Colombia This Week -- January 9, 2006

Fri 30 – Army asks for changes in anti-insurgency strategy; Uribe urges more drugs war aid

• Carlos Alberto Ospina, Colombia’s armed forces chief, calls into question the government’s military strategy to avoid further rebel attacks. Ospina expressed his concern in the aftermath of the FARC attack in Vista Hermosa, Meta department on 27 December, where 29 soldiers and five rebels lost their lives. The episode was the most serious guerrilla assault since President Alvaro Uribe took office three years ago. The records for this year show a 15 percent increase in the number of soldiers and police officers killed compared to 2004, The Miami Herald reports.
• President Alvaro Uribe says the world needs to play a bigger role in helping Colombia combat illegal drugs and rebel groups. Mr Uribe described the FARC as the biggest source of illegal drugs, and their latest attack as an attempt to stop land being cleared of coca crops. The President also remarked that the attack would not deter efforts to eradicate coca production in the region, the BBC reports.
• Albeiro Giraldo Montoya, alias El Panadero, is arrested in relation to the attack on December 20th against the Governor of Arauca Julio Acosta. Montoya is considered to be one of the key FARC members in the area bordering Venezuela and he had previously orchestrated a failed attempt to kill President Uribe in 2002, El Tiempo reports.

Sat 31 – Government reports record cocaine seizures; University of Michigan bans Coke

• The Colombian government says a record 186 tonnes of cocaine were seized in 2005 - a 26 percent increase compared to the previous year- thanks to the Washington-backed Plan Colombia. According to Defence Minister Camilo Ospina, the Plan, consisting of some $3 billion in mostly military aid since 2000, is responsible for the improvement in the war on drugs, CNN reports.
• The University of Michigan stops purchases of Coca Cola following concerns about the company’s labour practices in Colombia. Activists accused the company of hiring right-wing death squads to intimidate union workers, which the firm denies. The University of Michigan is the second institution after New York University to implement the ban. Although university contracts represent a small portion of the company’s profits, the damage to its marketing image could be considerable, Reuters reports.
• Troops from the Fuerza de Despliegue Rapido (Rapid Deployment Force, FUDRA) -detain the peasant Nolberto Lujan in Vista Hermosa (Meta department) without a legal warrant. The soldiers also stole the 4 million pesos Norberto had on him, saying the money was the result of drug trafficking, the Colombian organisation Justicia y Paz reports.
• Two police officers are killed by the FARC in El Doncello, Caqueta department. A similar attack by the guerrilla group was also reported in Cali, where two police officers were injured, El Tiempo reports.   

Sun 01 – FARC reject prisoner-swap talks; Ombudsman warned of imminent attack in Meta

• Colombia’s main rebel group, the FARC, rejects a proposal by an international commission to meet with Colombian government and discuss exchanging jailed rebels for hostages. Representatives from Spain, France and Switzerland proposed in December that the two sides meet in the area of El Retiro in southwest Colombia and demilitarise a 110-square-mile area. President Uribe accepted the proposal; however the guerrilla group said they would agree to hold talks only if an area more than four times larger was demilitarised, Associated Press reports.
• The Ombudsman’s office (Personeria) says it had warned civil and military authorities about a possible imminent attack by the FARC in the Meta department. The Ombudsman had reported unusual movements by about 600 guerrilla fighters around Vista Hermosa between October and December; however, this did not prevent the attack happening on December 27, Colprensa reports.
• A new report by the Anti Personnel Mines Observatory of the Presidency of the Republic states that 866 people were injured by mines in Colombia during 2005, of which 230 died. The report also suggested that 50 children were affected during the year and that between three and four people fall victims to the mines every day in the country. Antioquia remained the region with the highest number of victims, El Colombiano reports.

Mon 02 – FARC bomb oil wells and electricity pylon; CAN-Mercosur free trade agreement approved

• The FARC dynamited eight oil wells and an electricity pylon near the Ecuadorean border over the weekend, the Colombian police said on Monday. The oil wells were located in the town of Orito, in the department of Putumayo, and the spills from the explosion affected nearby rivers and streams. The electricity pylon destroyed on Saturday left 300,000 people without power, Reuters reports.
• Colombian President Alvaro Uribe approves Law 1000, by which a free trade agreement will be implemented between the Andean Community (CAN) and Mercosur. Jorge Humberto Botero Angulo, Minister of Trade and Industry, described the move as a great opportunity for Colombia, which should be able to benefit from a market of more than 200 million people and trade revenues of more than $166,000 million, El Colombiano reports.  
• Colombia is listed as one of the eleven conflict situations around the world that have deteriorated in December 2005, according to the new issue of CrisisWatch. Despite an optimistic start to government talks with the rebel group ELN, the FARC have launched two of its worst attacks in years killing 37 soldiers and police officers, International Crisis Group reports.

Tues 03 – Ecological damage in Putumayo; Colombia attracts gold miners 

• Colombian authorities are concerned about the oil spills following the FARC attack in the department of Putumayo. It is estimated that 10,500 gallons of oil reached the Guamez River and there are fears that the oil slick could end up in the Putumayo River which forms the border with Ecuador. This would further strain relationships with the neighbouring country, which claims the glyphosate fumigations against coca crops in southern Colombia are affecting its ecosystem, El Tiempo reports.
• Gold mining investments are returning to Colombia, after several companies withdrew from the country in the 1990s because of kidnappings. A rising gold price and attractive tax regimes introduced by President Uribe are responsible for the come-back. According to ECLAC, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, direct foreign investment in Colombia grew 34.7% in 2004 to $2.4 billion. The mining sector contribution to GDP grew 7% between 2003 and 2004 while the country’s economy only grew 3.5%, The Globe and Mail reports.  
• The National Electoral Council (CNE) states that the nine people who expressed their wish to run for the Presidency of the Republic in 2006 must receive equal treatment from the media in accordance with the Guarantees Law, El Colombiano reports.

Weds 04–Controversial decree on Justice & Peace Law; President and FARC in row over negotiations

• The Colombian government issues the regulating decree governing the Justice and Peace Law that includes the possibility for the Attorney General’s office to exercise discretionary power when investigating paramilitaries’ frontmen. According to the decree, people under whose name illegal assets are registered will not be prosecuted. The measure has been received with criticism; the former president of the Constitutional Court, Jose Gregorio Hernandez, said the decision will open a new door to impunity, El Tiempo reports.
• While the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accuses the FARC for the failure of negotiation talks and reiterates his determination to rescue the hostages both through agreements and the use of force, the rebel group claims the president’s acceptance of a humanitarian exchange was only an electoral move. The guerrilla group also stated their willingness to meet with delegates from France, Switzerland and Spain, leaving a door open to negotiation. The French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy announced he would soon go to Colombia to try and win freedom for kidnapped Ingrid Betancourt, EFE and Colprensa report.
• The head of the Amazonas drug cartel Evaristo Porras Ardila is released from prison after serving three fifths of his sentence. Porras Ardila, who is believed to have been the main coca supplier for the laboratories in the south of the country, had been arrested in 1995 for drug trafficking and the illicit possession of 800 million pesos, El Tiempo reports.
• The Ministry of Defence adds 20 further benefits to the list of remunerations for demobilised combatants and informers. Between 2003 and 2005 the government paid 10,491 million pesos to people who provided information, El Tiempo reports.
• Marco Tulio Erazo Rodriguez, alias El Colorado, is arrested in Ecuador and deported to Colombia. Rodriguez was in charge of distributing cocaine produced by the 48th Front of the FARC to Ecuador and other countries, Associated Press reports.

Thurs 05 –UN criticises Justice & Peace Law; Killings and disappearances in Meta

• The UN Human Rights Office in Colombia criticises the decree that regulates the Justice and Peace Law, recently approved by the government, arguing that it does not guarantee the rights of the victims to truth, justice and reparation and does not provide a legal framework for the dismantling of illegal armed groups, The Miami Herald reports.
• Members of the paramilitary group Autodefensas de los Llanos kill three peasants in Vista Hermosa, in Meta department, despite the presence of the army in the area. Three more peasants have recently been disappeared in Vista Hermosa, following the FARC attack in the area, and President Uribe’s statements that measures against the rebels would be strengthened, the Colombian organisation Justicia y Paz reports.
• According to official statistics, inflation in 2005 was higher for lower social strata than for the middle and upper classes. The reasons behind this are higher prices for food, housing, health and public transport, categories that mostly affect the poor. Half of the Colombian population- 22 million people- live in poverty, El Tiempo reports.
• The FARC blows up another electricity pylon in Putumayo on Wednesday, blacking out nine of the 13 districts of the region, including the capital city of Mocoa. The attacks are causing an economic loss of 1,200 million pesos per day and the situation remains critical in hospitals, where electrical generators have to be used, Associated Press reports.
• The Minister of Agriculture, Andres Felipe Arias, states that 259,000 hectares that are property of the State must be handed over to peasants and displaced people by the current settlers. 18,500 peasant and displaced families in 11 departments of the country are expected to benefit, Radio Caracol reports.

Colombia This Week is a news summary produced and distributed by ABColombia Group. Sources include daily Colombian, US, European and Latin American newspapers, and reports from non-governmental organisations and the UN System. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the ABColombia Group.
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