WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #450
September 13, 1998

NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

*3. REFUGEES AND UNIONISTS PROTEST IN COLOMBIAN OIL TOWN

Some 10,000 Colombian campesinos displaced from their land by
paramilitary violence staged mass street protests, set up
barricades and shut down commerce in a civic strike on Sept. 10
in the oil town of Barrancabermeja, Santander department, which
has been under siege by rightwing paramilitary groups for several
months. The powerful oil workers' union (USO), backed by other
labor groups and grassroots political movements, supported the
movement with a 24-hour general strike to back the refugees'
demands. Leaders of the displaced campesinos are demanding that
the government immediately remove from active duty a list of army
officers they suspect of sponsoring paramilitary activity around
their rural homes. The government of President Andres Pastrana
Arango has indicated that it has no intention of intervening in
the matter, or interfering in the army chain of command. [Reuter
9/10/98; El Diario-La Prensa 9/11/98 from EFE]
 
The night before the protest, rebels from the National Liberation
Army (ELN) ambushed a column of armored personnel carriers on the
outskirts of Barrancabermeja; the vehicles had been dispatched
from Bogota for crowd control in Barrancabermeja and were
ferrying about 50 soldiers into the town. Several of the vehicles
were damaged by explosives. [Reuter 9/10/98]
 
The protests followed a string of at least 11 paramilitary
murders in Barrancabermeja during the first six days of
September. The victims included two campesinos, Jhon Jairo
Jimenez Ramirez and Edgar Jimenez Triana, who were killed on
Sept. 3; and two brothers, Leonardo and Nelson Paez Jimenez, who
were murdered on Sept. 4. One of the victims was identified as a
local truck driver who had helped bring refugees into the town
from outlying areas. [Vanguardia Liberal (Bucaramanga, Colombia)
9/8/98; Reuter 9/4/98]
 
Meanwhile, the USO says it will support a national strike by
state workers to protest the economic austerity measures being
imposed by new president Pastrana. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami)
9/12/98 from AFP] Pastrana has devalued the Colombian peso in
relation to the US dollar [see Update #449] and has ordered a
severe budget "adjustment" which slashes social spending and
increases taxes. Unions have rejected the measures, and
particularly the lack of any substantial wage increase for more
than 900,000 state workers. The Colombian Teachers Federation is
planning to stage a 48-hour strike during the week of Sept. 14 to
demand wage increases which at least cover the increase in the
cost of living. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 9/7/98]
 
*4. COLOMBIANS DEMAND PEACE, ARMY RESISTS

Beginning on Sept. 7, Colombians participated in annual "Peace
Week" activities to demand an end to the country's long-running
civil war. The week began with a "minute of racket" in which
church bells sounded and people honked car horns, sang songs and
waved white flags to demand peace. The week is organized by the
Network of Initiatives Against War and for Peace (Redepaz), an
alliance of nongovernmental organizations, and involves more than
1,000 different activities throughout Colombia. The only
department that will not be holding any peace week activities is
Cesar, where Redepaz regional coordinator Amparo Jimenez Payares
was murdered by paramilitaries three weeks earlier and all the
peace week organizers were threatened. In the departmental
capital, Valledupar, peace week activities were substituted by
mass street protests. [El Diario-La Prensa 9/8/98 from EFE] 
 
Colombia's military has strong objections to government plans to
order a troop pullout from five municipalities in southeastern
Colombia, a requirement for peace talks with the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), according to excerpts from a
document published in the Bogota daily El Tiempo on Sept. 9.
President Pastrana has said he will order the pullout by the end
of this year. Military sources confirmed the authenticity of the
document, entitled "Expectations for Peace"; they said it was a
white paper or "analysis" drafted by the armed forces high
command at Pastrana's request. However, Defense Minister Rodrigo
Lloreda told a news conference that the document was drawn up
before Pastrana's Aug. 7 inauguration, apparently on orders from
then-armed forces commander Gen. Manuel Jose Bonnet. Lloreda
added that the document had been leaked to El Tiempo by people
clearly seeking to "frustrate the peace process." New armed
forces commander Gen. Fernando Tapias, who accompanied Lloreda at
the news conference, insisted that "the armed forces are
committed to the peace process."
 
The document published by El Tiempo argued that Colombia's US-
backed drug crop eradication program would suffer as a result of
the troop pullout. It said the troop pullout would also mean the
loss of army control over "strategic areas" and allow the FARC to
strengthen its presence in the region. The military conceded that
the demilitarization would probably help boost the government's
image abroad, since it would be perceived as a move for peace and
the greater good. But it advised against turning over any urban
areas in the five municipalities to the FARC, and said a strict
time limit should be set on any pullout, with no scope for
extensions after the government's initial offer of 90 days. 
 
And the military advised against any troop withdrawal from San
Vicente del Caguan, the biggest of the five municipalities
earmarked for demilitarization, arguing that it is the effective
command center of the FARC and a well-known corridor for the
movement of rebels into three surrounding provinces. By
relinquishing its control over San Vicente, the military warned
that the government would also be giving the FARC dominance over
the Caguan River, a key transport route through the country's
southern jungle and the Yari plains, a center for the booming
drug trade in southern Caqueta province. [Reuter 9/9/98]
 
*5. US PUSHES "ANTI-DRUG" MILITARY AID

Gen. Charles Wilhelm, chief of the US military's Southern
Command, insisted on Sept. 9 in Bogota that the US does not have
combat advisers in Colombia, a country he has called the
hemisphere's main security threat. "The role of our military
forces who work with and assist their counterparts in Colombia is
limited to the counternarcotics threat," Wilhelm told a news
conference during a three-day visit to Colombia--his third visit
to Colombia this year. 
 
During the trip, Wilhelm held talks with President Pastrana,
Defense Minister Lloreda and Colombia's military high command.
Wilhelm said he discussed with military officials how best to use
the millions of dollars worth of aid being provided by the
Pentagon, which includes machine guns and training in light-
infantry tactics. The aid is earmarked primarily for units
involved in counternarcotics activities, but the Colombian
government blurs the lines between anti-drug and
counterinsurgency operations by claiming that the rebels are
engaged in drug production and trafficking. 
 
In an interview on Sept. 8, National Police chief Gen. Rosso Jose
Serrano said that leftist rebels in southern Colombia--where most
of the country's drug crops are grown--are so well-armed and
trained that raiding them "is a highly surgical military
operation" requiring 50 troops. "You can't say it's a police
operation, it's a Vietnam-type action," Serrano told Associated
Press. [AP 9/9/98]
 
Meanwhile, the US Congress is considering the "Western Hemisphere
Drug Elimination Act," a $2.3 billion authorization bill which
seeks to "cut the flow of drugs into our country by 80% within
three years," according to Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL), who
introduced the proposed legislation on July 22. 
 
The plan outlined by the bill, as explained by McCollum in his
introduction, "requires U.S. cooperation, coordination and
support. It does not involve US military intervention, but it
does require the Department of Defense to place a higher priority
on anti-narcotics efforts so that key equipment, training, and operation and 
maintenance support that our military alone canprovide are made available.
 
"To accomplish these objectives requires the acquisition of
numerous P-3 aircraft equipped with special radar and the
deployment of crews and operational and maintenance supply lines
to provide virtually 24 hour around the clock radar coverage of
the three countries in question [Colombia, Bolivia and Peru]. It
also envisages this coverage of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and
Eastern Pacific which together with the over-the-horizon-radar
(ROTHR) coming online from Puerto Rico will enable the mapping,
tracking and identification of all small aircraft in the region."
 
The $208.25 million in aid that would be authorized for Colombia
under the bill's "specific country initiatives" includes: $72
million for six UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters for the Colombian
National Police; $70 million for conversion of 50 UH-1H (Huey)
helicopters into "Superhueys"; $6 million for minigun systems for
police aircraft; $2 million for the purchase of DC-3 transport
aircraft; $15 million for "USAID alternative development programs
in Guaviare, Putumayo, and Caqueta Departments"; $6 million for
five riverine operations maintenance platforms for the Colombian
Army; $18 million for "operations and maintenance for overhead
coverage in Colombia through fiscal year 2001"; and $1.25 million
for "concertina wire and tunneling detection systems" at La
Picota prison in Bogota.
 
In Bolivia, the $37 million in aid is divided into: $7 million
for two "mobile X-ray machines with maintenance support along
Chapare highway"; $15 million to "enhance USAID alternative
development programs in Chapare and Yungas Regions"; $6 million
to "fund operations and maintenance for overhead coverage in
Bolivia through fiscal year 2001"; $3 million in "air operations
support for Bolivian Red Devils"; $3 million in "riverine
operations support for Bolivian Blue Devils"; and $3 million for
"coca eradication programs through fiscal year 2001." The bill
would provide $174.5 million for similar programs in Peru
 
In addition, the bill would spend $4.5 million in Ecuador; $3
million in Brazil ("to enhance support to Brazilian Federal
Police Training Center"); $3 million in Venezuela ("to support
funding for joint National Guard (GN)/ Judicial Technical Police
(PTJ) Counterdrug Intelligence Center"); $3 million in Panama;
$4.5 million in Haiti and the Dominican Republic; $36 million in
Central America; $23.20 million in Bahamas and the Guantanamo
Naval Base in Cuba (including $0.9 million for "establishment of
ground-based radar coverage at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" and $3
million for "procurement of intelligent acoustic detection buoys
in Florida Straits and Bahama Banks"); and $100 million in "the
Caribbean and Eastern Pacific regions" for "operations and
maintenance for overhead coverage."
 
Also included is $24 million for projects in Mexico, including
"the purchase of six Bell 212 (high-altitude capable) helicopters
"under Mexican Attorney General to be specifically dedicated for
Mexico's opium eradication program in Guerrero, Jalisco and
Sinaloa through fiscal year 2001" ($18 million); and "exchanges
for Mexican judges, prosecutors and police through the US
Department of Justice ($6 million).
 
More information is available at the Colombia Support Network-
Champaign-Urbana chapter (CSNCU) web site at
. [Text of the introduction of
the WHDEA from Congressional Record, posted by CSNCU]