WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #411, DECEMBER 14, 1997
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE
ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
*5. COLOMBIAN REBELS RELEASE JOURNALISTS
Colombian journalists William Parra and Luis Eduardo Maldonado were freed
on Dec. 13 by leftist rebels of the Jaime Bateman Cayon group, who had
kidnapped them on Dec. 4 as they were eating lunch in a restaurant in
central Bogota. Parra is Secretary of Information and Press for the
Presidency; Maldonado works for the Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN) network.
The rebels handed the journalists over to presidential adviser Jose Noe Rios
and to a delegate of the Red Cross after signing an agreement in a
unspecified mountainous region in the center of the country, and after rebel
"comandante Simon" made public his group's peace proposal. The proposal
calls for an open dialogue in which the government, guerrilla groups,
paramilitary groups, unions and other social sectors would participate. The
Jaime Bateman Cayon group was formed seven years ago as a split from the
19th of April Movement (M-19), which demobilized and became a political
party in January 1990.
The kidnapping had originally been attributed to Los Extraditables, a group
linked to drug traffickers who oppose extradition to the US [see Update
#410]. On Nov. 25 and 26, Colombia's legislature voted to lift a
constitutional ban on extradition, but refused to allow extradition to be
applied retroactively to those already convicted. [El Colombiano (Medellin)
12/14/97; Clarin 12/14/97 from ANSA]
The same day Parra and Maldonado were released, four other journalists
were kidnapped as they were covering a story in eastern Antioquia
department. The kidnappers were some 15 armed troops who identified
themselves as members of the 9th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia-Popular Army (FARC- EP), Colombia's largest leftist rebel
group. The journalists seized were reporter Carlos Alberto Giraldo Monsalve
and photographer Jesus Abad Colorado Lopez of Medellin daily El
Colombiano; and Carlos Alberto Arredondo and Fredy Ocampo, editor in chief
and cameraperson, respectively, of the regional television news network
Informativo de Antioquia. In a hand- written note, the rebels sent "a cordial
greeting from the 9th Front of the FARC-EP" and indicated that they were
holding the four journalists. "Don't worry, they'll be fine," wrote the rebels.
"We just need to send a communique to the public." Giraldo and Colorado
Ambos are co-authors of a book about forced displacement in Antioquia and
Choco, published by the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP).
[EC 12/14/97]
On Dec. 11, the Colombian army managed to rescue unharmed seven people
kidnapped a day earlier by the Camilo Torres front of the National
Liberation Army (ELN), another leftist rebel group, in La Gloria
municipality, Cesar department. Those freed were identified as Gabriel
Caceres, Hector Rodriguez, Daniel Riveros, Luis Diaz, Miguel Chinchilla, Luis
Hermes Garcia and Evelio Santos; two of them are engineers working for the
Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol. (Notimex reported that those
freed in the action were six people who had been held by the rebels for
three weeks.) The military commando which carried out the Dec. 11 rescue
gave no details about how the action was carried out, nor did it say whether
any of the kidnappers were captured. [EC 12/12/97; Notimex 12/12/97] On
the same day, Dec. 11, rebels kidnapped Gustavo Perez, an environmental
engineer for Ecopetrol, as he drove along a highway in Cesar department.
[Notimex 12/12/97]
On Dec. 9 the ELN freed Jose de Jesus Quintero, the bishop of Tibu
municipality in Norte de Santander department, and the town's outgoing and
incoming mayors. The bishop had been held since Nov. 24, accused by the ELN
of being tolerant of rightwing paramilitary groups. The current mayor of
Tibu, Humberto Gomez, had been kidnapped on Nov. 27; the mayor elect, Raul
Centeno, had been held since Dec. 1. Centeno is to take office on Jan. 1. [La
Republica (Peru) 12/10/97 from EFE]
*6. COLOMBIAN PRISONERS PROTEST SENATE DECISION TO DELAY VOTE
On Dec. 11, police stepped up security in Colombia's prisons after prisoners
reacted to a Dec. 10 decision by the Senate to delay approval of a proposed
law that would reduce sentences for convicted criminals [see Update #410].
Prisoners seized control of La Modelo, the country's largest prison, for
several hours; at Armenia prison, inmates took four guards hostage. Some
prisoners went on hunger strike to protest the Senate's decision. Prisoners,
who had been watching discussion of the initiative on television, were
upset when the Senate announced it would delay approval of the measure
until Dec. 16 in order to reconcile different positions, such as whether drug
traffickers, "terrorists" and those convicted of corruption crimes like
illicit enrichment should be excluded from the measure.
"The prisoners have control of the prison," said La Modelo director Lt. Pedro
Jose Martinez; Martinez demanded the presence of commissions from the
Red Cross and the People's Defender Office at the prison to avoid violence.
Uprisings were also staged at Tulua and Sincelejo prisons, and Popayan
prison was seized in a peaceful takeover by inmates, according to a police
spokesperson. If approved, the legislative initiative would free some 5,000
prisoners who have served 70% of their sentence and have good conduct.
This would help reduce the overcrowding in Colombian prisons, according to
a report from the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC).
[Notimex 12/10/97, 12/11/97]
*7. MORE PARAMILITARY ATTACKS IN COLOMBIA
Nine Colombian campesinos were murdered in two attacks by paramilitary
groups in the villages of La Jagua de Ibirico and La Paz, Cesar department,
police sources reported on Dec. 2. Two days earlier reports came out about a
massacre of 19 campesinos in Dabeiba, Antioquia department. In a ten day
period paramilitary groups committed eight massacres, killing more than
100 people. On Dec. 1, more than 20 heavily armed men in military garb
entered the Casacara farm in La Jagua and dragged from their homes those
people whose names appeared on a list they were carrying. The victims
were then lined up against a wall and shot to death; seven people were
killed and one other disappeared. [Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia
(ANNCOL) 12/3/97]
On Nov. 25, members of a paramilitary group entered the home of Glen
Gonzalez in Apartado, in the Uraba region of Antioquia department, in an
attempt to kill her. Gonzalez, who is president of the local Dreams of
Women Association, was not at home at the time; she had traveled to Bogota
for a Nov. 24 meeting of the National Council of Women for Peace. The
paramilitary groups then searched the homes of other members of Gonzalez'
family; they said they had "express orders from their superiors" to kill
Gonzalez because she had gone to Bogota with photos to condemn the human
rights situation in the Uraba region. Two members of the National Council
have been killed and several members of the Dreams of Women Association
have been forced to leave the area.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is asking
people to send letters demanding protection for Gonzalez and other human
rights activists, and an end to paramilitary activity, to President Ernesto
Samper Pizano (fax #(571) 284- 2186, email
); Prosecutor General Jaime Bernal Cuellar
(fax #281-7531 or 342-9723); Interior Minister Horacio Serpa Uribe (fax
#251-5884); Attorney General Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento (fax #288-
2828); People's Defender Jose Fernando Castro Caycedo (fax #346-3339,
346-2947 or 346- 1225); and Presidential Adviser for Human Rights Carlos
Vicente de Roux (fax #371-1351). [Observatory urgent action 12/8/97 via
Human Rights Actions Network - Derechos Human Rights]
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