June 26, 2007
Ruling on the La Rochela massacre by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights:
A Just Ruling for Justice
José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective
Corporación Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo”June 20, 2007
Editorial
Bogotá, Colombia
On January 18, 1989, 15 judiciary officials were investigating grave human rights violations in thedepartment of Santander, including the forced disappearance of 19 merchants [1]. Suddenly, theywere approached by several dozen armed men who presented themselves as members of the FARCand proceeded to disarm and hold them for the next two and a half hours. After their hands weretied behind their backs, they were put in two SUV’s and driven to a place called La Rochela. There,one after another and in a state of utter defenselessness and vulnerability, they were executed incold blood.
Three of the officials from the judicial branch survived through sheer luck. (No State authority cameto their rescue.) The murderers proceeded to leave graffiti on the vehicles to make it appear theguerrilla was responsible for the massacre. They also plundered more than a dozen files belonging tothe judicial commission.
Later, it was discovered that the material authors of this atrocious crime were paramilitariesbelonging to the group calling itself “Los Masetos.” This group was created under the protection ofthe framework legalizing the creation of self-defense groups [2] and was sponsored by largelandowners, politicians, and ranchers from the area (along with having the active participation andclose cooperation of the State security forces and especially the senior military commanders in thearea). The material authors were led by “El Negro Vladimir”, who would later provide key testimonyconcerning these criminal acts.
The La Rochela massacre did not happen by mere chance, rather it was deliberately planned by drugtraffickers, paramilitaries, and members of the public force to ensure impunity for other crimes thathad already been committed in the region. In other words, the commission of this massacre meant toparalyze the activity of the judicial branch as far as the series of atrocious acts carried out in theregion of the Magdalena Medio as well as to intimidate judiciary officials in charge of investigatingsimilar such acts constituting grave violations to human rights.
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More then 18 years have passed since these acts took place. Facing the prevailing and rampantimpunity existing in Colombia, the victims of this massacre and their family members were left withthe sole option of taking the case before international bodies. Recently, on May 11, 2007, the Inter-
American Court of Human Rights issued a ruling of major historical importance in which theColombian State was condemned by act and omission for this reprehensible massacre.
While this case was being processed before the Court, the Colombian State admitted to itsresponsibility in the murder of the judiciary officials, yet also requested the Inter-American Court notto make reference in its ruling to the context in which the acts occurred. Nonetheless, the Courtcorrectly decided that the case could not be duly handled by ignoring the examination of the legaland de facto framework surrounding, facilitating, and encouraging this massacre.
For instance, the Court determined that the Colombian State provided the legal support for thecreation and promotion of armed groups through Decree 3398 of 1965, which allowed civilians
without any State control or supervision whatsoever- to be given restricted military weapons in orderto carry out activities as military self-defense groups. Moreover, the Court established that armyregulations and combat manuals favored the development of these groups as well as theirintegration with the military forces through such concepts as the use of “guides” or “informants”,joint patrols, and the provision of restricted military weapons. When the La Rochela massacre wascarried out all of these norms were in force.
The IACHR ruling also recognizes that the massacre took place in a context of violence against publicservants belonging to the judicial branch and were meant to obstruct their work, terrorize them, andthus maintain impunity in cases of human rights violations, which makes this crime even more grave,since it concerned an action carried out by the State to eliminate its own officials from the judicialbranch while they were fulfilling their mission to administer justice.
Moreover, the ruling sustains that the Colombian system of justice was inoperative and that the caseremains “substantially in impunity”, depriving the victims, their family members, and society fromattaining the clarification of the acts, knowledge of what truly occurred the right to truth- as well asthe designation of the corresponding responsibilities by way of the persecution, arrest, investigation,trial and conviction of the authors the right to justice-.
In this respect, it is revealing that judicial processes have taken more than 17 years, during whichtime the generalized systematic patterns of violence were not identified and followed as a part of aneffective investigation; logical lines of investigation were not followed to determine the responsibilityof the senior military commanders and paramilitary chiefs; military criminal justice should not havehandled the case since it concerned a grave human rights violation; disciplinary and criminal justicewere ineffective; there was a grave omission in the protection of public servants, witnesses andfamily members of the victims as well as obstruction to justice, among other major transgressions.
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Concerning Law 975 of 2005 (also known as the Law of Justice and Peace), the Court establishedcertain parameters meant to orient this law’s application.
For instance, the State must guarantee the victims’ effective access to the proceedings as adequately,participatory, and thoroughly as possible throughout the process, in addition to an effective systemof protection for judiciary officials, witnesses, victims, and their family members. The Court alsoestablished that the State must guarantee the search for the historical truth of what truly occurred.Lastly, the State must also guarantee contradiction and effective resources; a thorough, impartial andeffective investigation; a trial within a reasonable amount of time; and a punishment or sanctionproportional to the affected legal asset and effectively fulfilled.
Additionally, the investigation should clarify the complex criminal structures and connections makingpossible the human rights violations as well as establish generalized systematic patterns in which thecrimes were carried out. Lastly, the Court warns that laws obstructing the investigation andrespective punishment as well as ignoring due process- are inadmissible, since these would giverise to re-opening investigations, even if persons have already been acquitted.
Insofar as the crime of “conspiracy to commit a crime”, the Court sustains that a statute oflimitations does not apply since these crimes concern grave human rights violations. This assertionis very important, since conspiracy to commit a crime should be considered inalienable andinviolably linked to these kinds of crimes, when it implies supporting and encouraging paramilitarygroups that commit and have committed crimes against humanity as their core activity.
Further, we have been sustaining that the visible heads of the different economic groups, nationaland transnational enterprises, political parties, State civil and military servants, and all organizationsthat have been implicated in this criminal strategy must answer for crimes against humanity, ratherthan the terse “conspiracy to commit a crime.” In this regard, the Court’s ruling is very timely since itdeclares the imprescriptibility of conspiracy to commit a crime when concerning grave human rightsviolations. Among other things, it should be remembered that after the massacre of La Rochelaparamilitarism finally joined the list of crimes envisaged in the criminal code. Nonetheless, as a partof the reforms in the year 2000, the crime of paramilitarism magically disappeared and ceased to beincluded in Colombian criminal code. Its legal identification was removed and it simply became anaggravating factor to conspiracy to commit a crime (with precise care being taken to omit the word“paramilitarism”)
As far as the right to reparation of victims of human rights violations, we also emphasize the Courtreasserts that the State has the direct and principal obligation of making reparations to the victims.This acquires particular importance, given that the legal framework encompassing the so-called Lawof Justice and Peace ignores the principle of reparation. As a result, the State should not avoid orprivatize its responsibility concerning this matter. In this respect, why will the assets expropriated bythe justice system from the drug-trafficking paramilitary chiefs swell the coffers of the National Anti-Narcotics Office instead of being designated to the Reparation Fund envisaged in the Law of Justiceand Peace? Is that not what perhaps is due for justice?
To finish, we congratulate the exigency made the Court’s ruling as far as demanding the State fulfillits obligation to investigate and punish the responsible parties for planning and executing themassacre of judiciary officials, who were only attempting to deny impunity in a series of crimesalready committed. Consequently, the State has the unavoidable obligation of immediatelyprosecuting the principal responsible parties, including those that took advantage of their positionas authorities in order to offend the dignity of justice and society. We do not have start all over; it isalready known who the responsible parties are. Nonetheless, these “untouchables” continue to enjoythe privileges granted by impunity. Until when?
It is time for justice. Justice is due!
[1] For more information on this case, please consult: I/A Court H.R. Case of 19 Tradesmen v.Colombia. Judgment of July 5, 2004. Series C No. 109. (Opinion Judge Medina-Quiroga.)
[2] Articles 25 and 33 of Legislative Decree 3398 of 1965 (adopted as permanent legislation throughLaw 48 of 1968); Military regulations “Combat Manual against Bandits and Guerrillas” from June 25,1982; and “Counter-Guerrilla Combat Regulations” from April 9, 1969 (approved by the MilitaryForces General Command).
May 2, 2007
Victims in Colombia Are Gagged, the Public Misinformed
Interview with Father Javier Giraldo
BOGOTÁ, May 2 (IPS) - When a murder occurs in a Colombian community, the locals know who committed it: far-right paramilitaries, leftwing guerrillas, or the security forces. They also know if fighting really took place, or if the "enemy" bodies displayed on television as "trophies" by army officers were in fact dead civilians.
A large proportion of the casualties in Colombia's decades-long armed conflict are civilians. The violence between leftist rebel groups on one hand and rightwing paramilitary militias and government forces on the other is further fuelled by drug trafficking, corruption and impunity. Amid the chaos and pressure from all sides, local people are in the best position to know precisely what happened.
But the truth seldom makes it into media coverage, says Jesuit priest, sociologist and human rights expert Javier Giraldo, founder of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, who spends his time with communities in the most violent regions of the country, provides them with legal advice and gives voice to their accusations.
In Colombia, "the people cannot communicate with the people," and the right to information and communication does not exist, except for a small minority, Giraldo said in an interview with IPS ahead of World Press Freedom Day (May 3).
Giraldo runs the Human Rights and Political Violence Databank of the Centre for Popular Research and Education (CINEP), which has been keeping a tally of the killings for 19 years.
Without its records, the memory of tens of thousands of killings, cases of torture and forced disappearances over the duration of the war would have been lost. He is also a motive force behind the Never Again Project, an appallingly long chronological list of crimes against humanity committed since 1965, in every region of this South American country.
As an advocate, Giraldo represents victims in Colombian courts and in the inter-American justice system. He teaches peasants and indigenous people the importance of filing complaints about human rights violations, and how to take their cases before oversight authorities or international tribunals, as well as the use that can be made of the International Criminal Court, which will have jurisdiction in Colombia from 2009.
IPS: You have a view at national level of what is actually happening in Colombia, and what gets published about it. Tell us about that split.
JAVIER GIRALDO: I have been in villages in (the southern province of) Caquetá where you could basically say that during the 1980s, no youngster over the age of about 15 had escaped being tortured. Torture was extremely widespread. When did that make the news? None of these crimes, which were documented by local bodies, ever came to light in the national media. And there were hundreds of them.
What version of our national reality is the majority of the population being fed? An image is being created for mass consumption that is nowhere near the real truth, especially with respect to human rights questions.
Press freedom must be distinguished from the right to information. It could be said that freedom of the press exists in Colombia, in the sense that someone with a great deal of money can open a media outlet and cover the news and express opinions as he or she wishes. Within limits, of course, because if the information goes beyond certain parameters, the media begin to run risks.
That's why even very well-known and respected journalists have been talking about self-censorship for many years now. Here in Colombia, reporters know that their opinions cannot stray too far from the official view, because it is very risky for that to happen.
The problem in Colombia is that there is no right to information. The right to information means that people can have access to the truth, and that most people, or at least organised sectors of society, can communicate what is happening and their own reading of it to the general public. That is not possible in Colombia.
IPS: Isn't the Internet changing that?
JG: Internet is available to a very small sector of the population, such as intellectuals. But for the vast majority of Colombians it's not accessible.
IPS: Why is that?
JG: Because of economic reasons.
IPS: How much does an hour on the Internet cost in a region that you have visited lately?
JG: It's not just about the cost of an hour or a minute. The problem is everything it requires in terms of technical skill and level of education, which only a very small stratum of the population possesses. The vast majority rely on television and radio news programmes, because even the written press is out of the reach of many people. People can't afford to buy a daily newspaper. It's too expensive, and a large proportion of the population has no culture of reading, or reading habits, either.
The fundamental problem is that information is conceived of as a commodity, and I would say that it ought to be seen as a public service and one of people's basic rights. Because the people can't communicate with the people. Only a few privileged layers of society can communicate, and they distort reality according to their own interests. They, certainly, have the right to communicate.
IPS: What view do the victims of violence take of journalists?
JG: I see the truth of the victims as a silenced, gagged truth. In the first place, because of fear, because of the terror that has spread everywhere and that intimidates people, so that the victims and their families are completely inhibited from speaking out or protesting. As long as that is the case, I think that there is no possibility for truth, justice and reparations in this country.
But there is also the pressure on the big media. People know very well that when the media arrive at a place where a tragedy has occurred, the reporters don't want to get involved. They just hold the microphone up to the survivors and witnesses, for them to speak into, and just let them bear all the risk.
The same thing happens when the authorities give out misinformation. Suppose there's a massacre that's attributed to the army, and the reporter comes and puts a microphone in front of the nearest army officer. He gives his version, and there is no cross-questioning to probe whether his version at least has a credible basis. It's just a dogma that must be believed by the whole country. And the reporter's job finishes there. And that's how we have swallowed mountains of false information.
At the Databank that I coordinate, in the last year we have taken the decision not to continue to publish information about so-called war operations. Because we gradually discovered that the only source of information we had to report these events was the press, and the press merely reflected military sources.
IPS: The guerrillas are another available source of information about casualties. What difficulty do you have with them?
JG: They are not impartial. (END/2007)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37578
April 9, 2007
COLOMBIA: AS THOUSANDS FLEE FIGHTING, UN REFUGEE AGENCY VOICES CONCERN FOR CIVILIANS
New York, Apr 10 2007 10:00AM
As thousands have fled their homes in the Nariño region in southern Colombia to escape fighting between the Government and rebel forces, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (<"http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/461b63df11.html">UNHCR) today called for the protection of civilians and urged authorities to provide assistance to those affected.
In the past two weeks, over 6,000 people have taken refuge in El Charco and La Tola, two small towns north of Nariño, according to UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond.
Local officials have opened schools and other public buildings to shelter the newly displaced, but despite the efforts of authorities, the church and international organizations, there is a shortage of clear water and basic health supplies. In El Charco, only one out of every 30 people who arrived in the town last week has a mattress to sleep on.
“The conflict in Nariño has been intense for over a year, and UNHCR is extremely worried that civilians continue to suffer in large numbers,” Mr. Redmond told reporters in Geneva.
“We will send a mission this week to the worst-affected areas,” he added. “But the presence of humanitarian staff cannot in itself guarantee security and provide solutions to the thousands of people at risk.”
Approximately 3,000 displaced were in El Charco as of yesterday, but the figures are constantly changing. In spite of uncertain security conditions, several hundred families returned to their homes, while an additional 300 arrived in the town who had been caught behind the front lines of the fighting for several days. There are reported hundreds more trapped by combat facing dwindling food supplies.
UNHCR is extremely concerned for the safety of both those who have returned home as well as those attempting to flee the fighting.
The security conditions continue to deteriorate in the rest of the Nariño region, as new irregular armed groups have emerged and deployed. Dozens of small villages are emptying in the mountainous regions around the Policarpa municipality, and there have been two instances of mass crossings of the displaced across the border into Ecuador.
Colombia has the largest population of concern to UNHCR with some three million people uprooted by more than 40 years of fighting between the Government, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and criminal gangs. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) represent some 8 per cent of the total population of over 40 million.
Last month, High Commissioner António Guterres visited the country last month, and met with President Álvaro Uribe. He also chaired a conference in Bogota, the capital, to draw attention to the humanitarian consequences of displacement and encourage the full implementation of the law so that all displaced people have equal access to their rights.
2007-04-10 00:00:00.000
January 23, 2007
Colombian government linked to Death Squads
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Colombian government has strong ties to the paramilitary. The links have been denounced for years by human rights organizations. However testimony of key death squad leaders on those ties have shaken the Colombian government, as they detail how the government collaborated in the massacres of hundreds of people.
The following are articles from 3 American newspapers on the subject.
Colombian Government Is Ensnared in a Paramilitary Scandal
By Simon Romero
The New York Times, January 21, 2007
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Jan. 20 — The government of President Álvaro Uribe, the
largest recipient of American aid outside the Middle East, has found itself
ensnared in a widening scandal as revelations surface of a secret alliance
between some of the president’s most prominent political supporters and
paramilitary death squads.
Testimony this week from Salvatore Mancuso, a former paramilitary commander
who admitted to orchestrating the killing of more than 300 people, as well
as a document made public on Friday implicating more than a dozen
politicians in the pact with paramilitaries, have injected fresh detail into
a slow-burning scandal that has caused Colombia’s elite political class to
shudder in recent weeks.
Senior members of Mr. Uribe’s government and Mr. Uribe himself have said
that anyone shown to have had illegal ties to the paramilitaries, which
terrorized Colombian cities and the countryside in the nation’s internal
war, which has gone on for decades, and made fortunes in cocaine
trafficking, should be prosecuted in courts of law.
The scandal has already touched Mr. Uribe’s cabinet, with Senator Álvaro
Araújo, the brother of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araújo, under
investigation for collaborating with militias.
“If there’s someone involved at the highest level, they will be fired,”
Francisco Santos, Colombia’s vice president, said in an interview. “Scrutiny
is fine for us,” Mr. Santos said. “This country needs to know the whole
truth.”
Some of the details coming to light about the breadth of paramilitary
activities are the result of a process set in motion by Mr. Uribe’s own
government, which has allowed paramilitary leaders to confess their crimes
and pay reparations in exchange for reduced sentences of no more than eight
years in prison.
Though some militia leaders have balked at the deal, much of Colombia has
been gripped by the first such confession, that of Mr. Mancuso, a cattleman
who helped found the paramilitary movement in the 1980s in an effort to
combat leftist guerrillas.
Mr. Mancuso, 48, who studied English at the University of Pittsburgh, wept
during the first days of his testimony at a special hearing in Medellín last
month. This week, however, he simply read from a statement describing how he
oversaw the assassinations of hundreds of people, with some operations made
possible with information from military intelligence.
Mr. Mancuso also put Mr. Uribe in the spotlight by saying that militias
pressured people to vote for the president in 2002, when Mr. Uribe was first
elected. Mr. Uribe responded quickly by going on a national radio network to
say he had never sent any emissaries to strike deals with the
paramilitaries.
On the heels of Mr. Mancuso’s testimony, a document rumored to exist in
recent weeks was published in the daily newspaper El Tiempo on Friday. It
describes a secret pact in 2001 between Mr. Mancuso, other paramilitary
leaders and 11 congressmen, two governors and five mayors, in which those
present agreed to work together to forge “a new social contract,” largely in
order to protect private property rights.
Senator Miguel de la Espriella, one of the signatories to the pact, helped
bring the scandal to light last year by disclosing the ties between
politicians and paramilitaries. Like other officials implicated in the pact,
he said he was forced to sign, raising doubts as what type of legal
punishment, if any, they might receive.
“At first we declined to sign, but when they put a man with a rifle next to
the document we understood we had no choice,” Mr. de la Espriella, a member
of the Democratic Colombia party, said in an e-mail interview.
Asked why he was the only politician to come forward with details of the
secret agreement, Mr. de la Espriella, alluding to widespread suspicions
that legislators and government officials had for years worked in tandem
with the paramilitaries, responded, “I told myself that a half-truth doesn’t
serve anybody, and we should all contribute to the enlightenment of the
truth during so many years of war.”
Those who signed the document included not only supporters of Mr. Uribe but
also high-ranking officials in the political opposition, pointing to how a
growing portion of the political establishment could be tarnished by the
scandal.
Some 30,000 paramilitary members have been demobilized during Mr. Uribe’s
government in recent years. Colombia’s military still receives more than
$700 million a year in aid from the United States to combat drug trafficking
and armed insurgencies.
Two guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the
National Liberation Army, still operate in the country. A truck carrying
more than 600 pounds of explosives this week destroyed a dairy plant in
southern Colombia owned by Nestlé, the Swiss food company, an act that the
police attributed to the rebels.
Although the scandal has emerged as the most pressing political challenge to
Mr. Uribe’s presidency, his approval ratings remain high, at above 60
percent, after five years of rule and a re-election victory last year. Many
Colombians credit Mr. Uribe for declining levels of murders and kidnappings
and robust economic growth.
However, political analysts here say a steady stream of disclosures related
to the paramilitary scandal could diminish Mr. Uribe’s credibility,
particularly if implicated officials are perceived to have close ties to the
president. The scandal has already entangled a former ambassador to Chile
and a former head of the intelligence service.
Equally pressing for Mr. Uribe’s government could be the scandal’s influence
on discussions in the United States Congress of aid to Colombia and a trade
agreement awaiting Congressional approval that has been signed by Mr. Uribe
and President Bush. Political analysts say the Democratic-led Congress is
expected to add greater scrutiny of human rights issues in Colombia.
**********************************
Colombian government accused of links to rightist death squads
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
The Boston Globe, printed in International Herald Tribune
Thursday, December 14, 2006
BOGOTÁ
The Colombian government, the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. aid
to fight drugs and a leftist insurgency, is under siege as evidence mounts
of links between rightist death squads and dozens of officials loyal to
President Álvaro Uribe.
In the past week, the country's Supreme Court summoned six legislators to
answer accusations that they had conspired with paramilitary leaders who are
alleged to have killed tens of thousands of leftist sympathizers and
ordinary civilians and to have run drug trafficking networks since the
1980s.
They are among two dozen sitting and former lawmakers, governors and other
public servants being investigated for or charged with colluding with
paramilitary death squads to fix elections, plan massacres, share in
corruption proceeds or help the militias get a better deal in peace talks.
The so-called parapolitical crisis threatens to close in on Uribe, the best
friend President George W. Bush has in a region increasingly dominated by
leftist politicians. It also risks setting back Colombian efforts to make
peace with armed insurgents on the left and right who have terrorized
civilians and trafficked drugs for decades.
Despite the demobilization over the past three years of 31,000 members and
allies of rightist death squads, there are widespread reports that their
political influence and hold over organized crime and drug trafficking
remain intact.
A congressional committee is studying accusations that Uribe himself
supported the rise of rightist militias when he was a governor in the 1990s.
Uribe has vehemently denied the allegations, challenging anyone with
evidence to come forward.
Still, the accusations against Uribe and his allies have reopened old wounds
in Colombian society.
Civilian militias formed in the 1980s to combat leftist guerrillas, and they
later morphed into death squads that engaged in drug trafficking and
extortion. It has long been alleged that powerful elites — from cattle
ranchers and politicians to military commanders — helped establish and fund
the militias. Several years ago, paramilitary leaders boldly declared that
they controlled one-third of the Colombian Congress.
But after years of impunity, the paramilitaries have come under the
microscope after disarming and agreeing to confess their crimes in exchange
for lenient sentences.
The attorney general's office announced in October that a confiscated
computer belonging to a paramilitary leader known as Jorge 40 contained
evidence that politicians had accepted funds from paramilitaries, used their
links to militias to intimidate constituents into supporting them and even
plotted massacres. Since then, fresh revelations, arrest warrants and
resignations have followed.
"They are just turning over the first rock to see what worms are under it,
and there are many more rocks to go," said Adam Isacson, director of the
Colombia program at the Center for International Policy, a think tank in
Washington.
"We still haven't gotten to the generals and colonels, the industrialists
and landowners or senior members of Congress," he said. "Nobody has any idea
how high this will go."
Two weeks ago, a pro-Uribe senator, Miguel de la Espriella, revealed that he
and 39 other congressmen had signed a secret accord pledging loyalty to the
militias at a meeting in 2001.
With the government's credibility at stake, Uribe is scrambling to salvage
his reputation by taking a hard line against the paramilitaries and those
who aided them.
On Dec. 1, his government moved 59 top paramilitary chiefs who had been
confined at a converted resort to a maximum-security prison, citing rumors
that they were plotting to flee and were involved in the murders of two
paramilitary commanders who were not in custody. The militia chiefs angrily
denied the rumors, and embarrassing allegations surfaced last week that
corrupt police and prosecutors might have been involved in the murders.
If charges against the security forces are proved in court, Isacson said,
"It'll be really hard for Washington to justify continuing $600 million a
year in military and police aid to Colombia."
Uribe's three-year peace process with paramilitaries, criticized by victims'
groups for being too lenient, was the centerpiece of his first term.
Coupled with his crackdown on leftist guerrillas and improvements in
security, it won him a landslide re-election last May and continued U.S.
support. But the confidence between the government and the paramilitaries
that allowed for a peace accord appears to have crumbled. Last week, the
paramilitary chiefs declared an end to talks with Uribe's envoys.
Security analysts worry that the rupture of trust in the peace process could
be taken as a signal by the few thousand paramilitaries who have not
demobilized to unleash a new cycle of violence.
Those groups that have not demobilized yet probably will not do so now, said
Alfredo Rangel Suárez, director of the Security and Democracy Foundation in
Bogotá. "This crisis could set off vendettas and violence among
paramilitaries and will implicate more sectors," he said.
****************
Colombian Government Shaken By Lawmakers' Paramilitary Ties
Investigation Leads to Arrest of Current, Former Officials
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 18, 2006; A17
BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 17 -- The government of President Álvaro Uribe is
being shaken by its most serious political crisis yet, as details emerge
about members of Congress who collaborated with right-wing death squads to
spread terror and exert political control across Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Two senators, Álvaro García and Jairo Merlano, are in custody, as is a
congressman, Eric Morris, and a former congresswoman, Muriel Benito. Four
local officials have been arrested, and a warrant has been issued for a
former governor, Salvador Arana. All are from the state of Sucre, where the
attorney general's office has been exhuming bodies from mass graves --
victims of a paramilitary campaign to erode civilian support for Marxist
rebels in Colombia's long conflict.
The investigation, which has revealed how lawmakers and paramilitary
commanders rigged elections and planned assassinations, has shaken
Colombia's Congress to its core. One powerful senator from Cesar state,
Álvaro Araujo, has warned that if he is targeted in the investigation, it
would taint relatives of his in the government and, ultimately, the
president, whom he has strongly supported.
The arrests and disclosures about the investigation, which is focusing on at
least five more members of Congress, come weeks after prosecutors leaked a
report revealing how paramilitary fighters have killed hundreds of people,
trafficked cocaine to the United States and sacked government institutions
while negotiating a disarmament with Uribe's government.
Mario Iguarán, the attorney general, said the crisis is worse than the
scandal that tarnished former president Ernesto Samper, who in the 1990s was
accused of having used drug money to fund his political campaign. The United
States withdrew his visa in response.
Uribe's government says it has been tough on the paramilitary forces, noting
that 30,000 fighters have demobilized in three years, a disarmament larger
than that of any leftist rebel group in Latin American history.
But the latest scandal has raised questions about how effective the
disarmament has been and whether the government is truly committed to
dismantling an organization that has infiltrated town halls, hospitals and
even the government's intelligence agency, the DAS. Just this week, the
inspector general's office leveled disciplinary charges against the former
head of the DAS, Jorge Noguera, for having given classified information
about the agency's operations to paramilitary forces.
"In plain public view and with evidence, the tip of the iceberg has
appeared, but it is just the tip of the iceberg," said Gustavo Petro, a
senator who has revealed details of paramilitary infiltration of government
institutions in hearings. "We see it today in Sucre, but it extends beyond."
Recalling past statements from top paramilitary commanders, who boasted of
having formed alliances with as much as a third of Congress, Petro said, "I
think the paramilitaries were right."
Reacting to the crisis on Friday, Uribe said, "It's healthy for the country
to know the political ties that exist with paramilitarism."
"I call on all the congressmen to, of their own initiative, show up before
judges and tell the truth," he said in a speech marking the anniversary of
the Supreme Court.
Uribe's image as a crusader against Colombia's illegal armed groups,
however, has been tarnished.
The congressmen who have been implicated were members of a bloc that was
loyal to the president and that approved a law permitting him to run for a
second four-year term in May. They also supported a law governing the
disarmament of paramilitary fighters that has been roundly criticized by the
United Nations and some on Capitol Hill for providing too many loopholes for
commanders to evade justice.
"There's no doubt that the political base in the provinces is tainted," said
Gustavo Duncan, a security analyst who has written a book on the
paramilitary forces, "The Gentlemen of War." "Those are the great losers.
And those regional leaders are where Uribe has gotten much of his power."
The tainted politicians came to the attention of authorities through an
informer, a onetime paramilitary fighter named Jairo Castillo Peralta, and
because their names turned up in a computer confiscated from one of the
country's most powerful paramilitary commanders, Rodrigo Tovar. The computer
files detail meetings between paramilitary forces and lawmakers such as Sen.
Dieb Maloof, who lives in the city of Barranquilla but has campaigned in
Sucre.
Reached by phone, Maloof denied involvement with the paramilitary groups but
said he is ready to answer questions put forward by the Supreme Court, which
is investigating the Congress. "I asked to be able to give my own version,
and to find out if there is anything against me," he said.
The best-known of the lawmakers implicated in the scandal is Álvaro García,
a rotund local boss known by friends and enemies alike as "the Fat Man." In
a secret recording from Oct. 6, 2000, that is being used against him, Garcia
and a well-known cattleman, Joaquín García, are heard coordinating the
paramilitary assault on the town of Macayepo. A few days later, paramilitary
fighters killed 16 peasant farmers there with rocks and machetes.
Petro, the senator, said the Uribe administration must aggressively purge
those lawmakers with ties to paramilitary forces. "No matter how many
congressmen go to jail, there are mafias still out there, and they will
continue to find others to control," he said. "This is not just a judicial
responsibility, this is a political responsibility."
October 5, 2006
Intervention on Colombia before UN HR Council
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
2ND SESSION
ORAL INTERVENTION OF THE COLOMBIAN COMMISSION OF JURISTS
AND THE WORLD ORGANISATION AGAINST TORTURE
PRESENTATION OF THE REPORT OF THE HIGH COMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN COLOMBIA
28 SEPTEMBER 2006
Mr. Chairperson:
During the first four years of the present Government, more than eleven thousand persons were assassinated or disappeared out of combat in Colombia. This figure is greater than the number of victims in 17 years of Pinochet’s government in Chile. Nearly 75 per cent of these deaths and disappearances were attributed to State responsibility, either for direct action taken by state agents[1] or for tolerance or support to violations committed by paramilitary groups[2]. 25 per cent of the cases were attributed to the responsibility of guerrillas. In addition, during these four years more than one million persons were forcibly displaced. With good reason, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs has qualified the situation in Colombia as the gravest humanitarian crisis of the western hemisphere[3].
The High Commissioner clearly identifies the causes of this crisis, as she affirms that the lack of full recognition of the problem by the Government and the lack of pertinent actions by the authorities impeded the rectification of this situation, and that certain practices that constitute violations have even turned into patterns of conduct[4].
One of these practices is impunity, which has worsened drastically in the last four years. The Government has insisted in promoting a legislation that favours impunity, supposedly in order to achieve peace. This objective will be very difficult to achieve by these means, because in stead of a genuine justice, the Government has established some procedures of simulated justice for paramilitaries, which entail the preservation of their mafia power and the hiding of state responsibility.
The President of Colombia has affirmed before the UN General Assembly last 22nd of September, that Colombia “is a country absolutely open to international supervision and criticism”. Accepting this invitation, and taking into consideration the gravity of the Colombian crisis, the Human Rights Council should continue having a close supervision on it, as the Commission on Human Rights did during the last ten years, and consequently request the High Commissioner to continue presenting an annual report on the situation of human rights in Colombia before the Council.
Thank you Mr. Chairperson.
[1] 12%, represents more than 750 persons allegedly murdered by state agents.
[2] 62%.
[3] “While visiting a shantytown in Cartagena, Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs reports that (…) [a]ccording to the UN figures over the last four years, the number of people forced to flee their homes has increased by about 1 million and Colombia now has the third-largest number of displaced people in the world — behind Congo and Sudan, he said. ‘Colombia is therefore by far the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of the Western hemisphere,’ Egeland told a news conference”, in Colombia This Week -- May 17, 2004, ABColombia Group, London, “Mon 10 – UN envoy: Colombia is a humanitarian catastrophe”, webpage <colhrnet.igc.org/newitems/may04/abcolwk.517.htm> (consulted on 24 September 2006).
[4] Report of the HCHR on the situation of human rights in Colombia, Doc. E/CN.4/2006/9, 20 January 2006, para. 19.
October 4, 2006
Colombia close to accord on Farc prisoners
Colombia's largest insurgent group and President Alvaro Uribe are close to
reaching an accord to exchange dozens of jailed rebels for hostages held by
the guerrillas, but experts are sceptical that a swap will lead to peace
talks.
Commanders from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, which
has been fighting to overthrow the state for four decades, on Monday offered
a conditional ceasefire if a zone is demilitarised for 45 days.
Within hours, Mr Uribe authorised his peace commissioner to seek a deal with
the Farc to establish a temporary safe haven in the south of Colombia to
facilitate a prisoner swap, as well as study a "peace process".
Farc rebels, who have been repelled into the jungle by a US-backed
counter-insurgency effort, are holding hostage dozens of Colombians,
including Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, and three US
military contractors.
Alvaro Leyva, a politician who is attempting to broker a prisoner exchange,
said a swap could open the door to peace talks. "If we achieve the first
goal, there's a good chance of advancing to the second stage," he said on
Tuesday.
The bright political development reveals a marked softening in the positions
of both the guerrillas and the government, experts said.
Mr Uribe, elected in 2002 and re-elected last May, has never ruled out peace
talks, but he has generally favoured tackling the rebels militarily. The
Farc, meanwhile, has until now rejected any talks with Mr Uribe.
Mr Uribe said on Tuesday that he himself would be willing to meet with the
Farc's leadership if that would help the search for a peace agreement.
Jorge Restrepo, director of Cerac, a think-tank in Bogotá, said a prisoner
swap had been made more likely because the Farc has been militarily weakened
and because Mr Uribe is under pressure from Europe.
"The Farc has received a pounding, and they understand that the pendulum in
Colombian public opinion is moving towards peace," Mr Restrepo said. "But
with Uribe this has a lot to do with pressure from Europe, he needs to show
that he is not only interested in negotiations with the paramilitaries."
Mr Uribe has overseen a demobilisation process with paramilitary groups
which has been criticised by human rights groups for being too lenient on
warlords with close ties to drugs trafficking.
Mr Restrepo cautioned, however, that peace talks are still a way off: "It's
moving fast and it looks like there is going to be a prisoner exchange. But
I'm not very optimistic on peace talks, the positions are still very far
apart."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f7b6f240-52fd-11db-99c5-0000779e2340.html
By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas
Published: October 3 2006 18:07 | Last updated: October 3 2006 18:07
September 3, 2006
UA: Human Rights Defender Disappeared in Colombia
The following is an Urgent Action concerning the disappearance of Walter Alvarez, a human rights defender in Colombia. He may still be alive which makes your action all the most important and urgent. Please read it and contact the suggested authorities and distribute the action through your networks. Thank You.
Walter Alvarez Ossa, a human rights activist and founder of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos - CPDH) in the city of Buga, Colombia, has been disappeared. He was walking back to his house on August 16th, 2006, at 11:30 PM, but never arrived. There were intense searches made for him to no avail.
In February 2006, flyers were distributed in Buga threatening Mr. Alvarez' life. They were signed by the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), which has been responsible for killing and disappearing human rights activists. On August 2nd, the office of the CPDH was subjected to a warrantless search by police agents, who said it was “a suspicious building.” There are strong links between government forces and the paramilitary groups and they’ve been known to work together.
It is likely that Mr. Alvarez’ human rights activities are linked to his disappearance. It is also possible that he is being detained and he’s still alive, which makes your actions all the more important and urgent.
Please write to the authorities below and ask them to do everything they can to find Walter Alvarez and to guarantee his life and physical integrity. You can also ask that they take the necessary security measures to assure neither Mr. Alvarez' family nor other members of the CPDH suffer a similar fate.
Addresses:
-Carolina Barco, Ambassador to the United States, Embassy of Colombia 2118 Leroy Place, NW, Washington, DC 20008, Phone: (202) 387 8338. Fax: (202) 232 8643
- S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, President of Colombia, Cra. 8 # 7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santa Fe de Bogotá.Fax:+57.1.566.20.71 : auribe@presidencia.gov.co
- Sr. Francisco Santos, Vicepresident of Colombia, Phone. (+571) 334.45.07, (+573) 7720130, E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co ; buzon1@presidencia.gov.co
- Human Rights Program of the Vice President’s Office: ppdh@presidencia.gov.co
- Human Rights Observatory of the Vice President’s Office: obserdh@presidencia.gov.co
- Doctor Mario Hernán Iguarán Arana, Attorney General, Diagonal 22-B # 52-01, Bogotá. Fax: + 57.1.570.20.00 ; +57.1.414.90.00 Extensión 1113, E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co; denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co
Please also contact your congressional representatives and ask them to show their interest on this matter to the Colombian government.
Thank you.
If you receive any answers, please let us know.
August 15, 2006
Notes from the field: Union peasants killed & disappeared
The following article was written by Katrina Plotz who went on the Colombia
Action Network delegation in July to Colombia. It will be published in the
September issue of the Women Against Military Maddness newsleter
(http://www.worldwidewamm.org).
In July, four members of the Anti-War Committee and Colombia Action Network,
(Meredith Aby, Erika Zurawski, and Jon and Katrina Plotz) traveled to
Colombia to witness the impact of U.S. military aid to a government waging
war against its own people. We were hosted by FENSUAGRO, the national
peasant workers union.
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid. Since 2000, Colombia
has received $4.7 billion from the military aid package, Plan Colombia.
Originally proposed under the War on Drugs, the Bush administration
increased aid to Colombia under the rhetoric of the War on Terror. The
groups that constitute the armed resistance in Colombias fifty-year civil
war are on the State Departments list of terrorist organizations. This
allows the Colombian military to violently intimidate anyone who questions
the social, economic, and political policies of the Colombian government.
President Alvaro Uribe is an ally of the Bush administration because of his
support for free trade, which benefits multi-national corporations at the
expense of the Colombian poor. Anyone working for social justice in the
country is labeled part of the armed resistance. Therefore, union
organizers, human rights workers, and student activists are targets of a
Colombian government with the worst human rights record in the Western
Hemisphere.
When we arrived in Bogot, we were greeted by national executives of
FENSUAGRO. Their union fights for land reform, defends campesinos, protests
unjust exploits of large landowners, and resists U.S. intervention in
Colombia. For this work, their union has had numerous members abducted,
detained, and murdered by right-wing paramilitaries. Over 500 members of
FENSUAGRO have been murdered since 1978, and in May 2006, 25 leaders were
arrested, and several received death threats. Despite constant danger,
FENSUAGRO continues to increase its membership.
On May 15th, FENSUAGRO mobilized 150,000 campesinos, indigenous people,
Afro-Colombians, and students to protest unjust socio-economic conditions.
They occupied the Pan-American Highway for several days and were confronted
by paramilitary forces. Some of the activists disappeared at checkpoints.
Two days later, they were attacked and fought back with rocks. At least
60 people were wounded and several were killed.
On May 18th, leaders met with authorities to negotiate. Meanwhile,
civilians were beaten and attacked with a poisonous gas. Several were
detained, others disappeared, and some were killed. Because human rights
workers have not completed their investigation, the number of dead is still
unknown.
We met many campesinos who mobilized, as well as leaders who organized
subsequent negotiations with the government. We observed a meeting between
campesinos and government officials about the lack of roads in rural
communities. Without quality roads, campesinos transport crops on foot or
by mule. As a result, food often spoils before reaching the market.
Campesinos presented specific proposals for road improvement which were
rejected. A national government representative blamed them for not
addressing the local authorities, while local officials claimed they
couldnt approve projects without resources from the national government.
Several campesinos spoke out boldly. We know the state has money, but
instead of investing in campesinos, you use your money to kill us. Later a
woman directly challenged government officials. Youre not here because
you want to be here. Youre here because the people mobilized, and well do
it again. The meeting continued without any concrete decisions.
That evening, we met with campesino leaders. They spoke of desperate
farmers with no choice but to grow coca, a leaf used in cocaine. Due to
unequal land distribution, lack of infrastructure, and low free-trade
prices, most campesinos cannot provide for their families. The cultivation
of coca is the only viable alternative: it grows easily in harsh conditions,
its buyers come straight to their farms, and it yields a good price. Instead
of reducing demand for cocaine in the U.S., our government spends billions
on helicopters and chemicals to fumigate coca in Colombia. This has a
detrimental impact on the health of people and the environment. They
fumigate everything, explained one campesino. Its indiscriminate. They
kill food crops along with coca. They poison rivers and damage the
ecosystem. Campesinos repeatedly emphasized, We dont want to grow
illicit crops. We know the damage they cause, but this is a result of the
socio-economic conditions we live in. They are currently working on a crop
substitution proposal in which they would stop growing coca if the
government agrees to social investment, enabling campesinos to re-enter the
legal economy.
The Bush administration has requested $580 million for the brutal Colombian
government for 2006. The notorious School of the Americas in Ft. Benning,
Georgia continues to train more soldiers from Colombia than from any other
country. The U.S. government is clearly at war with the Colombian people.
Social justice activists have the responsibility to stand in solidarity with
Colombians and demand an end to U.S. intervention in their country.
July 23, 2006
Colombian Students Threatened
Three students from the Colombian National Federation of Universities (FUN) have received death threats. The threats are directed to Adriana Lozano, the FUN's National Spokesperson, Miguel Angel Barriga, student representative to the Superior Council of the District University and Jos Luis Blanco, student representative to the Academic Council of the UPTC. FUN members in Nario are also threatened.
The threats against these students come in the context of increased threats against student groups at many Colombian universities. Student activists have been the objects of kidnaping and killings in the past. Death squads often call social activists of any kind "terrorists" and accuse them of supporting the "subversion."
Please write to the Colombian authorities, as well as to your representatives in your own country, requesting that Colombian authorities ensure the protection of the threatened students.
President Uribe's address is:
S.E. lvaro Uribe Vlez, Presidente de la Repblica, Cra. 8 # 7-26, Palacio de Nario, Santa Fe de Bogot.Fax:+57.1.566.20.71 : auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Here is a translation of the threats. Note, the name and address "Alberto Palomino" have been used before to send threats to human rights groups.
From:Alberto Palomino
Date: Tuesday, July 4th 2006 06:22:55 p.m.
To:
funcomisiones@hotmail.com, FUNcionando@gruposyahoo.com, funcomisionesuptc@yahoo.com, funcpasto@yahoo.com, modep@tutopia.com
Subject:
No more terrorists disguised as students
Messrs.. FUN.. Terrorists disguised as students.
In our struggle for a free and peaceful Colombia, and in accordance to the security policy of President Dr. Alvaro Urie (sic) Velez, we inform you that in the upcoming years there will be a cleaning of the enemies of a true democracy.
For that reason, we present the following names, which will be expanded in the future, of those that must not remain in their universities and regions, as punishment for their vandalistic actions, otherwise they will suffer the whole force of our presence.
For that reason we present the following names, which will be expanded, of:
1 Miguel Barriga and Adriana Lozano Bogota- Terrorists disguised as students. Friends and protectors of terrorists in the city. Supporters of illicit and unstable acts in the universities. Supporters of unique organizations of disorder. No more strikes and senseless opposition.
2. Jose Blanco Tunja- Terrorist disguised as representative. Insurgent support in Boyaca. Creator of terrorist nuclei in Tunja and surroundings. Supporter of illicit and unstable acts in the universities.. No more unnecessary recesses
3. Fun udenar. Terrorists disguised as students. Their leaders fool begining students. They hide their support of subversion. Recruiters of the ignorant. Long live a Pasto free of terrorists.
Not one month more, nor a semester more, nor a year more in your universities. No more disguised terrorists.
First warning.
From:
Andres Duran
Sent:
Monday, 17 July 2006 10:47:25 a.m.
To:
funcomisiones@hotmail.com, funcomisionesuptc@yahoo.com, funcpasto@yahoo.com, miguel_quimica@yahoo.es, modep@tutopia.com
Subject:
No more time for terrorists disguised as students.
(No message)
April 3, 2006
Another day, another threat in Colombia
Colombian journalist Hollman Morris has received new threats against his life. This time it's in the form of a video, distributed in the southern part of Bogota, which names Morris and other human rights defenders as being guerrilla agents. Calling journalists who expose human rights violations and human rights defenders in general terrorist agents is a common tactic. In the US itself makes that link to spy on human rights and peace activists. In Colombia, it's akin to putting you in an execution list.
He was actually put in that list last summer, when President Uribe insinuated he was linked to the guerrilla. Previously, along with two other journalists, he had received a beautiful funeral wreath.
Morris is the producer and face of Contrava - a show dedicated to exposing human rights abuses in Colombia. He has also produced and directed documentaries and has worked with the BBC. He's one of the very few journalists who has traveled to different parts of Colombia to interview victims of human rights violations by government or paramilitary forces.
Fourty seven human rights defenders were murdered in Colombia in 2005 alone, while 15 more were kidnapped and/or tortured. Dozens have been subject to arbitrary detentions.
Mr. Morris' life is in grave danger. International pressure *may* help save his life.
Watch a 2005 Amnesty International interview with Mr. Morris
March 31, 2006
Colombian Army kills and arrests indigenous people
Last January 21st. members of the Colombian National Army irrupted into a wedding ceremony of Wayu indigenous people, shooting arbitrarily at the more than 100 people gathered there. The army was alledgedly looking for presumed FARC members. Several people were killed, including a minor. None of them had any links to the guerrilla. Several others were injured, a pregnant woman was beaten, animals were killed and the army stole some personal posessions of the indigenous people. Three people were arrested, including the father of one of the murder victims. They are still arbitrarily detained.
Arbitrary detentions of indigenous people have also continued in other parts of Colombia. On March 29th, nine people were arbitrarily arrested in the Quincha county, including several indigenous leaders. Over 150 indigenous people had been arrested in Quinchi in 2003 and jailed for 22 months before being found innocent and freed.
(Source: Organizacin Nacional Indgena de Colombia ONIC yand Colectivo de Abogados Jos Alvear Restrepo)