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DEATH SQUAD KILLS UP TO 30 IN COLOMBIAN OIL TOWN 
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02:34 p.m May 17, 1998 Eastern
By Karl Penhaul

BOGOTA, May 17 (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed and 20 were 
missing, feared dead, after a suspected right-wing death squad swept 
through Colombia's main oil town before dawn on Sunday, authorities said.

The attack in Barrancabermeja, in northeastern Santander province, was the 
latest incident in a wave of violence that political analysts say is part of a 
paramilitary campaign to sow terror before the May 31 presidential 
elections. 

If the latest death toll is confirmed, it will take to more than 80 the 
number of victims slain by ultra-right death squads across the country in 
the last month.

``There are 30 people either confirmed dead or reported disappeared,'' Elkin 
Bueno, mayor of Barrancabermeja, told Reuters by telephone.

``We fear all those people are dead...We presume it was a (right-wing) 
paramilitary gang,'' he said before going into an emergency security council 
meeting.

Provincial police chief Gen. Tobias Duran Quintanilla said 10 men aged 20 to 
25 were so far confirmed dead and at least 20 others were missing after 
the raid on four working-class neighborhoods.

He told local media about 50 hooded gunmen arrived in two trucks and began 
calling out the names of their victims from a list -- one of the hallmarks of 
paramilitary attacks. Some were shot immediately while others were 
dragged away. 

``There are 10 people dead and we're talking of 20 people disappeared. Maybe 
some hid when they saw what was happening but others were certainly 
taken away,'' Duran said. ``We're searching to see if those people turn up 
dead or alive.'' 

The areas where the death squad struck were considered hard-core support 
bases for the outlawed National Liberation Army (ELN) Marxist rebel force, 
and Duran said they had become no-go areas for the police, who were 
routinely attacked if they ventured in.

International human rights groups accuse the military of backing Colombia's 
burgeoning right-wing death squads in a ``dirty war'' against leftist rebels 
and civilians seen as sympathizing with them.

Gunmen shot to death former defense minister Gen. Fernando Landazabal in a 
Bogota suburb last week. Military sources initially blamed the crime on the 
ELN's urban militias but the respected El Espectador newspaper on Sunday 
quoted unnamed sources as attributing it to the ``dark hand of a right-wing 
group trying to destabilize the country.'' 

It hinted that a shadowy army intelligence unit, known as the 20th Brigade, 
might be linked to Landazabal's death. The unit is also being blamed for the 
murder of prominent human rights lawyer Eduardo Umana late last month.

A former head of the 20th Brigade, Gen. Ivan Ramirez, said Friday that 
Washington had withdrawn his U.S. entry visa -- the first to be taken away 
from a Colombian military officer -- amid allegations that he had organized 
``terrorist'' groups. 

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 

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