September 19, 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 InfoBrief can be found at www.usofficeoncolombia.org

Colombian President Uribe Meets with Members of Congress President Uribe met with U.S. officials on September 15 th to explain Colombia’s newly passed Justice and Peace Law—which facilitates rebel and paramilitary demobilizations—and to lobby for continued U.S. funding for the embattled country. Uribe traveled to Washington to meet U.S. policymakers and discuss important bilateral topics such as counter-narcotics programs, the paramilitary demobilization, and judicial reform. Following a meeting with Uribe, Rep. James Kolbe of Arizona, chairman of the Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, which oversees many of the programs financed by the U.S., promised to keep money flowing to the Andean nation. “Congress will work to ensure no interruption occurs in funding before the money for next year receives final approval,” said Kolbe. This summer both the House and Senate passed appropriations bills that authorized $734 million for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative. Some human rights organizations and church groups suggested Colombian and U.S. policymakers look beyond military assistance. Lutheran World Relief president Kathryn Wolford urged Uribe and U.S. policymakers to move toward a solution to the conflict, saying that the U.S. and Colombia should “abandon the failed military policy that is putting civilians at risk, and begin a real dialogue toward a peaceful end to the fighting.” Uribe also met with Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, a member of the House International Relations Committee, and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to discuss the conditions and rights of the country's African descendant communities and efforts to improve their economic and social circumstances.

U.S. Soldier Stationed in Colombia Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Cocaine On September 15, Army Staff Sergeant Kelvin Irizarry-Melendez, pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine from Colombia into the U.S. on military aircraft. Irizarry-Melendez pleaded guilty to each of the charges he faced including conspiracy, illegal importation and use of cocaine, and making a false statement. Irizarry-Melendez, age 26, was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He is one of four soldiers stationed in Colombia with the 204th Military Intelligence Battalion as part of U.S.-Colombian military cooperation to combat drug production and trafficking who were arrested and jailed in March for the cocaine smuggling operation. In August, Specialist Francisco Rosa also pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to 5 years in prison, a rank reduction to private, and given a bad-conduct discharge. As part of his sentence, Rosa is assisting the prosecution in the cases against the other soldiers.

Over Four Tons of Cocaine Confiscated Colombian authorities announced two major drug confiscations last week involving cocaine worth millions of dollars on U.S. streets. Colombia’s anti-narcotics police chief reported that on September 14 the U.S. Coast Guard, aided by Colombian intelligence, stopped a ship off the coast of Ecuador towing more than two tons of cocaine in an underwater vessel. Also that day, the Commander of the Colombian Pacific Fleet reported that 2.5 tons of cocaine was found in the oil tanks of a ship docked in the Colombian Pacific port of Buenaventura. Last week, President Bush announced that Colombia was one of 20 countries on the President’s list of major drug-transit or major illicit drug producing countries. Nancy Powell, acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, stated that “Colombia is making significant progress in the fight against trafficking and terrorism in our hemisphere.”

Amnesty International Concerned with Justice and Peace Law As the first group of rebels officially demobilized under the framework of Colombia’s new Justice and Peace law, Amnesty International reiterated its concern that the law is deeply flawed and should be revoked. In a September 12 th statement, Amnesty International suggested that the law will only increase impunity in Colombia. Thirty-eight members of the FARC rebels are reported to be the first to receive the benefits of the legislation which grants illegal group members reduced sentences if they demobilize. Human rights groups have complained that the legislation only gives judicial investigators limited time frames to investigate cases and to charge the suspects even when they may have committed human rights abuses. Amnesty International insisted that the Colombian authorities must “reassure the public that human rights abusers ar e not among those to benefit” from the law. Human rights groups also suggest that the law does not guarantee fair investigations or the complete demobilization of the FARC as a whole. Amnesty International has suggested that this law violates the victim’s rights to truth, justice, and reparation. Read Amnesty International’s full report on the paramilitary demobilization: http://www.amnesty.usa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGRAM230192005

Colombia May Spray Coca in National Parks The Colombian government suggested it may spray the herbicide gyphosate in nature reserves to rid them of coca, the raw material for cocaine. According to Colombian Interior Minister, Sabas Pretelt, spraying the parks “would save them from destruction at the hands of drug smugglers. The government’s duty is not to allow our nature reserves to be wiped out by these ecological criminals.” The government will not give its final order to spray until studies show that “manual eradication is not practical in (a) nature reserve, and after consultation with indigenous and other peoples in the area,” Pretelt said. But environmentalists say that spraying with glyphosate will “damage pristine jungle environments and harm indigenous peoples.” The Ecuadorian government continues to be deeply concerned about the harmful health risks from the herbicide and asked Colombia not to spray within 6 miles of the border. Ecuador’s President Alfred Palacio told the U.N. General Assembly’s 60 th session that studies on the safety of glyphosate “suffer from technical and methodological deficiencies” and called on the United Nations system to “promote an integral and faithful study to determine the real impact of such spraying.”

An international conference entitled, “Partnering for Peace: Colombia and U.S. Communities in Solidarity” will be held in Chicago from October 21-23, 2005. For more information, please visit: http://www.chicagoans.net/conference2005 or contact John Lindsay-Poland at the Fellowship of Reconciliation at (415) 495-6334 or at forlatam@igc.org.