WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #573, JANUARY 21, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*1. COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARY ONSLAUGHT CONTINUES
On Jan. 14 eight people were murdered and two others wounded by
rightwing paramilitaries in Valledupar, capital of the
northeastern Colombian department of Cesar. According to a police
source, a group of 40 paramilitaries first detonated a bomb in a
residential neighborhood in the north of Valledupar to attract
the attention of authorities to that area, then went to the
western neighborhoods of Bello Horizonte and El Futuro de los
Ninos, where they murdered the victims in their homes, in front
of family members.
Seven people who made a living selling agricultural products were
murdered by paramilitaries the same day, Jan. 14, in the rural
village of Corral de Piedra, near San Juan del Cesar
municipality, in the northern department of Guajira. Witnesses of
both massacres identified the killers as members of the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). [La Republica (Lima)
1/15/01 from EFE] Also on Jan. 14, paramilitaries murdered at
least six people in Sardinata municipality, Norte de Santander
department. On Jan. 15, paramilitaries murderd at least 10 people
in Cajibio, Cauca department. [Equipo Nizkor/Derechos Human
Rights/Serpaj Europa Solidaridad Urgente 1/20/01]
On Jan. 17, a group of about 50 paramilitaries from the AUC
killed at least 24 campesinos, abducted 10 others--six of them
minors--and burned 30 homes in the impoverished rural community
of Chengue, in Sucre department in northern Colombia. Survivors
from the town fled to the urban center in Ovejas municipality,
two hours away from Chengue on the main road. Witnesses say the
victims were killed with gunfire, knives, machetes and even
hammers, in front of their families and other residents. [LR
1/18/01 from AP, 1/19/01 from EFE; El Colombiano (Medellin)
1/19/01; Equipo Nizkor 1/20/01]
On Jan. 19, paramilitaries murdered at least six people in the
village of Santa Barbara, Antioquia department. The Santa Barbara
attack brings to 15 the number of paramilitary massacres that
have taken place so far in 2001, resulting in the deaths of at
least 170 people and the forced displacement of hundreds more.
[Equipo Nizkor 1/20/01; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 1/20/01 from AP]
*2. COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS LEADERS MURDERED
On Jan. 18, unidentified assailants shot to death Henry Perea
Torres, the mayor of Jurado municipality, in the northwestern
Colombian department of Choco, after dragging him out of his
office in broad daylight. Perea had taken office on Jan. 1 after
winning municipal elections last October on the ticket of the
Social Indigenous Alliance (ASI). Spokespeople for ASI blamed the
murder on the 57th Front of the leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC), and charged that Perea had expressed
fear for his life following the murder of his personal friend,
Embera indigenous leader Armando Achito Lubiaza. Charging that
the two murders were carried out by hired killers contracted by
opposing political groups, ASI called on the international and
national community to investigate the incidents. [El Colombiano
(Medellin) 1/19/01; Reuters 1/18/01]
Achito was gunned down on Dec. 25 at his home in Jurado by
rightwing paramilitaries, according to the Council of Indigenous
Authorities of the Wounaan OREWA Regional Embera Organization.
The paramilitaries then went to a shelter occupied by displaced
indigenous people, where they stole a communications radio.
According to the group, Achito was a council member of Jurado
municipality; he had just been reelected to the post by the ASI,
with full support of the Jurado community. Several church groups
responded to Achito's murder by forming an observer delegation
for the area which began work on Dec. 26; Perea formed part of
this delegation. [Wounaan OREWA Communique 12/26/00; Communique
from the Comision Diocesana Vida, Justicia y Paz/Equipo Misionero
Justicia y Paz 12/26/00]
*3. COLOMBIA: AID RELEASED WITHOUT WAIVER
In one of his final acts as US president, Bill Clinton signed a
letter to be sent to Congress on Jan. 19 together with a
"progress report on human rights in Colombia. The report says
that "despite positive developments," the Clinton administration
"does not believe that the government of Colombia has made
sufficient progress in vigorously prosecuting in the civilian
courts the leaders and members of paramilitary groups and
Colombian Armed Forces personnel who are aiding and abetting
these groups."
The report concludes that Colombia's security forces have not
fully complied with the conditions that Congress placed on a $1.3
billion emergency aid package last summer. Congress conditioned
the aid on certification by the secretary of state that Colombia
had taken specific steps to improve the military's human rights
record. But the legislation also allowed a presidential waiver on
US national security grounds. Clinton waived compliance last
August, before the bulk of the money was released.
The State Department told the White House in January that
Colombia was not in compliance, and recommended that another
waiver be issued. But under an interpretation by White House
legal staff, no further certification was required since
legislative restrictions applied only to the bulk of the money
passed as a supplemental appropriation and disbursed in fiscal
year 2000, and not to the approximately $35 million of it that
technically fell under the fiscal 2001 budget. Human rights
groups noted during the week of Jan. 8 that the human rights
situation in Colombia had "deteriorated" since the waiver last
August; after meeting with State Department officials, they
called on Clinton to withhold the remaining aid. [Washington Post
1/20/01]
*4. COLOMBIA: US CITIZENS PROTEST AID
On Jan. 17, a group of US citizens staged a protest and press
conference in front of the US embassy in Bogota to express
opposition to US military aid to Colombia. The protesters
included professionals, students and activists connected with a
number of US-based peace and human rights organizations. As part
of the protest, members of the group laid fruit and flowers in
front of the main gate to the fortress-like embassy. [Colombian
Labor Monitor 1/17/01; Hoy (NY) 1/18/01 from AP]
"We do not believe that helicopters will resolve the problem of
poverty in Colombia, nor the great problem of drug addiction in
the United States," said Witness for Peace representative Gail
Phares. A wave of protests and other public events is expected in
the US in the coming weeks, to draw attention to the role of the
US government in escalating the conflict in Colombia. [CLM
1/17/01]
*5. US: PROTEST AT RENAMED ARMY SCHOOL
On Jan. 17, a protest was held at the US military training
institution formerly known as School of the Americas (SOA) at
Fort Benning, Georgia. As military police patrolled the grounds,
students dressed in black robes and hoods marched along the
entrance of the base, carrying tiny white crosses and a small
coffin. Seven crossed the line and entered military property,
where they were immediately arrested and hauled off to jail. As
with numerous similar actions over the past decade, the latest
protest was organized by School of the Americas Watch, which
tracks SOA graduates involved in human rights violations and
continues to seek the permanent closure of the school.
The SOA, operated by the US Army, formally closed its doors on
Dec. 15, and the latest protest was timed to coincide with the
reopening of the school by the Pentagon under a new name, Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). Other
protests against the reopening of the school were held around the
US and in other countries including Chile, Honduras, Germany,
Canada and Austria. [Chicago Tribune 1/18/01; Tiempo (Honduras)
1/18/01 from EFE; La Tercera (Chile) 12/15/00]
The SOA has trained tens of thousands of military officers from
around Latin America, including many of those implicated in human
rights abuses. Colombia is one of the countries with the largest
numbers of officers trained at the SOA. [SOA Watch info from
website at http://www.soaw.org]
Officials claim the new institution will be geared toward
teaching democracy, counterdrug operations and human rights to
soldiers as well as civilians from every country in the Western
Hemisphere except Cuba and Haiti. Fighting drug trafficking will
be one of the school's major focuses, officials said. "When drug
traffickers have more resources than the armed forces of the
nation in which they are operating, that is a threat to
democracy," said Army Secretary Louis Caldera. "It is in our
national interest to protect our population from the ills of
drugs and the street violence it brings. And it is also in our
interest to help Colombia protect its democracy. The same threats
that are today facing Colombia will face every other nation in
the region if we don't handle it." [Chicago Tribune 1/18/01]
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Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
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