Colombia This Week

15/06/2007

Fri 08 – Politicians investigated for para-politics; US Congress urge Colombia FTA vote delay.

• The Colombian Supreme Court has opened an investigation against Musa Besaile Fayad, a Colombian Congressmen from Monteria, (Cordoba department), and supporter of President Uribe in Congress. According to the reports the Court has received information that Musa Besaile maintained frequent meetings with paramilitary commanders in this northern region, Caracol radio reports.
• The US Congress should delay voting on the proposed  Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia until President Alvaro Uribe proves he is serious about reducing violence and jailing murderers of trade unionists, congressional opponents of the deal reports. The demand came as Uribe was making his second visit to Washington in five weeks to lobby for approval of the pact and reassure Democrats who want to redirect and reduce U.S. anti-drug and military aid Colombia relies on to fight guerrillas and cocaine. "Mr. Uribe has come back to Washington too soon. Come back next year, Mr. Uribe, and let's see what has actually been accomplished," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who joined other lawmakers, human rights and labour groups at a news conference to protest the proposed pact. Colombia should be required to show progress in reducing violence and bringing murderers to justice "over at least a two-year period" before U.S. lawmakers vote on the pact, said Rep. Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat, Reuters reports.
• President Uribe welcomes the G8 declaration of support for his initiative to free hostages held by the FARC group. Uribe's move to free FARC member Rodrigo Granda and around 150 others has fuelled hopes among families that a deal could be close with the FARC to swap jailed guerrillas for kidnap victims held for years. But in Bogota, Granda warned that a hostage deal was still far off because the FARC leadership had yet to approve his role as negotiator and he had not reached any accord with the Colombian or French governments. "I am not going to create a miracle. I ask the relatives, the mothers of those held by the FARC, not to deceive themselves and to have patience," Granda told reporters before flashing a victory sign and shouting "long live the FARC." Granda, who is known as the FARC's "foreign minister," said he did not know why Sarkozy had asked Uribe to free him. He is staying at the Roman Catholic Curia in Bogota while the details of his possible role are decided, El Espectador reports.

Sat 09 – UN urges Colombian government to protect reporter; FARC commander killed by Army.

• Colombia must do more to protect a reporter working for El Nuevo Herald newspaper after he received threats. A statement from the President of theThe U.N. High Commission for Human Rights said Gonzalo Guillen had been intimidated by paramilitaries. It provided no details, but Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the government that Guillen, a Colombian citizen, had been tipped off that militia gunmen were looking to murder him in Bogota. The UN Commission noted "We are aware of the measures adopted by the authorities in this case and we are confident those measures will be reinforced to protect Gonzalo Guillen's life and free exercise of journalism,". Humberto Castello, executive editor of El Nuevo Herald, said several editors at the Miami-based newspaper had received an anonymous e-mail saying Guillen was in danger because paramilitaries were conspiring with Bogota police officers against him, Reuters reports.
• The Commander of the Army’s third Brigade, Gen. Leonardo Gomez announced the death in combat of FARC commander Luis Vanegas. According to the reports Vanegas, a medical doctor for 20 years within the structure of this armed group, was also a member of the Bolivarian Movement in charge of recruiting new members at Universities and schools. He was reportedly killed in El Retiro settlement, a rural area in the municipality of Buga (Valle), Agency France press reports.

Sun 10 – Drunken soldiers kill six civilians in Caqueta; two police killed in Antioquia by FARC.

• Two drunken soldiers shot and killed six civilians, including a nine-year old boy in a school in San Vicente del Caguan. The two men were captured by other soldiers shortly after the killings, said Gen. Gustavo Matamoros, commander of the army's fifth division. After arguing with guests, the soldiers opened fire killing three people. The soldiers then ran to a nearby store, where they killed a nine-year old boy and two other adults. Matamoros offered no motive for the killings, Associated Press reports.
• Confrontations between a police patrol and the 34^th front of the FARC  resulted in the deaths of two policemen and four more injured. The clashes took place in the road between the municipalities of Caicedo and Santa Fe de Antioquia, El Tiempo reports.
• A suspected Syrian weapons dealer accused of arming militants from Iraq to Nicaragua for decades has been arrested in Spain on U.S. charges of trying to supply Colombian rebels, Reuters reports.
• Newly appointed Director of the National Police, Gen. Oscar Naranjo stated that the kidnapping of three policemen by the FARC on the road between Florencia and Cartagena del Chaira this week was ‘pure luck’ and not the result of intelligence.. According to the official report, the officials were travelling on public transport when they were identified by the FARC in a roadblock, Caracol radio reports.  
• In a sign of the increased scrutiny Colombia faces in the United States, a House appropriations subcommittee proposed cutting its 2008 aid budget by 10 percent to $530 million. The panel trimmed the military and drugs component of the package from 76 to 55 percent, and bumped up the social and development part to 45 from 24 percent, Reuters reports.

Mon 11 – Colombia ordered to pay millions in massacre case; Uribe in need of friends abroad.

• In a ruling hailed as a landmark by human rights advocates, the Colombian government has been ordered to pay damages over a 1989 massacre of state investigators by paramilitaries. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered more than US $5 m in damages be paid to relatives of 12 investigators killed in the hamlet of La Rochela. The decision, which cannot be appealed, marks the first time the state has been found guilty of involvement in the murder of its own agents. "The ruling shows that the state not only lacked the will to confront the paramilitaries, but that some officials colluded with them against the government's own investigators," said Michael Camilleri, who worked on the case for the Centre for Justice and International Law in Washington, Reuters reports.
• According to The Economist, Colombians are ‘baffled’ at the liberation of nearly 200 FARC prisoners including Rodrigo Granda, one of its leaders. The explanation for Mr. Uribe’s behaviour lies in his desperate need for friends abroad. Though he has made Colombia safer, the US Democrats that control the Congress criticise his government’s human rights record. Mr. Uribe’s opponents say the prisoner release is to pave the way for a controversial proposal to free a dozen pro-government legislators jailed on suspicion of links with paramilitary commanders.

Tues 12 – 56 people killed by heavy flooding; calls to investigate Uribe for political interference.

• Colombia is sending emergency funds to regions of the country hit by heavy flooding that has left at least 56 people dead in the past few weeks. President Uribe described the floods as "a tragedy" and promised more efficient government action. Some 270,000 people have had their homes or businesses wrecked or damaged since the rainy season began in March. One town, Nechi in Antioquia department, has been almost completely flooded. The heavy rains have affected large parts of the country, with the north particularly badly hit, the BBC reports.
• The General Procuracutor (Procurador) Edgardo Maya calls the Colombian Congress to investigate the participation of President Uribe in politics. During the presidential elections President Uribe phoned in to the national convention of the political party Radical Change live on a TV programme made by an institutional TV channel. Since the Colombian Constitution was approved in 1991, all functionaries have been barred from participating in politics while in office, Caracol radio reports.
• A letter sent to the Guardian’s editor in response for to the Inside Colombia supplement published on Friday by this British newspaper argues that “for the excluded majority, the landscape in Colombia has barely changed under President Uribe, only the degree of hypocrisy. “There is supposed to be demobilisation of the rightwing paramilitaries, but last Tuesday the judiciary denied human rights victims any role in investigating the hundreds of crimes committed by the AUC”, adding that “if trade unionists can now organise, why is it that last Wednesday armed thugs attacked the home of union leader Ernando Melan Cardona, shooting one son dead and wounding his partner and another son? Melan works for Coltejer, part of the Antioqueño group of businesses, featured in your supplement as some of "Colombia's finest prominent players", The Guardian reports.

Weds 13 – Attorney general re-opens army cases; FARC denies any deal with France on Granda.

• The Attorney general’s office has re-opened 131 disciplinary investigations of killings of civilians presented as deaths of leftist rebels in action. Most of these were shelved after internal investigations went no farther than gathering testimony from troops involved. The largest concentration of killings reported to the U.N. involves army units in the state of Antioquia and along the Caribbean coast. The areas were directly under General Montoya's command for five years before he was promoted in February 2006 to be Commander of the Colombian Armed forces. The prosecutor's office is still tallying the number of deaths and officers implicated, but in almost every case it identified three common elements: victims appeared to be falsely presented as leftist rebels killed in combat, crime-scene evidence was tampered with, and the military's criminal justice system made only a cursory investigation. The reopened cases included multiple killings, with victims ranging from teenagers to a 75-year-old farmer shot at rural roadblocks, in slums and in other places far from the jungle battlefields where the army and rebels were directly confronting each other, Associated Press reports.
• The FARC made no deal with French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the release of Rodrigo Granda, said Raul Reyes, spokesman for the FARC group. He has also said the decision to release Granda from jail was taken by the government and that he made no deal. Reyes said the 150 rebels unilaterally released by the government last week had made their own deals with the government, while "comrade Granda never accepted any of the government's demands." Reyes, however, welcomed Sarkozy's "intervention before the Uribe government asking for Granda's unilateral release," but reiterated the FARC's longstanding demand for a demilitarized zone before discussing any prisoner exchange with the government. "Without the demilitarization of Florida and Pradera (municipalities), the FARC cannot accept any meeting with representatives of the present government’, Agency France Press reports.

• The Colombian Ambassador in France Fernando Cepeda has reported to the press his surprise for the latest decisions made by President Uribe and his government, among them the liberation of FARC member Rodrigo Granda, acknowledging he had been neither informed nor consulted on such an important decision that affects the relations between the two countries, El Nuevo Siglo reports.

Thurs 14 – Government and ELN resume talks; Supreme Court approve extradition of AUC chiefs

• The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) are due to resume peace talks in Havana this week. According to an ELN spokesperson, the goal of this new round of conversations will be to present an agreement on the agenda of the peace talks, a cease fire, and the end of hostilities before the end of the month, El Tiempo reports.
• The Colombian Supreme Court emitted a statement approving the extradition to the US of paramilitary commander Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, (alias Jorge 40). Jorge 40, at present jailed in Itagui (Medellin) has been requested by the US authorities for drug trafficking and money laundering. The Supreme Court recently emitted similar statements approving the extradition requests to paramilitary commanders Gordolindo and Cuco Vanoy. Using discretional powers the Colombian Interior minister has suspended the orders on condition those wanted in extradition continue participating in negotiations with the Colombian government, Caracol radio reports.
• Colombian business leaders met with aides on Capitol Hill with U.S. union leaders and human rights advocates as they try to turn around a debate on the U.S.-Colombian pact which has focused largely on Colombia's record on crimes directed at unionists.The groups are lobbying for quick passage of the bilateral deal even as some in the Democratic-controlled Congress complain President Uribe hasn't done enough to stem violence. They also want to see an interim extension to existing trade preferences for Colombia. "There is a lot of risk now to lose business ... the situation is very complicated and we have two weeks until (the trade preferences) expire," said Carlos Botero, an clothing sector executive with Colombia's National Business Association, Washington Post reports.
• Colombian lawmakers protested the irregularities in which a fellow Congressmen has been suspended by this corporation. Caballero, supporter of President Uribe and one of the nine Congressmen whose detention was ordered by the Supreme Court as part of the para-politics scandal, resigned as a Congressman. Caballero has been a fugitive from the Colombian authorities for more than two months, El Espectador reports.

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