Colombia This Week
Previous weeks
03/08/2007
Fri 27 – ELN group breaks off peace talks; US firm cleared on the killing of three trade unionists.
· Colombia's second biggest guerrilla army reports that it broke off government peace talks without clinching an expected ceasefire deal, but negotiations will resume in a month. The latest round of talks, held in Cuba, ended in a "difficult situation," according to a statement posted by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, on its website. The negotiations, which started in 2005, had been expected to yield a preliminary peace accord by the end of this month. But discussions stalled over the government's demand that the ELN identify its troops and concentrate them in one area as part of the deal, Colombia’s chief negotiator Luis Carlos Restrepo told local radio. "It is impossible to move the process forward if the ELN insists on remaining a clandestine organization", Restrepo said. Talks are set to resume in late August. CNN reported an ELN statement in which "The ELN clearly stated at the negotiating table that it will not demobilize, disarm or concentrate its troops based on demands from the government".
· A federal jury in Alabama rejected accusations that an American coalmine operator contracted hit men to kill three union leaders at the firm's Colombia mine in a trial that was closely watched by other U.S. firms facing similar lawsuits. After a two-week trial, the jury found in favour of US-based coal company Drummond. Drummond had been sued by relatives of the union leaders under an arcane 18th-century law that permits U.S. companies to be sued in American courts for alleged rights abuses committed abroad. The decision is sure to be welcomed by other major U.S. companies, many of them energy firms like Drummond, that have faced a spate of suits from foreigners who say the companies violated their rights, The Washington Post reports.
Sat 28 – ‘One encounter, many paths: united against forgetting’: victims demand recognition.
· Women, small farmers, Afro-Colombians, indigenous people, displaced people, trade unionists, relatives of the victims of murder, kidnapping or forced disappearance, all of whom have suffered at the hands of paramilitaries, leftwing guerrillas or state security forces, have come to Bogota to meet and get to know each other, and to seek ways to solve their problems. "We want to make the victims visible, and we want Colombian society not to tolerate, or encourage, any apologetics on behalf of criminal actions, whoever commits them," activist Ivan Cepeda said. Eighty civil society organisations from all over the country are taking part in the meeting, at which it was announced that 31,656 people were killed or disappeared for political reasons between June 1996 and June 2006, according to figures from the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), an NGO with consultative status at the United Nations. The CCJ said that those responsible for 20,352 of these deaths had been identified. "Direct or indirect agents of the state, that is, government officials and paramilitaries" perpetrated 16,064 of the crimes, and the guerrilla groups were responsible for the remainder, according to the highly-respected human rights group. Meanwhile, the non-governmental National Trade Union School reported that 2,515 labour union leaders and activists have been killed since 1986. The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), for its part, said that 157 journalists had been killed in the armed conflict since 1985, and the non-governmental National Federation of Municipal Councils said that 251 town councillors had been killed since 2000, IPS reports.
Sun 29 – DAS: 11 state legislators killed by FARC friendly fire; Moncayo arrives into Bogota.
· A confused clash between two bands of rebels led a commander to order the death of 11 state legislator hostages last month, the head of Colombia's intelligence agency said. Andres Penate, the head of the DAS intelligence agency, told a Bogota press conference that the FARC's 60th front killed the hostages when they mistook another group of insurgents for army troops. His account contradicted that of the FARC, which announced in late June that the state legislators had died in the crossfire when an “unidentified military group” attacked the camp where they were being held. “They're trying to deceive the public, pretending that the hostages were located in the proposed safe haven so they can blame the government for their deaths”, Penate said. The 12 state legislators were kidnapped in April 2002 in the southwest city of Cali, in a daylight raid on the state legislature by rebels dressed as soldiers, Associated Press reports.
· Gustavo Moncayo, a 55 year-old teacher whose soldier son was kidnapped in a rebel attack a decade ago, neared the capital after walking across half of Colombia to rally support for a prisoner swap. He has become a fixture on the national news since setting out on his cross-country crusade six weeks ago with chains draped symbolically over his shoulder, enduring persistent foot problems and the blistering sun. "I decided to walk because I'm tired of the government's lies ... The government and the politicians have done nothing for the kidnapped," said Moncayo, as he walked through the town of Subia, just west of the capital, greeted by several hundred well-wishers. He has vowed to camp in the main plaza in Bogota, in plain view of the Congress, until he gets the government to agree to exchange imprisoned rebels for his son and 45 key hostages held by the FARC, El Tiempo reports.
Mon 30– Colombian government admits high level military corruption
· Cocaine smugglers and leftist rebels have infiltrated senior levels of the Colombian army,hindering efforts to defeat the guerrillas and fight drugs, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. The FARC group and the country's main cocaine cartel have bribed officials "at a high level" into sharing information that has helped bosses of both illegal groups avoid capture, Santos told reporters. "Unfortunately, the infiltration has prevented us from capturing some of the big fish we had been investigating," Santos said. Some military officials have been captured in the case and more arrests are expected. Earlier this month, the army discovered classified military information in computer files of guerrillas from the FARC rebel group who died in combat with state security forces. The information could only have come from a mole placed high up in the military hierarchy, officials say. Also implicated in the scandal is Diego Montoya, head of the Norte del Valle cartel. Featured on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, Montoya is accused of exporting hundreds of tones of cocaine to the United States. Investigators say he recruited army officers to provide him with protection and help plan the breakout of his brother, Eugenio Montoya, who has been in a high-security prison since the start of the year. Last year, 10 anti-narcotics police were gunned down by Colombian soldiers in the pay of drug traffickers near the western town of Jamundi, Reuters reports.
Tues 31 – FARC leader detained in Venezuela; Colombia leads world on public holidays.
· Rosember Rodriguez Gomez, reportedly a leader of the FARC group, has been captured in Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela, and found with Venezuelan identification under a different name, the Colombian Administrative Department of Security (DAS) said. Venezuela plans to pursue legal actions against Gomez for holding false identification and hopes to deport him back to Colombia within a few hours, where he is wanted for homicide and terrorism crimes, Stratford reports.
· Renowned for its high murder rate, Colombia also leads the world in public holidays with 18 each year, according to a new study. Most of the holidays, mandatory for both public and private sector employees, pay homage to Roman Catholic saints. "There's no doubt this crushes productivity and increases costs for business," said Juan Carlos Echeverry, an economics professor at Andes University in Bogota. "But maybe it's the reason in survey after survey Colombians are always rated among the happiest people in the world." Thanks to a 1983 law designed to stimulate domestic tourism, the bulk of the religious holidays are moved to the following Monday, even when they fall on a weekend. An effort last year to overturn the 1983 law, by a senator loyal to President Uribe, went nowhere. But Colombia is hardly a paradise for workers. Union leaders are subject to regular intimidation or worse. More than 800 were murdered over the past six years, mainly by right-wing paramilitaries, Associated Press reports.
Weds 01 – Colombian Lawyers Collective support the Supreme Court of Justice.
· The Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective in Bogota has given its wholehearted support to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice. The referred ruling of the Supreme Court establishes a clear difference between political crime and aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime. The later has been the classification for paramilitarism since the criminal code reform in 2000 and penal classifications making express reference to the term “paramilitarism” were eliminated. In this respect, the current criminal code recognizes that conspiracy to commit a crime may not be equated with sedition, which is a political crime. Moreover, the ruling sustains this difference on merit arguments concerning the legal nature of these crimes as well as on forceful grounds relating to the constitution, legal jurisprudence, doctrine, and the theory of the crime itself. The Criminal Court of the Supreme Court of Justice stated that Law 782 of 2002, which has allowed more than 30,000 paramilitaries to demobilize as well as regulated the pardons and the closing of proceedings, may only be applied to political crimes and, as a result, may not applied to persons who have incurred in the conspiracy to commit a crime. This ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice reaffirms that such arguments as prescription (the finalization of the penal action or sentence due to time limits), non bis ibidem (no one may be tried two times for the same act), and legally settled matter, may not be put forward when concerning judicial decisions that have not complied with the rights of the victims or when apparent processes have been undertaken that have really only attempted to ensure impunity, the editorial says.
Thurs 02 – Supreme Court acknowledges the armed conflict; NGOs denounce threats in Tolima.
· In a public statement signed by all its 23 magistrates, the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice acknowledges that there is an ongoing armed conflict in Colombia, adding that the recent comments made by president Uribe, in which he rejected the ruling of the High Court that denied the sedition status for the paramilitaries, expose the magistrates of the Court to serious threats. The statement re-affirms their disposition to meet with the President as long as the meeting is formally requested, pointing that they will not discuss with him the referred ruling of 11th of July, Caracol radio reports.
· Colombian human rights organizations urge the Colombian authorities to take action on the latest threats made by paramilitary groups acting in the municipalities of Villahermosa, Libano, Murillo, Anzotegui and Santa Isabel (northern Tolima department). In a recent statement they announced the forced recruitment of young people, threatened transporters and declared some of the civilians in the area military targets. As a result youngsters have already been displaced from the area and students have not been attending schools for fear of forced recruitment, the report says.
· President Alvaro Uribe has offered to create a special zone for future peace talks with leftist rebels if they agree to free their hostages. Uribe did however turn down a proposal by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for the Colombian army to leave a small portion of the country in the south, El Tiempo newspaper reported online. The president said he would not do so, as it would create a safe haven for the rebel group, Efe reports.
· Ten years after the massacre of Mapiripan that shocked the world, relatives of the victims remember their victims. On July 12, 1997, two planes leaving the airports of Apartado and Necocli on the Caribbean coast flew more than one hundred heavily-armed paramilitaries to the San Jose del Guaviare airport in the central plains of Colombia. On their day and a half journey to the town of Mapiripan, (Meta), they passed – without any problem whatsoever - through countless army and police checkpoints, including the checkpoint in front of the army base where US Special Forces trained their Colombian counterparts. Then, from July 15 to 20, these paramilitary forces proceeded to detain torture, execute, and cause the disappearance of at least 49 persons in the town of Mapiripan. During this time, the Colombian State refused to come to the aid of the civilian population, the Jose Albear Restrepo Lawyer’s Collective reports.
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