October 25, 2004

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

Colombia Predicts Drop in Coca Crops Colombian President Alvaro Uribe predicted Saturday that the there will be a major reduction in coca production recorded in 2004. Speaking at a business conference in neighboring Peru, the Colombian president indicated that when his administration took office in 2002, there were 180,000 hectares of land available for growing coca, whereas by the end 2003 that number had been reduced to less than 100,000 hectares. President Uribe went on to say that the Colombian government is confident that it will finish 2004 with only about 65,000 hectares of coca remaining in the country. Bogotá also pointed out that since Uribe took office in 2002, more than 250,000 hectares have been fumigated. Colombia is the number one cocaine producing country in the world, and has received over $3 billion dollars in aid from the United States alone since 2000. President Uribe, laying out his plans for the rest of his term in office, said that while the amount coca eradicated is large, the “aim has to be zero land devoted to drug crops in Colombia, no drug trafficking in Colombia.”

United States Reaches Settlement With Airline Over Drug Smuggling The U.S. government has reached a conditional settlement with the Colombian airline Avianca on accusations that the airline knowingly allowed cocaine to be smuggled aboard its flights to the United States. Under the settlement Avianca, or Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia—which has been operating under bankruptcy protection—could face $3 million in fines and seizure of its airplanes by the U.S. government. According to David Kelly, the United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Avianca can avoid fines by maintaining an external monitoring agency to be chosen by the United States, as well as screening and studying luggage bound for the U.S. on its flights. Investigations led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have shown that Avianca Airlines has been involved in two out of three cocaine seizures at Kennedy Airport in New York since 1999. Anthony Placido, a DEA special agent in charge of the New York field division, said that “this was not a criminal organization unwittingly using the airline…There was either blind negligence or the willful participation by criminal conspirators employed by Avianca. We believe there was corruption within the airline." In an unrelated story, the White House released a statement announcing the President’s decision to renew sanctions that are part of the 1995 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which seek to deter businesses and individuals (both U.S. and foreign) from involvement in the Colombian drug trade.

Arrest Made For 2003 Grenade Attacks During a routine traffic stop in Algeciras, a village in southern Colombia, Colombian National Police identified and arrested a suspected accomplice to two fatal grenade attacks on popular bars in Bogotá’s Zona Rosa district. Adolfo Toledo is accused of terrorism, homicide, and conspiracy in relation to two grenade attacks that killed one woman and injured 72 people, including 5 U.S. citizens on November 15, 2003. Toledo and Arturo Montano, who was arrested shortly after the blasts and has since been sentenced to 26 years in prison, are both alleged members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (FARC) elite unit called the Teofilo Forero Column. In a related story, Colombian weekly El Espectador reported that the Colombian government may extradite FARC leader Ricardo Palmera, also known as Simon Trinidad, to the United States on counts of drug trafficking and kidnapping. Palmera has been charged with 60 crimes in Colombia including the kidnapping and murder of former Minister of Culture Consuelo Araujo and U.S. engineer Thomas Pescatore.

Colombia Destroys Stockpile of Mines U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Wood was present alongside Colombian President Alváro Uribe and Queen Noor of Jordan as 6,800 land mines were destroyed in an effort to rid the nation of the deadly devices. Watching on a monitor from Bogotá’s main Bolivar plaza, the dignitaries, along with several victims of land mine explosions, viewed eight explosions destroying the mines in an area near Baranquilla in the north of Colombia. President Uribe cited this as part of his plan to discontinue the use of such weapons, even though they are still used by armed groups that have been fighting the government for nearly 40 years. The government maintains 14,000 mines still planted throughout Colombia.

There will be no Colombia This Week until mid November due to staff travel. We apologize for the inconvenience.