WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #457 November 1, 1998 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. Colombian State Workers End Strike 2. US Pumps Up Aid to Colombian Police 3. Colombia: Army Withdraws, Paramilitary Attacks - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *1. COLOMBIAN STATE WORKERS END STRIKE Some 800,000 Colombian state employees ended a three-week national strike after reaching an agreement with the government on Oct. 27. [see Updates #452, 454-456]. The Unitary Workers Central (CUT) announced on Oct. 27 that the unions were lifting the strike after the government agreed to grant a 15% pay raise-- 1% more than what workers had been offered--and promised no reprisals against strikers. The government also said it would not privatize the state telecommunications company Telecom, the postal service Adpostal, or the Social Security Institute. In addition, the government promised to strengthen spending on health care, education, and the public university system, and to involve the unions in economic decisions including restructuring of government ministries and agencies; agricultural finance and promotion policies; budget appropriations for education and health; and the development of programs in such sectors as electricity, telecommunications and hydrocarbons. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 10/28/98, Agence France-Presse 10/27/98] At least seven union leaders were killed during the strike, which began Oct. 7. CUT vice president Jorge Ortega Garcia was murdered on Oct. 20 in Bogota [see Update #456]. On Oct. 25, in the middle of the negotiations, union leader Hortensia Alfaro Banderas was murdered by hired killers as she left the hospital where she worked as a nurse in the municipality of Manaure, Guajira department. [EC 10/26/98] Macario Barrera Villota, a teacher and leader of the National Teachers Federation in southern Huila department, was killed the same weekend. Education and health sector workers had been among the most active of the strikers; schools and hospitals were shut down by the work stoppage, according to the CUT. [AFP 10/27/98; International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) 10/27/98] Union leader Jairo Cruz was shot to death on Oct. 26 on the Panamerican Highway in San Alberto, near La Palma, as he was on his way to a union meeting. Cruz was president of the Indulpalma union, a CUT branch union at PROACEITIS, a palm oil extracting company in Bucaramanga. His family said he had not received any serious death threats. [ICFTU 10/27/98; EC 10/27/98] Three other local union leaders were killed in the first week of the strike, according to union sources. [AFP 10/27/98] In 1997, 156 trade unionists were killed in Colombia, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Most of the murders were committed during union negotiations. [ICFTU 10/27/98] *2. US PUMPS UP AID TO COLOMBIAN POLICE Provisions of the Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act (WHDEA), passed by the House of Representatives on Sept. 16 [see Update #451], have been included in an emergency supplemental appropriations bill signed by US president Bill Clinton during the week of Oct. 19. The measure provides $690 million for US drug interdiction and eradication efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean. An additional $2 billion for interdiction efforts has been authorized, but not appropriated, in the omnibus spending bill signed by Clinton. The appropriations "will greatly increase the types and quantity of aircraft and ships used in the drug war in Latin America," according to the Washington Post. The single biggest beneficiary of the aid is the Colombian National Police, which will receive six UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, purchased for $96 million, as well as upgrades for the aging fleet of Huey UH-1H helicopters. Congressional sources said the increased aid to Colombia is both an effort to halt the growth of leftist rebels and a vote of confidence in National Police Commander Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano. Serrano's backers argued that the more sophisticated helicopters were needed to eradicate opium poppies, which are grown at high altitudes, and to counter increased rebel firepower. The White House argues that the Black Hawks cost almost twice as much as the Vietnam-era Hueys to operate and need more maintenance, but has indicated that it will not oppose the appropriations. [Washington Post 10/24/98] The new influx of aid to Colombia comes at a moment when the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are preparing to begin preliminary peace talks. According to Associated Press, "the scales are tipped far in favor of the guerrillas," who are "[a]t their strongest ever...." [AP 10/24/98] The US military aid increase "gives the security forces a much needed boost in morale," notes Andy Messing, an expert on the Colombian conflict at the National Defense Council Foundation. "It will start to level out the battle field so serious negotiations can begin to take place." [WP 10/24/98] "There's no doubt that the US is a principal actor in the peace process in Colombia," said Colombian president Andres Pastrana Arango after arriving in the US on Oct. 27 for a four-day official visit. [El Colombiano 10/28/98 from Reuter] During Pastrana's visit, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank announced a $2 billion dollar loan to Colombia for 1999. [EC 10/30/98] Pastrana has ordered the military to withdraw from five municipalities in Meta and Caqueta with the purpose of beginning peace talks with the FARC on Nov. 7, when a commission will verify that the military pullout is complete. The talks are to last until Feb. 7, although the troop withdrawal may remain in effect beyond that date. Earlier in October, the FARC gave the government a list of 245 hostage soldiers and police agents they want to exchange for imprisoned FARC members. [EC 10/26/98] Colombia's rightwing paramilitary groups are clearly displeased with the government's moves toward peace talks. At the site of a recent attack in northern Colombia, paramilitaries left graffiti calling Pastrana's concessions to the rebels "shameful." The paramilitaries are now thought to be grouping in the south, at the border of the five municipalities demilitarized for peace talks. "What is totally up in the air is what is going to happen in the period of limbo between when the army leaves and the guerrillas take over," warned Father Leonel Narvaez, a local priest in the town of San Vicente del Caguan, a town in the demilitarized area. "It will take 10 to 15 days for the guerrillas to verify that the troops are gone. During that time, the population is going to be completely exposed." [Los Angeles Times 10/28/98] *3. COLOMBIA: ARMY WITHDRAWS, PARAMILITARY ATTACKS On Oct. 24, a commando of some 200 armed paramilitaries seized the municipality of San Carlos in the eastern part of Antioquia department in northern Colombia, and set up roadblocks on all roads into and out of the town. They held the town for 12 hours, going around from house to house with a list of people who they accused of collaborating with leftist rebels. At least 10 people were killed in the attack; an unknown number of others were abducted and disappeared. Most of the victims were shot point blank. [El Colombiano 10/26/98, 10/27/98] The bodies of two of the missing were found on Oct. 29 in a rural area of San Carlos. [EC 10/30/98] Local residents knew the attack was imminent--about a month earlier the paramilitary umbrella organization United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC) had sent a small armed group by rented helicopter to fly over municipalities in the area to distribute flyers warning that they would get rid of all guerrilla collaborators. Residents had reported the incident to the Prosecutor General's office, the office of the Defender of the People, and to human rights organizations. The Oct. 24 paramilitary attack on San Carlos came three months after a FARC commando attacked the town's police station, abducting eight police agents and killing three others. On Oct. 23, the Heroes of Barbacoas Battalion of the army's 4th Brigade was withdrawn from the town, say San Carlos residents. The next day the paramilitaries arrived, traveling in a caravan of seven trucks; they passed several military posts on their way into San Carlos. When they left the area early the next morning, they crossed in front of the entrance to the Barbacoas Battalion military base in Juanes. Authorities say they were unaware of the incursion in San Carlos. [EC 10/26/98, 10/27/98] The Barbacoas Battalion has been identified by Human Rights Watch as having a pattern of support for paramilitaries. [HRW Backgrounder, posted 10/27/98] Also on Oct. 25, suspected paramilitaries murdered 11 people in Altos del Rosario municipality in the southern part of Bolivar state. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and local residents there had not received prior threats. [EC 10/26/98, 10/27/98] According to figures from the Data Bank run by the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP) and the Intercongregational Commission of Justice and Peace, 619 people were murdered for political reasons in Colombia in the first half of 1998, not counting deaths in combat. In cases where a perpetrator was suspected, 73% of these killings were attributed to paramilitaries, sometimes working with the support or acquiescence of the security forces; 17% were attributed to guerrillas; and 10% to state agents, in particular the Colombian army. Army units identified by Human Rights Watch as having a pattern of support for paramilitaries included the First, Second, and Fourth Divisions; the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Fourteenth, and Seventeenth Brigades; Mobile Brigades One and Two; and the Barbacoas, Barbula, Batin No. 6, Bombona, Cacique Nutibara, Caycedo de Chaparral #17, Heroes de Majagual, Joaquin Paris, La Popa, Los Guanes, Girardot, Palonegro #50, Rafael Reyes, Ricuarte, Rogelio Correa Campos, and Santander Battalions. Combined, these units make up about 75% of the Colombian army. [HRW Backgrounder, posted 10/27/98] Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Unit of Colombia's attorney general's office has ordered the arrest of retired colonel Bernardo Ruiz Silva, former commander of the 20th Brigade of Army Intelligence, to testify about his alleged participation in the Nov. 2, 1995 assassination of Conservative Party leader and former presidential candidate Alvaro Gomez Hurtado. [EC 10/30/98] The 20th Brigade was dismantled in May after being linked to numerous human rights violations [see Updates #433-435].