From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 07:17:34 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: COLOMBIA: Weekly News Update #596, 7/1/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #596, JULY 1, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[.....]
5. Colombia: Indigenous Leaders Murdered
6. Colombia: Rebels Bust Out Prisoners
7. Colombia: US Activists Protest Monsanto
8. Peru: Workers Protest Spy Chief
[.....]
*5. COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS LEADERS MURDERED
Colombian Paez indigenous leader Cristobal Secue Tombe was
murdered by unknown assailants on June 25 near the town of
Corinto in the southwestern Colombian department of Cauca. Secue
Tombe was president of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca
(CRIC) and indigenous governor of the Corinto reservation. He
survived two assassination attacks this past April, allegedly
carried out by the Sixth Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), which has threatened indigenous leaders in
Cauca [see Update #585]. Police in Popayan, the departmental
capital of Cauca, said they have launched an investigation into
Secue's murder. [EFE 6/26/01]
Embera Katio leader Pedro Alirio Domico, governor of the
Esmeralda River Indigenous Reserve in Tierralta municipality, in
the northern department of Cordoba, was abducted over the weekend
of June 23, reportedly by the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC). His body was found on June 26 in the village of
Alto Guarumal, in Tierralta municipality; he had been shot seven
times in the head and chest. Pedro Domico had led efforts to win
compensation for his community for the damages caused by
construction of the Urra hydroelectric project; recently he had
been among a group of indigenous leaders who met with the
Interior Minister and the Governor of Cordoba to discuss
protection for the Embera-Katio communities in Cordoba. Domico
had also taken part in a recent demonstration in Tierralta
demanding the safe return of Kimy Pernia Domico, an Embera Katio
leader who was abducted on June 2 by rightwing paramilitaries
from the Campesino Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba
(ACCU), an affiliate of the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC) [see Updates #593, 594]. [Amnesty International
Urgent Action Appeal Update 6/27/01; Hoy (NY) 6/28/01]
The Humanitarian Mission of Indigenous Authorities, established
to find Kimy Domico in Cordoba department, suspended the search
mobilization on June 23 with no new evidence of his whereabouts.
The indigenous leaders insisted they will keep searching for
Domico through other means. "We remain hopeful that Kimy is
alive," said Francisco Rojas, a senator and indigenous rights
activist. "And we hope that he will be returned to us soon." Over
the past two years, 17 members of the Embera Katio nation--five
of them top leaders--have been killed by rightwing paramilitaries
or leftist rebels.
In a communique issued on June 22, the executive committee of the
National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) said the
Colombian government had admitted in a meeting earlier that day
that it had no plans to carry out a search for Domico, and would
not pressure the AUC to release the Embera leader. The government
did pledge to implement accords signed on Apr. 9, 2000, and to
speak with the FARC to urge an end to recruitment in indigenous
communities. [ONIC Executive Committee Communique 6/22/01 via
Vientos del Sur (VISUR) 6/29/01; Associated Press 6/26/01]
Domico's abduction came about a week after several violent
incidents involving armed groups operating in the Embera-Katio
territories of the Sinu and Verde rivers. At least nine Embera-
Katio people were massacred, allegedly by the FARC, on or around
May 22. At least four members of the community were reportedly
abducted by the AUC on May 20 and 21; they later reappeared
unharmed. [AFP 5/25/01; El Colombiano (Medellin) 5/25/01; El Pais
(Cali) 5/25/01; Equipo Nizkor / Derechos Human Rights / Serpaj
Europa Informacion 5/27/01]
On June 4--two days after Domico's abduction--Col. Henry Caicedo
Garcia, a police official in Cordoba department, told the Caracol
radio network that the indigenous people of the Alto Sinu region
are supporting FARC guerrillas there. Caicedo also said that the
indigenous residents of the region had fingered campesino coca
growers, prompting a massacre of campesinos attributed to the
FARC. Caicedo told Caracol that indigenous leader Kimy Pernia
Domico was kidnapped "apparently by paramilitaries, presumably
because of personal problems related to drug trafficking."
In a June 5 communique, the executive committee of the National
Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) blasted Caicedo's
statements and emphasized that both the ONIC and the indigenous
leadership councils of the region surrounding the Verde and Sinu
rivers have been clear in condemning the presence in indigenous
territory of illegal armed groups, whether guerrillas or
paramilitaries. The communique also notes that the indigenous
leadership councils "take a radical position against illegal
cultivations." [Equipo Nizkor/Derechos Human Rights/Serpaj Europa
Informacion 6/13/01]
Messages urging a full investigation into the murders of
indigenous leaders, protection for indigenous communities, the
safe return of Kimy Pernia Domico, and an end to army support for
paramilitary groups can be sent to President Andres Pastrana
Arango (fax #571-336-2109 or 337-1351) and Interior Minister
Armando Estrada Villa (fax #571-341-9583 or 334-3960). [AI Urgent
Action Update 6/27/01]
*6. COLOMBIA: REBELS BUST OUT PRISONERS
On the night of June 23, rebels from the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) attacked La Picota
prison in Bogota, blowing out a wall with dynamite. More than 140
prisoners fled as the FARC provided cover with gunfire; at least
36 of the escapees were recaptured alive and five others were
killed by guards. One police agent and at least 12 prisoners were
wounded. At least 19 of the escapees are FARC members. [Hoy (NY)
6/25/01; La Hora (Quito) 6/26/01 from EFE; AP 6/26/01] According
to a communique issued on June 27 by the General Staff of the
"Antonio Narino Urban Network" of the FARC-EP's Eastern Bloc, two
soldiers and four police agents were also killed in the assault
on La Picota. The communique says that among the five prisoners
killed were FARC members Roberto Ahumada Aldana and Alexander
Torres Torres. [FARC Communique 6/27/01]
The FARC claimed responsibility on June 24 for the breakout, and
FARC second-in-command Jorge Briceno (alias Mono Jojoy) told
reporters that similar actions will continue until the government
frees imprisoned FARC members. "Our objective is to get FARC
prisoners out of all the nation's prisons because the government
is refusing to exchange prisoners," Briceno said. "We are forced
to free them as best we can," he added, speaking from the
demilitarized zone in southern Colombia where negotiations
between the FARC and government are held. As of June 30, the FARC
had released 359 hostage soldiers and police agents as part of a
negotiated agreement with the government in which 11 sick rebels
were freed from prison [see Update #595]. The FARC is still
holding 42 mid-ranking police and army officers. [AP 6/26/01; AFP
6/25/01; Hoy 7/1/01 from EFE; El Nuevo Herald 6/30/01 from AP]
*7. COLOMBIA: US ACTIVISTS PROTEST MONSANTO
More than 80 people demonstrated outside the headquarters of the
Monsanto Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri on June 25 to protest
the spraying in Colombia of the toxic herbicide glyphosate, sold
by Monsanto as Round-Up Ultra. The spraying is part of the US-
sponsored Plan Colombia, allegedly aimed at curbing production of
drug crops. Six nonviolent protesters were arrested at the direct
action when they attempted to turn over to Monsanto a petition
with roughly 2,500 signatures, urging the company to take
responsibility for its role in the fumigation efforts in
Colombia. "We're concerned about the sales and production of
Roundup Ultra," said Margaret Hill of the St. Louis Inter-faith
Committee on Latin America. "It's being indiscriminately sprayed
on families and farms, not just on growing coca plants." [AP
6/25/01; St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America email
message, undated, sent via Rainforest Action Network]
*8. PERU: WORKERS PROTEST SPY CHIEF
Some 5,000 Peruvian civilian construction workers marched to the
Palace of Justice in Lima on June 27 to demand that former spy
chief Vladimiro Montesinos Torres--detained at the Palace since
his June 25 deportation from Venezuela--be tried for the Dec. 18,
1992 murder of union leader Pedro Huilca (or Huillca) Tecse.
Huilca's murder was originally attributed to the Maoist Peruvian
Communist Party (PCP, known as Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path);
later evidence showed the paramilitary Colina group headed by
Montesinos was responsible [see Updates #151, 153, 154, 192, 377,
383, 384, 442]. The protesters carried a giant puppet of a two-
headed prisoner behind bars, with the heads of Montesinos--who
was captured by Venezuelan military authorities on June 23 [see
Update #595]--and fugitive ex-president Alberto Fujimori, now
living in Japan. The workers were demanding sentences of life in
prison for Fujimori and Montesinos; and restoration of their
right to collective bargaining, eliminated under Fujimori's rule
(1990-2000). [La Republica (Lima) 6/28/01]
Early on June 28, Montesinos was transferred under tight security
from the Palace of Justice to the Callao Naval Base, where he
promptly began a hunger strike. The former spy chief said he
objects to being held in the special prison at Callao, which he
had built to hold top leaders of leftist rebel groups; he is
demanding to be transferred to a prison for common criminals.
Montesinos is facing 52 judicial proceedings in cases that
include drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking,
embezzlement, bribing public officials, and operating death
squads. [LR 6/29/01, 6/30/01; CNN en Espanol 6/30/01 from AP]
[.....]
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