Colombia This Week

10/05/2007

Fri 04 – ERP group dismantled, Uribe says; US reports $1 bn in Colombian drug assets blocked.

·        According to the Colombian government the last 18 members of the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP) handed over their arms, completing the demobilisation of this group. The events happened as another 30 members of the group, a dissidence of the ELN and active since 1990, demobilised a week before. The group has been present in the South Bolivar department and the Montes de Maria region of Bolivar department, and has been accused by the authorities for most of the extortions and kidnappings in the area, Colprensa reports.

·         A 12-year American effort to financially squeeze Colombian drug lords has led to more than $1 billion worth of assets and companies being seized, frozen, or put out of business, the U.S Treasury says.  In a report on economic sanctions against Colombian drug cartels, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the program has significantly disrupted the cartels' financial operations, imposing sanctions on 527 companies and 815 individuals placed on its list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers. These individuals and firms are central to the ownership or management of 21 Colombian drug cartel leaders' business empires, including Colombia's largest drugstore chain, Drogas La Rebaja, a supermarket chain, pharmaceutical laboratories, airlines, a medical clinic, hotels, restaurant service companies, radio stations, sports teams, communications, construction and real estate firms, Reuters reports.

·         The FARC have released four local geologists who were kidnapped more than six weeks ago while prospecting for gold in a remote jungle region, the Red Cross reports. The four were among nine workers taken on March 13 from a camp in the poor, banana-growing region of Choco by this armed group. "In a rural area in north-western Antioquia province, the FARC-EP handed over four more geologists," the relief organisation said in a statement. Four of the nine were released after two weeks in captivity, leaving one man still to be freed, El Colombiano reports.

Sat 05 – Trade Unionist killed in Sucre; 211 bodies founded in mass graves in Putumayo.

·         The National Federation of Agricultural Farming Unions (FENSUAGRO) reports the killing of Luis Miguel Gomez Porto, a communal leader and representative of FENSUAGRO from the Montes de Maria region. He was killed while travelling in the rural area of the municipality of Ovejas when a unit of the Colombia’s Army was carrying out operations in the area. The Colombian Navy’s infantry presented the body dressed up in army fatigues and three grenades hours after they stopped the relatives of the leader gaining access to his body, adducing the area was mined. Fensuagro calls for the judicial authorities to investigate the case, denouncing the Navy for presenting murdered peasants and social leaders as if they were members of guerrilla groups.

·         Forensic teams have unearthed 211 bodies buried in dozens of mass graves in Putumayo in the past 10 months, a legacy of fierce fighting in this coca-rich land. Attorney General Mario Iguaran told a news conference that investigators exhumed 105 bodies on Friday alone near La Hormiga, in the department of Putumayo. Most of the victims, who investigators believe were killed between 1999 and 2001, had been dismembered before burial. Iguaran said that based on information from local residents, authorities suspect both the paramilitaries and the rebels were responsible for the killings. Investigators have been digging for the mass graves in the area since August of last year and forensic teams have found hundreds more shallow graves in recent months, as demobilized paramilitaries confess their crimes as part of a peace deal with the government. Iguaran's office estimates 10,000 murdered Colombians lie in unmarked graves across the country, now in its fifth decade of civil conflict, Associated Press reports.

Sun 06 – Press reports on divided opinion over Uribe in the US; peace community wins prize.

·         An editorial in the Washington Post defended Uribe’s record in office, praising his approval rating of 80.4 percent among the Colombians and criticizing the US Democrats for the treatment the president received in Washington last week. After a meeting with the Democratic congressional leadership, Uribe was publicly scolded by House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi whose statement made no mention of the approval of the TLC and criticised, instead, the government’s poor human rights record. ‘Now that the Bush administration has conceded almost everything that House Democrats asked for in order to pass pending trade deals, protectionist hard-liners have seized on the supposed human rights "crisis" as a pretext to blackball Colombia’, the editorial writer argued.

·         The Peace community of San Jose de Apartado has won the Peace Prize of Aachen in Germany. The prize, awarded by a platform of political parties, trade unions and social movements highlighted the effort of the members of this community in providing support and shelter to people under threat as a result of the conflict, El Tiempo reports.

Mon 07 – Army officers accused of killing peasant; indigenous targeted by FARC’s violence.

·         The Human Rights Unit of the Attorney General’s Office has charged three members of the Battalion Baje of the Army’s 4th Brigade, based in Medellin, for the illegal detention and killing of Jose Maria Valencia Morales in El Peñol (Antioquia) in April 2004. According to the report, soldiers Ortiz Suaza and Cuervo Rodriguez acknowledged they retained and killed the peasant in order to obtain a ‘positive’ and a few days leave. El Espectador reports.

·         A statement by the National Indigenous Organisation (ONIC) denounced the death of five members of the Awa community in Ricaurte (Nariño) in the last two weeks as result of the violence. Two members were killed by the FARC while another three died when they were trapped in a minefield near their settlements, El Colombiano reports

·         Colombia announced new measures to slow inflation and the surging peso with new restrictions on banks designed to put the brakes on credit growth and the flow of short-term, speculative capital. On Sunday the central bank said it would impose a reserve requirement in an effort to keep inflation within the 3.5 to 4.5 percent target range for this year and slow the appreciation of the peso, which has strengthened more than 12 percent over the last year. "This seeks to moderate growth of credit and in that way reduce growth of spending with the purpose of contributing to guide inflation toward targets set by the central bank," the bank's director, Jose Dario Uribe, Reuters reports.

Tues 08 –Colombia seeks more help from Europe and threatens to re-think relationship with USA. 

·         Speaking in Madrid, where he is attending an international drug-fighting summit, Defence minister Juan Manuel Santos called for Europe to give a greater commitment to help his country combat the illegal drug trade. Colombia may lose it's aid funding from the US Congress, which has been concerned over the current revelations of links between supporters of President Uribe and paramilitary groups, Financial Times reports.

·         Colombia might have to re-evaluate its close relationship with the United States if Congress fails to ratify a free-trade agreement, Vice President Francisco Santos says. Santos, in an interview with RCN television, warned that failure to ratify the deal would "send a message to the eternal enemies of the United States that ... this is how America treats its allies." In an uncharacteristically sharp tone, Santos said Colombia "might need to re-evaluate its relationship with the United States" if the trade pact is jettisoned, El Tiempo reports.

·         Two army officials have been detained near Senator Petro’s home in Tenjo (Cundinamarca) while they were reportedly carrying out counter-intelligence activities. The detained soldiers could not explain the reason for their presence, and initially identified themselves as members of the Colombian secret service (DAS) but later the army rectified and apologised. This is the third incident in the last two weeks involving the security of the Senator, since he conducted a parliamentary debate on the Paramilitarism in Antioquia, El Tiempo reports.

·         While visiting Colombia as part of a regional tour, the US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte visited an IOM project near Bogota which focuses on the economic reintegration of ex-combatants. The project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is part of a demobilization and reintegration program that started in mid 2006 within the framework of a peace process between the Colombian government and illegal armed groups and is aimed at strengthening institutions critical to the successful reintegration of ex-combatants, Relief web reports.

Weds 09 – 8 policeman killed in explosion in Santander; UN says coca plantation down.

·         Eight police officers were killed when a roadside bomb planted by FARC rebels destroyed their passing truck, a police spokesman said. The heavily armed police unit was supporting a team eradicating coca bushes, near Landazuri, (Santander). Police said the FARC planted the bomb. Seven other officers were injured; all were members of a mobile unit operating out of the city of Bucaramanga, Associated Press reports.

·         The amount of Colombian land devoted to growing coca fell by nearly 10 percent last year of record eradication attempts, the United Nations estimates. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime calculated Colombia had 190,300 acres of coca plantations in 2006, or 300 square miles, down from 212,500 acres the previous year, a source familiar with the data said. The source requested anonymity because the figures will not be officially released until June. Last year, Colombia's drug police, with U.S. backing, used planes to fumigate 424,000 acres of coca and opium poppies, and manually eradicated an additional 42,100 acres of coca. In 2005, authorities fumigated almost 345,900 acres, Reuters reports.

·         Colombia's upper house voted to approve a reform law to the system of transferring funds to local governments, one of the key aspects of the restructuring that Wall Street is watching as the country seeks to regain its investment grade rating. The project must still pass two more legislative hurdles in the lower house to be approved before congressional sessions end in June. Thursday's approval by the Senate was the sixth for the transfer bill. Local mayors and governors are lobbying Congress against the proposed constitutional amendment, which would limit central government cash payments to a top increase of 5 percent a year plus inflation. Without approval of the bill, the Colombian constitution says the government must transfer nearly half of tax revenue increases to local towns and provinces, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Thurs 10- Roadside bomb kills 10 soldiers; Spanish government to help in peace dialogues.

·         A roadside bomb reportedly planted by FARC rebels killed 10 soldiers as they patrolled between Tulua and Andalucia, in Valle del Cauca department, in what authorities said was the deadliest attack on the security forces this year. A similar attack killed nine police officers the day before. "We know this is the FARC because it fits their modus operandi, and historically they have operated in this zone," said the commander of the army's 3rd Division, Gen. Hernando Perez Molina. The bombing occurred in the department of Valle de Cauca, home to some of Colombia's largest drug traffickers, as well as leftist rebels and far-right death squads. Both the security forces and the rebels have increased their presence in the zone in the past year, BBC reports.

·         The latest report of the International Crisis Group on the emerging armed groups in Colombia states that the government has downplayed the new groups as merely criminal gangs and left law enforcement to deal with them, but security forces demonstrate poor cooperation and low commitment when dealing with the new groups. The report also highlights that the justice institutions’ on-going investigations into links between paramilitary leaders and Uribe appointees and congressional allies are hamstrung by lack of resources and cooperation. The investigations form a core part of the effort to achieve some accountability for past atrocities and to trace links between the old and new groups. While not yet with the reach and power of the old AUC, the new groups are spreading across the country, with at least 3,000 active members.

·         The Spanish Secretary of State for Latin America, Trinidad Jimenez is visiting Colombia this week. In an interview with Caracol radio she announced the Spanish government’s intentions to sign a strategic partnership with this country to strength commercial links and investment. Spain is accompanying the Colombian government in the peace talks with the ELN, and is offering help facilitating a humanitarian exchange of prisoners with the FARC, Cacarol radio reports.

Top