WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #456
October 25, 1998

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

*2. NEW REVELATIONS ON BP LINKS TO COLOMBIAN VIOLENCE

British Petroleum (BP) has reportedly asked for the removal of
one of its top security chiefs, former British army officer Roger
Brown, and has asked the London-based, British- and US-owned
security company Defence Systems Limited (DSL) to conduct an
internal inquiry into allegations of an arms deal and spying
operation in the protection of the Ocensa oil pipeline in
Colombia. The move follows an investigation carried out jointly
by the British daily Guardian and the Colombian daily El
Espectador into the dealings at the Ocensa consortium, in which
BP is a major shareholder, along with the Canadian firms
TransCanada and IPL Enterprises and the French oil company Total.
Reports indicate that Ocensa's pipeline security department, set
up and run by Brown and DSL, proposed setting up a "psychological
warfare" training course for internal security staff made up of
former Colombian army officers. According to a former security
official, Ocensa security also ran a well-financed spying
operation in the local community using paid informants, who
passed information to counter-guerrilla brigades protecting the
pipeline. [The Guardian 10/17/98] The British daily Financial
Times reported on Oct. 21 that Brown "has since resumed work as
an adviser to BP in Colombia." [FT 10/21/98]
 
DSL employs former Colombian army commander Gen. Hernan Guzman
Rodriguez, a 1969 graduate of the US Army School of the Americas
(SOA) whose name appears in the 1992 report on "State Terrorism
in Colombia" produced by the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights. The report says there is "abundant evidence and
testimony" linking Guzman to the paramilitary group MAS (Death to
Kidnappers), responsible for 149 murders from 1987 to 1990.
Guzman denies the allegations. Guzman joined the SOA "Hall of
Fame" in 1993; he was dismissed as army commander on Nov. 22,
1994 during a purge of the military leadership by then-president
Ernesto Samper Pizano. [The Guardian 10/17/98; SOA Watch list of
graduates 1995]
 
*3. COLOMBIA: DEADLY FIRE FOLLOWS REBEL ATTACK ON BP PIPELINE

At least 53 people--more than half of them children--have died
since a fireball swept down a river on Oct. 18 and consumed their
riverbank homes in the gold mining community of Machuca,
Antioquia department, following a rebel attack on the Ocensa
pipeline. In an Oct. 19 communique, the Central Command of the
National Liberation Army (ELN) accepted responsibility for
blowing up the pipeline, but blamed the army for the subsequent
blaze that caused the deaths. The ELN's version was refuted by
oil technicians, authorities and survivors of the fire. Machuca
residents reportedly say the fire hit the village just minutes
after they heard the explosion. 
 
But ELN top leader Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, "Gabino," said the
fire broke out one hour after the attack on the pipeline and
three kilometers from where the rebels had placed the explosives,
which is a few yards away from Cenizo, "an army base from where
the area is patrolled permanently." Armed Forces commander Gen.
Fernando Tapias claims that there was no troop presence in the
zone until the following day. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 10/21/98;
Agence France-Presse 10/20/98; El Colombiano (Medellin) 10/22/98]
 
An Oct. 21 ELN communique asks the International Commission of
the nongovernmental organization Encuesta to investigate the
Machuca blaze, as well as two similar incidents that took place
in Laureles and Martana. [EC 10/22/98] The ELN has repeatedly
sabotaged oil infrastructure as part of its war strategy, though
it generally attacks the Cano-Limon pipeline operated by the
California-based oil company Occidental. The high costs to the
industry have become a serious concern for foreign oil companies.
[Financial Times 10/20/98]
 
Juan Antonio Rojas, a member of the International Commission of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's
largest leftist rebel group, called the pipeline incident
"regrettable" and suggested that it may indicate "a sabotage of
the peace process." [ENH 10/21/98 from AFP] But from Portugal,
where he was attending the VIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of
State, Colombian president Andres Pastrana Arango said that he
trusted in the continuation of the peace process. [ENH 10/20/98
from Reuter]
 
*4. COLOMBIAN UNION LEADER MURDERED AS STRIKE CONTINUES

Jorge Ortega Garcia, a vice president of the Unitary Workers
Central (CUT), Colombia's largest union federation, was shot to
death on Oct. 20 at his home in Bogota by assailants who fled on
a motorcycle. Ortega, who had received numerous death threats and
reportedly wanted to leave the country, was gunned down by
suspected rightwing extremists, union officials said. The murder
came as some 800,000 state workers continued an open-ended
national general strike to protest neoliberal economic policies
and demand a wage increase in line with inflation [see Update
#452-455]. Ortega was active in the national strike committee,
and also led the CUT's human rights department. The murder
prompted the temporary suspension of negotiations between the
government and the three federations representing state workers.
To protest Ortega's murder, the labor federations called a
national civic strike for Oct. 23, with marches in the cities of
Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga. [El Diario-
La Prensa (NY) 10/23/98 from EFE; Deutsche Presse-Agentur
10/21/98]
 
Ortega was killed just after strikers clashed with riot police at
an Oct. 20 march through the capital. Violence broke out when
police tried to prevent the workers from reaching Bolivar Square
in the city's old quarter. Police blocked the route, saying the
demonstrators had no authorization for the march from local
authorities. In other Colombian cities that day, strikers held
public rallies and blocked roads, officials said. [AFP 10/21/98]
 
Since the strike began on Oct. 7, street protests by strikers
around the country have been met with fierce repression from
police and army troops. "As a result of the military treatment,"
charges a urgent action issued on Oct. 21 by 26 Colombian
nongovernmental human rights, legal and religious organizations,
"Marco Perez, member of SINTRAELECOL [Union of Electric Sector
Workers] Sincelejo, [and] Orfa Ligia Mejia, Professor from
Narino, of SINTRACUEMPONAL in Barrancabermeja, have been
murdered. Also in this last city [Barrancabermeja], Benito Rueda,
Virgilio Ochoa and Eugeniano Sanchez, members of that union,
suffered attacks against their lives." The alert goes on to say
that "numerous workers have had their rights violated, been
detained arbitrarily, [or] been victims of violent crackdowns
that have caused serious personal injuries." [Urgent Action
10/21/98]