(translated from the Spanish by Rino G. Avellaneda)

Santafe de Bogota, November 1, 1998

Colombia Support Network
Wisconsin


Warm greetings:

Our Commission has begun a rapprochement process with the Communities 
of Cacarica that are settled in the Hacienda "El Cacique", Bahia Cupica county, 
Bah’a Solano municipality, in the Departament of Choco.

During the visits we have made to them in November, we received news 
from the communities that were illegally relocated from Panama in April, 
1997, about the planing of a collective massacre against them on the part of
paramilitary groups.  This action was thwarted thanks to the fact that one
of the would-be killers revealed the plans against members of the 
community.

Within this frame, the presence of Public Forces in the Hacienda "El
Cacique's" surrounding area began with a group of Marines belonging to the
Fusiliers Battalion Number 6.

However, since this past November 7, the Navy detachment was transferred 
in its totality from the area, and the protection of civilians fell into the
hands of a Police group that has been present for quite some time at the
Hacienda "El Cacique". It should be noticed that several members of the
Police units located there wear no uniform that distinguishes them as
members of such institution (Nov. 03 07-11-98) (Nov. 22 and 25, 1998).

Some of the police units told some of the 57 families about the eventual
incursion by paramilitary groups  to the Hacienda "El Cacique" (Nov. 11,
1998)

This version coincides with the rumors that for two months have been heard 
in the Bah’a Solano municipality about a possible paramilitary armed action 
against the leaders of the displaced population.  "They are going to hurt
the communal leadership of the displaced." (Oct., 1998).  There also exist
other indications about monitoring and tracking of the displaced seemingly
by paramilitary groups (Oct. 13-14, 1998).

Unknown men have entered the places where communal leaders are in the 
habit of spending the night when they are in their missions to obtain 
foodstuffs or to dialogue with the civil authorities in Bahia Solano, asking 
about the displaced, and gathering information about their movement in and 
out of the Hacienda El Cacique (Oct., 1998) (Nov. 21, 1998).

In some neighboring house to the Hacienda "El Cacique", the communities
found upon a wooden beam, a handwritten text that read: "Displaced: Join
the Peasant Self-Defenses."

On the other hand, in an unusual occurrence, flyers were dropped from a
plane asking for information about the US missionaries DAVID MARKINS,
MARCOS RICH, RICHARD TENENOFF, who have been kidnapped since 
1995, under the control of the 57th. Front of the FARC, which patrols the 
northern area of the Department of Choco, the zone out of which the Cacarica 
communities were expulsed (Nov. 7, 1998).

In the same vein, there have been rumors about paramilitary group 
movement from the municipality of Jurado to those of Chicocora y Tebada, 
groups that apparently come from the municipalities of Riosucio y Unguia, in 
the Departament of Choco (Nov. 17, 1998).

Some of these facts have been well known by the municipal civil, police,
and control authorities

Faced with the rumors that so strongly circulate in Bahia Solano about
paramilitary incursion against the civil population, and with the removal
of the Naval group that did security patrolling in the area around which
the community is settled, given the fact that as has occurred in several
other communities in the country, such absence is followed by paramilitary
actions against the civil population, we express our preoccupation.

In the area of the Pacific North, paramilitary incursions like the massacre
at Coredo, in the municipality of Jurado (May, 1996); and the campaign of
persecution and murder that paramilitaries have waged against displaced
populations in Curiche and Cored— during the second semester of 1997 area 
all well known.

Consequently, we ask that the following be demanded of the Colombian State:

- The adoption of protective measures for the illegally repatriated
community from Panama, which would prevent that it becomes a military
target.

- The development of global actions to care for the population and, thus,
avoid risks to the community's physical and psychological integrity.

-The renewal of a proposal to reintegrate the families from Cacarica that
were displaced from Choco beginning in February, 1997, and that wish to do
so.

-The clearing up of the events that have led to such high levels of
tension among the repatriated community.

We thank you for your solidarity,

Intercongregational Commission for Peace and Justice


Please send letters to:


ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
Presidente de la Republica
Kra.8 n.7-26  Santa Fe de Bogota
Tlf: 571/ 284 33 00   Fax: 571/ 286 74 34 - 286 79 37 - 284 21 86
Email: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co

NESTOR HUMBERTO MARTINEZ
Ministro del Interior
Kra.8  n.8-09 Santa Fe de Bogota
Tlf: 571/ 334 39 60 - 284 02 14   Fax: 571/ 341 97 39

RODRIGO LLOREDA
Ministro de la Defensa
Av. del Dorado con Kra.52, Santa Fe de Bogota
Tlf: 571/ 222 41 25 - 222 24 45    Fax: 571/ 222 18 74

JUAN CARLOS ESGUERRA
Ambassador
Embassy of Colombia
2118 Leroy Pl. NW
Washington DC 20008

JOSE FERNANDO CASTRO CAICEDO
Defensor del Pueblo
Cll.55 n.10-32 Santa Fe de Bogota
Tlf: 571/ 346 29 47 Fax: 571/ 346 12 25