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]
