WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #441, JULY 12, 1998
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 
LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 

*10. ANOTHER WAVE OF PARAMILITARY MASSACRES IN COLOMBIA

At least six members of campesino families were murdered--three
of them children--and another six disappeared after a rightwing
paramilitary group entered the area of Cumaribo in the eastern
Colombian department of Vichada, according to reports on July 7.
The victims were on a tugboat on the river when the
paramilitaries stopped the boat, killed six of its occupants and
abducted six others. Much of Vichada department, which borders on
Venezuela, is dominated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC). For the past three months, the FARC have held as
prisoners of war seven police agents they captured after
attacking a helicopter that was on an alleged anti-drug mission
in the region. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/8/98 from AFP]
 
Three other paramilitary massacres took place in neighboring Meta
department during the same week as the Cumaribo attack: in Puerto
Trujillo, four bodies were found and the bodies of another 10
victims were thrown in the river to hide evidence of the murders;
in Puerto Oriente, at least seven people were killed along the
river, including two children; and in Puerto Gaitan nine people
were murdered. Witnesses said the paramilitaries travel in open
trucks and wear military uniforms. [El Colombiano (Medellin)
7/8/98 & 7/9/98 from Colprensa] Many local businesspeople and
campesinos told international news agencies, including Agencia de
Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL), that they fear new massacres
because the areas where the attacks took place are occupied by
army battalions, and joint military and paramilitary patrols
occur almost daily. [ANNCOL, undated, posted 7/9/98]
 
A seemingly new paramilitary organization calling itself the
United Campesino Forces (FUC) is considered responsible for the
massacres in Vichada and Meta departments. The International
Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) is helping residents who say
they want to leave the area. [EC 7/9/98 from Colprensa] 
 
Another paramilitary group, part of the "Self-Defense Groups of
the Magdalena Medio," has the rural areas surrounding the
northeastern municipality of Landazuri, Santander department,
under siege and is presumed to be planning a massacre, according
to the Catholic Church. Bishop Leonardo Gomez Serna reports that
about 300 paramilitaries arrived in the area on July 5 with lists
in hand and began identifying local residents as suspected
guerrilla sympathizers. There are no reports of murders yet, but
the paramilitary group has threatened to kill anyone who doesn't
leave the area. At least 200 families have already fled. [ED-LP
7/8/98 from AFP; EC 7/8/98 & 7/9/98 from Colprensa] 
 
*11. COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT MEETS WITH REBEL LEADERS

On July 9, Colombian president-elect Andres Pastrana Arango met
at a rebel-held site in a mountainous area in Central Colombia
with 69-year old FARC founder Pedro Antonio Marin, better known
as Manuel Marulanda or "Tirofijo" (Sureshot), and FARC military
commander Jorge Briceno, known as "El Mono Jojoy," who heads the
organization's southern fronts. The meeting was held to discuss
the conditions for demilitarization of five rebel-controlled
southern municipalities in order to pave the way for peace talks
after Pastrana is sworn in as president on Aug. 7. Accompanying
Pastrana was the government's adviser in peace matters, Victor G.
Ricardo, a former ambassador to Argentina. [ED-LP 7/10/98 from
AFP, 7/11/98 from AP]
 
The FARC, along with Colombia's other main leftist rebel
organizations--the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Popular
Liberation Army (EPL) and the Bateman Cayon Group (a dissident
faction of the demobilized guerrilla group M-19)--are looking
into the possibility of uniting and reforming the Simon Bolivar
National Guerrilla Coordinating Council (CNGSB) to exchange ideas
in preparation for a possible peace process with the government.
[Informativo Bolivariano (Edicion Europea) 7/9/98] The ELN is
scheduled to begin meeting with government and civil society
representatives on July 12 in Mainz, Germany [see Update #440];
imprisoned ELN spokesperson Francisco Galan has invited the FARC
to join in the talks in Mainz. [ED-LP 7/11/98 from AP]
[Correction: Update #440 incorrectly reported the date of a
meeting in Mainz between representatives of the ELN and the
National Peace Commission (CNP) in Mainz. The date was June 28,
not July 28.]
 
It remains to be seen how the US government responds to the peace
initiative. Maria Victoria Maldonado, spokesperson of the New
York-based Colombia Media Project, warns that some sectors of the
US government support peace efforts, while others are seeking a
direct intervention in Colombia to fight the so-called "narco-
guerrillas." While Colombia's relations with the US "will improve
from president to president, we see with concern that the
tendency toward militarization of the country won't be stopped,"
said Maldonado. [ED-LP 7/1/98] 
 
On July 2, US ambassador to Colombia Curtis Kamman declared that
Colombia must approve retroactive extradition to the US for drug
traffickers. The Colombian Congress approved extradition in 1997,
but the approved measure contains a clause barring it from being
applied retroactively. The Constitutional Court is considering
several challenges presented by legislators and by the government
in January to that clause, but has not set a date yet for debate.
The Court's decision will be final and cannot be appealed. [ED-LP
7/3/98 from AP]
 
In an unusually strong editorial, the New York Times called on
June 22 for an end to US aid to the Colombian military.
"Washington's growing involvement in a brutal Latin American
guerrilla war echoes the opening stages of American intervention
in the conflict in El Salvador in the 1980s," charged the
editorial, calling the Colombian army "abusive and inept," and
"with strong ties to paramilitary death squads, which massacre
peasants and murder human rights workers and leftwing
politicians." The editorial also says that the "narco-guerrilla"
accusation against the rebels is disputed by US State Department
officials, "who call it a label invented by the Colombian
military to allow it to use the aid to fight guerrillas." The
editorial closes by insisting that "Washington can best support
the [proposed peace] talks by terminating its aid to a military
that has undermined them." [NYT 6/22/98] 
=========================================================
 
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