WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #480, APRIL 11, 1999
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*3. COLOMBIA FIRES TOP GENERALS LINKED TO PARAMILITARIES
On Apr. 9, Colombian President Andres Pastrana ordered the
dismissal of two generals who are under investigation for links to
rightwing paramilitary death squads. In a terse statement, the
official government news agency ANNCOL said Pastrana had ordered
the firing of Brig. Gen. Rito Alejo del Rio Rojas, the army's chief of
operations, and Brig. Gen. Fernando Millan Perez, director of the
Army War College in Bogota. The agency gave no reason for
Pastrana's decision, but analysts interpreted it as a gesture by the
government toward reactivating peace talks with the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Both generals are targets of probes by the attorney general's office
for allegedly sponsoring paramilitary groups. Both were also included
on a list of paramilitary supporters that the FARC turned over to the
government in January [see Update #471]. The list was given to the
government when the FARC broke off peace talks on the grounds
that Pastrana was not doing enough to fight the paramilitaries. At an
Apr. 8 meeting with congressional leaders and high commissioner for
peace Victor Ricardo, FARC commanders agreed to restart the peace
process as scheduled on Apr. 20.
At a news conference late on Apr. 9, Defense Minister Rodrigo
Lloreda sidestepped questions about the reasons for what he termed
the "administrative decision'' to force Alejo del Rio and Millan into
retirement. But he ruled out any links to the FARC's list of
paramilitary supporters. "The government has no reason to take into
account any charges made by groups that are outside the law," he
said. "This is a decision that was made by the president after an in-
depth analysis of what was appropriate for the [military] institution.
That's all there is to it," he said.
Alejo del Rio is a former commander of the army's 17th Brigade,
which is based in the banana-growing region of Uraba near
Colombia's border with Panama. The local media dubbed him the
"Uraba Peacemaker" after rebel activity subsided in the area in late
1996 following a wave of massacres of campesinos. He is a graduate
of the 1967 Cadet Orientation Course at the US Army School of the
Americas (SOA), and has been implicated in paramilitary activities
since at least 1985.
Millan was commander of the Fifth Brigade, based in the city of
Bucaramanga. In 1998 he was accused of supporting paramilitary
activities. Senior army commanders routinely deny links with the
paramilitaries, but human rights groups charge that they have
worked together openly in many parts of the country. [Reuters
4/9/99; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/10/99 from Reuters; SOA Watch
list of graduates 1995]
In a separate move, the attorney general's office suspended Gen.
Jaime Humberto Uscategui, commander of the second army division,
from active service for three months, according to a statement
released on the evening of Apr. 9. The statement said that Uscategui
was under investigation for his alleged role in a July 1997 massacre
by paramilitaries in Meta department (in Mapiripan municipality), in
which some 40 people were killed. [Reuters 4/9/99]
Meanwhile, Colombian indigenous leaders are seeking a meeting with
FARC leaders to discuss respect for the territory and lives of
members of Colombia's indigenous communities, among other
themes. Indigenous senator Jesus Pinacue has also brought up with
the FARC the Feb. 25 kidnapping and subsequent murder by FARC
members of US indigenous rights activists Ingrid Washinawatok,
Terence Freitas and Lahe'na'e Gay [see Updates #475, 476, 479].
"There's going to be a meeting with delegates of the indigenous
communities, and which because of the participation of the high
commissioner [of peace, Victor Ricardo], will be held promptly," said
Pinacue. The proposal for the meeting emerged out of the Apr. 8
meeting between FARC founder Manuel Marulanda and other top
FARC leaders and a group of 25 congresspeople in the town of
Caquetania, inside the demilitarized zone where the peace talks have
been taking place. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/11/99 from AP]
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