WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #567, DECEMBER 10, 2000
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*4. NEW PARAMILITARY MASSACRE IN COLOMBIA
Early on Nov. 22, members of the Colombian rightwing paramilitary
group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) entered the
Caribbean coast fishing village of Nueva Venecia, in Sitionuevo
muncipality, Magdalena department. They executed at least 17
people on the spot in front of other residents; more bodies were
found later, and as of Dec. 1 the death toll had risen to at
least 36. In a preliminary report issued late on Nov. 30,
national human rights prosecutor Eduardo Cifuentes said local
residents spoke of 46 dead and more than 40 people missing since
the attack. Cifuentes said 2,000 people--of a total 3,000
residents--have fled the town since the attack. [Reuters 12/1/00
via cnn.com]
Witnesses said that when the paramilitaries arrived in Nueva
Venecia at 2am on Nov. 22, several villagers used cellular phones
to make urgent calls to relatives in Barranquilla, telling them
that a massacre was imminent and asking them to tell authorities
to come and help stop it. By 6am, authorities in Barranquilla had
been informed of the situation in Nueva Venecia, but insisted
that they didn't have the troops or equipment to get there. At
4pm, say witnesses, an army helicopter landed on Nueva Venecia's
soccer field and eight soldiers got out; they looked around for
five minutes, then left. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 11/27/00]
In its annual report on Latin America, issued on Dec. 7, the US-
based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) described Colombia as
having the region's most serious human rights crisis, noting that
"there continued to be abundant, detailed, and continuing
evidence of direct collaboration between the military and
paramilitary groups."
"The government claimed major improvements in curtailing abuses
by paramilitaries, but the facts did not bear this out.
Paramilitary activity increased and paramilitary groups were
considered responsible for 93 massacres in the first five months
of 2000," said HRW in the report. HRW blamed paramilitary groups
for at least 78% of the human rights violations recorded in the
six months from October 1999; the leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) was blamed for some 20% of killings of
civilians. [HRW Report; CNN en Espanol 12/7/00 with info from
Reuters, AP]
United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary
Robinson visited Colombia on Dec. 4-5 to investigate the human
rights situation. She met with government officials, including
President Andres Pastrana, on Dec. 4, and with human rights
activists on Dec. 5. Robinson expressed support for the
government's peace process, but urged Pastrana to take concrete
steps to deactivate paramilitary groups. [AFP 12/5/00]
*5. COLOMBIA: PURGED SOLDIERS JOIN PARAMILITARY GROUP
On Dec. 2 (or Dec. 1 according to Spanish news service EFE),
Colombian defense minister Luis Fernando Ramirez officially
confirmed the "sad and certain" reports in the Colombian media
that more than 57 former members of the military have formally
joined the paramilitary group AUC. The 57 former officers and
noncommissioned officers were among a group of 388 military
personnel--89 officers and 299 noncommissioned officers--who were
forced into retirement in mid-October, in a move by the Colombian
government designed to convince critics in the US and Europe that
it was serious about breaking ties between its security forces
and the paramilitaries. At the time, Ramirez admitted that the
departing officers included some suspected of having committed
human rights violations, or having links to paramilitary groups
or drug traffickers, among other irregularities. [Colombian Labor
Monitor 12/2/00; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/3/00 from EFE; AFP
12/5/00]
Gen. Nestor Ramirez, second-in-command of the Colombian army,
announced on Dec. 2 that more than 100 other officers and
noncommissioned officers would be forced into retirement in the
subsequent days. He declined to comment on the reasons for their
departure from the armed forces, and called the move part of the
"restructuring" of state security forces. [ED-LP 12/3/00 from
EFE]
Messages urging the Colombian government to ensure that military
officers suspected of links to paramilitary groups are arrested
and charged, rather than simply being allowed to retire, can be
sent to President Pastrana (fax #571-286-7434, 6842 or 2186;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]) and to Defense Minister Ramirez
(tel/fax #571-222-1874, [EMAIL PROTECTED]). US
residents can also ask their senators and representatives to seek
an end to all US military aid, since the Colombian government is
not fulfilling its promises to curb paramilitary groups.
*6. COLOMBIAN REBELS LIFT SOUTHERN BLOCKADE, ACCUSE ARMY
On Dec. 4, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
lifted the blockade which its Southern Bloc had maintained over
the southern department of Putumayo since Sept. 29 in protest
over the increased presence of paramilitary groups in that
department. In a Dec. 4 communique, the FARC announced the
lifting of the blockade, saying that it had "demonstrated to the
national and international community and in particular to the
residents of Putumayo that the Colombian army is a `transvestite'
army which at times presents itself and acts as the
constitutional army and other times as the state paramilitaries."
The FARC communique warned: "if the Army tries to continue with
its `transvestism' in Putumayo in the same way it has been doing
in the rest of the country, the Southern Bloc will renew its
blockade of the department." [FARC Southern Bloc Communique
12/4/00; El Nuevo Herald 12/9/00 from AP]
The government's high commissioner for peace, Camilo Gomez,
announced on Dec. 6 that the government had agreed to extend
until Jan. 31 the 42,000-square kilometer demilitarized peace
zone in southern Colombia which has been under FARC control for
two years. A day later, Gomez said that the government and the
FARC had reached an agreement to exchange the freedom of at least
10 government troops being held by the FARC for the release of an
equal number of imprisoned rebels. [ENH 12/9/00 from AP]
*7. US SENATOR SPRAYED BY HERBICIDE IN COLOMBIA
US Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), one of the few senators who
opposed a $1.3 billion US aid plan ostensibly directed at
Colombia's drug trade, headed a fact-finding delegation to
Colombia Nov. 28-30. While watching the Colombian National Police
demonstrate its fumigation of coca plants, Wellstone and other
members of his delegation were hit with a fine spray of the
herbicide glyphosate from a helicopter flying less than 200 feet
above them. Wellstone reportedly joked about the incident, but
delegation member Pamela Costain, executive director of the
Minneapolis-based Resource Center of the Americas, was upset:
"I'm fearful about what they're using, and I really didn't want
to get it on me," she said.
Just before the incident, Lt. Col. Marcos Pedreros, the police
official in charge of the spraying mission, had assured Wellstone
that the spray posed no risk to humans, animals or the
environment. Ironically, the US Embassy in Colombia had just
circulated materials to reporters, noting the "precise
geographical coordinates" used to spray coca fields. According to
embassy officials, a computer program sets precise flight lines
with a 170-foot width, leaving little room for error.
"We did not spray on the people or on the senator," said Gen.
Gustavo Socha, anti-narcotics director for the Colombian National
Police, speaking through an interpreter. But when told that a
reporter witnessed the incident, Socha said: "What hit him was
because of the wind, not because they had the intention."
Police took Wellstone and the rest of the delegation to several
sites to watch police destroy a drug laboratory and an airstrip
used by drug traffickers. Costain said she was offended by the
entire display. "I felt like the senator's visit was used as a
public-relations ploy for the eradication program," she said.
"And I think it's ironic because I'm not at all confident that
the senator supports the eradication program."
Later, Wellstone flew to Barrancabermeja, becoming the first
member of Congress to visit what embassy officials called the
most dangerous city in Colombia. Under heavy security, he met
with human rights groups who said the Colombian government is
doing nothing to protect civilians. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune
12/1/00; AP 12/1/00]
During the Nov. 30 visit to Barrancbermeja, a regional Colombian
police commander announced that his officers had foiled an
assassination attempt against Wellstone and US ambassador Anne
Patterson. A report by Resource Center on the Americas suggested
that the timing of the announcement "raised the prospect that the
`assassination' attempt was a ruse intended to disrupt" peace
talks between the rebels and the government. The Colombian
National Police and the US government quickly denied that the two
land mines discovered on Nov. 30 on a highway near
Barrancabermeja had any connection to Wellstone's visit.
[Resource Center of the Americas 12/1/00; AP 12/1/00]
At a post-trip news conference in Minneapolis on Dec. 1,
Wellstone told reporters he thought his Colombian hosts created
the bomb story to dissuade him from traveling to other dangerous
regions. "I don't know whether I was targeted, but I certainly
know that the human rights activists are targeted," Wellstone
said. "It's a small story that tells the larger story of what's
happening in Colombia." [Drug Reform Coordination Network
(DRCNet), The Week Online #163, 12/8/00; AP 12/2/00] Wellstone
said he will try to insist that Colombia gets no more US aid
unless it improves its human rights record. [AP 12/1/00]
*8. US "OUTSOURCING" COLOMBIAN WAR?
The St. Petersburg Times of Florida reported on Dec. 2 that the
Clinton administration has hired a high-level group of former US
military personnel as "consultants," who keep in close contact
with Pentagon officials while advising Colombians on efforts to
improve the Colombian army, and how new laws could make the
Colombian military more professional and effective, as well as
helping to revamp Colombia's National Police. The consultants
work for Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), an
Alexandria, Virginia-based company run mostly by retired US
military officers. Critics say the practice, known as
outsourcing, is intended to bypass congressional oversight and
provide political cover to the White House if something goes
wrong. MPRI has done other work for Washington around the world,
including in the Balkans.
MPRI is now working full time in Colombia under a $6 million
contract. The arrangement was approved by the US Congress. The
company has dispatched 14 employees to Bogota under the direction
of a retired army major general. Specifically, MPRI is working
with the Colombian armed forces and National Police in the areas
of planning; operations, including psychological operations;
training; logistics; intelligence; and personnel management.
"It's very handy to have an outfit not part of the US armed
forces, obviously," said former US ambassador to Colombia Myles
Frechette. "If somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say it's
not a member of the armed forces. Nobody wants to see American
military men killed." MPRI and the Pentagon both denied requests
by the St. Petersburg Times to review the MPRI contract, which is
renewable each year. [St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 12/2/00]
