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March 10, 1997
Call for Action for Peace in Apartadó

On February 27, a bomb killed 12 people and injured 60 in Apartado. Fingers are being pointed at the FARC-EP, a guerrilla group operating in the region -- though there is certainly the possibility of state security agents masquerading as guerrillas or utilizing 'turned' guerrillas for carry out their dirty work of destabilizing the region.

Several anonymous communiqués are going around Apartado, which are most likely the intellectual offspring of the Colombian Army's regional commander, General Rito Alejo Del Rio, blaming Apartado's Mayor Gloria Cuartas for the violence there.

CSN is calling upon the international community to begin an international letter writing campaign to stop the violence and save Gloria's life -- since communiqués in Colombia like that are just a call to the paramilitaries to kill her and to continue the killings of the general population.

(signed - Colombia Support Network, Madison, WI)

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Apartadó, March 5, 1997

A CALL TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
by Apartadó Mayor Gloria Cuartas

With great sorrow I announce to the world the cruel and irrational massacre carried out by the subversive group "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia E.P. (FARC-EP) against the civilian population.

On February 27 of this year the guerrilla group detonated a car bomb in the center of the city of Apartado in Antioquia, Colombia, killing 12 persons, among them children, women and men. The bombing also injured 60 persons and caused damage of more than 3 million dollars (3 billion pesos).

This is crime of lese humanity which must be condemned by everyone and by every institution. Nothing can be said in its favor; there is no excuse for the politics of death. It is thus necessary to recognize that groups of insurgents also are violating Human Rights.

Not only was there an explosion; now we are experiencing retaliation by the paramilitary forces which sow death and terror in the population.

We are defenseless in the face of those who carry out violence. Our only resource is for you, the international organizations, to accompany the civilian society which is caught in the middle of the conflict. International support is necessary as a form of protection until conditions develop which permit political negotiation in our country or region.

We are not simple spectators in this war. We are the civilian population which suffers and supplies the dead. We are human beings who cannot remain frozen by fear. Our call to protect life is urgent. We believe in our institutions, but we know that without international accompaniment which opens space for dialogue for life, we will be destined sadly to await the progressive degradation of this conflict.

The number of violent deaths by firearm in the period 1995 - 1997 is now 652.

GLORIA ISABEL CUARTAS MONTOYA Mayor of Apartado

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Press Release

BOARD OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF APARTADO
Apartadó, March 6, 1997

In response to what is contained in the flyers which are circulating in the municipality of Apartado, by the supposed "Victims and relatives of those assassinated by the car bomb", and in which Gloria Isabel Cuartas Montoya, mayor of Apartado, is said to be responsible for the infamous events which occurred on February 27 of this year, the board members of the Municipal government express before public opinion their most energetic rejection of these false and tendentious claims which only serve to misrepresent the reality of what happened and to fail to recognize the causes of the social conflict which is being experienced in Uraba and which is not foreign to the rest of the country.

With the flyers they only seek to misinform public opinion, fertilizing the path to create more serious problems of violence such as those which our community has been confronting, at the expense of the pointing out and judging of one person alone who has distinguished herself by her unbreakable social sensitivity and sense of responsibility, and thus putting her life in danger and creating more tension in our community.

In the same sense we call out to the entire civilian population to maintain neutrality in the face of the conflict, and to the groups which participate in the conflict to renounce terrorism, respect the life of the civilian population, and open paths which make possible a dialogue leading to peaceful coexistence.

(signed)

MIGUEL ANGEL FLOREZ AGUDELO, Secretary of Government

GLORIA ELIZABETH GRISALES MUNOZ , Secretary of Public Works

JOHN JAIRO RESTREPO SALAZAR, Director UMATA

GLORIA HELENA TORRES MONSALVE , Secretary of Transportation

CIRILO MENA PALACIO, Secretary of Education

HILDA ISABEL SANCHEZ DE GAVIRIA, Secretary of Treasury

JOSE HUMBERTO TEJADA ROMAN, General Secretary

HENRY GARCIA GONZALEZ, Secretary of Health

LUIS EDUARDO ROLDAN ARROYAVE, Director of Internal Control

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March 6

Press Release
DEPARTMENT OF ANTIOQUIA
MUNICIPALITY OF APARTADO MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

The Honorable Municipal Council of Apartado, Antioquia, in its plenary session of March 6, 1997, emphatically rejects the pamphlets issued against the Mayor of Apartado, one of which is entitled "Communiqué to public opinion" and the other "People of Uraba -- A Cry for Help". These are supposedly on behalf of those who had property damaged in the terrorist attack of February 27 and by relatives of the victims. With respect to this matter this honorable body wishes to express the following :

First. We cannot conceive why a means of communication with such a high level of prestige {apparently it refers to publications in the national press}, audience and credibility on the national level is used to spread this type of "time bomb" for which no one answers and which has not even one single signature to attest to its veracity. Since when does the press here publish anonymous statements ?

Second. It is clear to us that this type of mechanism of soiling one's reputation, particularly anonymous, only seeks to sow chaos and uncertainty in a population saturated with violence and fear, with the aggravating circumstance that they use the pain of the relatives of the victims and of those who suffered damage to property to begin a misnamed political campaign not only against the Mayor of Apartado, but also against the municipal institutions in such difficult moments, in which it has been possible to show that all the institutions work closely with the community. Who do they think believes that Gloria Cuartas is the cause of the violence in Apartado ?

Third, We categorically deny the charges that the Mayor takes international trips financed by funds from the municipal treasury. We are a responsible body and we are constantly aware of what happens in the administration in this respect, in the same sense as the Municipal treasurer's office, where all information in this respect can be obtained.

Fourth. This body urgently calls upon the institutions to unify; and to the relatives of the victims, as for those who suffered damage to their property, a majority of which are merchants, to maintain the calm which they have always shown.

LUIS FERNANDO LOPEZ ALCARAZ, President of the City Council

UBALDO ALFREDO BOTERO ZULUAGA, Vice-President of the City Council

JAIRO ALBERTO BANQUET PAEZ Secretary General of the City Council

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Text of one anonymous leaflet circulated in Apartado apparently by paramilitary advocates/supporters

PEOPLE OF URABA : A CRY FOR HELP

We inhabitants of Apartado set in motion a struggle for the life of our children. We reject all violent actions. The attempts against our lives which we suffered days ago still interrupts our sleep.

The common pain of motherhood does not blind us to discover behind so much death, violence and terror a black hand hidden behind the repeated sacrifice of innocent lives.

Is it possible that someone benefits from the massacres, the terrorism and our pain ?

That someone could be given awards, honors and even decorated because of our human suffering ?

The absence of our Mayor has been converted into a sign of disgrace. She returns with a group of journalists weeping her false tears about our dead and again takes advantage of the impact of our sorrow to gain political prestige.

For God's sake, how much more blood must be spill in Uraba for her to win a new award ?

How many deaths will have to occur to prepare her new political campaign ?

Journalists, humanitarian organizations, decorate her now ... politicians nominate her now... give her wherever she wishes. Massacres now are not sufficient for her. Now bombs threaten us. We do not want another one.

So that life will not be extinguished in Apartado, so that our dreams and smiles will not die forever, we unmask this farce which the entire country has believed.

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Text of second anonymous leaflet in Apartado issued apparently by paramilitary advocates/supporters

"RELATIVES OF THOSE ASSASSINATED BY THE CAR BOMB "

Communiqué to Public Opinion

We people of goodwill inhabitants of Apartado repudiate the crime committed against our people, which was carried out by demented persons who do not measure the consequences of their actions and only seek to create panic and in that way destroy what we had obtained with great effort and even with our own blood, all this with the sole objective of "guaranteeing a dignified life to our loved ones."

After this horrible killing and finding ourselves in the street overnight, we only ask ourselves "Will the Mayor with her fake tears stop spending our tax money on sumptuous trips for her personal benefit and decide to use them to help those who are victims of the crime ?

Events such as those which have taken place in this region not only merit national or international censure but also that she be judged who in our view as Mayor did nothing to avoid it, only preferring to go on her political trips seeking peace prizes which have been bought with our blood. And she is the only person responsible for the violence experienced in Apartado.

Please, Madam Mayor, do not massacre your people...with your eagerness to be the center of attention we lose our loved ones. Carry out your functions and do not pretend to be something you have never been. We wait urgently for you to commit yourself publicly to give us the support which we need today to continue forward.

We call upon all goodhearted people to unite in prayer and we call upon the All Powerful One to send a ray of light to the martyred inhabitants of Apartado, victims of a war organized and directed by the Mayor of our battered municipality, Gloria Cuartas.

To guarantee our life.... ( last two lines illegible)

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Call for Action!

issued by Colombia Support Network

Send appeals asking the immediate removal of General Rito Alejo del Rio from Uraba. Since he took command of the battalion near Apartado, paramilitary violence has greatly increased. His former second-in-command Colonel Carlos Alfonso Velazquez complained to the highest Colombian Army command that General del Rio was not trying to curtail paramilitary violence. (Col. Velazquez was forced out of the Army for this.)

Ask the U.S. State Dept and Defense Dept that VISAS to General Rito Alejo del Rio and his family to come to the U. S. be suspended because of the atrocities that have been committed in Uraba since he took command. Paramilitary groups have been seen by peasants patrolling along the army, and the army under General Del Rio's command does not protect the civilian population as stipulated in the Colombian Constitution.

Write to the State Department, Defense Department and to your Senators and Representatives about this urgent situation. Urge hearings into U.S. support of the Colombian military, which includes training at the School of the Americas and millions of dollars in military aid, including Black Hawk heliocopters.

In the U.S. write to:

Sec of State Madeleine Albricht and also
Asst Sec of State for Human Rights John Shattuck
2201 C. St NW, Washington DC 20520

Sec. of Defense William S. Cohen
1000 Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301

Your CongressPerson
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Your Senators
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

In Colombia write to :

President Ernesto Samper Pizano
Palacio de Narino
Carrera 8 # 7 -26
Bogota , Colombia South America
FAX 011 57 1 289 3377

Fiscal General Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento
Apartado Aereo # 29855
Bogota Colombia South America
FAX 011 57 1 287 0939

Minister of Interior Horacio Serpa Uribe
Carrera 8 # 8 - 09 Piso 2
Bogota Colombia South America
FAX 011 57 1 281 5884

Minister of Defense Guillermo Gonzalez
Avenida El Dorado CAN - Carrera 52
Bogota, Colombia South America
FAX 011 57 1 222 1874

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