Colombia This Week

30/03/2007

Fri 23 – Drummond denies paramilitary links; UN-PMA warns on fraud and forgery.

• The US-based mining company Drummond denied any relationship with Colombian paramilitaries. At a news conference, Jose Miguel Linares, a local Drummond vice president, acknowledged that one of its directors, Alfredo Araujo, is a cousin of Sen. Alvaro Araujo, who was jailed last month on charges of working with the paramilitaries to kidnap a political rival. Drummond appears to have been shaken by accusations by a former paramilitary collaborator, Rafael Garcia, a key witness in the unfolding scandal. Garcia says he was present when the president of Drummond Colombia, Augusto Jimenez, handed over "a suitcase full of money" in 2001 to a representative of regional paramilitary warlord Rodrigo Tovar Pupo. "According to what I heard, Mr. Jimenez indicated at this meeting that this money was to be given to Rodrigo Tovar Pupo to assassinate specific union leaders at Drummond," Garcia said in a deposition to the lawyers of the three murdered union leaders. He said that the union members subsequently killed were the same as those mentioned in the meeting, Associated Press reports.
• The UN’s World Food Programme in Colombia reports that about 20 organisations and NGOs in the Atlantic coast, some of them belonging to non-Catholic Christian churches working, have recently received visits by individuals supposedly members of this UN agency, offering aid in exchange for money. According to the reports they promise humanitarian projects and aid in exchange of some up-front money. The scam has been reported particularly in La Guajira department and has been reportedly investigated by the authorities, Reliefweb reports.
• Colombia’s Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington. He was lobbying for continued US support of the multi-million program to combat coca growing and drug trafficking in Colombia, the Washington Post reports.

Sat 24 – Noguera freed on procedural grounds; Itagui jail increasingly looks like the Cathedral.

• Jorge Noguera, Colombia’s former intelligence chief (DAS), has been freed from jail after a judge ruled his imprisonment for alleged links to paramilitary militias was illegal on procedural grounds. Judge Leonor Perdomo ruled that the ex-spy chief was “illegally and unconstitutionally being deprived of his freedom” because chief prosecutor Mario Iguaran “had not personally issued the request that Noguera be jailed”. Iguaran said he was in "total disagreement" with the judge's decision: "I don't think Colombia or the international community can tolerate the message that conspiring with criminals has any relation to one's functions as a public servant," Iguaran said. Uribe had been a stalwart defender of Noguera before the ex-spy chief's arrest, the Washington Post reports.
• An article in SEMANA magazine reports how the high-security jail in Itagui (Medellin), where most of the paramilitary commanders from the Self-Defence forces of Colombia (AUC) are jailed, increasingly looks like the infamous “Cathedral” jail where drug king-pin Pablo Escobar spent his days celebrating bacchanals. Functionaries from the jail responsible for security acknowledged their worries about what might happen because these privileges have been authorised by “a high ranking official in the government”. According to reports they have their own chef, receive as many visitors as they want and maintain unlimited communications by telephone and internet, SEMANA reports.
• Colombia’s Gross Domestic Product surged 6.8 per cent in 2006 compared with 2005, and by 7.97 per cent if estimated production of illegal crops is included. "The important thing now is to maintain the rhythm and high levels of investment the country has already begun to experience," President Uribe said to journalists. But the huge inflow of dollars has also swelled the value of the country's peso, currently trading at a six-year high, and contributed to inflation of 4.48 percent last year. Since 2003, the peso has appreciated more than 30 percent against the dollar, dragging down major exports, Associated Press reports.

Sun 25 – General Montoya linked with paramilitaries and drug traffickers in Medellin.

• The CIA has obtained intelligence that the head of Colombia's Army, General Mario Montoya collaborated extensively with paramilitary militias that the United States considers terrorist organizations, including a paramilitary group headed by one of the country's leading drug traffickers. The intelligence about Montoya is contained in a report recently circulated within the CIA. It says that Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and conducted a military operation in 2002 to eliminate Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin, a city that has been a centre of the drug trade. At least 14 people were killed during the operation, and opponents of Uribe charge that dozens more disappeared in its aftermath. The intelligence report, seen by the Los Angeles Times, includes information from another Western intelligence service and indicates that U.S. officials have received similar reports from other reliable sources, Los Angeles Times reports.
• Authorities report they have seized 6.5 tones of cocaine worth US$150 million in Choco, the poorest Department in the country, where cocaine traffickers battle over lucrative drug smuggling routes, often displacing entire villages, Caracol radio reports.

Mon 26 – FARC: US can help with hostage talks; Uribe rejects allegations against Gen. Montoya

• The FARC reports they have accepted an offer from US politicians to witness negotiations to free 61 hostages, including three Americans who they have held for years in secret jungle camps. Seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to Colombia this month offering to accompany any future negotiations with the FARC. "In terms of a prisoner exchange, progressive people and friends of peace from the United States can contribute to a solution to this part of the Colombian conflict," FARC spokesman Raul Reyes told Noticias Uno television. "We are certainly ready to receive the seven Democratic members of Congress in the demilitarized zone," Reyes said. The offer to assist in any talks is led by Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, who met with families of kidnap victims in Colombia this month, CNN reports.
• President Uribe rejected allegations Top of FormBottom of Formthat his army chief collaborated extensively with paramilitaries. In a statement, Uribe said the "Colombian government rejects the accusations made by foreign intelligence agencies" against Montoya "through press leaks without any evidence having previously been presented to Colombia's government or justice system." The document also contains a comment from the defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Col. Rey A. Velez, who said information in the report dovetailed with additional, unspecified information on Montoya "provided by a proven source." That intelligence, Velez said, may work its way up the military chain of command to also implicate the head of Colombia's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Fredy Padilla, who commanded troops in Colombia's Caribbean coast at the same time Operation Orion took place in Medellin, the news agency reports.

Tues 27- UN: rights groups face risk in Nariño;  despite poverty down, countryside still poorest.

• Thirteen human-rights groups and NGOs in southern Colombia received death threats from a growing illegal armed group called “the New Generation”, U.N. officials said. The work  of the human-rights groups "is indispensable for the preservation and development of the Rule of Law," the Colombian office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement. "The office wishes to reiterate the importance of the work of human rights defenders in Colombia," it added, noting the latest threats follow an earlier series made in February, May and June last year. The statement referred to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour's most recent report on Colombia earlier this month in which she stated Colombia has the responsibility to act preventively against risk factors that threaten the life, safety and work of human-rights defenders, the statement says.
• Helped by strong economic expansion, the percentage of poor Colombians fell to 45 per cent in June 2006 from 56 percent in 2002, said Colombia's Planning Department. A family of four is considered poor in Colombia if it lives on less than $450 a month.  Rural poverty fell but remains above 62 percent, the report says. This is a concern for Colombians who have been riveted by a television news series and newspaper articles this week about malnutrition afflicting indigenous children in the department of Choco. News programs have been filled with images of emaciated children in Choco, Reuters reports.
• In a letter sent to the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office, around three thousand peasants displaced from the rural area of the municipality of La Dorada (Putumayo) urged the authorities to attend to their food demands in the face of the emergency caused by the fumigation of their coca crops that also affected other crops. The letter denies the involvement of any armed group in their mobilization and calls for the Colombian authorities to provide a new development plan for the region based on the gradual and manual substitution of coca crops in the area, the mayoral office from San Miguel in Putumayo reports.  

Weds 28 – Eight soldiers killed in combat; General’s visit to Comuna 13 increases suspicions.

• Eight soldiers have been killed in two separate incidents across the country. Six soldiers were killed and two more injured in Mapiripan (Meta) when the 44^th front of the FARC attacked the municipality. Another two soldiers were killed in the municipality of Barbacoas (Nariño) when an army patrol entered a minefield. Two more soldiers were injured in the incident, El Nuevo Siglo reports. 
• The Chief of the Colombian Army, General Montoya visited the Comuna 13 in Medellin. The visit has generated more questions than support in the Colombian press as the people mobilised to attend the event told the media they didn’t know why they were there. Soldiers from the Colombian army were seen advertising the event and welcoming the people hours before, and the buses used to transport them from other areas of the city belong to La Bellanita de Transportes, a local bus company that it is known to be under the control of Don Berna, -Diego Fernando Murillo- the paramilitary commander jailed in Itagui, who is wanted  in extradition fby the US on drug charges, El Tiempo reports.
• Church officials from the Diocese of Quibdo (Choco) reported that 37 children from indigenous and afro-Colombian communities living along the Domingodo, tributary of the Atrato river have died in the last two months as a result of famine, malnnutrition and preventable diseases. Officials also warned of a humanitarian crisis in areas without hospitals or clean water. "It is enormously worrying," said Volmar Perez, Colombia's Human Rights Ombudsman, Caracol radio reports.
• In an interview published in the Brazilian magazine Istoe, the FARC’s spokesperson Raul Reyes said that the armed group expects recognition from the governments of Brazil and Venezuela, El Tiempo reports.

Thurs 29 – ICRC steps up aid and protection in Colombia’s armed conflict. 

• In its annual report on Colombia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described how thousands of people have to deal with the devastating effects of conflict on their daily lives. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes, many leaving all their possessions behind. The report provides an overview of the continuing violations of International Humanitarian Law in Colombia, which have resulted in displacement, disappearances, attacks against the non-combattant population and the kidnapping of thousands of civilians. Attacks against medical personnel continue, obstructing access to basic health care in conflict areas where there have also been deaths or injuries caused by anti-personnel mines. In response to the huge scale of human suffering, the ICRC is increasing its budget by 15% for 2007, making Colombia one of the organization's biggest operations, the ICRC website reports.

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