>risk. Investigation and sanction of those responsible for these acts. >Order the exhaustive and impartial investigation of the continuous >threats of death and acts of violence against human rights defenders and >apply criminal, civil, and administrative penalties provied by the law >to those who are found guilty. Generally, to conform to what is >indicated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in >international pacts and conventions ratified by Colombia. > >Contacts --------- >Andres Pastrana Arango Presidente de La Republica Carrera 8 n. 7-26 >Palacio de Nari�o Santaf� de Bogot� Colombia Phone +57 (1) 284 33 00 Fax >+57 (1) 286 74 34 +57 (1) 286 68 42 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Gustavo Bell Lemus Vice Presidente de la Naci�n Consejer�a Presidencial >de Derechos Humanos Calle 7 No 6-54 Piso 3 Santaf� de Bogot� Colombia >Phone +57 (1) 336-0311 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Jaime Bernal Cuellar Procurador General de la Naci�n Procuraduria >General de la Naci�n Carrera 5 n. 15-80 Santaf� de Bogot� Colombia Phone >+57 (1) 342-9723 +57 (1) 281-7531 > >Alfonso Gomez Mendez Fiscal General de la Naci�n Diagonal 22 B n. 52-01 >Santaf� de Bogot� Colombia Phone +57 (1) 570-2000 Fax +57 (1) 570-2022 > >Eduardo Cifuentes Defensor del Pueblo Defensoria del Pueblo Calle 55 n. >10-32 Santaf� de Bogot� Fax +57 (1) 346 12 25 >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Humberto de la Calle Lombana Ministro del interior Ministerio de >Gobierno Carrera 8 n. 8-09 Santaf� de Bogot� Palacio de Nari�o Phone +57 >(1) 286 80 25 +57 (1) 334 39 60 ext. 0630 > >Luis Fernando Ramirez Ministro de la Defensa Ministerio de Defensa >Nacional Avenida El Dorado con carrera 52 CAN Santaf� de Bogot� Colombia >Phone +57 (1) 222-1874 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Atentamente, GLADYS �VILA Secretaria General > >COPIA: DR. ANDERS KOMPAS/OFICINA DEL ALTO COMISIONADO DR. ANDRES >PASTRANA/PRESIDENCIA DE LA REP�BLICA DEFENSOR�A DEL PUEBLO DR. JESUS >ORLANDO GOMEZ/PROCURADURIA DELEGADA PARA LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS DR. PEDRO >D�AZ ROMERO/UNIDAD DE DERECHOS HUMANOS DE LA FISCALIA > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Friday, 6 October 2000 >Protesters seize Gore's office > >SAN FRANCISCO - Demonstrators protesting Al Gore's family investments in >Occidental Petroleum Corp. briefly took over his San Francisco campaign >headquarters Thursday, saying Gore was doing nothing to stop the >destruction of ancestral South American Indian lands. Alex Tourk, a >spokesman for the Gore presidential campaign, said about 30 protesters >thronged into the headquarters and demanded a meeting with the vice >president about Occidental's plans to drill for oil on land claimed by >the U'wa Indian tribe in northeastern Colombia. "They pushed volunteers >to get in and chained themselves to our tables and our phone bank," >Tourk said. > >Police arrested about 14 demonstrators, spokesman Sherman Ackerson said. > >"The fire department came and cut the locks on them one by one, and one >by one they were arrested for trespass," he said. > >The 5,000-member U'wa tribe drew attention to its cause by vowing to >commit suicide by walking off a cliff if Occidental proceeded with >drilling. Tribal members say the land is sacred. Gore, the Democratic >presidential nominee, said in May that his family's Occidental shares >are valued at $ 500,000 to $ 1 million. > > Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, 10 October 2000 > >U.S. Companies Tangled in Web Of Drug Dollars >By Lowell Bergman > >On a rainy day last June, a group of corporate executives gathered in a >conference room at the Justice Department for a meeting with Attorney >General Janet Reno and other top government officials. > >The executives represented some of the pillars of corporate >America-Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Company, Whirlpool. The session was >not publicized because those at the meeting shared an unlikely and >potentially embarrassing problem: their companies, they feared, were >being singled out in the nation's war on drugs, and neither they nor the >government was quite sure what to do. > >With the intensifying federal crackdown on money laundering, agents had >been tracking drug money into the accounts of American corporations and >their distributors and dealers. In fact, federal officials said, about >$5 billion a year in Colombian drug money is used to buy goods and >services-from cigarettes to computer chips-from American companies. > >What makes that possible is a system known as the black-market peso >exchange, a complex money trade that law enforcement officials say has >become increasingly important to the Colombian narcotics trade. > >The system-really a network of currency brokers with offices in New >York, Miami, the Caribbean and South America-is essentially an >underground money market that lets the traffickers exchange American >dollars for Colombian pesos. Those dollars, which stay in the United >States, are then bought by Colombian companies that use them to buy >American goods for sale back home. > >But the government's efforts to seize that money have put it on a >collision course with corporations, which say they are victims with no >way of knowing that they and their distributors are being paid with drug >money. > >As they met on June 6, those executives, lawyers and law enforcement >officials found themselves grappling with a conundrum: when does drug >money stop being drug money? > >How far does a company's responsibility go? > >The questions have been confronting law enforcement officials for years. > >"What are we going to do?" asked Greg Passic, a former drug enforcement >agent who now advises the government on the economics of the narcotics >industry. "We've got the Fortune 500 involved in our drug-money >laundering process." > >For a long time, because of lax enforcement of United States currency >laws, the drug traffickers were able to launder billions of dollars >through American financial institutions. A crackdown in the 1980's >pushed traffickers to what they saw as a virtually fail-safe system for >getting back their profits-the black-market peso exchange. > >Their growing reliance on that system shows how deeply the drug trade >has become entwined in the legitimate economies of the United States, >Colombia and other nations. Colombian officials said that as much as 45 >percent of their country's imported consumer goods are bought with money >laundered through the peso exchange. > >On the American side, law enforcement officials said the exchange has >largely eliminated the trade deficit with Colombia. The market, said the >customs commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, "is the ultimate nexus between >crime and commerce, using global trade to mask global money laundering." > >So far, no large American company has faced criminal charges. And >companies have almost always been able to prevent federal officials from >keeping money that has been seized. > >But in the last few years, as frustration has risen, the government has >taken a tougher line. There have been Congressional hearings intended to >put companies on notice by name. Prosecutors have issued warnings and >stepped up efforts to seize laundered money. > >At the same time, the government has encouraged companies to institute >"know your customer" policies similar to those used in the financial >industry. The policies gave dealers and distributors techniques for >recognizing money laundering. Thus educated, the government thought, the >companies would be less able to argue that they simply could not have >known. > >In drawing the line between legitimate and illegitimate profits, the >government must not only prove that the money came from drug deals; it >must show that the recipient "knew or should have known" its source. > >In the war on drugs, that line has proved very fuzzy. > > Trading Dollars for Pesos ------------------------- >Congress passed the first money-laundering laws in the early >1970's-requiring, among other things, that banks report any cash >transaction over $10,000 -- but the laws were loosely enforced. By 1979, >the Federal Reserve Bank in Miami had more cash than the other federal >reserve banks combined. > >It took the uproar over the cocaine epidemic in the early 80's for banks >to comply with the law. And with the resulting crackdown, traffickers >resorted to the black market, which for decades had provided Colombian >businesses with dollars at less than the official exchange rate of 2,000 >pesos to the dollar. The rate in Colombia is fixed by the government. > >One peso broker recently agreed to describe how the system works. > >The process begins when the broker receives a call from a Colombian drug >trafficker or his American representative. The two negotiate an exchange >rate for pesos, usually 30 percent to 40 percent below the fixed rate. >So $10,000 might be worth 12 million pesos instead of 20 million at the >official rate. > >The dollars are then delivered to the broker, who promises to deliver >pesos to the trafficker's bank account after the dollars are sold to >Colombian businesses. The dealer's insurance is the broker's knowledge >that to do otherwise would almost surely mean death. > >The broker maintains several runners-"smurfs," in law enforcement >lingo-who deposit the cash into hundreds of United States bank accounts >in amounts of less than $10,000, to avoid scrutiny. > >At the same time, the broker's office in Colombia negotiates with >business people there who want cheap dollars to buy everything from >consumer goods to helicopters. > >Usually, that exchange rate is 20 percent below market, so a business >owner in Colombia might pay 16 million pesos, instead of 20 million >pesos at the fixed rate, for $10,000. > >The pesos are then transferred-in this example, 12 million pesos-to the >traffickers' accounts. The broker keeps the difference, 4 million pesos >in this instance. Then at the businessman's direction, the dollars in >the American banks are used to pay for American goods. > >The peso brokerage is one part of the process that supplies Colombia >with inexpensive goods from the United States and around the world. >Colombian authorities said the goods were often smuggled into the >country, costing Colombia more than $300 million a year in tax revenue. > >Colombia has made collecting that lost revenue a priority. But the black >market has considerable appeal because it puts a lot of inexpensive >foreign goods on the Colombian market. > >The exchange has also increased American exports to Colombia. > >"This is positive for U.S. business, there is no doubt about it," said >Mike Wald, who runs a consortium of law enforcement agencies in Florida >focusing on the peso exchange. "The Colombian, if he pays less for his >dollars, can buy more goods. That's a pretty obvious economic fact. But >we have to realize where this money originates. It's drug money." > > Tangled With Drug Money ----------------------- >Two companies that have turned up in the American government's >anti-laundering efforts are Phillip Morris and Bell Helicopter Textron. > >Phillip Morris products in particular have been a major presence in >Colombia. Marlboro cigarettes are readily available at prices >investigators said indicated that they were bought with black market >dollars and smuggled into the country. > >Earlier this year, Phillip Morris was sued in the Eastern District of >New York by the Colombian tax collectors. The federal lawsuit accused >the company of being involved in cigarette smuggling and in the >laundering of drug proceeds. > >Phillip Morris has denied the allegations, saying that it did not know >its products were being exploited for money laundering. In addition, >without admitting wrongdoing, it recently signed an agreement with >Colombia, pledging to stop its products from entering the black market >or being used to launder money. > >In 1995, in Federal District Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Phillip >Morris's former distributors in northern South America were indicted for >laundering $40 million in black market pesos. > >A member of the defense lawyers said the money was used to buy Phillip >Morris cigarettes, liquor and other products for the Colombian market. >But the defense team member said the defendants did not know that the >money came from drug sales. > >Phillip Morris severed its relationship with the defendants in 1998 and >said it did not know that its products were being smuggled or that black >market money was used to buy them. > >In another case, Bell Helicopter is challenging the seizure of $300,000 >from its accounts, money, according to court documents, that was >generated by drug smuggling. > >It was part of more than $1 million that the United States believed was >supplied a peso-exchange broker to buy a Bell aircraft. > >The helicopter was seized in Panama at the request of the United States. > >The case has become a sore point for American law enforcement in part >because the helicopter was sold to a Colombian businessman linked to the >country's right-wing paramilitaries. > > Seeking Cooperation ------------------- >The deepening struggle between prosecutors and business executives is >what led to the meeting with Attorney General Reno and other government >officials, including Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder and Deputy >Treasury Secretary Stuart E. Eizenstat. The companies invited were >Hewlett-Packard, Ford, General Motors, Sony, Westinghouse, Whirlpool and >General Electric Company, Treasury officials said. > >None of the companies returned phone calls seeking comment, except >General Electric and Sony. Sony said it would have no comment. But >General Electric's counsel, Scott Gilbert, said his company instituted a >strict compliance program five years ago, after reports that its >refrigerators were being used in money-laundering operations. > >As part of its policy, Mr. Gilbert said General Electric warns dealers >to be aware of "red flags"-a customer's lack of interest in discounts, >an unwillingness to give information about the company, or unusual forms >of payment like large amounts of cash or checks written on the account >of a third party. > >The new policy has cut sales of appliances to Latin America by 23,000 >units, or over 20 percent, said an executive at General Electric. > >Alan Dooty, a customs official, said the companies had been selected for >the June meeting because their products had shown up in the black market >in Colombia. The exception was General Electric, which he singled out as >a "good citizen." > >Before the meeting, some of the companies expressed concern that they >would be punished. But once they arrived, Mr. Dooty said, they were >assured that the government was seeking cooperation. > >A follow-up session in July bogged down in legal murk. > >An industry representative familiar with the meeting said: "The Justice >and Treasury Departments realized that they were trying to identify drug >money that had morphed, been transformed, in layers of transactions >involving distributors, authorized dealers, financing arrangements with >unregulated money lenders called 'factors' and the other realities of >commercial life." > >More meetings are scheduled for this fall. > > "HOW IT WORKS-Dollars for Pesos: A Black Market" > >THE DRUG SALE A Colombian trafficker sells drugs in the United States. > >THE PESO BROKER The trafficker contacts a black-market peso broker to >launder the dollars. > >THE FIRST EXCHANGE The broker deposits the dollars into banks in the >United States and sells the trafficker Colombian pesos at 30 percent to >40 percent below market value. > >THE SECOND EXCHANGE The broker negotiates currency exchanges with >Colombian businesses that want to sell American goods at home. The rate >is usually 20 percent below market. > >THE GOODS The businesses instruct the broker to send the dollars to >United States companies, which then ship the goods, often through a >network of smugglers who avoid paying tariff. (Source: U.S. Customs >Service) > > Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Tuesday October 3, 2000 >Colombian Death Squad Kills Nine Peasants > >BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Right-wing paramilitary gunmen killed nine >peasants Tuesday in the latest political bloodletting in a war zone in >southwest Colombia, authorities said. > >Police attributed the attack outside the town of Mozambique, in a remote >area of Valle del Cauca province dominated by rebels and paramilitary >gangs, to the so-called Calima Front of the United Self-Defense Forces >of Colombia (AUC). > >The AUC, Colombia's main paramilitary force with an estimated 6,000 >mostly working-class fighters, is an arch-enemy of the country's two >leading Marxist guerrilla groups, and targets leftists and suspected >rebel sympathizers. > >Local and international human rights groups blame it for most of the >peasant massacres and other atrocities committed in Colombia's >long-running civil conflict, which has taken about 35,000 lives since >1990. > >Tuesday's victims, all men, included five members of the same family, >police said. They were dragged out of their homes at dawn and summarily >executed by the gunmen, who wore combat fatigues and were armed with >automatic assault rifles. > >Television images of the men showed them lying with their hands lashed >behind their backs. Local media reports said each had been killed with >three gunshots to the head. > >Colombia's military strongly denies repeated allegations that it >supports paramilitary groups or death squads, which can be traced back >to U.S.-inspired rural intelligence networks set up by the army in the >late 1960s and 1970s and outlawed in 1989. > >But in a recent report, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Colombian >government investigators believed that ``active duty and reserve army >officers attached to the Third Brigade in Cali set up and actively >supported the Calima Front.'' > >The Calima Front is believed to have been responsible for 200 killings >and the forced displacement of more than 10,000 people in the 12 months >since it began operating in July 1999 in and around the city of Cali, >Human Rights Watch said. _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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