Colombia This Week -- August 2, 2004

Fri 23 – 13 soldiers killed by FARC in ambush; pressure from the US mounts on peace process.

· FARC members kill 13 soldiers in an attack on a bridge in Putumayo, the army reports. It was one of the biggest blows this year against the army, which says it has pushed the rebels into retreat thanks to increases in military spending. The soldiers scrambled to repel about 200 FARC guerrillas who failed in their objective of blowing up the bridge in Putumayo province. The attack was a reminder after a long period of relative inactivity that the FARC can still mount big operations with large numbers of guerrillas, Reuters reports.

· After the latest indictments by the US authorities against two paramilitary commanders, Diego Fernandez Murillo and Vicente Castaño, the government of President Uribe Velez is facing a fresh chorus of criticism as paramilitaries have continued to carry out assassinations and other crimes while talks are going on and despite claiming to have enacted a cease-fire. The indictments add to the growing sentiment that Mr. Uribe's administration is negotiating with drug kingpins, not with a political organisation. "This is another blow, another demonstration of the deep relationship between narcotrafficking and paramilitarism," said Daniel Garcia-Peña, a former government peace negotiator, New York Times reports.

· The mayor of the Cimitarra municipality in the Magdalena Medio region protests with disbelief as the Colombian police start a fumigation campaign in the Cimitarra Valley. According to reports, the Colombian authorities promised that they would wait till next October before implementing a manual eradication programme promoted by the European Union, Vanguardia Liberal reports.

· Supporters of President Uribe Velez in the Senate fear the election of independent Senator J Fernando Cristo as head of the powerful First Committee in this chamber. According to the daily El Pais, this is a serious warning signal to the government as many members believed to be on Uribe's side voted for Representative Cristo.

Sat 24 –Gunmen free Uribe's kidnapped cousin after ransom paid; police seize 4.5 t of cocaine.

· According to reports, members of an unknown armed group kidnap German Fernandez Posada, cousin of President Uribe Velez, in the municipality of Concordia (Antioquia). However, he was swiftly released after been retained for four hours and paying a ransom, RCN radio reports.

· Police seize 4.5 tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of US $90 million in Necocli (Antioquia). The drugs allegedly belonged to a paramilitary commander who refuses to participate in government-sponsored peace talks, authorities said. The seizure came a day after the United States charged two top commanders from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, (AUC) with drug trafficking, Associated Press reports.

· Spain confirms that a deal to sell battle tanks to Colombia has been cancelled amid concern that it could spark an arms race with neighboring Venezuela. "It is a mutual decision by both governments, not just Spain," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said after talks with Colombian President Uribe Velez in Bogota. Spain's new Socialist government, which is far less sympathetic to Uribe's hard-line security policies than Aznar, immediately cast doubt on the previous deal, saying it did not think the tanks would help solve Colombia's guerrilla conflict, The Scotsman reports.

· Paramilitaries acting in northern Colombia are accused of stealing hundreds of millions of pesos from the state by charging the private health services (ARS) for operating in areas under their military control. According to an investigation published in El Tiempo, the Colombian government has proof that Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias "Jorge 40", a commander involved in peace talks with the Colombian government, is responsible for forcing local authorities to pay between 6000 and 10,000 pesos monthly for each worker affiliated to the system.

Sun 25 – Procuraduria to reject antiterrorist legislation; peasant leader killed in Cundinamarca.

· The Colombian Prosecutor's office (Procudaruria) ends a report to the Colombian Constitutional Court recommending striking down the antiterrorist legislation proposed by the Uribe administration on a technical mistake made by the Colombian Congress on 5 November 2003, El Tiempo reports.

· The vice-president of the National Confederation for Peasant Cooperatives (Fenacoa) Benedicto Caballero is killed by unknown gunmen in the rural area of Mesitas, (Cundinamarca), Colprensa reports.

· An editorial in El Tiempo warns President Uribe to accept criticism from political opponents after accusing ex-President Pastrana of "selling the country to the FARC during the peace process with this group". President Uribe made the remarks in a speech to the armed forces after being attacked by Pastrana for the way he's conducting the re-election campaign.

· According to the Colombian delegation negotiating the US -Andean trade talks, Washington representatives are urging Colombia to privatise the telecommunications industry completely, El Colombiano reports.

Mon 26 - ELN abduct Catholic Bishop in Casanare; US indictment complicates peace process.

· The National Liberation Army (ELN) abducts a Catholic bishop, planning to set him free bearing a political message for the government, church officials report. Monsignor Fabian Marulanda, secretary-general of the Bishop's Conference, said Misael Vaca Ramirez, the Bishop of Yopal, was taken by members of the ELN on Sunday near the town of Morcote, (Casanare). He said the ELN had informed the church that Vaca Ramirez would be released unharmed at an unspecified date with a message for the government. ELN leaders have been trying to find common ground recently for peace talks with the government, AP reports.

· The French government passes legislation on the agreement signed last year between the Colombian and the French governments on antiterrorist measures. The agreement, -that has not been made public- frames the collaboration in terms of intelligence and exchange of information to combat narcotrafficking, Reuters reports.

The ELN accepts an offer from Senate President Luis Humberto Gomez Gallo to hold a National Convention in the Colombian Congress, El Tiempo reports. The National Convention is the mechanism by which the ELN hopes to launch peace talks.

In a new scandal involving local politicians and business people, the Administrative Security Department (DAS) reports that thousands of crooked contracts have drained $7.5 billion from the treasury of the eastern department of Vichada, Efe reports.

The Attorney General's office free four police officers in the city of Bogota, accused of illegally detaining and torturing a woman. According to the reports, they were looking for a suitcase with US $880,000 robbed from a paramilitary commander in the capital, back in January this year. The Attorney's resolution states that the police "did not kidnap but prolonged the illegal detention of the woman", adding that she was unable to prove the allegation that she had been tortured, Colprensa reports.

Tues 27 - US presidential candidate pushes Uribe on human rights; Amnesty condemns kidnap.

Twenty-three US Senators, including Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, send a letter to President Uribe Velez conveying the importance of respecting human rights, cutting ties between the Colombian Armed Forces and paramilitary groups, and implementing recommendations made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) to Colombia. The letter, co-sponsored by Senators Feingold and Dodd, expressed concern about "continued levels of violence directed at the civilian population," El Tiempo reports.

Kidnapping and hostage taking are flagrant breaches of international humanitarian law, said Amnesty International as the Bishop of Yopal was kidnapped this weekend in Morcote, (Casanare). The statement also says "the kidnapping of the bishop is only the latest example of the blatant disregard that the armed actors in Colombia's conflict have for civilians." Amnesty International is calling on the armed actors to desist from this practice and to immediately release all hostages.

Ruben Dario Montoya, Regional Ombudsman for the city of Bogota reports that armed groups acting in the south of Bogota are displacing recent arrivals of internally displaced people to other areas of the city. According to the reports, at least 44 local leaders have received death threats against them and their families, moving for security reasons from one part of the city to another, El Tiempo reports.

An official from the XVI Army Brigade reports that nine paramilitary fighters have been killed in the rural area of Mani (Casanare). Gen. Justo Eliseo Pena Sanchez said they were members of the Centauros Bloc of the Self-Defence Forces of Cordoba and Uraba, El Espectador reports.

Weds 28 – Para leaders speak in Congress; Hospital workers blame government for closures.

Salvatore Mancuso and two fellow commanders of the AUC, Ramon Isaza and Ivan Roberto Duque, speak in Colombian Congress telling politicians and diplomats they will not agree to jail time and asking for a full amnesty after twenty years of mass killing. BBC's Colombia correspondent, Jeremy McDermott, says the AUC is the country's most brutal warring faction, having carried out massacres and assassinations to "cleanse" large tracts of the country of Marxist rebels. The US and others believe the AUC is a drugs cartel moving some 40% of the 800 tons of cocaine that leaves Colombia every year.

Juan Carlos Giraldo, Director of the Colombian Association of Hospitals and Clinics (Achc) denounces the Uribe administration for not having policies to tackle the long-term public debt of hospitals. He also said that the Colombian state owes more than one billion pesos to the hospitals and clinics across the country and as a result many are closing down, leaving thousands without access to heath services, El Tiempo reports.

The audience for the case against 102 Colombians, reportedly members of paramilitary groups who are accused of orchestrating a plot to overthrow Venezuelan President Chavez, starts in a military court in the city of Caracas, El Comercio reports.

A US judge orders the FBI to release documents on the 1948 assassination of Colombian populist Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, Cambio magazine reports.

Thurs 29 – Intervention by paramilitary leaders in Congress criticised from left to right.

Reporting on Wednesday's dramatic appearance by paramilitary leaders, AP reports that while the paramilitary commanders were speaking in Congress, some 1,500 police and army troops took up positions around the congressional building downtown. Outside Congress, dozens of people protested the paramilitary visit, many wearing white skeleton masks to symbolise those killed by paramilitary gunmen and chanting, "Never forget." The paramilitary peace process "is a capitulation to impunity and injustice in Colombia," said Ivan Cepeda, whose father, former senator Manuel Cepeda, was slain by paramilitary gunmen in 1994. "What the process needs is for both sides to tell the truth, something they have not done," said independent Sen. Carlos Moreno, accusing the paramilitaries of taking part in the talks only to avoid jail terms and extradition.

Police in Bogota arrest five rebels who they say were planning a series of bomb attacks timed to coincide with the second anniversary of President Uribe's administration. Officials said the suspects planned to set off explosives around the capital to retaliate for a government offensive against FARC. The attacks were thwarted when intelligence reports led police to the discovery of 750 kilograms of explosives, RCN radio reports.

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