[Fwd: Candidate assassinated / Paramilitaries fight each other / Venezuela beefs up border patrols]
tlagiloi
Colombia Week (Number 3), June 8, 2003
(1) BRIEFS
(2) Paramilitaries fight each other over talks
(3) Venezuela adds troops to border patrols
(4) FROM THE EDITORS
-------------------------------------------------
(1) BRIEFS
-------------------------------------------------
GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE ASSASSINATED: A former federal lawmaker known
nationally for his human rights advocacy was assassinated Wednesday
night. From a motorcycle and small truck, four paramilitaries showered
bullets on Norte de Santander gubernatorial candidate Tirso Vélez in
downtown Cúcuta, the provincial capital, as he was walking to his car
with his wife, who sustained critical injuries in the attack. Vélez, 48,
was a former columnist of the Cúcuta daily La Opinión, a former mayor of
nearby Tibú and the leader of a 1993 campaign that gathered 100,000
signatures on a petition demanding peace. Authorities had refused to
provide him with bodyguards despite repeated threats on his life.
SOURCES: El Colombiano, 6/5/03; El Espectador, 6/6/03; El Tiempo,
6/5/03, 6/6/03.
U.S. ANTIDRUG AIR PATROLS TO RESUME: Two years after the accidental
downing of a U.S. missionary plane in Peru, President George W. Bush's
administration says it's ready to renew the suspended practice of
helping Colombia target suspected drug-laden aircraft. Within "the next
couple of weeks," officials will be briefing Congress on renewing the
program, State Department official Paul Simons said Tuesday at a Senate
hearing. But some watchdog groups and lawmakers, including Senator Mike
DeWine, R-Ohio, are unhappy a private company--Arinc, of Annapolis,
Maryland--will play a key role in the program. A contractor's
participation would reduce blame on the U.S. government in the event of
further problems. SOURCE: Miami Herald, 6/5/03.
U.S. TO MULL FREE TRADE TALKS: U.S. officials say Washington is willing
to discuss the possibility of a bilateral free trade deal with Colombia.
Speaking Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part
of the process to confirm his nomination as the next U.S. ambassador to
Colombia, William Wood said that U.S. Trade Representative Robert
Zoellick will travel to the country this summer to discuss a trade pact.
Chile, meanwhile, was set to sign a bilateral free trade pact with the
United States on Friday, marking the first permanent U.S. free trade
deal involving a Latin American country since the North American Free
Trade Agreement was sealed with Canada and Mexico nearly a decade ago.
SOURCES: Associated Press, 6/5/03; Dow Jones, 6/4/03.
BISHOP ACCUSED OF AIDING REBELS: Accusations by a former guerrilla have
led to rebellion charges against a retired Roman Catholic bishop and 17
current and former municipal officials in the central province of
Tolima. During his 13 years as bishop of the Honda-Líbano Diocese, José
Luis Serna Alzate helped negotiate the release of dozens of guerrilla
kidnapping victims. But former National Liberation Army (ELN) member
José Alexánder Daza says Serna also managed local ELN finances. Serna,
who retired last July, denied the accusation in court May 30. Tolima
Governor Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo called the charges baseless.
SOURCES: El Espectador, 6/2/03; El Tiempo, 5/30/03, 5/31/03, 6/2/03,
6/3/03.
-------------------------------------------------
(2) Paramilitaries fight each other over talks
-------------------------------------------------
Colombia's main paramilitary federation attacked a splinter faction that
refused to participate in peace talks with the government, the faction's
leader said Tuesday.
The leader, a former army officer known as "Rodrigo," told the
Associated Press that at least two fighters from his Metro Block faction
were killed in combat with troops from the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC) in Montebello, a mountainous municipality east of
Medellín, Colombia's second-largest city.
The AUC began negotiations with the government in January after
declaring a ceasefire. But the Metro Block and a few other AUC members
refused to participate, saying they would disarm only after the nation's
leftist guerrilla groups did so.
Rodrigo said AUC commander Carlos Castaño had threatened to "annihilate"
the 1,500-strong Metro Block and that Castaño had deployed 1,200
fighters to attack the faction.
The nation's paramilitary groups began forming in the 1980s with support
from landowners, drug traffickers and elements of the official military.
Their stated aim was to ward off guerrilla extortion and kidnappings in
areas where government forces had little control. By 1997, most
paramilitary groups had joined the AUC. Since then, their ranks have
tripled to about 13,000 nationwide.
Killings of civilians by paramilitaries account for most of the 3,500
deaths each year in Colombia's war, according to human rights monitors.
The pace has not slowed under the ceasefire, and members of Colombia's
U.S.-backed armed forces still support the paramilitaries, the monitors
say. Most of the victims are campesinos in guerrilla strongholds. The
paramilitaries also target human rights activists, labor organizers,
journalists and judges. Last September, the U.S. Justice Department
requested the extradition of Castaño and other AUC leaders to face
drug-trafficking charges.
President Alvaro Uribe Vélez gained familiarity with paramilitaries
during his 1995-1997 term as Antioquia Province governor. Those years
marked an unprecedented number of civilian massacres by paramilitaries
and official army units in the province. Uribe himself promoted a
civilian watch program, Convivir, whose participants carried out
massacres.
After assuming the presidency last August, Uribe expanded the armed
forces, planned civilian-informant networks and enhanced military powers
in a new "rehabilitation zone" to protect oil facilities of Los
Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum. Amnesty International says his
policies have diminished respect for human rights and exacerbated
violence.
Uribe also authorized his peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, to
engage in the government's first official talks with paramilitary
leaders. Earlier in 2002, the government had broken off negotiations
with both major guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN). In
January 2003, Uribe named a government commission to handle the AUC
negotiations.
The government released few details on the talks until last month, when
it confirmed planned legislation for parole of some jailed paramilitary
fighters. Uribe said the bill, scheduled to arrive in Congress on July
20, was inspired by a prisoner-release program in Northern Ireland.
Human rights advocates have criticized the proposal. "There can't be
amnesties or pardons for crimes against humanity," government
ombudsperson Eduardo Cifuentes said. "Granting paroles is opening a
dangerous window to impunity."
Uribe also confirmed legislation to allow some detained guerrillas to
leave the country if they lay down their arms or agree to participate in
peace talks. He said the bill would encourage rebels to desert guerrilla
groups. France, touted as a possible recipient of the rebels, has said
the move must be part of a larger peace process.
© 2003 Colombia Week. SOURCES: Associated Press, 5/29/03, 6/4/03; BBC,
5/29/03; Colombia, 5/30/30; El Espectador, 5/25/03, 5/31/03, 6/1/03,
6/2/03; El Nuevo Herald, 5/26/03; El Tiempo, 5/29/03, 5/30/03, 5/31/03,
6/1/03; Human Rights Watch, 4/21/03; InfoBrief, 4/28/03; Reuters,
5/29/03; Semana, 6/2/03. Additional research and analysis by Colombia
Week.
-------------------------------------------------
(3) Venezuela adds troops to border patrols
-------------------------------------------------
As reports of killings, kidnappings, robberies and extortion increase in
western Venezuela, that nation's government says it has added thousands
of troops to units patrolling the Colombian frontier.
For years, units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
have retreated into Venezuela to rest and regroup after battles with
Colombia's official military and its paramilitary forces. The guerrilla
presence, reportedly 1,000-strong, has led to Colombian paramilitary
incursions and convinced some ranchers and farmers in the area to create
"self-defense" forces.
In May, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías ordered two army ranger
brigades, totaling more than 4,000 troops, to join the 20,000 soldiers
the government says it already had guarding the frontier. But commanders
say they can't seal off the border. "It's not a line, a fence you can
see," Venezuelan Interior Minister General Lucas Rincón told Reuters.
"There's dense jungle."
The area ranchers say the Chávez government is doing little, if
anything, to stop the guerrilla encroachment. And they say his
government is backing a new group, the Bolivarian Liberation Forces
(FBL), that seems to be supporting the FARC.
In March, after Colombian paramilitary forces attacked a FARC unit in
Venezuela, helicopters of Venezuela's military allegedly drove the
paramilitaries into Colombia's Norte de Santander Province and continued
bombing and strafing them there.
Refugees reportedly told the Colombian inspector general's office that
they witnessed Venezuelan air strikes in the Norte de Santander
municipality of La Gabarra and that the fighting killed nine Colombian
campesinos.
The Chávez government confirms air strikes against the Colombian
paramilitaries were ordered, but denies that Venezuelan forces crossed
the border.
On April 16, a bomb in the nearby Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal,
Tachira State, damaged the headquarters of a ranchers' association that
had denounced cross-border activity by the Colombian guerrillas. No one
was injured. Officials said two men were arrested in connection with the
blast.
The border incidents came up at an April 23 summit between Chávez and
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Vélez in the eastern Venezuelan town of
Puerto Ordaz. There, Chávez and Uribe pledged to work together to try to
keep the border secure. "Colombia has long suffered terrorism sponsored
by drug-trafficking." Uribe said after the summit. "It has become a
threat to all of our neighbors."
FARC units reportedly are operating in Peru and Brazil as well.
© 2003 Colombia Week. SOURCES: Agence France Presse, 3/31/03, 5/2/03;
Associated Press 4/23/03; BBC, 3/31/03; El Espectator, 5/29/03; El
Tiempo, 5/2/03; Financial Times, 4/22/03; Miami Herald, 4/23/03; New
York Times, 6/1/03; Reuters, 4/21/03, 5/22/03; Washington Post, 4/10/03.
Additional research and analysis by Colombia Week.
-------------------------------------------------
(4) FROM THE EDITORS
-------------------------------------------------
FORWARD CW TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES: In the 14 days since
launching Colombia Week, we've received more than 130 subscription
requests. The subscribers range from scholars to human rights activists,
from journalists to Congressional aides, from exiles to Colombia-based
NGO leaders. The response signals a dire need for our coverage--its
independence, accuracy, clarity and conciseness. Please forward this
edition to anyone who may be interested. Ask them to subscribe to this
free bulletin by writing to colomb...@mn.rr.com.
CW SEEKS MEDIA COLUMNIST: Colombia Week would like to publish a biweekly
or monthly column that analyzes news reporting. We're open to a range of
formats for the analysis. If this opportunity interests you, send a
brief biography and a few samples of your writing to
colomb...@mn.rr.com.
-------------------------------------------------
Colombia Week is edited by Marcie Gignilliat, Bill Kingsbury, Chip
Mitchell and Suzanne Wilson. Copyright 2003 Colombia Week. For
permission to republish all or part of this edition, to respond with a
letter for publication, or to contribute other content, write to
colomb...@mn.rr.com. To activate or cancel a subscription, write to
that address with SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in your message's subject
line.
-------------------------------------------------
=======================================================================
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html * w...@igc.org
=======================================================================