from International peace processes; Jamundi massacre trial amidst killings and disappearances
· International experiences of peace processes in El Salvador, Guatemala, South Africa, the Southern cone of South America are helping the Government and Reparation Commission take decisions on how to proceed with the demobilisation process. A Salvadorian advisor to the Commission declared that “there has been a good dose of truth, a bit of reparation and hardly any justice” and highlighted two lessons from El Salvador: greater involvement of victims and the need to commit the State, rather than Governments, to make amends .In both El Salvador and Guatemala there have been only isolated judicial proceedings against those responsible, El Tiempo reports.
· The high profile trial of the soldiers accused of massacring ten policemen and a civilian in Jamundí, Valle department, in May 2006 appears to be confirming an old saying “the only certainty is that there is no certainty” as it takes place in an atmosphere of killings, disappearances, threats, surveillance of state investigators and retractions of witnesses, Semana reports.
· The new chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, is a geologist who joined BP in 1982 and whose career has spanned some of the most critical operations at BP, including stints in Colombia and Venezuela in the 1990s, the Financial Times reports.
Sun 14 – New neighbours a challenge for Uribe
· Colombia’s new neighbours pose a challenge to President Uribe’s foreign policy with some analysts saying that Uribe is isolated due to his position as the strongest ally of the US in Latin America and because his closest neighbours have a very different vision of the role of the State in managing the economy. Other analysts believe the opposite, citing his affinity to leaders who defend the free market such as Bush and Calderon of Mexico as well as (to a point),Michele Bachelet of Chile and Luis Ignacio de Silva of Brazil who are socialist but defend the free market. El Tiempo reports.
Mon 15 – Paramilitary pressure on voters; Authorities discuss killings of demobilised in Uraba
· Demobilised paramilitary leader, Salvatore Mancuso, has testified that paramilitaries pressured voters to elect the groups preferred candidates in 1998. In the first round they supported Horacio Serpa and in the second round they supported Andres Pastrana, who won the presidency. El Tiempo reports.
· The Governor’s Office of Antioquia has convened a “security council” in Carepa, Uraba, to analyse the recent killings of at least four demobilised paramilitary soldiers belonging to the AUC’s Bloque Bananero. The armed forces and Attorney General’s Office will participate in the meeting. The Human Rights Ombudsman, Daniel Sastoque, was forced to leave the region after claiming that paramilitary structures remained intact despite the demobilisation of the Bloque Bananero and Bloque Elmer Cardenas that operated in the region, El Colombiano reports.
· The civilian and military penal codes should reflect the agreements and protocols signed by the State in order to defend the civilian population, respect International Humanitarian Law, and guarantee the humanisation of armed conflicts according to the Inspector General’s Office, which requested that the Constitutional Court declare against laws 599 of 2000 and 522 of 1999 in relation to crimes against people and property protected by IHL. El Colombiano reports.
Tues 16 – Drugs baron arrest follows UK support to police; MAPP OEA to continue in Colombia
· Policemen from the Grupo Alianzas Operacionales (Graos) of the DIJIN, which receives UK support, have arrested Eugenio Montoya, the brother and right-hand man of “Don Diego”, head of the Northern Valle drugs cartel, after an operation in which his twelve bodyguards abandoned him and fled following a shoot out. Montoya is one of the twelve most wanted drugs barons in the US. El Tiempo reports.
· President Uribe and the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States yesterday signed an agreement that guarantees the presence of the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP-OEA) in Colombia. The MAPP-OEA verifies compliance with the agreements between the Government and AUC but could also verify such agreements if reached with the guerrilla, El Colombiano reports.
Weds 17 – Mancuso admits participation in killings and massacres; Testimonies should be public
· In his testimony to investigators, former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso has admitted to participating in at least 55 killings and six massacres. Mancuso also testified that he gave at least one thousand million pesos (c.USD400,000) monthly to authorities in the Catatumbo region in return for their support of the AUC, and reiterated that there was always a close relationship with the security forces. In the high profile case of murdered indigenous leader Kimmy Perni (whose daughter watched the hearing), Mancuso admitted digging up his remains and throwing them into a river shortly before the Attorney General’s Office arrived to carry out an exhumation. El Tiempo reports.
· The Constitutional Court and the InterAmerican Court stated that the Colombian Government and Attorney General’s Office should make the testimonies of former paramilitary leaders public in their entirety as they involve crimes against humanity affecting all of society. Whilst organisations challenge the decision to hear the cases in private, pressure from Victims’ organisations has resulted in some people now being able to witness the declarations through closed circuit cameras. El Tiempo reports.
· Colombian authorities said they had unearthed more than US$54 million in cash and gold ingots in four houses in what they called the country's largest haul of illicit drug money. Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters the money and gold were hoarded by Juan Carlos "Lollipop" Ramirez, one of the nation's 12 most wanted drug traffickers. The United States wants Ramirez extradited so he can face drug charges. Judicial police commander Gen. Oscar Naranjo said traffickers used one of the houses to store cash to pay for operations while others were protected in a "federal reserve" for long-term storage, Reuters reports.
Thurs 18 – Mancuso testimony fails to satisfy victims; Nestle attacked by FARC
· The testimony that former paramilitary leader, Salvatore Mancuso, is currently giving to the Justice and Peace Unit of the Attorney General’s Office is failing to satisfy victims as well as those that he says benefited from the armed group. Victims believe that Mancuso is failing to tell the truth about the fate of relatives, that he is only admitting involvement in cases that have already been investigated and that he is only implicating paramilitary and army personnel that are dead. On the other hand President Uribe and former presidential candidate, Horacio Serpa, denied benefiting from AUC actions after Mancuso’s claims that paramilitaries ordered people to vote for them, El Colombiano reports.
· A truck carrying 660 pounds of explosives destroyed a dairy plant owned by Swiss food giant Nestle SA in Caqueta. The attack, attributed to the FARC, was the second this week against a Nestle facility in the department, and appears to be part of an offensive directed against Nestle. On Monday, two cold-storage tanks owned by a Nestle supplier outside the town of San Vicente de Caguan were blown up in an attack also attributed to the FARC. The plant was one of six operated by the Swiss multinational in Caqueta, Associated Press reports.
· Pablo Hernan Sierra Garcia (alias “Alberto Guerrero”), leader of the Cacique Pipinta paramilitary bloc, that continues to operate in various areas of Antioquia and Caldas departments has been captured by the police. When presented before the press he congratulated the police chief for his arrest but said the war in Colombia continues, 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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