WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #424, MARCH 15, 1998
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
======================================================
*4. COLOMBIAN RULING PARTY SWEEPS ELECTIONS
In legislative elections held on Mar. 8 in Colombia, the ruling Liberal Party
maintained its majority with 44.14% of the vote. The other leading parties
were the Conservative Party with 11.62%; the National Conservative
Movement--a split from the Conservative Party--with 5.27%; the "Liberal
Oxygen" movement with 2.1% and the populist Citizen Defense movement
with 1.68%. More than 65% of registered voters stayed away from the polls.
Voters elected 102 senators and 161 deputies. Those taking a seat in
Congress for the first time include award-winning filmmaker and former
rebel Sergio Cabrera. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/9/98 from AFP; Washington
Post 3/10/98; Clarin 3/9/98 from AFP]
Ingrid Betancur, a vocal critic of the government who easily won a Senate
seat on the "Liberal Oxygen" ticket, criticized widespread illegal financing
and vote buying in the campaigns. "They weren't buying votes one by one,"
she said. "They were buying leaders who can move 100, 200 or 1,000 people
and paying them for those votes. It's a wholesale market." [WP 3/10/98]
Thanks to a 1997 decree, Colombians living outside Colombia were allowed
to vote for senators for the first time in the Mar. 8 elections, and were even
allowed to run as candidates for senator. Enthusiasm was not overwhelming:
of the 150,000 Colombians living in Miami, only 4,000 registered to vote;
three ran as candidates for the Senate. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 3/7/98] In
New York and New Jersey, which have a much larger Colombian immigrant
population, only 5,395 Colombians registered to vote, and of those only
2,662 actually voted. [ED-LP 3/9/98]
*5. COLOMBIAN ARMY TRIES TO REGROUP AFTER DEFEAT
The Colombian army continues to lick its wounds from a serious defeat in
battle with leftist rebels of the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) in the area of Caguan, in
southern Colombia [see Update #423]. The National Army confirmed on Mar.
9 that 73 soldiers were killed in the fighting; 36 rebels were also
reportedly killed, and their bodies buried in three common graves in the
combat area. The FARC is holding 43 soldiers hostage and another eight are
missing. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 3/10/98]
Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) were
finally allowed into the area of the fighting on Mar. 8, after remaining in
the town of Cartagena del Chaira because the army had prohibited them
from entering the area. Pierre Gassmann, head of the CICR in Colombia,
arrived in the area on Mar. 8; he said CICR members were helping families
displaced in the violence. Gassman also visited the Larandia military base
near Florencia, capital of Caqueta department, in order to try to get
information about casualties. The media has been barred from the area. [EC
3/9/98] On Mar. 10, Gassmann called on the FARC to explain whether the 32
soldiers who have allegedly been wounded are among the 43 they are holding
hostage. Gassman said that the CICR team has been combing the area for
wounded people and has not found any. [EC 3/11/98]
"This is without a doubt the biggest defeat in the 35-year history of
confrontation against the insurgency," said Alfredo Rangel, a security
analyst who has worked for President Ernesto Samper. "The army is unable
to contain or control the guerrillas and is temporarily losing the
confrontation." Analysts say that the FARC's defeat of the army in southern
Colombia is especially significant because the rebels overwhelmed the
Mobile Brigade 3. "This is Colombia's elite fighting force," said Sergio Uribe,
a political scientist at University of the Andes in Bogota. "These are not
conscripts; they are professional soldiers. They were outwitted and out-
intelligenced." [WP 3/8/98]
The government announced on Mar. 12 that it has created a new 5,000-troop
anti-guerrilla unit to rout the rebels from their southern stronghold. The
"Counter-Guerrilla Task Force" will be based in Caqueta and made up of
troops from the army, the police, and the marine infantry, with support
from the air force. [WP 3/13/98; Clarin 3/13/98 from Reuter; El Universal
(Caracas) 3/13/98 from Reuter]
On Mar. 11 the Colombian police reported that a group of 25 FARC rebels had
attacked a helicopter that was transporting money for a bank 70 km
northwest of Bogota, in central Colombia. One police agent, one rebel and
three civilians were killed. The rebels destroyed the helicopter and made
off with over $100,000 in cash. [La Tercera 3/12/98 from wire services;
CNN en Espanol 3/11/98 from AP]
=========================================================
ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is
published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater
New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe,
send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua
Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012.
Please specify if you want the electronic or print version: they are
identical in content, but the electronic version is delivered directly to
your email address; the print version is sent via first class mail. For
more information about electronic subscriptions, contact
wnu@igc.apc.org. Back issues and source materials are available on
request.
If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic newsgroups,
we would appreciate any financial support you can contribute. We
are a small, all-volunteer organization funded solely through
subscriptions and contributions. Please also help spread the word
about the Update. If you know someone who might be interested in
subscribing, send their email (or regular mail) address to
and request a free one-month trial subscription to
the Weekly News Update on the Americas.
Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any
information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update
on the Americas," and include our full contact information so that
people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication
where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments
and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail
to
CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/nsnhome.html
1996 INDEX OUT NOW!!! ANNUAL UPDATE INDEX available for each
year from 1991 through 1996. Ascii text versions free to subscribers
via electronic mail. Send your request to (specify
which year or years you want--each is over 100kb). Each index will
be sent as a separate text message (not an attached file) unless you
request otherwise.
STILL AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After
Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special
report, dated March 1996, accompanied by a resource list and
organizing leaflet. Ascii text version free to subscribers via email.
Send your request to
1996 SOURCE LIST STILL AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-
used in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with
abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. Send your
request to
=============================================================
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity
Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-
9499 fax: 212-674-9139
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html *
wnu@igc.apc.org
=============================================================