WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #579, MARCH 4, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*11. COLOMBIA: OUTRAGE OVER US DRUG PARDON
As US president George Bush and Colombian president Andres
Pastrana Arango prepared to meet in the White House on Feb. 27,
Colombia was in a stir over news reports that former US president
Bill Clinton had commuted the sentence of a US lawyer convicted
of laundering money for Colombian drug traffickers. On Jan. 20,
his final day in office, Clinton commuted Harvey Weinig's 11-year
sentence to five years and 270 days; Weinig is now scheduled to
be released from federal prison on Apr. 16.
Weinig was sentenced in New York in 1996 for laundering tens of
millions of dollars in drug proceeds and failing to report a
kidnapping. US prosecutors said he was associated with the Cali
drug cartel and one of the heads of a major international ring
operating in New York and in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Puerto
Rico and Colombia.
"For Colombia, this situation is quite disappointing and delivers
the wrong message," said former attorney general Alfonso
Valdivieso, now Colombia's UN ambassador. Pastrana's
administration has called for tougher US action against money
laundering, particularly involving US banks. [AP 2/26/01]
*12. COLOMBIA: ISRAELI MERCENARIES SENTENCED
On Feb. 28, three years to the day after they were indicted, four
Israeli mercenaries were sentenced to 14 years in prison each by
a court in Manizales, Colombia, for the crimes of instruction and
training in military and terrorist tactics, techniques and
procedures, and conspiracy to commit crimes. Yair Gal Klein,
Isaac Shoshani Meraiot, Abraham Tzedaka and Terry Melnyk were
sentenced for actions carried out in Colombia in 1987, when they
led three training courses in the Puerto Boyaca municipality for
civilians working for rightwing paramilitary groups in the
Magdalena Medio region. The four Israelis were also fined an
amount equivalent to 25 minimum monthly salaries. [El Colombiano
(Medellin) 3/1/01]
Klein, a former colonel in the Israeli army, is said to have
formed the first school for Colombian hit squads in the 1980s
with the backing of Medellin drug lords Pablo Escobar Gaviria and
Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha; he later trained the early US-
backed paramilitary squads of Escobar's enemies in the Cali
cartel [see Update #472]. [El Nuevo Herald 1/12/01; El Tiempo
(Bogota) 5/28/00; El Colombiano (Medellin) 6/11/00] More
recently, Klein was linked to an arms scandal involving the
Peruvian military in weapons sales to the leftist Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) [see Update #553]. [ENH 1/12/01;
ET 6/28/00] [Although the Colombian government had made some
effort toward his extradition, Klein is presumably living
comfortably in Israel, Africa or elsewhere. Sources did not
indicate the whereabouts of any of the four who were sentenced.]
In a June 2000 interview in Israel with the Israeli daily Maariv,
a translation of which was published by the Medellin daily El
Colombiano, Klein warned that his silence about his involvement
in Colombia is the only thing that guarantees his life. "I can
only tell you one thing that until now I have never said: I was
in Colombia by invitation of the Americans, period," said Klein.
"Everything the US can't do because it's prohibited for them to
intervene in the affairs of foreign governments, they do, of
course, but through others. I acted with license and permission
in Colombia." After implying that the US was behind his January
1999 arrest in Sierra Leone, Klein warned: "They know that if
anything bad happens to me, there are several people who have in
their posession enough material to show who paid me to train and
work in Colombia." [EC 6/11/00]
*13. COLOMBIA: ARMY ERROR KILLS CIVILIANS
Three campesinos died--one of them a 15-year old boy--and two
others were wounded on Feb. 25 in western Colombia when army
soldiers fired on them at a military roadblock in Valle del Cauca
department. The victims were driving together along the road from
Tulua to La Marina in two vehicles--a motorcycle and a pickup
truck loaded with bananas--on their way to sell the fruit in the
city of Palmira. Johnson Vega, a police agent who was not in
uniform at the time, survived the attack unhurt; Vega said
neither he nor the other victims saw any signs of the roadblock,
nor did they hear any voices or orders to stop. "All we saw was
the burst of bullets," said Vega. [Hoy (NY) 2/28/01; El Pais
(Cali) 2/26/01; El Tiempo (Bogota) 2/27/01]
Gen. Francisco Rene Pedraza, commander of the III Brigade, based
in Cali, admitted that the army troops had made a mistake; he
attributed the "human error" to the troops' eagerness to capture
paramilitaries, who had reportedly been spotted in the area in
similar vehicles. Pedraza apologized to the families of the
victims, explaining that it was not the intention of army troops
to kill campesinos. [Hoy 2/28/01; ET 2/27/01]
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