Colombia Tis Week

13/07/2007

Fri 06 – Former DAS boss Noguera back to prison; victims mobilise over Jorge 40’s ‘confession’.

• Colombia's former chief of secret police (DAS) has been arrested on charges of colluding with paramilitary death squads. Jorge Noguera had been freed from jail three months ago due to procedural errors. This time, the arrest was requested by Colombia's chief prosecutor, Mario Iguaran, who ordered Noguera held in a maximum security jail on accusations of working with, and passing information to, paramilitaries. Noguera was director of the DAS, from 2002 to 2005. He was hand-picked for the job by President Uribe after running Uribe's 2002 election campaign in Santander department. The scandal linking Colombia's political class to paramilitaries responsible for some of the nation's worst atrocities also has landed 12 Uribe-aligned congressmen behind bars. Noguera is Uribe's closest ally to have been implicated, The International Herald Tribune reports.
• Eight men dressed in military fatigues entered the hamlet of San Gabriel last Sunday and massacred five people, including a fourteen year old boy. Local police suggested the massacre was committed by the FARC, while local civilians claimed the paramilitaries were responsible. San Gabriel is near the town of Viota (Cundinamarca). Ten years ago, 17 people were massacred by paramilitaries in the same region, El Tiempo reports.
• More than 1000 victims, relatives, NGO representatives, trade unionists, students and displaced people belonging to the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes demonstrated in Barranquilla, claiming justice for victims and punishment for the paramilitaries. Rodrigo Tovar Pupo (alias Jorge 40), who is among the thousands of demobilized members of paramilitary groups, was due to begin confession of his crimes this week. In order to qualify for the legal benefits offered as part of the demobilization negotiations, such as a maximum prison sentence of eight years, he must make a full confession of his human rights crimes, El Espectador reports.

Sat 07 – More displaced by ‘rebel on rebel’ violence; Law society hosts union event in London.

• An intensifying turf war between the FARC and the ELN is pushing thousands of poor farmers out of their homes as one of the guerrilla groups inches toward peace with the government.  An average 200 families a month have registered with officials in the eastern province of Arauca since August 2006, saying they had to flee the rebel-on-rebel violence.  "We are stuck in the middle," said one displaced farmer who declined to give his name. "Anyone accused of cooperating with one side is subject to violence from the other. That's what's behind this wave of displacements," said Dolka Arias, provincial head of Accion Social, the government's social services agency, Reuters reports.
• The London-based Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and wales, hosted a roundtable discussion to promote wider peace talks in Colombia. The society is working with specialist trade union firm Thompsons Solicitors and non-government organization Justice for Colombia to promote a humanitarian exchange program to initiate a peace process aimed at ending conflict in the country. Law Society president Fiona Woolf said: "The society has valuable experience in supporting the development of an independent legal profession, which plays a key role in upholding democratic processes, and it needs to be made clear that negotiations, not war, are the way forward." The roundtable was attended by a Colombian delegation that explained how the humanitarian exchange, which involves the release of prisoners by the government and guerrilla groups, could prompt wider peace talks, The Independent reports.

Sun 08 – FARC rejects Uribe’s allegations of killings; Simon Trinidad convicted of kidnappings.

• The FARC reiterated that the 11 former regional politicians being held hostage by the group were killed in the cross fire on June 18 when an armed group attacked a rebel camp. FARC deputy leader Raul Reyes said in an interview with television news outlet Noticias Uno on July 8, that other hostages could suffer the same fate during future government rescue attempts, Stratfor news reports.
• FARC leader Ricardo Palmera, alias Simon Trinidad, has been convicted by a US jury of plotting to hold three Americans hostage after they were captured in Colombia.  The three US government contractors were taken by the FARC after their aircraft crashed in the jungle during a mission to find illegal drug crops in 2003.  Though he was convicted over the hostages, the jury is still deliberating terrorism charges.  Sent to the US in 2004, Palmera is the most senior Farc rebel yet tried there.  Palmera's first US trial over the hostage-taking ended in a mistrial in November 2006 after the jury was not able to agree on a verdict, BBC reports.

 Mon 09 – Colombia deadlocked over hostage swap talks; authorities to destroy 14,000 fire arms.

• President Uribe dug in his heels against FARC demands that he remove troops from a rural area to clear the way for prisoner swap talks. Despite calls from families of rebel hostages urging him to agree to demilitarise the municipalities of Florida and Pradera in the west of the country, Uribe signalled he will stick with the hard-line security stance that got him elected. The deadlock is bad news for kidnap victims such as French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who was captured by the FARC during her 2002 presidential campaign. “Safe-haven zones in Colombia have been used by the terrorists to strengthen their efforts to take power,” said Uribe, adding that he “rejects” the idea, Reuters reports.
• Nearly 14,000 firearms will be melted down on 9 July, International Gun Destruction Day. The event has been organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Colombia has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. In 2005, 70% of over 17,000 homicides registered were committed with firearms. Cities registering the highest numbers of legal firearms were also those showing the lowest homicide rates. Conversely, cities with the highest murder rates were those with the lowest number of legal arms. Most homicides in Colombia are connected with the illegal ownership, manufacture and trade of firearms, El Tiempo reports.  Top of Form

Tues 10 – ICRC: FARC will hand over corpses; Amnesty calls on foreign companies for pressure.

• Colombian rebels will hand over the corpses of 11 politicians killed in captivity last month, a move that would allow authorities to determine if they were murdered or died in crossfire, the International Committee of the Red Cross reports. "We got a request from the FARC to recover the bodies and we got the green light from the government to do so," said Yves Heller, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia. "We don't know how long it will take to get the security guarantees we need to go in and get the bodies”, the ICRC reports.
• Amnesty International is calling on foreign companies that operate in Colombia to pressure the government "to end and prevent human rights abuses against trade unionists." In a report released last Tuesday, Amnesty International warned that Colombia's decades-long armed conflict "provides a useful cover for those seeking to expand and protect economic interests." The report, "Killings, Arbitrary Detentions and Death Threats -- The Reality of Trade Unionism in Colombia," provides a long list of case studies of labour activists who have been the target of attacks in the health, education, public services, agricultural, mining, oil, gas, energy and food sectors. According to Colombia's National Trade Union School (Escuela Nacional Sindical), 2,245 trade unionists were killed between January 1991 and December 2006, while 138 fell victim to forced disappearance and 3,400 were the targets of threats, making Colombia "one of the most dangerous places in the world for trade unionists," according to Amnesty, IPS news reports.

Weds 11 – Two Pentecostal pastors killed; European NGOs call for moratorium on biofuels.

• Two Pentecostal pastors have been killed in southern Colombia. Initial reports indicate that the 17th Brigade of the FARC is responsible. Pastor Humberto Mendez, 63, and Pastor Joel Cruz Garcia, 27, were abducted from their homes on 5 July, in a place where the FARC has a strong presence. According to church representatives, a group of armed men wearing camouflage clothing called them by name and led them away. The bodies of the two men were found the next day, Christian Today reports.
• Development Agencies and non governmental organisations are calling for an immediate moratorium on EU incentives for bio-fuels and EU imports of bio-fuels. This includes the immediate suspension of all targets and incentives such as tax breaks and subsidies, which benefit bio-fuel production from large-scale monocultures, including financing through carbon trading mechanisms, international development aid or loans from international finance organisations such as the World Bank. This call also responds to the growing number of calls from the global south against bio-fuel monocultures, Relief web reports.
• Colombia has offered the Pentagon the use of its air fields for counter-narcotics operations in Latin America after Ecuador refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta base, a U.S. official said. "There have been offers to look at different sites," the senior defence official said, naming Colombia as one of the countries that offered to discuss alternate sites, Reuters reports.

Thurs 12 – UN calls for protection of politicians; Union leader “threatened by Drummond executives”.

• The Director of the Colombian office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Colombian government to protect local politicians, after two were killed by rebels this week. Speaking on the radio, Juan Pablo Corlazzoli warned that the government might face international tribunals if the murders go unpunished. UN human rights investigators said rebel gunmen arrived simultaneously at the houses of seven council members in Doncello (Caqueta). Five of the councillors escaped death because they were not home, but Argemiro Medina, Ofelia Betancourt and one of her relatives were killed. "National authorities should take corrective measures. Some local politicians revealed after the attack that the FARC had threatened to make them targets if they dared to take part in the October regional elections”. Colombia is scheduled to elect councillors and mayors in more than 1,000 towns in October, as well as regional governors and departmental deputies in all 32 of the nation's provinces. "We do not wish this incident to set a pattern. We just hope that Election Day can be peaceful," Corlazzoli said, Xinhua news reports.
• A mining union official testified that the head of Drummond Ltd. in Colombia threatened him after the killings of three labour leaders whose families blame the U.S. coal company for the murders. Juan Aguas Romero, the education secretary for two unions in Colombia, testified on the second day of a civil lawsuit accusing Drummond of having paramilitary gunmen kill the three men. Once, Aguas said, Jimenez told him that a "fish that swims with its mouth opens soon dies." A former Drummond employee previously testified that Jimenez had made a similar comment to him in a private discussion about union negotiations. Aguas is an official with the Colombian union Sintramienergetica, which is suing Drummond Ltd. along with the families of the dead men. He said he received bodyguards following meetings with Colombian government security officials after the killings. Despite the protection, someone tried to kill him in October 2002, Associated Press reports.
• The Colombian Congress approved a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, leaving the pact’s fate in the hands of U.S. congressional Democrats who are increasingly scrutinizing the government’s human rights record. In a 55-3 vote, the majority pro-government Senate approved the trade deal, which would eliminate most tariffs and duties on some $14 billion in annual trade in goods and services between the two countries. “The next step is the approval by the U.S. Congress,” said Trade Minister Luis Guillermo Plata. “We know there will be delays and additional considerations, but nobody can deny the advance made by Colombia”, El Tiempo reports.

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