WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #485, MAY 16, 1999
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 
LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 

*11. COLOMBIA ANTI-DRUG CHIEF FIRED

The director of Colombia's National Council on Drugs, Ruben Olarte 
Reyes, was fired on May 4 after eight months on the job following 
press reports which accused him of various acts of corruption, 
including the unauthorized use of properties confiscated from drug 
traffickers. [Olarte had spoken out against the US-backed aerial 
fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, and particularly against the 
use of the harmful chemical herbicide tebuthiuron--see Update 
#451.] [CNN en Espanol 5/3/99 from Reuters] On May 5, the 
government put Gabriel Merchan Benavides in charge of the anti-
drug office. [EC 5/6/99 from ANCOL, Reuters]

On May 5, just hours after Olarte's removal was announced, the 
police reported the discovery of three cocaine production 
laboratories in a major operation by 300 anti-drug police agents 
backed by five artilleried helicopters in the Magdalena river valley 
near Puerto Boyaca. National Police chief Rosso Jose Serrano 
explained that the laboratory complex was run by rightwing 
paramilitary death squads. Workers who were busy processing 
cocaine fled when the bust began. There were no arrests. [ENH 
5/6/99; CNN en Espanol 5/3/99 from Reuters] 

*12. COLOMBIAN PROFESSORS MURDERED

Hernan Henao Delgado, director of the University of Antioquia's 
Institute of Regional Studies (INER), was shot to death on May 4 by 
three hooded assailants who picked him out after locking up other 
participants at a meeting of investigators at the university's school of 
social sciences. Henao was known for his research and work with the 
displaced and his promotion of the university as a territory of peace. 
[El Colombiano (Medellin) 5/5/99; US/Colombia Coordinating Office 
Action Alert, May 1999] 

Attorney Jesus Arnovi Gomez Gomez, coordinator of the law school at 
the Cooperative University of Colombia, was murdered on May 6 or 7 
by unidentified assailants on the road to Santa Elena as he was 
returning home from work. A professor of administrative law at the 
same law school, attorney Argiro Giraldo Quintero, managed to 
escape a May 6 attack unharmed. [EC 5/8/99] 

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