>X-eGroups-Return: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Apparently-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Organization: University of Minnesota > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Jessica Sundin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Hello friends! > > Sorry to keep you waiting SO long for a news update. I've been out of > town for a week on a family emergency. But now I'm back on line, and > the updates are going to start flowing! Today, I will probably send > three messages - this one with the news, one with a long report on the > crop fumigation, and one with news and announcements about organizing > & protests folks are doing in solidarity with Colombia. Tomorrow I > might do one more long message, in addition to regular news, but then > I should be caught up. My apologies for any inconvenience. For those > of you who are new to the list, most days I just send one message, and > usually it's smaller than today's. > > Best wishes, Jessica & the Colombia Action Network. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >1. Right-wing paramilitaries suspected in Colombian peasant massacres >2. Police in southern Brazil arrest Colombian rebel spokesman >3. Attack on Colombian Civilians Linked to U.S. Bomb >4. Right-Wing Gangs Kill Up to 33 Colombians >5. The promise is 'sweat and tears' >6. Colombia suffers 32,000 casualties a year fighting a war created by >the West's appetite for drugs >7. Privatization program founders in Colombia >8. Clinton's Drug War Pledge Raises 'Vietnamisation' Fears > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >ASSOCIATED PRESS, Saturday, 23 September 2000 > >Right-wing paramilitaries suspected in Colombian peasant massacres >By Jared Kotler > >BOGOTA -- Peasant farmers who were shot and hacked to death with >machetes in a northern village are believed to have been the victims of >rightist militias, police and army officials said Saturday. > >Gunmen wearing military-style uniforms attacked Nain, a poor village in >the mountains of Cordoba State, on Wednesday. > >The army said Saturday it had confirmed seven deaths, the bodies brought >by mule and horseback to the nearby town of Tierralta. A local priest >said Friday up to 30 people had been killed in the attack. > >The attack on Nain appeared to be the work of a right-wing paramilitary >group, the United-Self Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, said Maj. >David Yaruro of the army's Eleventh Brigade based in the nearby city of >Monteria. Cordoba province is an AUC stronghold. > >The army had said Friday that two separate massacres by gunmen took >place in the area, but Yaruro said he was aware only of the one in Nain. > >Vigilantes have targeted peasants before in the farming and ranching >region as they hunted for sympathizers of leftist guerrilla groups who >extort money from large landowners and kidnap them. > >The victims, ranging in age from 16 to 65, were apparently killed on >suspicion that they were guerrilla collaborators, Monteria police said >in a statement. > >Difficult terrain and clashes in Cordoba State prevented troops from >reaching the area, Yaruro said. Nain is about a three-hour drive from >Tierralta, along steep and unpaved mountain roads. Tierralta is about >330 miles north of Bogota. > >Guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary forces clashed Saturday in the >area, adding to the troops' difficulty in reaching Nain. The leftist >Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's largest >rebel group, is trying to re-establish itself in the area, which was >seized by militia several years ago, Yaruro said. > >The AUC is estimated to have about 6,000 combatants and has links to >government security forces. Many AUC fighters are former government >soldiers. The AUC is paid by landowners for protection services, and >makes money by taxing Colombia's drug trade. > >Paramilitary violence is a sensitive issue in relations between Colombia >and the United States. A $1.3 billion anti-drug aid package for the >South American country is conditioned on government progress in >dismantling the militias and severing army ties to them. > > Copyright 2000 Associated Press > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >ASSOCIATED PRESS, Saturday, 23 September 2000 >Police in southern Brazil arrest Colombian rebel spokesman > >RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Police in southern Brazil said Saturday they >have arrested a member of Colombia's largest rebel group. > >Francisco Antonio Cadena Colazzo, allegedly a member the Revolutionary >Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was arrested Friday in Foz do Iguacu, >a resort city near Brazil's border with Paraguay about 800 miles (1,300 >kilometers) southwest of Rio, said police officer Joao Manuel Quitas. > >Local media identified Colazzo as the FARC's spokesman in Brazil, but >Quitas said he could not confirm the report. > >The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said Colazzo was arrested because his >tourist visa had expired and that he would be deported to Colombia. It >said that for two years Colazzo, under the alias Oliverio Medina, had >acted as the rebels' spokesman in Brazil, giving press interviews and >speaking at university seminars. > >In Colombia, FARC spokesman Andres Paris acknowledged that "Oliverio >Medina" was an unofficial ambassador in Brazil for the leftist rebel >group, which controls a Switzerland-sized demilitarized zone in >Colombia. > >"I am sending a message to the Brazilian Embassy to stop the process of >deportation of our colleague to Colombia," Paris said in an interview >with Colombia's RCN television news. "If this step is taken, his life >will be in danger." > >Folha quoted lawyer Marcio Rogerio de Souza as saying Colazzo should >receive political asylum because he had received death threats from >right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia. > > Copyright 2000 Associated Press > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >PUBLIC-I.ORG, Saturday, 23 September 2000 > >Attack on Colombian Civilians Linked to U.S. Bomb >By Frank Smith > >A previously unreleased FBI report says an explosion that killed at >least 19 Colombian civilians, including several children, two years ago >was caused by a U.S.-designed fragmentation bomb. > >The report, a copy of which was obtained by the Center for Public >Integrity, would seem to contradict Colombian military claims that >leftist rebels were responsible for the explosion. It also highlights >human rights concerns about the new $1.3 billion U.S. aid package to >equip and train Colombian government forces, as well as questions about >whether more U.S. hardware will be implicated in future attacks on >civilians caught up in Colombia's decades-long civil war. > >The explosion occurred in the hamlet of Santo Domingo, near Colombia's >border with Venezuela, an area that is known to sympathize with >anti-government guerrillas. The Colombian army had been battling about >200 leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia >(whose Spanish acronym is FARC) less than three miles away shortly >before the Dec. 13, 1998, explosion rocked the neighborhood. > >Casualty counts vary. Local authorities and regional human rights groups >reported at the time that 27 civilians were killed, and another 25 or so >were injured. State Department officials told the Center that 19 people >died as a result of the attack. The number of dead children ranged from >three to seven, according to local press reports. The FBI report said >only that the explosion killed 16 people. > >The Colombian military denied that it bombed Santo Domingo and suggested >the guerrillas planted a car bomb in the neighborhood. But eyewitness >accounts of military planes and helicopters overhead at the time of the >attack, as well as conflicting statements by the Colombian military, >prompted the federal prosecutor's National Human Rights Unit to seek >U.S. assistance in its investigation. > > --- Samples sent to FBI lab >Six samples of metal and fuse fragments were sent to the FBI's >Washington, D.C., lab for analysis and, in its May 1 report, the FBI's >Explosive Unit reported back to the Colombians that "present in the >submitted specimens are exploded remains which are consistent with a >twenty (20) pound United States designed AN-M41 fragmentation bomb and >fuze [sic]. The resulting explosion from this type of bomb could cause >property damage, personal injury or death." > >FBI officials in Washington and Bogota refused to comment on the report, >but confirmed its authenticity. The Defense Department in Washington >also refused to comment. But a U.S. military officer in Colombia, >speaking on condition that he not be named, said the United States had >delivered AN-M41 ordnances to the Colombian air force in the past. The >Colombian Attorney General's office has ordered the military to reopen >its investigation into the attack, in light of the FBI report. But human >rights activists say the military's denial of involvement in the Santo >Domingo bombing fits a pattern and bodes ill for the new U.S. military >aid package, which is limited to counter-narcotics activity. > >"The case shows two things," said Winifred Tate of the Washington Office >on Latin America. "One is the misuse of U.S. military assistance to kill >civilians. The second is the fact that the Colombian military has >consistently lied in order to obstruct human rights investigations." > >U.S. State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, >said OV-10A Bronco fighter-bombers and helicopters were flying in >support of ground troops during the Colombian army's skirmish with >guerrillas that day near Santo Domingo. One official said the OV-10A is >suspected of having bombed the village. > >However, the Colombian newsmagazine Cambio, citing government sources, >reported in June that a Huey UH-1H helicopter, registration number >FAC-4407, most likely dropped the AN-M41 bomb - a contention supported >by human rights activists, who convened a "tribunal of opinion" on the >Santo Domingo bombing at the Center for International Human Rights Law >at Northwestern University on Sept. 22. > > --- Colombian military air power >The Colombian air force has at least 15 U.S.-made OV-10A Bronco >fighter-bombers in its fleet, according to a State Department source and >a U.S. Air Force Web site on the air power in Colombia's >counter-insurgency program. Only 10 of its OV-10As are operational, >according to U.S. military sources in Bogota. The Colombian military, as >well as the Colombian National Police, also have a variety of U.S.-made >combat and transport helicopters, including the Huey UH-1H. > >Any U.S.-manufactured plane could be equipped to carry any >U.S.-manufactured munition, said the American military source in Bogota, >but he thought it unlikely, for safety reasons, that this type of bomb >would be dropped from a helicopter. > >The FBI report said the 20-pound AN-M41 fragmentation bomb was designed >to be dropped individually or as part of a cluster of six bombs from a >minimum altitude of 400 feet. "Release of the fuzed bomb from the >aircraft withdraws the arming wire and frees the arming vane to rotate >in the airstream. The rotating arming vanes in turn release a safety >block from the nose of the fuze arming the bomb," the report said. >"Present in the submitted specimens . . . are exploded remains which are >consistent with a fuze of this type." > >There was no evidence of an "improvised delivery system," the report >said. In addition, during original production of this bomb's fuse, the >phrase "NOSE BOMB FUZE" was stamped on the fuse body, the FBI said, >adding that "present on a portion of Q1 [a submitted sample] are the >apparent partial letters 'NO_E BOM_'." > >"We still don't know what happened," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the >Center. "But the fact that there was an orchestrated cover-up of the >incident by the Colombian military suggests that it may not have been an >accident." Leahy asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in an Aug. >30 letter, to pressure Colombia to send the Santo Domingo case to a >civilian court for trial. > >>From 1990 to 1995, the United States transferred $7 billion in excess >defense articles to military allies around the world as part of its >post-Cold War drawdown, according to a study by the Federation of >American Scientists. Both FAS and the General Accounting Office, the >congressional investigative agency, have criticized the Pentagon for >poor record keeping on excess defense article transfers. > >Colombia has received excess U.S. defense articles since 1993, according >to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. In addition, the United >States sold $29,000 worth of "bombs" to Colombia in 1996 and another >$30,000 in "bombs" in 1997, according to the foreign military sales >annual report to Congress. The reports do not specify which "bombs" are >included in those sales. > >The Clinton administration itself has come under congressional criticism >for its failure to monitor arms sent to Colombia to ensure that they are >being used for counter-narcotics purposes and not as part of the >military's counter-insurgency war with leftist guerrillas. In 1997, >prompted by concern over the situation in Colombia, Congress enacted a >law to prevent foreign security forces implicated in human rights abuses >from receiving U.S. aid. > >But neither the Santo Domingo bombing nor the FBI report figured in this >year's debate over whether to further arm Colombia for counter-narcotics >purposes, although the FBI report was sent to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota >just as the Colombian aid package was in final negotiations between the >House and Senate. > >Congress had initially conditioned the new aid package on Colombia's >ability to demonstrate that human rights abusers in its military ranks >were being brought to justice, but later gave President Clinton the >authority to waive that and other human rights conditions if he >determined that aid to Colombia had to start flowing immediately for >U.S. national security interests. > >The president exercised that power in August because, said State >Department spokesman Richard Boucher, "It is in the national security >interest of the United States to promote economic reform, protection of >U.S. citizens, and hemispheric stability, all of which will be addressed >by our planned support for Colombia." > > Reported by Frank Smyth, Andre Verl6y, Maud S. Beelman and Mary Beth >Warner of the Center's International Consortium of Investigative >Journalists and written by Beelman. > > Copyright 2000, The Center for Public Integrity > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >REUTERS, Friday, 22 September 2000 >Right-Wing Gangs Kill Up to 33 Colombians > >BOGOTA -- Suspected right-wing paramilitary gunmen killed at least 13 >people, and possibly up to 33, in twin attacks in two of Colombia's >northern provinces, police and local media said Friday. > >They said the bloodiest of the two attacks occurred in a sparsely >populated region of Cordoba province, near the main jungle stronghold of >Carlos Castano, Colombia's dreaded right-wing paramilitary warlord. > >A terse police report on the attack said heavily armed gunmen in combat >fatigues pulled into a village in sport utility vehicles late Wednesday >and rounded up nine suspected "guerrilla collaborators," including a >teenage boy. > >The nine were then slaughtered with machetes and bursts of automatic >gunfire, it said. > >The official police report added few details and stopped short of >blaming paramilitaries for the attack. A police spokesman conceded the >killing had all the hallmarks of those committed almost daily by >Castano's United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), however, the >country's leading paramilitary force. > >A witness interviewed on local Caracol television, meanwhile, said the >killers wore trademark AUC arm bands to distinguish themselves from >members of one this South American nation's two main Marxist rebel >groups. > >Speaking haltingly, and with his back to the camera to shield his >identity, the witness also insisted that least 29 villagers were killed >in Wednesday's attack and not just nine. > >"There's another 25 or 20 bodies out there," he said, explaining that >the attackers had dumped most of their victims in thick jungle around >the village or in ditches along the road they drove off on. > >Police said they had no immediate proof the death toll surpassed nine, >however. > >In the other attack, which took place Thursday night, police said a >paramilitary death squad shot and killed four farm workers in the >banana-growing region of Cienaga in Magdalena province. > >Local and international human rights groups say the AUC, which is now >estimated to have up to 6,400 mostly working-class fighters, is >responsible for most of the peasant massacres and other atrocities >committed in Colombia. > >Rights groups also allege that Castano and his private army operate with >the support of state security forces, in an increasingly dirty war with >rebels, leftists and suspected guerrilla sympathizers that has taken >around 35,000 lives since 1990. > >In a rare television interview broadcast by Caracol in March, the >gravel-voiced Castano said drug trafficking and drug traffickers >probably financed 70 percent of his organization's operations. > > Copyright 2000 Reuters > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >FINANCIAL TIMES [London], Friday, 22 September 2000 > >The promise is 'sweat and tears' >By James Wilson > >BOGOTA -- Any optimism over Colombia's incipient recovery is tempered by >the knowledge that structural reforms - seen as vital to prevent a >future lurch back into crisis - are still lagging behind. > >After GDP fell by 4.7 per cent last year, the economy has begun to grow >again, and various analysts broadly concur with the government's >forecast of a GDP rise of 3 per cent this year. However, in terms of the >reforms needed for long-term stability, 2000 has so far been largely >wasted. > >The increased intensity of Colombia's long-running armed conflict also >worries investors. "The security situation has become a real issue. >Before, it was a manageable risk - now it is a matter of real concern," >admits Juan Manuel Santos, the finance minister. > >In May, Colombia suffered a further credit downgrade from Standard & >Poor's, and is now assessed at two notches below the investment grade it >held until last year. > >The reform agenda came off the rails in March, when President Andres >Pastrana, angry at corruption within congress, proposed a referendum >calling for the dissolution of the assembly and fresh elections. >Congress responded by freezing any discussion of economic reforms. > >To escape from the impasse, Mr Pastrana retracted his threat to >legislators and, in July, replaced finance minister Juan Camilo Restrepo >with Mr Santos. As a rare Liberal in the cabinet of the Conservative Mr >Pastrana, Mr Santos is thought likely to have a better relationship with >the country's largely Liberal lawmakers. > >Mr Santos has promised Churchillian "sweat and tears" as he seeks to lay >secure economic foundations. He has announced a budget that proposes >below-inflation growth in public sector salaries and in government >current spending, and which includes cost-cutting measures in many >areas. However investment spending may rise significantly if lawmakers >approve an extensive tax reform plan which would cover the increase. >"The country needs social investment," says Mr Santos. > >Next year's budget aims to cut the public sector deficit to 2.5 per cent >of GDP, in line with Colombia's IMF agreement: a target Mr Santos says >is "non-negotiable". The central government deficit is to be cut by >almost 2 percentage points to 4.3 per cent. > >The tax reform is more ambitious than an earlier version put forward by >Mr Restrepo, and Mr Santos believes it will raise around 3,500bn pesos >(Dollars 1.6bn) in 2001. A central plank of the reform is the >elimination of a series of exemptions. Colombia is plagued by tax >evasion. The "tax take" only amounts to 11.5 per cent of GDP. > >Tax reform is one response to the growing concern over the state's >ability to pay its way. According to the Fedesarrollo economic >think-tank in Bogota, 98 per cent of the central government's current >income is being used to cover debt servicing and transfers to pension >funds and regional government. Reducing these mandatory transfers, >through pension reform and constitutional changes, has been a key >challenge for several years. > >The minister believes a bill to reform the system of regional transfers >will be presented to Congress before regional elections on October 29. >"We have advanced surprisingly far," says Mr Santos. Pension reform >legislation could follow in November but is not expected to come into >effect until 2002. > >Officials say the external financing programme is on track, but expected >inflows of privatisation receipts have not yet materialised. None of the >anticipated sales of public sector utilities and industries has been >concluded. Bombings of oil pipelines and power pylons by guerrilla >groups show the energy sector's continued vulnerability to the armed >conflict. Foreign direct investment has plunged, as has portfolio >investment in Colombia's depressed bourses. > >This adverse sentiment has contributed to the peso's sharp devaluation - >around 30 per cent year on year. The devaluation has helped an >export-led industrial recovery, but the revival is, nonetheless, patchy. >Domestic demand is still slack, with unemployment stuck at around 20 per >cent. Construction has fallen to less than two-thirds of the levels of >two years ago. > >Among the brighter news has been the control of inflation, which should >this year meet the government's target of 10 per cent. > >Strong world prices for oil, Colombia's largest export, have also been a >boost. > > Copyright 2000 The Financial Times Limited > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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