WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #428, APRIL 12, 1998
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339
LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
*8. MULTILATERAL INVASION FORCE FOR COLOMBIA?
In a report prepared last November, the US Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA)--the US military's principal intelligence service--
concludes that Colombia's military could be defeated within five
years unless the country's government regains political legitimacy
and its armed forces are drastically restructured. A summary of the
report was obtained by the Washington Post on Apr. 9, and two
sources with direct knowledge of the full text provided the Post with
details not included in the summary. [WP 4/10/98]
In an Apr. 6 letter to Gen. Manuel Jose Bonett, commander of the
Colombian military, US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) chief
Charles Wilhelm said he had asked the US Congress for urgent
support for the Colombian military's counterinsurgency war against
leftist guerrillas. Wilhelm said that "at this time the Colombian armed
forces are not up to the task of confronting and defeating the
insurgents.... Colombia is the most threatened in the area under the
Southern Command's responsibility, and it is in urgent need of our
support." According to Wilhelm, the Colombian military and police
need US aid for mobility, capacity for direct attacks, nighttime
operations, communications, intelligence work, river and coast guard
mobilizations, and logistical support. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/12/98
from EFE; WP 4/10/98]
Bonett, who made the letter public, agreed that the Colombian armed
forces are in "a position of inferiority" to the rebels. Bonett said he
would gladly accept U.S. military aid, even "atomic bombs." [WP
4/10/98]
In his letter, Wilhelm denied that the US was seeking to head up a
multilateral force to intervene in Colombia. Wilhelm was responding
to reports in the Argentine press charging that he had gotten
permission from Colombian leaders for the multilateral intervention
force, and that he had consulted with the Argentine and Brazilian
presidents for their support. Wilhelm said he knew nothing about a
multilateral counterinsurgency force, and insisted that no such thing
had been talked about either in the Colombian military or in the
government before the allegations were published. Wilhelm said that
the press reports in Colombia about the invasion force, as well as
those concerning his statements before the US Congress, were
"incomplete and imprecise." [ED-LP 4/12/98 from EFE]
Buenos Aires radio station Radio Mitre was the first to pick up the
story about a multilateral invasion force, citing military and
diplomatic sources; the report was quickly and vehemently denied as
"absurd" and "unfounded" by Colombian, Argentine and US
authorities. [La Tercera (Chile) 4/5/98 from EFE] According to the
report, which was also published by center-left Buenos Aires daily
Clarin, Wilhelm spoke of the intervention force at a meeting in Miami
in February with Argentine army chief Gen. Martin Balza. The plan
was allegedly for troops from Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador to
enter Colombian territory as a "peace force." [Correo del Magdalena,
publication of the National Liberation Army (ELN), II Epoca #73,
3/22/98-4/4/98]
Imprisoned rebel leaders Francisco Galan and Felipe Torres of the
National Liberation Army (ELN) told Bogota daily El Espectador: "The
US shouldn't get mixed up in an internal affair, because we have seen
that as their wars end, they invent others." "They invented the
humanitarian reason and got involved in Somolia and Yugoslavia,
only when it suited them," said the rebel leaders. [La Republica
(Lima, Peru) 3/30/98 from AFP]
*9. COLOMBIA: REBELS, ELECTIONS & TRUCKERS
The ELN central command announced on Apr. 6 that veteran ELN
commander Manuel Perez Martinez, a Spanish-born priest who
joined the Colombian guerrilla movement 30 years ago, had died in
February of hepatitis. [ED-LP 4/7/98 from AFP, EFE]
The Colombian government has called on the ELN to stick to an
agreement to attend preliminary peace talks. The ELN suspended
contacts with authorities after details of the accord, reached in
February in Spain, were leaked to the media in March. ELN leader
Galan accused the government of trying to gain short-term political
dividends from the peace process. A government representative has
suggested changing the proposed date of the talks, which were
scheduled to take place a week after the first round of the
presidential election on May 31, and before the expected second
round set for June 21. [BBC World Service 3/31/98]
Campaigning for the elections is heading into its final phase: the main
presidential candidates are Horacio Serpa for the Liberal Party and
Andres Pastrana for the Conservative Party. Serpa was interior
minister under current president Ernesto Samper Pizano, and is
considered to be very close to Samper. Pastrana lost narrowly to
Samper in the 1994 elections. Current voter intention polls show
both candidates running about even. [ED-LP 4/9/98 from EFE]
Running for president on an independent Conservative ticket is
Noemi Sanin, a Conservative who served as foreign minister under
the Liberal government of Cesar Gaviria; her running mate is the
independent and eccentric former Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus.
Pastrana's running mate is Liberal professor Gustavo Bell, part of
Pastrana's strategy to show himself as non-partisan. Serpa's running
mate is Maria Emma Mejia, foreign minister under Samper. Also
running for president is former armed forces commander Gen. Harold
Bedoya, with former treasury oversight inspector Jorge Garcia
Hurtado as his running mate. According to a poll published on Apr. 5,
Sanin is the only candidate who had a favorable image in the eyes of
more than 50% of respondents. The poll indicates that Sanin has a
58% approval rating because she has maintained her image as an
independent candidate and because people feel she has the most
serious program of all the candidates. [El Universal (Caracas) 4/6/98]
Meanwhile, some 100,000 Colombian truck drivers ended 10 days of
strike and returned to work on Apr. 2 after reaching an agreement
with government and business representatives. The accord includes a
decree fixing fleet rates and introducing a system of sanctions
against companies that refuse to pay the new rates. The strike had
brought Colombia's coffee export industry to a halt; it was the longest
strike by truckers since October 1996. [CNN en Espanol 4/2/98 from
Reuter]
*10. UN BOOSTS RIGHTS EFFORT IN COLOMBIA
The Colombian government and the United Nations (UN) have agreed
to strengthen the international human rights monitoring system in
Colombia, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson
said on Mar. 31. An agreement between Colombia and Robinson's
predecessor, Jose Ayala Lasso, has been extended for another year,
Robinson told the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The
accord also calls for boosting the number of human rights officers to
12 from the current seven. Since it opened a year ago, the UN human
rights office in Bogota has been observing and reporting on the
human rights situation throughout Colombia, "taking into account the
climate of violence and internal armed conflict" and government
measures to improve conditions. Robinson said she was extremely
worried by the scope of human rights violations in Colombia.
A UN report released on Mar. 27 refers to what Robinson called
"serious, massive and systematic" abuses, mostly by paramilitary
groups. Between October 1996 and September 1997, some 3,439
people were killed in Colombia, according to non-governmental
sources. The sources say that private militias or paramilitary groups
were behind 76% of the deaths, guerrilla groups were responsible for
18% and government forces for about 4%. Robinson called efforts by
Colombian President Ernesto Samper to stamp out abuses
"insufficient." [AFP 3/31/98; AP 3/27/98]
=========================================================
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
=============================================================