-Caveat Lector-
THE IRISH TIMES
Saturday, 17 March 2001
Barrancabermeja: An invasion fortold
------------------------------------
By Ana Carrigan
BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia-On January 19th, in Bogota, the city section of
El Tiempo-Colombia's leading newspaper-ran a story which sent shivers
through most urban readers.
Over a photograph of a unit of heavily armed young men in battle fatigues,
wearing the insignia AUC (United Self Defence Forces of Colombia) the
headline read, " 'Paras' Enter Bogota."
Carlos Castano, Latin America's most feared and efficient deathsquad
leader and commander of the fastest growing armed force in the country-the
8,000 strong AUC-had announced that the "Frente Capital," had entered the
Colombian capital to disrupt the guerrillas' urban network.
Thus the civil war between the paramilitaries and the guerrillas may
finally be making its way from the countryside into the cities.
If the shaky peace process breaks down, what kind of urban warfare would
be in store for Bogota?
Might this teeming city of eight million people become another Beirut,
with street battles on every corner as guerrillas and 'paras' fight for
control from block to block, in a Latin version of the Battle of Algiers?
Or would the urban drama follow a more sinister script?
Across ever increasing regions of Colombia, the arrival of truckloads of
paramilitary gunmen in isolated villages and towns, by day and by night,
often abetted by local security forces, brings death and displacement to
civilians on a daily basis. Yet until recently the 'paras' had not invaded
a major city. That has now changed.
The strategic oil producing city of Barrancabermeja is six hours from
Bogota.
Surrounded by rich oil deposits, the city was built on the banks of the
Magdalena river, one of Latin America's greatest waterways, to provide the
work force for Ecopetrol, Colombia's state- owned petrol refinery.
Though little oil wealth remains in the city or the region, Ecopetrol
pumps 75% of the nation's oil production from Barrancabermeja's grimy,
polluted river port.
Although a combined contingent of army, navy and police is stationed here
to provide security for Ecopetrol, their protection does not extend to
Barrancabermeja's quarter of a million inhabitants.
On December 22nd, 140 of Castano's AUC gunmen entered the impoverished,
northeastern sector of the city un-opposed and began systematically to
terrorise one working class neighborhood after another.
In January, after this paramilitary offensive had chalked up 53
assassinations in the first 30 days of the year, the Bishop of
Barrancabermeja, Monsignor Jaime Prieto, described the situation thus:
"Analyse the reality of this city. What do you see? You see a keg full of
petrol, and right beside it, a naked flame. That's what you call a time
bomb. Barrancabermeja is a time bomb."
The paramilitaries first came to the city in May 1998. Two truckloads of
hooded, armed men drove past army and police checkpoints and pulled up on
a local football field. It was around 10 o'clock, on a Saturday night,
and the neigborhood was holding a block party. When people heard gunfire
they assumed, at first, that he revellers were setting off fireworks. The
paramilitaries killed eleven young men that night, and abducted 25 others
who were never seen again, alive or dead. Carlos Castano claimed they were
dead and incinerated.
The current onslaught is the result of the Colombian government's efforts
to establish a demilitarised zone in the region and start negotiations
with Colombia's second largest guerrilla force, the Army of National
Liberation, (ELN).
One year ago, the government and ELN leaders agreed to establish a "peace
zone" in territory near the city traditionally controlled by the ELN, but
now in paramilitary hands.
Demonstrating his regional control, Castano mobilised mass demonstrations
to block the proposed "peace zone" and threatened to arm the local
population and unleash civil war if the government insisted on going
ahead.
20,000 protesters, funded by regional cattlemen, landowners,
narcotraffickers and business leaders, threw up barricades on the Pan
American Highway and paralysed all road and river traffic for 20 days.
By the time the government capitulated the blockade had cost the country
$2 million and the peace accord with the ELN was back on the drawing
board.
Twelve months later, the ELN and the government have agreed to a reduced
"peace zone;" the European Commission has offered to invest $200 million
dollars for regional development once the talks begin; but the government
has still been unable to resolve the impasse.
As so often in Colombia, the AUC's December incursion in Barrancabermeja
was an 'invasion foretold.'
In April, Castano's local commander, alias "Julian," announced that his
forces were in Barrancabermeja and would take control of the city "by
December."
AUC actions follow an established pattern.
First, a 'black hand,' silently, anonymously, circulates a list of names,
declared 'military objectives.'
Then the killing starts. In Barrancabermeja the murders began in the
summer.
56 assassinations in June. In July, 62. By year's end, 567 people had
been gunned down, on the streets, in the shops and cafes, at their offices
and in their homes.
Among the targets of these "macabre human huntsmen," as a local newspaper
described the killers, were doctors, teachers, secretaries, union members,
municipal officials, taxi drivers, church workers, human rights defenders.
The police saw nothing; knew nothing; did nothing. Witnesses were too
frightened to testify. A petrified silence protected the killers.
By the time that gun-toting paramilitary squads appeared openly on the
streets, terror had ruptured the trust on which community solidarity
depends.
In the second stage, the gunmen tighten the screws.
In Barrancabermeja's poor areas they set up road blocks, sealed off
streets and went to work.
They had a list of suspect guerrilla sympathisers whom they dragged from
their houses and shot, or abducted.
Gunmen broke down doors, forced residents to hand over the keys of their
homes and then moved in.
They exploited these captive families to extract information about their
neighbors, provide their meals, run their errands and obey their orders.
They cut the telephone lines and went house to house seizing cell phones.
Next they went for the community leaders.
For thirty years, the guerrillas were a fact of life in Barrancabermeja.
Unemployment at 30% offered a steady source of rebel recruits; contraband
petrol, acquired by puncturing local pipelines, provided a stream of
illegal funding; forking over a 'protection fee' was a recognised part of
the overhead for doing business in the city.
Yet to describe what is happening in the city today as an urban battle
between guerrillas and paramilitaries is to miss the point.
Since 1998, the focus of the counter-insurgency war has shifted and
Castano's campaing to win control of Barrancabermeja has revealed the
wider, political and strategic agenda behind the AUC'S offensive, geared
to destroy or gain control over the government and the peace process.
In the neighborhods where Castano's gunmen are imposing their totalitarian
dictat today, the guerrillas have long fled or, seduced by AUC power,
money, weapons and cell phones, yesterday's rebels have switched sides.
Neglected by successive Colombian governments, the people living here
maintain highly developed autonomous, community organisations.
It is these groups the AUC has targeted for destruction.
"Gerardo," (not his real name) is a leader in a place known as 'Communa
7.' On the morning of January 30th, armed men forced their way into the
local, Communa 7 headquarters of a women's organisation and demanded the
keys to the building.
When the women, who use the building to run a community kitchen and
provide refuge for displaced families, refused to hand them over, the
'paras' gave them until 4.00 p.m. to leave and ordered "Gerardo" to
organise a demonstration outside the building to drive the women away.
'It's an order' they said.' If you don't obey we will know. It's simple.
You work for us. Or you leave town. Or you die."
Why, I asked "Gerardo," can't you ask the police to escort the phone
company to reconnect the phone service? He shrugged.
"The 'paras' make fun of us if we call the police. 'What idiots you are to
bring the army and police here,' they say. 'They work with us, didn't you
know?'"
The city's civilian leaders have no illusions. Unless the government can
re-establish the rule of law and take back control of the streets they
expect the paramilitaries' totalitarian backers to prevail.
"It's the historic Latin American phenomenon," says the Bishop. "In
moments like these an ultra-right appears to impose its own political and
economic model. Based on the logic of force rather than the force of
logic, it leaves no spaces for liberty, much less for human rights, or for
economic and social development based on sustainability and consensus.
But, their rhetoric is seductive. It promises peace, security, employment.
People applaud. I've seen it. In moments like these they'll go along."
A prominent Barrancabermeja human rights defender agrees, and adds:
"If this happens in Colombia we will have 20-years of dictatorship in this
country."
As the AUC closes in on Bogota and other cities, it is this dark vision,
bleaker than any yet seen during the 40 year insurgency, that lies behind
any future escalation of the war.
Powerful economic forces are driving this AUC campaign. Barrancabermeja is
the largest city in the Magdalena Medio, a region of vast potential wealth
and strategic importance.
The routes connecting the rest of the country to northern Colombia and the
Pacific, and the main road linking Bogota to the industrial heartland of
Medellin and the Atlantic coast, all pass through Magdalena Medio.
In addition to oil, Colombia's most important deposits of gold and nickel
are buried in the San Lucas mountains north of the city and large cattle
ranches and agro-industry dominate in the east.
Yet 80% of Magdalena Medio's economy comes from drugs; the fourth largest
drug crop in the country, some 50,000 acres of coca plants, provides the
cocaine that finances the AUC and underpins the political power of
regional narcotraffickers.
By summer's end, 2,000, the AUC had routed the ELN from their Magdalena
Medio strongholds, and after October's regional elections Castano
controlled the local administrations in 28 of Magdalena Medio's 29
municipalities. Barrancabermeja is number 29.
Barancabermeja is a young town, a raunchy, tough, independent-minded, blue
collar town, with an anarchic streak.
It is not the place you would pick to establish the bridgehead of a
totalitarian regime, and the communities on the front lines of the AUC's
offensive are resisting.
Pressure on military and police commanders from the American Embassy has
helped-Ambassador Anne Patterson visited Barrancabermeja in December to
meet civilian leaders.
Support from Diocesan workers, local activists and the international
community have all been crucial to the daily effort to protect lives, and
the communities suffering AUC's assault will not give up easily.
As I said goodbye to Monsignor Prieto, he told me:
"Colombia's worst enemy is this culture of illegality which is
de-legitimising the government. Magdalena Medio is the mirror through
which we will see whether the state is capable of eliminating all
suspicion concerning its relations with these paramilitaries.
Personally, that is why I feel so strongly about the ELN 'peace zone.'
That is where we will be able to measure the state's response."
In the second week of February, General Careno, Comander of the army's Vth
Brigade with responsibility for the region, attacked the AUC's operational
base, located on a bluff overlooking the river 15 minutes from the city.
The army found two bunkers, classrooms for political studies, a heliport
for a fleet of helicopters, and five cocaine processing laboratories.
General Careno's action offers hope that one senior commander, at least,
has assumed the challenge defined by Monsignor Prieto.
Yet, the government still fails to impose the peace zone, and
Barrancabermeja bleeds. Eduardo Cifuentes, Colombia's courageous
ombudsman, said recently, that Barrancabermeja's human rights defenders
were threatened not with death, but with extinction.
"The conscience of society is being murdered [here]," he said.
On March 4th, Castano posted a letter addressed to President Pastrana on
the AUC website, in which, for the first time, he threatened the Colombian
army:
"The United Self- Defense Forces of Colombia are on high alert," Castano's
letter said, "our troops are ready to die or to kill, confronting the
guerrillas, or whomever, in order to defeat a new demilitarized zone."
Last week, the number of assassinations in Barrancabermeja since January
1st rose to 145.
Copyright 2001 Irish Times
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