From: Pakito Arriaran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 10:46:41 -0500
Subject: Weekly News Update on Colombia #600, 7/29/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #600, JULY 29, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*4. COLOMBIA: OXY FINDS NO OIL ON U'WA LAND
Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) has stopped drilling at the Siriri
field in Colombia (formerly called the Samore bloc) after finding
gas and condensates but no oil, a company official said on July
27. Occidental still considers it "possible" that oil may be
discovered at the Siriri site, a spokesperson said, but drilling
will not resume for at least a year as more seismic studies will
probably be needed and the company will have to consider security
concerns and the site's highly complicated geological structure.
The Siriri field is located near the Venezuelan border in the
47,000-hectare Gibraltar Basin, about 140 km from Occidental's
existing Cano Limon field in eastern Colombia. Exploration at
Siriri started in February 2000, and its possible reserves were
at first estimated by the company at 1.4 billion barrels. At the
time test drilling began, Occidental rated the chances of
discovering a commercially viable oil deposit at Siriri to be
about 20%. [Reuters 7/27/01]
The Siriri field is located on the traditional land of the U'wa
indigenous people, who have been trying to stop the drilling
project for nine years with help from international supporters,
using nonviolent tactics ranging from shareholder resolutions to
civil disobedience. The latest news came as thousands of U'wa
take part in AjReowa, a special time of fasting, meditation,
teaching, singing and prayer which lasts from June through
August. Their prayers have been focused on driving Oxy away from
their land. The U'wa believe that oil is the blood of Mother
Earth, and that its extraction kills her. [U'wa Updates 7/28/01]
*5. COLOMBIA: EX-ARMY GENERAL ARRESTED
Colombian retired army general Rito Alejo del Rio was arrested on
July 23 in Bogota on charges that he sponsored rightwing
paramilitary death squads from 1995 to 1997, while serving as
commander of the army's 17th Brigade, based in the northwestern
department of Antioquia. Del Rio was forced into early retirement
amid human rights accusations in April 1999 [see Update #480].
According to Robin Kirk of Human Rights Watch, "an abundance of
information" links Del Rio to paramilitary activities. Troops
under his command actively aided the paramilitaries by providing
intelligence information or by setting up roadblocks during
massacres to prevent the entry of anyone who could stop the
killing, according to Kirk. She also said paramilitary forces
based in Antioquia and neighboring Cordoba department under the
command of leader Carlos Castano began expanding nationwide
during Del Rio's tenure in the area.
Coming a day before the US Congress was set to vote on a new
military aid package for Colombia, Del Rio's arrest was clearly
timed to make it appear that the government is severing its
longstanding ties to notorious human rights violators. Cracking
down on army officers who work with the paramilitaries is one of
several conditions governing current US aid to Colombia's
security forces. [AP 7/23/01; Los Angeles Times 7/24/01] Del Rio
took a Cadet Orientation Course from the US Army School of the
Americas (SOA) in 1967, when the school was based in Panama. [SOA
Watch website, http://www.soaw.org]
*6. COLOMBIA: US HOUSE APPROVES MILITARY AID
On July 24, the US House of Representatives voted 381 to 46 to
approve a $15.2 billion foreign aid bill that includes the Andean
Regional Initiative (ARI, also known as the Andean Counter-drug
Initiative), a package of $676 million in mostly military aid for
Colombia and its neighboring countries. The bill has now gone to
the Senate for consideration. In addition to the ARI, the bill
includes $2.7 billion in military and economic assistance for
Israel, $2 billion for Egypt, $768 million for the states of the
former Soviet Union and $600 million for Southeast Asia and the
Balkans. The deal was sweetened for Democrats with the inclusion
of $474 million for AIDS programs and $425 million for
reproductive health assistance.
The House defeated, in a 240-188 vote, an amendment by Rep.
Barbara Lee (D-CA) that would have shifted $60 million from the
ARI and military assistance programs to a World Bank trust fund
to fight AIDS. The House voted 249-179 against an amendment by
Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) that would have cut the aid to
Colombia by $100 million, with half that money going into
tuberculosis programs and the other half into child survival
programs. McGovern said his goal was to alert the Colombian armed
forces that patience is running out with individual officers
accused of working with rightwing paramilitary groups which
massacre civilians.
The House approved by voice vote an amendment by Rep. John
Conyers (D-MI) which caps at 500 the number of US military
personnel in Colombia, and limits the number of US civilian
contractors who can operate there to 300. President George W.
Bush had sought to eliminate the cap on civilian contractors. The
contractors, many of them retired US military personnel, are
involved in many of the ongoing US operations in Colombia,
including piloting the planes that spray herbicides over drug
crops. After listening to fumigation supporters in a debate over
the spraying program, Conyers withdrew an amendment that would
have halted the program, which has been criticized as harmful to
local residents and the environment.
Rep. David Obey (D-WI) blasted Congress for failing to adequately
debate the Colombia aid issue. "The Congress ought to have a
full-blown, detailed briefing on this issue," Obey said. "The
leadership of both parties has been disgracefully negligent to
allow us to drift into this war without any real thought about
what the outcome is going to be." Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) also
expressed concern: "I think there's a great deal of uncertainty
over how this program is working," he said. Hoekstra introduced
an amendment--which was approved by voice vote--to hold up $65
million in aid to Peru until the Bush administration certifies
Peru has acted to prevent the shooting down of civilian planes.
Last April a Peruvian Air Force plane opened fire on a plane
mistakenly believed to be carrying drugs, killing a US missionary
and her infant daughter [see Updates #586, 591].
Congress approved $1.3 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia
last year, in a bill promoted by then-president Bill Clinton, a
Democrat [see Updates #543-546]. Much of that funding has yet to
be disbursed, but the new initiative is to ensure that financing
"continues in 2002 for both a military component and social
programs that include alternative development for coca farmers
forced out of work by aerial eradication," according to the Miami
Herald. [AP 7/25/01; Reuters 7/25/01; Washington Post 7/25/01; MH
7/25/01]
*7. COLOMBIA: JUDGE ORDERS HALT TO SPRAYING
On July 27, Colombian circuit judge Gilberto Reyes Delgado
ordered the "immediate suspension" of all aerial spraying of
herbicides over the countryside in Colombia while he decides on a
legal complaint filed July 18 by the Colombian human rights group
Minga, acting on behalf of 62 indigenous communities in the
country's southern Amazon region. Minga lawyers argued that the
government had violated the law by going ahead with the
fumigation program without prior public consultation. Under the
Colombia's 1991 Constitution, a consultation process is required
before implementing any project that could affect the country's
indigenous communities. The complaint also argued that the
spraying should be suspended until a proper study is completed
into its effects on humans and wildlife.
A legal ruling is expected during the week of July 30 after Judge
Reyes hears arguments from the government. If the judge rules
against continued spraying, the government will almost certainly
appeal the decision. [St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 7/28/01]
The US-sponsored fumigation program, which targets coca and poppy
fields as part of an anti-drug strategy, has come under increased
scrutiny in recent weeks. On July 24, Klaus Nyholm, director of
United Nations (UN) counternarcotics programs in Colombia, called
for international monitoring of the spraying to examine the
affected areas and the mix of chemicals being used. Nyholm said
the UN has collected ample evidence that herbicides are being
forcibly sprayed on the food crops of subsistence farmers. [AFP
7/24/01; AP 7/24/01]
Meanwhile, a group of 20 US activists followed up a July 8-17
visit to Colombia with a July 18 vigil at the site of the US
military's training school for Latin American officers in Fort
Benning, Georgia, to protest the fumigation program and US
military aid and intervention in general. Eleven of the activists
were arrested after crossing onto the grounds of the former
School of the Americas (SOA), now renamed as the Western
Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation (WHISC). During
their trip to Colombia, the activists witnessed the effects of
the spraying and spoke with local residents who had been affected
by it. [SOA Watch Press Release 7/18/01]
=======================================================================
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
http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=======================================================================
****************************
Red Palante!
Comunicacion Antagonista y
Resistencia Cultural
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://inquilino.net/palante
****************************
_________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
--
