http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0530-02.htm
� 2001 The Washington Post Company
Left Becomes Target at Colombian Universities
by Scott Wilson
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia -- Who is sitting next to me? An abiding suspicion has
infected the classrooms, corridors and faculty lounges of the University of
the Atlantic. Professors who have spent decades in the gray concrete
classrooms of one of Colombia's finest public universities look out over rows
of students and choose their words carefully. Students considering a rally
think twice.
Who is my classmate?
"There are students here who never take a test, never write down a thing,"
said a 21-year-old basic sciences student from Cartagena. "They are only here
to identify student leaders, who the teachers are who might be from the left.
I can't walk up to a student and say, 'This policy is wrong, let's do
something about it.' I don't know who I am talking to." Across Colombia, the
decades-old ideological battle between left and right in the classroom has
changed from an intellectual debate to a violent campaign against students,
professors and administrators. The country's 32 public universities have long
been a recruiting pool for leftist guerrilla armies, whose rhetorical blend
of class struggle and social justice has found receptive audiences in the
middle- to lower-class student bodies.
Colombia's public universities reflect the deep class and ideological
differences that have helped perpetuate the country's civil warfare for
almost four decades. Here and across Latin America the public university has
traditionally been the wellhead of leftist thought and activism, a training
ground for future leftist leaders who often emerge from the disenfranchised
lower classes. Private universities, too expensive for most Colombians, train
the children of the more conservative elite.
Now, as part of their effort to seize not only territorial but ideological
control from the guerrillas, the rightist paramilitary forces have arrived on
the campuses of at least eight of Colombia's public universities. They are
located in key geographic areas most contested by the leftist guerrillas and
the rightist forces who have taken up arms on behalf of land and business
owners who feel the government is not doing enough to protect them.
Paid informers monitor lectures for leftist overtones and the activity of
their classmates. Lists of those targeted for death surface and disappear in
campus corridors. In the past two years, at least 27 professors, students and
administrators have been killed, usually gunned down near their homes,
according to the National Union of University Workers and Employees.
The most recent student to die here was Miguel Puello Polo, a 24-year-old
representative to the university's governing board. He was shot five times in
front of his home by two men on a motorcycle, who called out his name before
killing him.
As professors censor their own lectures and students abandon organizations
that could be perceived as leftist, the paramilitary campaign is choking off
leftist activism. Professors and students, who rarely give their names and
stop all conversation when a stranger enters a room, say the paramilitary
campaign has stifled debate, changed the way they teach and learn, and
undermined the universities' traditional role as a wide-open sanctuary of
free expression.
"In class, we take so much care in trying not to be seen promoting a leftist
idea. We don't know who might be the enemy in our classroom," said a
professor in the language department for the past 12 years.
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, as the 8,000-member
paramilitary army is called, has declared many university figures "military
targets." More than 180 students have been threatened with death, according
to the Colombian Association of University Centers.
In the past two years, students, professors and university union leaders have
been killed at four universities along the volatile north coast; in Bogota,
the capital; and at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, where one
student and six professors have been slain. Earlier this month the AUC
announced its arrival, through a campaign of bathroom graffiti in student and
professor lounges, at the University of Cartagena.
"The risk of restricting opinion is one of the greatest to the university,"
said Elvira Chois, vice rector for academics at the University of the
Atlantic, where she was also a student. "While we don't know the origins of
the violence, it has led to perhaps too much prudence in expressing opinions,
our fundamental right."
No university has been harder hit than the University of the Atlantic in this
industrial port city on Colombia's north coast. A utilitarian gray concrete
block clogged with book kiosks and leftist murals, the school draws its
17,000 students from six northern provinces. Since January 2000, eight
students and professors have been killed.
Most of the students are the provincial poor, the target audience of leftist
guerrilla groups, and the region has been fiercely contested by guerrillas
and the growing paramilitary forces for the past few years. Some of the worst
massacres by paramilitary forces have been in towns where the university
expects to attract students.
Prof. Jose Barrios, who has taught law for 26 years, said the university is a
"big mirror that reflects all of the country's frustrations."
Garish murals of fallen leftist leaders cover the school's entrance hall and
courtyard: Che Guevara, the Argentine-born revolutionary who fought with
Fidel Castro in Cuba; Jacobo Arenas, a founder of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest leftist guerrilla group; and
alumnus Jose Antequera, a leftist student leader who was killed in Bogota a
decade ago.
For decades, the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's other main
guerrilla group, has had success recruiting from Atlantic and other public
universities, where its Cuban-style communist ideology has had more resonance
than the FARC's rural orientation. Whether the ELN is still recruiting here
is a moot point, because its tradition of doing so has made almost everyone a
target for the right-wing forces vying for the same young hearts and minds.
Two currents buffeting Colombia, paramilitary forces and public corruption,
have come together in the university courtyards. The regional attorney
general's office is investigating 20 corruption cases against the
university's former rector that involve millions of dollars of potentially
misspent funds. The issue has become a major student and union cause,
sometimes taking the form of violent protests against the administration.
Many victims of violence have been leading agitators against corruption, as
well as high-profile leftist activists known inside and outside the
university. Although authorities say it is too early to tell who is carrying
out the killings, students and professors are convinced the right is
responsible, with perhaps a little logistical assistance from local
authorities.
According to several students and professors, informers pay the roughly $30 a
semester tuition after signing contracts with paramilitary handlers. Many of
those interviewed say the fact that almost every killing took place on the
victims' doorsteps or at friends' houses is evidence that an intelligence
network extending beyond the school grounds is in place.
During demonstrations, police officers videotape and photograph the students,
some of whom have later been killed. One student, Alexander Acuna, was
arrested after a demonstration and not seen until three days later, when his
body turned up on a beach outside town. Police officials said he had been
released along with everyone else.
During an anti-corruption demonstration in January 2000, police videotaped
several students hurling homemade bombs. Most were small, a variety known as
"exploding potatoes," but a large one exploded on a police shield and wounded
seven officers. Four students were arrested, including a well-known leftist
leader named Humberto Contreras.
Awaiting sentencing, Contreras was gunned down last month on the doorstep of
a human rights worker.
Contreras, who was 31, was a leader of Alma Mater. With about 50 members, the
group started years ago as an academic club but evolved into a secretive
political organization with a strain of armed radicalism. Days after the
January 2000 rally, two Alma Mater members were found dead in a second-floor
laboratory on the school grounds. Although some students believe the two were
slain, they may have mishandled bomb-making material found at the scene.
Mauricio Quintero, who heads the local prosecutor's office, said it is too
early to tell who is carrying out the killings. The human rights division of
the national prosecutor's office in Bogota is investigating the murders of
those who also denounced university corruption, while Quintero's office
handles the rest.
So far, two men have been arrested in connection with the murders of
Contreras and others. One of those in custody, Oscar Rodriguez Herrera, has
been identified in the local media as the bodyguard of a paramilitary
commander from neighboring Magdalena province.
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