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Colombia - Page 1

D. Actions Called For

Called for by Displaced Colombians: Withdrawal

"We demand that the US government withdraw its advisers, its dirty money with which the paramilitaries are financed, its army and its marines, so that our zone can be free from all aggression," said the protesters in a communique. The campesinos and miners came from several different municipalities of the Magdalena Medio region, where the southern part of Bolivar department meets the departments of Antioquia and Santander, in northern Colombia. "We're not leaving here until our problems are resolved," campesino Alberto Carvajal told Associated Press.
On July 24 the office of the Defender of the People began mediating to seek an end to the protest near the US embassy. The embassy has made no comment on the protest. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 7/25/98 from AP; El Diario-La Prensa 7/25/98 from AP]
In a report by telephone to members of the Madison, Wisconsin- based Colombia Support Network (CSN) on July 25, professor Francisco Jose de Roux explained that the Magdalena Medio refugees want a government commission to go to San Pablo to discuss the crisis there and address people's needs. Some 2,000 of the refugees in San Pablo have now crossed the Magdalena river to seek refuge in Puerto Wilches (Santander), said de Roux.
On July 24 de Roux met in Bogota with the miners who are camped near the US Embassy. They told de Roux they are not opposed to international capital investing in mining in Colombia, but they are very concerned that the foreign mining companies may make arrangements with paramilitary groups in the region. De Roux said the miners are seeking to work out an agreement that will protect their interests. [CSN message 7/25/98] [In 1995 de Roux coordinated peace negotiations between government and rebel forces; before that he served as director of the Bogota-based Center of Investigation and Popular Education (CINEP).]
Source: "Colombians Protest US Support for Paramilitaries", from Weekly News Update on the Americas #443, 7/26/98, Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

Administration must Monitor Where Assistance Goes. Human Rights Watch states that current U.S. legislation on military assistance, including counternarcotics assistance, falls far short of the minimum standard necessary to protect human rights.... If the Clinton Administration is serious about defending and promoting human rights, it must take immediate steps to ensure that no assistance goes to forces engaged in a systematic pattern of abuses. Human Rights Watch: Colombia’s Killer Networks--The Military-Paramilitary Partnership

Investigation of Past Security Assistance.. Human Rights Watch, "Recognizing that this report raises many questions about CIA and U.S. military support for the reorganization of Colombia’s intelligence services and subsequent assistance to the Colombian armed forces, ...urges the U.S. to conduct an immediate, comprehensive investigation of security assistance since 1990 to Colombia. This would include an investigation of the U.S. military and CIA role in advising Colombia’s intelligence services; the extent to which U.S. officials had knowledge of or failed to pursue information on possible human rights violations by Colombian military and intelligence personnel and their paramilitary partners; and possible complicity in shielding military-paramilitary links from public scrutiny, thus shoring up the impunity that has allowed abuses to continue unabated. This investigation should include not just the human rights record of the military, but also inquire into the larger human rights record of paramilitary forces attached or associated in any way to the Colombian armed forces.:" Recommendation of Human Rights Watch: Colombia’s Killer Networks--The Military-Paramilitary Partnership

Individuals should travel, organize, publicize. Colombia Support Network urges that readers "join CSN, go with us on delegations to Colombia, organize a CSN chapter in your community, host one of our speakers. Colombia Support Network or Colombia Support Network, P. O. Box 1505, Madison, WI 53701: Phone (608) 257-8753 fax: (608) 255-6621. Email to csn@igc.apc.org. See also Colombian Labor Monitor

Military aid proposed in 1998 under "Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act" -- S.2341. and H.R. 4300, as of September 2, 1998: Sec. 201. Additional Eradication Resources for Colombia:

(a) DEPARTMENT OF STATE- Funds are authorized to be appropriated for the Department of State for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 for the enhancement of drug-related eradication efforts in Colombia , as follows:
- (1) For each such fiscal year for sustaining support of the helicopters and fixed wing fleet of the national police of Colombia , $6,000,000.
- (2) For the purchase of DC-3 transport aircraft for the national police of Colombia , the total amount of $2,000,000.
- (3) For acquisition of concertina wire and tunneling detection systems at the La Picota prison of the national police of Colombia , the total amount of $1,250,000.
- (4) For the purchase of minigun systems for the national police of Colombia, the total amount of $6,000,000.
- (5) For the purchase of 6 UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters for the national police of Colombia, the total amount of $60,000,000 for procurement and an additional amount of $12,000,000 for each such fiscal year for operation, maintenance, and training.
(b) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE- Funds are authorized to be appropriated for the Department of Defense for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 for the enhancement of drug-related eradication efforts in Colombia, as follows:
- (1) For procurement, Defense-wide, for upgrade of 50 UH-1H helicopters to the Huey II configuration equipped with miniguns for the use of the national police of Colombia, the total amount of $70,000,000.
- (2) For each such fiscal year for operation and maintenance, Defense-wide, for forward deployment of 5 riverine operations maintenance platforms for the use of the Army of Colombia, $2,000,000.

The U.S., fearful that Marxist guerrillas allied with drug traffickers pose a growing threat to Colombia, is loosening restrictions on aid to Colombian armed forces, withheld for years because of the military's human rights record. A unique agreement worked out last summer -- and heavily debated -- permits U.S. aid, expected to total about $37 million in fiscal 1998, to be used by the Colombian military for counterinsurgency as part of a larger program to fight drugs. The aid can be used only in a specifically defined geographic area called "the box," whose exact boundaries are classified but which covers roughly the southern half of the country. Critics say the move brings the U.S. closer to a vicious, multi-sided political conflict that is decades old and has cost thousands of lives. the Colombian army and right-wing paramilitary groups it sponsors have been implicated in scores of civilian massacres, disappearances and cases of torture. Leaders of the army-backed PM groups have been implicated in large-scale drug trafficking, yet have not been singled out as targets of the anti-drug efforts.. .Source: Extracted by rmcgehee@igc.org from A. Mackenzie,

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Updated July 31, 1999

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