Colombia This Week -- March 28, 2005

Fri 18 – Congressman shot dead in Caldas; US attorney accuses Samper and others of bribery.

·         Jose Oscar Gonzalez, a congressman from Colombia's Liberal Party is shot dead by two assailants in his district office in the city of Manizales. A friend of the lawmaker, who was talking with him at the time of the attack, was also killed, police said. Authorities declined to speculate on the motive for the crime and said there was no evidence linking it to any of Colombia's illegal armed groups. The government has offered a $21,000 award for information leading to the capture of the assailants. Police said they captured two suspects who may have been linked to the crime, Reuters reports.

·         Paul Perez, a US federal prosecutor from Tampa, Miami, claims that the Cali drug cartel bribed former President Ernesto Samper. Perez's statement said Samper received $5 million in bribes from the Cali cartel to promote passage of the Colombian law that prohibits extraditions for crimes committed before December 1997, when the law was passed. The Cali cartel controlled the world's cocaine trafficking networks in the mid-1990s but went into decline after its leaders were arrested in 1995. Perez criticised Colombia's extradition law and said evidence should be permitted against accused drug kingpin Joaquin Mario Valencia Trujillo for crimes committed before December 1997, Boston Herald reports.

·         Four Colombians die and another sixteen are missing after a motorboat sinks off Venezuela's coast. The boat was carrying 20 Colombian nationals who had entered Venezuela illegally and left for Aruba. The navy was searching for the other 16 missing passengers, El Espectador reports.

·         Venezuela expects trade with neighbouring Colombia this year to reach $3 billion, twice last year’s level, Venezuelan Commerce Minister Edme Betancourt said.

Sat 19 – US Attorney retracts bribery allegations; Seven bodies found in mass grave in Valle.

·         A US federal attorney who accused the Cali drug cartel of bribing former Colombian President Ernesto Samper and dozens of lawmakers to pass a favourable extradition law retracts his statement after Colombia threatened to stop turning over suspected traffickers to the United States. US Ambassador William Wood held a late-night news conference yesterday to try to repair the damage, insisting that the US would comply with the extradition requirements imposed by Colombia. Wood, however, refused to explain why the Attoney’s document was shelved, saying only there had been ''confusion" and that he had just handed President Alvaro Uribe a revised version that omitted any mention of the accusations against Samper and the other politicians, Boston Globe reports.

·         Colombian authorities find seven bodies that were identified as ranchers and employees kidnapped last January, says the Attorney General's office. The bodies were found hidden in bushes in a rural area of Bugalagrande, Valle del Cauca. Police suspect that the crime was committed by paramilitaries of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) who have returned to civilian life, Reuters reports.

·         The National Organisation of Indigenous People in Colombia (ONIC) reports the death of minor Gabriel Domico after a landmine exploded in the settlement of Porroso, near Mutata in Antioquia. Two other minors were injured by the explosion. The community urges the Colombian government to guarantee the safety of their settlements condemning the armed groups for indiscriminately laying landmines in areas used by civilians, violating the basic principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Last February the Colombian Army and the FARC group clashed in this community.

Sun 20 – Uribe accuses peace community leaders; increase in  violence in Norte de Santander.

·         In a security meeting held in Mutata (Uraba), President Alvaro Uribe accused leaders of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community - villages where no armed groups are allowed to enter - of having links to the FARC group. Uribe said some leaders of the peace community of San Jose de Apartado "are being named by people living there as helping the FARC and as wanting to use the community to protect this terrorist organisation." The President's comments in Carepa follow last month's brutal massacre of eight peasants in this community, allegedly by members of the Colombian army, Associated Press reports.

·         A study published by the National Council for Planning reports that most of the massacres last year occurred in the provinces of Norte de Santander, Antioquia and Valle del Cauca. The report highlights the situation in Norte de Santander, where some 21% of total killings took place, and notes that more than 11,000 families (56,644 people) were displaced from this department to other regions across the country, El Tiempo reports.

·         Semana magazine reports that the two ex-army colonels that were publicly expelled from the Colombian Army by the initiative of President Uribe, were re-instated in the army days later. They were initially charged for helping Major Cesar Maldonado to escape from a military prison in Bogota. Maldonado is an army official accused by the Attorney General’s office of a murder attempt on Congressmen Wilson Borja.

Mon 21 – US- Andean negotiations report no progress ; Luz Perly Cordoba free from prison.

·         After making little progress in their eighth round of talks, United States and Andean trade negotiators say they will need at least three more rounds. The main obstacles remain agriculture, intellectual property and textiles. The next round will be in April in the city Lima, the Peruvian capital. An agreement, once envisioned to take effect this month, will not be in force any sooner than the middle of next year. After reporting pressure from social protests in all three countries, the Colombian chief negotiator Hernando Jose Gomez said his country would sign an agreement with or without Peru and Ecuador, Colprensa reports.

·         Luz Perly Cordoba, a peasant leader of the province of Arauca, was freed last Wednesday from a Bogota’s prison more than a year after her arrest for alleged collaboration with guerrillas, Prensa Rural reports.

·         The Colombian Navy reports that they have found a mass grave with more than 20 bodies in the rural area of San Onofre (Sucre), near the Montes de Maria area. According to officials, the mass grave was reported by locals living in the area, El Colombiano reports.

Tues 22 – UN calls on government to refrain from allegations; anniversary of Guaitarilla killings

·         The United Nations calls on the Colombian government to refrain from making allegations against a local community. The UN Human Rights Office in Colombia issued a statement two days after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said members of the peace community of  San Jose de Apartado, have helped guerrillas.  "As long as there is no judicial decision declaring certain people responsible for any crime, it is advisable to refrain from affirmations that could endanger the lives or physical integrity of the members of the peace community," said the statement.

·         Families of seven National Police officers and four civilians killed by Colombian Army soldiers a year ago near the town of Guaitarilla mark the anniversary with a religious ceremony, questioning why investigations have answered few questions. After long investigations by both the military and the Attorney General’s office, there is no clear explanation on what happened that day, Colprensa reports.

·         Colombian Police report the capture of Carlos Robayo, alias ‘el guacamayo’. According to the US authorities he is the military commander of the drug narcotrafficker Diego Montoya, boss of the Norte del Valle cartel and responsible for the violence affecting this department, El Tiempo reports.

·         An editorial in El Tiempo expresses concern regarding the public comments made by paramilitary leader and commander of the Central Bolivar bloc Ernesto Baez, who accused the Mayor of the municipality of Aguadas Oscar Diego Trujillo of being the intellectual author of the killing of Congressman Oscar Gonzalez in Manizales. The editorial criticises the influence of the paramilitaries in the day to day life of many Colombian cities, asking why Ernesto Baez, who is accused of most of the violence in the area, is interfering in the case.

Weds 23 – FARC ambush leaves 12 soldiers dead; two more soldiers killed by landmines.

·         Members of the FARC group ambush a military convoy in Putumayo, killing 10 soldiers in a hail of gunfire and explosions, authorities say. The troops were travelling by truck on a remote jungle road in Putumayo state when they came under attack, said Adm. Mauricio Soto, the Colombian navy commander. Only one marine in the convoy survived, El Colombiano reports.

·         Two Colombian soldiers were killed and five more injured after a patrol from the Army’s V brigade activated a minefield in Hacari, (Norte de Santander). According to the army they were pursuing members of the illegal armed groups under Operation Fortalez which aims to control the access of armed groups to the coca fields in the area, El Espectador reports.

·         Police say suspected FARC fighters attacked a squadron of U.S.-supplied drug-fumigation planes and two escort helicopters near Algeciras, lightly damaging several of the aircraft and wounding a pilot.  The planes were spraying herbicides over fields of poppy plants. At least one of the planes and the two combat helicopters escorting them were struck by gunfire or rockets but managed to fly back to their base safely, said the spokesman, who asked that his name not be used, Associated Press reports.

·         In its bulletin Pertinentes, the Peace and Development Programme of the Magdalena Medio region reports the killing of community leader from the settlement of Honda Alta, Carlos Hurtado, killed by members of the FARC. The bulletin also reports that coca fields are on the increase in the region, and that armed groups are forcing the peasant communities to grow this crop along with other products. Finally, they also express solidarity with the members and relatives of the San Jose de Apartado victims, adding their concerns for the protection of the humanitarian spaces created within the Magdalena Medio Peace Laboratory.

Thurs 24 - Danish NGO accuses Colombian vice-president; NGOs

 worries for Gloria Cuartas.

·         Representative of Danish NGO Rebelion Cristine Lundgaard reports that the Danish authorities have been asked to open a legal investigation into the Colombian vice-president, Francisco Santos, over the murder of the Araucan union leader Pedro Mosquera and another 93 union leaders last year. The spokeswoman said that the Colombian State was responsible for 80 per cent of the killings in the country, and as such it was the greatest violator of human rights and international humanitarian law. The NGO representative said that in Colombia anyone involved in political opposition is persecuted and that it is dangerous to speak out about the actions of the paramilitaries and the state, Caracol radio reports.

·         According to the Governor of Norte de Santander, Luis Miguel Morelli, Venezuelan troops allegedly entered the hamlet of Guaranito, in the municipality of Cucuta, chasing gasoline smugglers. Venezuelan Ambassador Carlos Rodolfo Santiago said he had no information on the alleged incident, France Press reports.

·         Colombian women’s NGO Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres asks the Colombian government to protect ex-mayor of Apartado and social activist Gloria Cuartas after she received death threats. According to the statement, Gloria Cuartas has been threatened as a result of her comments about the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado after eight members were massacred, when she accused the Colombian army of the killings, El Colombiano 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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