InfoBrief – January 31, 2005

InfoBrief is a weekly news summary of events in the U.S. and Colombia produced and distributed by the U.S. Office on Colombia. Colombia This Week is reproduced with the kind permission of the ABColombia Group in London. Other sources include U.S. and Latin American newspapers, and reports from non-profit and grassroots groups. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Office on Colombia. If you would like to receive InfoBrief please contact jess_hunter@usofficeoncolombia.org indicating why you would be interested in this weekly news service. Previous editions of the InfoBrief can be found at www.usofficeoncolombia.org

U.S. Current Affairs and Media  

• IGC Report Questions Colombia’s War and Drugs Policies This week the International Crisis Group (IGC) issued a new report entitled War and Drugs in Colombia urging the government of Colombia to review the relationship between its current counter-drug and security policies. In the report IGC recognizes the integral role drugs play in the financing of both the left-wing insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the right-wing paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Yet they assert that Colombian President Uribe's claim that the conflict must be met by all-out war does not speak to the complexity of the decades-old conflict. At the same time, the report expresses concern that “after eighteen months of negotiations, the Uribe administration has demobilized some 3,000 paramilitary fighters, including the notorious AUC chief Salvatore Mancuso…Nevertheless, the paramilitary drug networks appear to remain in place, with the bulk of their illegal assets, particularly in rural Colombia, unaffected.” The report states that indistinguishable anti-drug and anti-insurgency policies reduce the chance that either will succeed individually and that, while fighting drugs is crucial, it is not a sufficient condition for achieving peace in Colombia. The report’s authors called on the Colombian government to “design and implement a broad rural development strategy that includes much larger alternative development programs,” including a focus on voluntary crop eradication instead of forced eradication such as aerial spraying. For more information, read the full report at: http://crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3238 

• NGOs Call on U.S. Government to Urge Implementation of Reforms and Safeguards A letter from U.S. NGOs called on the U.S. government to support an adequate legal framework for any paramilitary demobilization and implementation of UN human rights recommendations at an upcoming donor’s conference in Cartagena, Colombia. The letter, sent by representatives of twelve U.S.-based NGOs to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called for the establishment of “a legal framework finalized by the Colombian Congress, that satisfies requirements for truth, justice and reparation in compliance with standards and principles of international law, accompanied by an appropriate mechanism for effective implementation and verification” as a “fundamental prerequisite” to any international funding for the paramilitary demobilization process. Meanwhile, Refugees International - USA (RI) implored the UN to stand firm on the definition of Colombia’s political and humanitarian situation as an internal armed conflict. Colombian President Uribe has sought to deny the existence of a conflict in Colombia, and instead refers to the occurrences of violence as “terrorist activities.” By characterizing the conflict as a terrorist threat, RI indicated in a recent statement, the government is able to deny civilians protection guaranteed under international humanitarian law. Read the letter to Secretary Rice at: http://ciponline.org/colombia/050128ngos.htm 

• UN Suspends Mediation Efforts On Monday, January 24, the United Nations (UN) announced their intention to suspend mediation efforts between the Colombian government and Marxist rebels after years of talks which failed to bring about a peaceful conclusion to the long-running civil war. UN special advisor James LeMoyne, a key figure in failed peace talks between former President Andres Pastrana and Colombia's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), had attempted to move Colombia towards a peaceful resolution of its conflict since he arrived to the war-torn nation in 2002. He is set to leave his post in April 2005. There were widespread reports that LeMoyne’s departure resulted from Colombian pressure. A political analyst at Bogotá’s Rosario University noted that while both the UN and European Union have recommended that Colombia initiate a universal peace process, it appears that the government will continue to negotiate with paramilitaries while not speaking to rebels. President Uribe considers the rebel groups terrorist organizations and insists that they lay down their arms before any peace process can start. Critics say the paramilitaries, who are guilty of some of the worst atrocities of Colombia's war, are escaping prosecution and enjoying impunity.

• Colombian Authorities Arrest Head of Police Drug-sniffing Dog Unit Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine and a major supplier of heroin to the United States, detained Freddy Antonio Castro along with 16 civilians during an operation meant to shut down a trafficking ring run by retired police Col. Leonel Mendoza. Investigators believe Castro was being paid to notify smugglers when the dogs were on a break or too tired to sniff out heroine or cocaine, thus letting smugglers proceed through security checks unnoticed. In the past years Colombia's police forces have suffered a series of corruption scandals, including the disappearance of three tons of cocaine apprehended by police officers, as well as the arrest of the head of Colombia's Highway Patrol on drug trafficking charges. Police also arrested 11 other suspected members of the ring during searches this week in the cities of Cali, Buga, and the Pacific port of Buenaventura. The traffickers loaded the drugs on planes and boats bound for Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico, from where it was sent to Miami and New York. The captives face charges ranging from drugs and arms trafficking to homicide and counterfeiting, police said.

Upcoming Events and Seminars in the U.S.

On February 25-26, the Schell Center for International Human Rights and the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies at Yale University will be having a conference on U.S. Colombia Policy at a Crossroads: Recent Experiences and Future Challenges. For more information, please contact Ryan Calkins at ryan.calkins@yale.edu

On March 11-14, 2005, the Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice will hold its annual gathering in Washington, D.C., addressing urgent global issues such as peaceful solutions to conflicts and the need for aid, debt and trade policies that benefit impoverished people throughout the world. Colombia will be a focus of the Latin America track. For more information, please refer to http://www.advocacydays.org/ or contact info@advocacydays.org.

Colombia This Week is reproduced with the kind permission of the ABColombia Group in London  

Colombia This Week editing date: 01/31/05

Fri 21- Government plans to build jails in Ralito; US to participate in Cartagena donors’ meeting.

• According to Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt, the Colombian government is planning to ‘acquire’ land from paramilitary commanders, in order to build a prison and jail the same paramilitaries who have committed ‘unpardonable crimes’, SNE reports.
• The US State Department announces its participation in the Donors’ Conference that the Colombian government is hosting in Cartagena in February. In a brief statement, they also commented upon the agenda for the conference, confirming that the speakers will include an official from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bogota as well as participants from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington File reports.
• Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon announces that his country ‘would arrest and hand over FARC members found in Venezuela’, adding that Caracas had not yet received detailed information from Colombia and that Colombia had never requested the capture of Rodrigo Granda, Associated Press reports.
• According to El Tiempo, A US anti-drug contractor working in Colombia has "disappeared," leaving more than $200,000 of unpaid bills in different establishments of the country.

Sat 22 – Paras to launch political movement; Diego Montoya considering ‘paramilitary way out’.

• Six months after being ‘concentrated’ in the Santa Fe de Ralito haven, (Monteria), paramilitary commanders announce their plans to become a political movement before the next elections, under the name of AUC (Alliance for the Unity of Colombia). According to El Espectador, the most advanced plans are being developed in Antioquia, where the reportedly demobilised Nutibara bloc, (currently presented as “Corporation Democracy”) plans to propose former paramilitary commander Giovanni Marin as a Congressional candidate.
• An article in Cambio magazine reports that drug kingpin Diego Montoya is negotiating with paramilitary commanders over whether he can participate in the negotiations with the Colombian government and benefit from the advantages of being considered a paramilitary commander. According to this information, he would like to enter the Santa Fe de Ralito haven in command of 3,000 troops under the name of the United Self-Defence of Valle, but the government has not agreed to the proposal.
• President Uribe Velez reports he has forbidden government officials from publicly discussing a dispute with Venezuela over the abduction of a FARC member on Venezuelan soil, SNE reports.
• The Director of the Administrative Security Department (Colombian secret police) Jorge Noguera reports that this institution is taking over the personal security for paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso, Colprensa reports.

Sun 23 – Media concerned about election guarantees ; thousands march in support of Chavez.

• An editorial in El Tiempo criticises the way the Colombian government is dealing with the re-election legislation, reporting that despite the fact that the 2006 presidential election has ‘unofficially’ already started, there are no rules or limits for the proposed candidate. The editorial calls on the government to legislate the necessary controls so that the president cannot abuse his powers as President, affirming that at the moment the Uribe administration has unlimited powers and resources to run the campaign.
• Thousands of Venezuelans march in the streets of Caracas in support of President Chavez over the diplomatic disputes with neighbouring Colombia. The protesters chanted pro-Chavez slogans and carried banners proclaiming against the intervention of other countries in the internal affairs of Venezuela, BBC reports.
• In an interview with the Economist, President Uribe Velez ‘clarifies’ his approach to the establishment of a legal framework governing the demobilisation of paramilitary groups: ‘In February we will call Congress for a session to study the bill that we call the legal framework for these demobilisations. This bill needs three targets… credibility, equilibrium and universality, …In the name of peace and dialogue this bill cannot lead the country to impunity and in the name of justice this bill cannot block the peace process by leading the country to surrender’.
• The Observer reports that an IRA fugitive on the run helped three Irish republicans escape from Colombia. The three men left Colombia via Venezuela from a safe house in which they were living several weeks before a judge overturned an earlier decision that they were not guilty of training the FARC group.

Mon 24 – UN downgrades mission in Colombia; Uscategui: intellectual author was in Congress.

• The United Nations reports that its mission to find a solution to Colombia's internal armed conflict has entered a "low-key" phase, effectively signalling the withdrawal of an effort increasingly at odds with the Colombian government. A UN mission has been in place for the past four years. The UN decision to withdraw its special representative James LeMoyne follows a formal request by Colombia and a frank meeting between top UN officials and Francisco Santos, Colombia's vice-president, Financial Times reports.
• Former Colombian General Jaime Umberto Uscategui reports during the first day of his trial that the person behind the massacre of Mapiripan (Meta), in which more than 30 civilians were killed by a group of paramilitaries in July 1997, is under negotiations with the government and has been recently in the Colombian Congress, refusing to name the person because of fears for his life, El Espectador reports.
• A prominent Colombian Central Bank director attacked the IMF for allowing the country to take on too much debt, saying this could store up trouble for a time when the peso loses its strength. Salomon Kalmanovitz, who is stepping down from the board, told El Tiempo that the country had failed to adequately address serious budgetary problems," Reuters reports.
• While visiting Colombia and finishing a report on the human rights situation in Colombia, Spanish anti-corruption tsar Carlos Castresana reports that he is in favour of the demobilisation of all armed groups in Colombia, but with truth and reparation. Castresana reported that ‘we can never talk about peace if there is no reparation’, underlining that when armed groups are proven to be rich, it is they - and not the state - that need to provide reparation for the victims, El Tiempo reports.

Tues 25- Colombia cannot ‘deny’ internal armed conflict; UNHCR opens office in Soacha, Bogota.

• US-based NGO Refugees International reports that for months President Uribe has downplayed the armed conflict in his country, a conflict which has displaced well over two million Colombians. “Uribe denies there is a conflict in Colombia, and instead refers to the perpetuation of violence as ‘terrorist activities’." By characterising the conflict as a terrorist threat, the government is able to deny civilians protection guaranteed under international humanitarian law. The organisation added that the government of Colombia cannot be allowed to disregard the protection to civilians guaranteed under international humanitarian law on the pretext that there is no armed conflict in Colombia.
• The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports they are opening a new field office in the Altos de Cazuca, municipality of Soacha, one of the poorest areas in Colombia with no public services and with one of the highest rates of (in-coming) internally displaced people.
• Alfredo Molano, commentator in El Espectador, reports on the visit that President Uribe is due to make to three European countries, reporting that there has been little progress in the human rights recommendations made after last year’s trip. During the trip last year, European Parliament representatives protested about the human rights situation affecting civilians in Colombia.
• Venezuelan media reports that when the Colombia Ministry of Defence, Jorge Alberto Uribe, visited Caracas last December he acknowledged that his government had no proof that any FARC or ELN commander were seeking refugee within the Venezuelan territory, undermining previous allegations made by members of Uribe’s own government, El Comercio reports.

Weds 26 – Mass break out in Colombian jail; another three officials charged for Arauca killings.

• At least six prisoners are shot dead by guards when suspected FARC members attack the Picalena prison (Ibague) with explosives and gunfire, allowing 20 inmates to escape. Three were re-captured. Hundreds of troops have been searching for the missing prisoners, some of whom are members of the FARC, BBC reports.
• Colombian NGO Lawyers’ Collective Jose Alvear Restrepo reports that the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office (Procuraduria) is investigating three high-ranking officials from the battalion Pizarro based in Arauca, for the killing of the three trade unionists in Tame, back in August 2004. Added to the detention of Battalion Commander Luis Francisco Medina Corredor, Operations Commander Luis Eduardo Castillo Arbelaez and the Intelligence Commander Hisnardo Alberto Zambrano, there are now six army officers detained in this case.
• Mauricio Romero, political analyst at Bogota's Rosario University reports that after the suspension of the UN good offices working for a negotiated solution to the Colombian armed conflict, the European Union “will now probably be less enthusiastic about supporting the paramilitary demobilisation". He added: "The EU and the UN have recommended that Colombia develop a universal peace process... but it appears that the government will continue negotiating with the paramilitaries while not talking to the FARC", Reuters reports.
• The suspension of trade links between Venezuela and Colombia has already begun to bite in the north-eastern province of Arauca, where Venezuela has refused to help relieve an electricity shortage. Arauca, one of the country's most violent and remote areas, has been without power since Monday after FARC members reportedly blew up a tower connecting the region to Colombia's national grid. Officials from the local electricity company said they would normally buy emergency supplies from Venezuela, but the authorities there were refusing to co-operate, Efe reports.

Thurs 27 – ICG report blames government for peace approach; Europe funds €10 m for Justice.

• International Crisis Group reports that fighting drugs and drug trafficking is a necessary but not sufficient condition for moving Colombia toward a sustainable peace. “While the state must confront drug trafficking forcefully, President Uribe's claim that the conflict pits a democracy against merely "narco-terrorists" does not do justice to the complexity of the decades-old struggle with the FARC, ELN and AUC groups”. The report urges the government to establish negotiations with the insurgents aimed at their demobilisation and political integration with the same standards to address impunity issues as should be imposed on the paramilitary.
• Colombian Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt de la Vega reports that the European Union has approved €10.5m ( 32,456 million Pesos) to strengthen the Colombian justice system, to reduce impunity levels and to improve the rights of Colombians by making the system more accessible. He also reported that this programme will be implemented in the next five years under the supervision of the Interior and Justice Ministry, El Nuevo Siglo reports.
• The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Colombia, Roberto Meier and British Ambassador in Colombia Tom Duggin sign a contract for $110 m pesos, (US $ 42,000) to fund training for the Colombian Armed Forces in the protection of the displaced population and the prevention of massive displacements. The areas chosen are Apartado (Antioquia), Quibdo (Choco) and Barrancabermeja (Santander), UN news reports.

Colombia This Week is a news summary produced and distributed by ABColombia Group. Sources include daily Colombian, US, European and Latin American newspapers, and reports from non-governmental organisations and the UN System. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the ABColombia Group.

If you would like to be put on the mailing list, please send an email message to the address below, indicating why you would be interested in receiving this summary.

ABColombia Group
(New address from 2005)
Mezzanine 2 nd Floor
1, London Bridge
London SE1 1BG
Tel: +44-(0)20-7 785 6595
Email: colombia_this_week@hotmail.com

ABColombia Members: CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK, SCIAF, Trocaire.

ABColombia Observers: Amnesty International and Peace Brigades International.