InfoBrief – February 21, 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
- Secretary Rice Cites Gains in Colombia During Testimony on Budget Request Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointed to “the gains made in recent years” in U.S. efforts in Colombia as she testified before a series of congressional committees on President Bush’s proposed fiscal 2006 international affairs budget. “Our FY 2006 request includes $734.5 million for the Andean Counter Drug Initiative to consolidate gains made in recent years in eradication, interdiction and alternative development,” Secretary Rice explained in her remarks before the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. According to budget figures released earlier this month, the Bush Administration is seeking $463 million for Colombia through the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, $90 million in Foreign Military Financing for Colombia as well as $1.7 in International Military Education and Training funding. Senators who attended the hearing were generally supportive of the budget request, but made it clear to Secretary Rice that they plan to act as good stewards of taxpayer money as they review the budget. In a separate event, Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, reminded members of the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism of the activity of foreign terrorist groups in Colombia, pointing out that nearly as many innocent civilians were murdered in 2004 by three terrorist organizations in Colombia as fell victim to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
- Colombia, U.S. Dismantle Guatemalan-Colombian Drug Smuggling Ring After 100 arrests and the seizure of more than 22 kilograms of heroin, 80 kilograms of cocaine, and over $1 million in currency, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the effective end of a drug smuggling cartel based out of Guatemala and Colombia. Colombian police indicated that a number of the individuals arrested were Colombian nationals, 13 of whom were arrested in Colombia. In the course of the operation, nine “senior directors” of the drug gang were arrested in Guatemala. DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said the operation has “drug traffickers on the run, forcing them to find new routes and smuggling methods.” Tandy indicated that international cooperation had “closed another avenue to traffickers hoping to peddle this potent and addictive poison in America.” Authorities indicated that this drug ring, which smuggled Colombian heroin hidden in car batteries from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States, is now out of business.
- Colombia's Caño Limon Oil Pipeline Shut Down by Attacks A series of rebel attacks on the Caño Limon oil pipeline, operated by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, has shut down the pipeline and threatens to halt pumping at the vast oil fields in northeastern Arauca province. The pipeline bombings come as leftist guerrillas stepped up their attacks after a two-year offensive by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had many Colombians believing the guerrillas were severely weakened. “If pumping through the pipeline continues to be paralyzed, production could be reduced dramatically or even stopped because reserve tanks may fill up," indicated a source familiar with the situation on the condition of anonymity. The pipeline was bombed 17 times in 2004, down from 170 attacks in 2001, thanks in part to millions of dollars in U.S. military assistance and training for Colombian army units charged with protecting the pipeline.
- U.S. Assists in the Creation of Colombian Unit to Fight Money Laundering In an attempt to combat trade-based money laundering and other financial crimes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and officials from Colombia's National Tax and Customs Directorate, or DIAN, are developing a joint database to exchange trade and financial information. U.S. officials are hopeful that information gleaned through this program will help agencies enhance their efforts to identify money laundering rings operating in both nations. “Trade-based money laundering is an enormous problem that few people understand,” indicated Steve Hayward, ICE attaché in Colombia. “Thankfully, the government of Colombia has recognized this threat for many years and remains committed to addressing it,” said Hayward. Special agents from ICE delivered approximately 215 computers and other equipment to the DIAN on Thursday under the auspices of Plan Colombia, the ICE indicated.
- Heavy Rains Cause Floods, Landslides in Colombia Heavy rains, flooding and landslides hit Colombia late last week killing at least 55 people and damaging the homes of as many as 10,000 families. The northern and central provinces of Santander, Norte de Santander, and Tolima were among the hardest hit by the three-day rainstorm that affected at least 27,000 people in Colombia as well as others in neighboring provinces of Venezuela. The United States government is providing $50,000 to purchase relief supplies such as potable water, food, and blankets, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID, in conjunction with the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Colombian Red Cross, has pledged to deliver relief supplies to help flood victims and continue assessing the situation.
Upcoming Events and Seminars in the U.S.
- 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: 02/21/05
Fri 11 –Peace for Colombia, possible: Tutu; Santos accuses rights groups on ‘political hate’.
- Appearing in a Peace symposium in the city of Cali , South Africa 's Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu reports that ‘peace is possible in Colombia despite its four decades of civil war’, pointing to harmony achieved in South Africa after decades of racial strife under apartheid. He also said in the conference that any peace accord in Colombia must establish conditions that are accepted by all sides of the conflict, El Pais reports.
- Speaking at the same event, Vice president Francisco Santos says that the legislation presented by the Colombian opposition is the result of "political vanities and political hate pushed by international rights group with little grounding in Colombia 's violent war’.
- The National organisation for Indigenous people in Colombia (ONIC) reports that four members of the Kogui community were disappeared after paramilitaries from the Tayrona bloc stopped them at a road block near the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta . ONIC calls once more upon the Colombian Peace Commissioner Carlos Restrepo to respond for the lives of these retained and disappeared.
- Caracol radio reports that three different massacres took place in recent days in the department of Cauca , resulting with the deaths of 18 people. According to the authorities, combats between groups involved in the drugs trade are taking place in rural areas of the municipality of Bolivar (Valle del Cauca).
Sat 12 – US hostages: two years in captivity; Uribe holds security summit in Cartagena .
- In a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the capture of the three U.S. military contractors U.S. Ambassador William Wood said he was disappointed that rewards offered by the U.S. government for the Americans have produced insufficient results. Standing at a podium at the embassy above three large photographs of the American hostages, Wood prayed for their prompt return. "On Sunday, they will have been held for two years, the longest held such U.S. hostages in the world," Wood, who wore a yellow ribbon on his lapel, said during Friday's ceremony, El Tiempo reports.
- President Uribe held an emergency meeting with his military commanders in the city of Cartagena after leftist rebels launched a series of attacks. The president has been there since DATE, recovering from an ear infection that has kept him from flying back to the capital. The rebel attacks that have killed about 50 soldiers this month have shaken confidence in the government's claims that it finally has the upper hand in the war against the insurgents.
- In a statement posted on their website, the FARC reports that in combats in Meta they killed nine soldiers when they attacked an army patrol near the village of La Sombra de Añori. Two rebels died in the firefight, the FARC said. There was no immediate comment from the army about the rebel claim, AP reports.
Sun 13 – UK Minister: price of coca is blood; Santos accused of ‘double standards’.
- An article in the London Sunday newspaper The Observer highlights the links between the cocaine consumed in European societies and the 40 year-old Colombian armed conflict, calling for a campaign to boycott the consumption of this illegal substance for ethical reasons. The article reports the British Foreign Minister Bill Rammell shares that view. For him ‘it should be as socially taboo as was drinking a bottle of South African wine during apartheid’.
- Columnist María Jimena Duzán criticises the remarks made by Vice-president Santos at the international seminar for peace in Cali, arguing him that ‘despite his personal intervention’ he was previously against the impunity offered by the Alternative penal law and accusing him of double standards as he is a co-founder of Pais Libre, a relatives’ group demanding the intervention of the International Criminal Court in the resolution of 20,000 cases of kidnapping in Colombia, El Tiempo reports.
- An article in New York Times reports the Colombia government coming under heavy criticism from influential American lawmakers, the UN system and some foreign diplomats for its new legislation governing the disarmament of paramilitary groups. American lawmakers explained that US funding for the demobilisation required that the paramilitaries "fully disclose their knowledge of the operative structure" of the group. They must also forfeit illegally acquired assets, like land, comply with a cease-fire and be held accountable for crimes. Rights groups say that Mr. Uribe's bill features a series of loopholes that would benefit paramilitary commanders.
Mon 14 – Flooding and mudslides kill 24 in Bucaramanga ; six killed in Buenaventura .
- Flooding and mudslides in Colombia have killed at least 24 people and forced more than 30,000 from their homes. In neighbouring Venezuela , officials said the rains had killed more than 40 people in nearly a week. Colombian authorities said that rivers overran their banks after torrential rains that started Friday evening, washing houses away in towns near Bucaramanga , where most of the deaths occurred. Two of the victims were children in the town of Girón , crushed by a landslide that destroyed their house and badly injured three surviving siblings. A 7-year-old girl died in a mudslide in the southwestern province of Huila , authorities said. President Uribe said his government was looking for funds to deal with the disaster, Reuters reports.
- Six people were killed in Buenaventura in a massacre perpetrated by unknown attackers. Among the victims is Wilson Caicedo Hurtado, a demobilised member of the paramilitary Calima Bloc, El Pais reports.
- In an article in El Nuevo Siglo, Eduardo Pizarro highlights the fact that after the international meeting held in Cartagena last week the Colombian NGOs were able to present an statement agreed by all different groups of the Colombian civil society, marking what he calls ‘a new positive approach to international cooperation without rejecting their own independence from the Colombian government’.
- The United States says it is providing a total of $100,000 for relief supplies in response to heavy rains, flooding and landslides in Colombia and Venezuela that killed at least 83 people. The U.S. Agency for International Development announced this week that $50,000 each would be provided to Red Cross offices in Colombia and Venezuela through the U.S. Embassies in those countries. The torrential rains hit late last week, pummelling the Colombian provinces of Santander and Norte de Santander and the Venezuelan state of Merida . They also say many people remain missing.
Tues 15 – Villagers protest after 3 kids killed by landmines; FIDH: no amnesty for paramilitaries.
- Some 300 villagers marched in protest in the village of Vista Hermosa after three children were killed by a land mine in an area that has traditionally been under FARC control. The march took place near where the children were killed on Sunday, reports an official with the non-governmental group Colombian Campaign against Mines. The children, two brothers and a friend, all between the ages of 5 and 9, were playing in a backyard when the mine went off, El Espectador reports.
- The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) reports its concerns about the latest proposal presented by the Colombian Government under which the Colombian president would have the power to grant a pardon to people guilty of crimes against humanity. According to the government this is the only way to reach Peace in Colombia .
- The Colombian Inspector General’s Office (Procuraduría) has asked the Colombian Supreme Court to authorise the extradition to the United States of Omaira Rojas Cabrera, alias “Sonia”. The extradition request from the Washington Court is based on charges of drug-trafficking and supporting and facilitating illegal activities alleged in a 2003 arrest warrant, The US State Department reports.
Wed 16- New bill proposal called ‘Justice and Peace’; Uribe and Chavez finally meet in Caracas .
- The Colombian government presented the “Justice and Peace Law” in a special congressional session called by the government to address the legal hole in its negotiations with paramilitary forces. This is the third version of such a law; the first two were withdrawn by the government due to overwhelming concern about weaknesses in dealing with members of the paramilitaries who committed crimes against humanity.
- The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela met in Caracas to patch up frazzled relations after the worst diplomatic row between the countries for decades. The diplomatic row was triggered by Venezuela 's outrage at what it called the Colombian-sponsored "kidnapping" of a known leader of Colombia 's FARC guerrillas in Caracas last December, BBC reports.
- The Diocese of Quibdó and the Communal Council for Peasants in the Atrato region (COCOMACIA) reports that three years after the Bojayá massacre , thousands of people in the area are again being displaced from their rural communities, as paramilitary and guerrilla groups are reinforcing their presence in the area. They call upon the Colombian authorities to provide security to these displaced and to the indigenous communities resisting in the region.
- Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Rodrigo Rato, visits Colombia for two days and reports to the Colombian government he is ‘seriously worried’ about the sustainability of the Colombian external debt and the inefficiency of social policies. Among his recommendations were to speed up tax reform and improve the distribution of public expenditure, Colombian newspaper El Nuevo Siglo reports.
Thurs 17 – Activist José Hurtado killed in Putumayo; FARC kills Mayor of Genova (Quindío);
- José Hurtado, a Colombian rights activist who two weeks ago was denouncing death threats made by paramilitary groups acting in the area of Putumayo , has been killed by one of the very same groups ¿Se trata de un grupo o varios?in the municipality of San Miguel ( Putumayo ), according to the police. The victim headed a peaceful three-day protest at the killings of three people and the disappearance of a fourth in the same village, El Comercio reports.
- The number of people internally displaced in Colombia in 2004 increased by 38.5 per cent on the previous year, according to a recent report by Colombian NGO CODHES, which monitors internal displacement and human rights in the country. The report states that just over 287,000 people were displaced in 2004 compared with some 207,000 in 2003. The Colombian government has rejected these figures, insisting that internal displacement decreased by 37 per cent in 2004, with a total of 137,000 registered IDPs. The church in Colombia has taken the same line as CODHES, pointing at a substantial increase in inter-urban displacement (which is unaccounted for in official censuses) as well as the increasing military strategy of blockading and confining communities, Reuters reports.
- On an official visit to London , the Colombian defence minister says his country will not be drawn into an arms race with neighbouring Venezuela . While in London , Defence Minister Uribe discussed with British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell ways Britain could assist Colombia in dealing with the armed conflict, drug trafficking, and human rights violations, The Scotsman reports.
- FARC rebels killed the mayor of Genova, José Castro, while he supervised construction work in his small town in the centre of the country. He was gunned down by members of the FARC, police said. Genova, in Quindío Province in the Andes mountains, is the birthplace of 74-year-old FARC leader Manuel Marulanda, known by his nickname “Sureshot”, The Australian 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.
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