From: Red Palante! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 17:00:07 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Weekly News Update on Colombia #620, 12/16/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #620, DECEMBER 16, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*4. COLOMBIA: WHERE IS INDIGENOUS LEADER?
On Dec. 12 the rightwing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces
of Colombia (AUC) denied having kidnapped or murdered Embera-
Katio indigenous leader Kimy Pernia Domico, who remains missing
since his June 2 abduction in Tierralta, Cordoba department [see
Updates #593, 594, 596, 610]. AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso issued
the denial in a letter to the press shortly after indigenous
senator Francisco Rojas Birry, speaking in Bogota, claimed
Mancuso had warned it was "useless" to search for Pernia Domico
because the AUC had murdered him and dismembered his body.
Armando Valbuena, president of the National Indigenous
Organization of Colombia (ONIC), said his organization will
continue to assume the missing leader is alive and in the hands
of the AUC, and will continue to search for him. A day earlier,
Dec. 11, indigenous leaders criticized the government for failing
to protect the autonomy of indigenous communities. On Nov. 30,
indigenous representatives ended a nationwide congress in Cota,
Cundinamarca department, by nominating Pernia Domico as a
candidate for next year's presidential elections [see Update
#618]. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/13/01 from AFP; El Colombiano
(Medellin) 12/13/01 from EFE]
*5. COLOMBIA: GOVERNMENT TALKS TO REBELS
On Dec. 12, Colombian officials met in Havana, Cuba with
representatives from the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN).
Following the meeting, Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arango
reiterated that his government will not grant a safe haven to the
ELN, but said he hoped the conversations in Havana would help
reactivate formal peace talks, which stalled in August over the
safe haven issue. "A demilitarized zone is absolutely ruled out
with the ELN," Pastrana told reporters. "We are seeking other
formulas with which to advance in this process." Pastrana made
the comments after talking with Cuban President Fidel Castro for
three hours on Venezuela's Margarita Island, where both leaders
were participating in a summit of Caribbean basin countries.
[Associated Press 12/12/01]
On Dec. 10, a three-judge panel of Venezuela's Supreme Court
ruled that ELN member Jose Maria Ballestas could be extradited to
Colombia to face charges that he hijacked an airliner in April
1999. A conflict over the extradition had severely strained
relations between the two countries since Ballestas was arrested
in Venezuela last March [see Update #584]. [New York Times
12/11/01]
=======================================================================
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]
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