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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/16/MNGM8N0V001.DTL&hw=Colombia&sn=001&sc=1000
Key Colombian leaders linked to death squads
U.S. lists right-wing paramilitaries as terror groups
- Mike Ceaser, Chronicle Foreign Service
Saturday, December 16, 2006
(12-16) 04:00 PST Bogota, Colombia -- A scandal has rocked the administration of President Alvaro Uribe after revelations that dozens of public officials loyal to his party have ties with right-wing death squads listed by Washington as terrorist organizations.
The disclosures reveal that mayors, governors, members of Congress, judges and even the current foreign minister have ties to violence and narcotics traffickers.
"The paramilitaries have taken control of a good part of the (Uribe) administration," former President Cesar Gaviria, leader of the opposition Liberal Party, told reporters last month.
The scandal began early this year when two political parties that support the conservative Uribe -- the Bush administration's closest ally in South America -- expelled five of their congressional candidates for ties to right-wing paramilitary militias, which have killed tens of thousands of civilians and run drug-trafficking networks.
But the affair exploded last month after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of three legislators and a former congresswoman -- all Uribe allies -- for being part of a paramilitary group that brutally massacred 16 villagers in 2000 using rocks and machetes, a trademark paramilitary method of murder.
In response, Uribe said his government had turned over all pertinent evidence to prosecutors and that the implicated legislators were elected before he became president.
"Let the truth be told. The whole truth," Uribe told reporters last month. "It is healthy for the nation to know that political relations exist with paramilitaries."
Many observers say the "para crisis" has exposed illicit practices in which paramilitary leaders routinely take kickbacks from government contractors, assassinate their enemies, dictate who will compete in regional political races and then fix elections.
Colombia produces 70 percent of the world's cocaine, and drug money has long flowed into business and government. A paramilitary leader named Salvatore Mancuso once boasted that his group controlled 30 percent of Colombia's Congress.
"We all know that this is only the tip of the iceberg," said Daniel Garcia Peña, who served as the government's high commissioner for peace in the late 1990s and now heads a leftist political party. "Every day there are new elements. It's hard to know how far this can go."
The paramilitaries were created in the 1980s by rich landowners, conservative politicians and military commanders as a weapon against two leftist guerrilla armies fighting the government in a four-decade civil war. Some observers say civilian defense organizations organized by Uribe, then-governor of the state of Antioquia, contributed to their growth, allegations he has vehemently denied.
The current scandal, however, could threaten the flow of billions of U.S. tax dollars for the military and drug eradication, some analysts say. Outside of the Middle East and Afghanistan, Colombia receives more U.S. aid than any other country -- more than $700 million in 2006.
Until now, Republicans in the U.S. Congress have focused on military and economic issues regarding Colombia. But Democrats have traditionally placed more emphasis on human rights, and when Congress reconvenes in January, the scandal could fuel new criticisms of U.S. policy, predicts Michael Shifter, an analyst with Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.
"I think there'll be more pressure on Uribe to clean up Colombian politics," Shifter said. "I think there'll be a lot more scrutiny and more demands for accountability."
Last month, pro-Uribe Sen. Miguel de la Espriella told El Tiempo, a Bogota daily, that he and 39 other legislators had signed a secret manifesto pledging loyalty to the paramilitaries at a 2001 meeting, and Jose Alfredo Araujo, president of the High Judicial Council, resigned after disclosures of his ties to paramilitary leaders.
Opposition politicians are calling for the resignation of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo -- no relation to the judge -- after she allegedly intervened with a prosecutor on behalf of her brother, a pro-Uribe senator who has been accused of helping paramilitary groups skim money from government contracts.
But perhaps the most damaging accusation to Uribe's reputation involves the agency under his direct command, the Department of Administrative Security, the nation's secret police.
Attorney General Mario Iguaran Arana is investigating allegations that the department provided paramilitary leaders with information about union leaders, who then were assassinated. More trade union members are killed in Colombia annually than in the rest of the world combined, according to a 2006 report by the Washington-based AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. Some 4,000 union leaders, members and activists have been slain since the mid-1980s.
The attorney general also is investigating charges that Department of Administrative Security agents delivered hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes to Uribe when he first won the presidency in 2002.
Before demobilizing -- the process ended in April -- the estimated 31,000 paramilitary fighters and their supporters were involved in much of the cocaine sold on U.S. streets and some of the nation's worst human rights abuses as they fought alongside the military in its war against the rebels. Not only did the militias disarm, but their leaders turned themselves in to authorities in exchange for light jail sentences -- a maximum of eight years for the worst atrocities.
Perhaps mindful of his reputation, Uribe ordered on Dec. 1 that 59 paramilitary commanders be transferred out of a country-club-style jail -- with access to cell phones, cable television, regular visitors and Internet access -- to a maximum-security prison. In response, paramilitary leaders called off three-year peace talks with the Uribe government last week, and some have threatened to reveal even more damaging information.
The bulk of the evidence against the pro-Uribe politicians comes from a laptop computer confiscated from a notorious paramilitary leader named Rodrigo Tovar, also known as "Jorge 40." In addition to detailing narcotics trafficking routes and hundreds of political assassinations, the data also revealed recordings of meetings with politicians, many of whom are being summoned by investigators.
"For the last five or eight years, it has been impossible for anybody out of favor with the paramilitaries to even campaign in those areas," said former peace commissioner Garcia Peña, who now heads the leftist opposition party, the Polo Democratico Alternativo.
Despite the demobilization and official investigations, some analysts say the paramilitary militias are as strong as ever. They point out that some fighters are organizing new groups with names like the Black Eagles and still hold sway over politics, organized crime and drug trafficking.
Alberto Rangel, a security analyst in Bogota, says paramilitary political power will continue as long as the forces that led to their creation -- civil war, drug money and weak government -- remain.
"If you demobilize the paramilitaries and those factors still exist, you're going to have to continue dealing with paramilitaries," Rangel said.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/12/15/international/i204113S12.DTL&hw=Colombia&sn=002&sc=956
Friday, December 15, 2006
Ecuador Recalls Ambassador From Colombia
By GONZALO SOLANO, Associated Press Writer
(12-15) 20:41 PST QUITO, Ecuador (AP) --
Ecuador recalled its ambassador to Colombia on Friday, protesting Bogota's decision to resume aerial coca fumigation along the shared border.
The government also asked the Organization of American States and the United Nations to intervene in the escalating dispute.
Colombian authorities this week renewed spraying to within 330 feet of the border because coca growers had swarmed into the area. Ecuador is concerned that the drug-eradication herbicide was drifting across the border, killing legal crops and causing health problems.
"No one can accept, I say with total respect to this brother country, what the government of (Colombian President) Alvaro Uribe is doing," said Ecuadorean President-elect Rafael Correa, who takes office Jan. 15.
In a news conference, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Francisco Carrion said he called Ambassador Alejandro Suarez back to Quito for consultations "in a display of protest."
He said Ecuador wants the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to "visit the border and verify the situation in an impartial manner and ... prepare a report."
"Ecuador considers Colombia's resumption of the fumigation an unfriendly act, rejects the decision adopted by the neighboring country and demands an immediate suspension of the spraying," Carrion said.
He said Ecuador was open to dialogue with Colombia if it suspends the spraying.
Ecuador has suggested Colombia pull up coca plants by hand along the border. But the Colombian government says spray planes are quicker and less vulnerable to attacks by leftist rebels.
Colombia established a six-mile-wide no-spray zone along the border in January.
___
Associated Press writer Cesar Garcia in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
Related Article=
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/18/ecuador.coca.ap/
POSTED: 2:25 p.m. EST, December 18, 2006
Ecuador just says no to Colombia coca fumigation
Story Highlights•Ecuador renews demands that Colombia stop fumigating coca along border
•Colombia this week renewed spraying of coca to within 330 feet of border
•Ecuador concerned the herbicide kills legal crops and causes health problems
•Mix 'not harmful to humans,' says Colombia's president
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuador will not back down from its demand that Colombia halt aerial fumigation of coca plantations along their shared border, President Alfredo Palacio said.
"It's up to Colombia, out of respect for its neighbor and life, to prove that [the herbicide being sprayed] is safe," Palacio said at a ceremony late Friday, according to a statement issued by his office Saturday.
Colombian authorities this week renewed spraying of coca, the plant used to make cocaine, to within 330 feet (100 meters) of the border because coca growers had swarmed into the area. The spraying came despite Ecuador's concerns that the herbicide was drifting across the border, killing legal crops and causing health problems.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was quoted Saturday in the Ecuadoran newspaper El Comercio that "the mix applied is not harmful to humans."
On Friday, Ecuador called home its ambassador to Colombia for consultation. The government also asked the Organization of American States and the United Nations to intervene in the escalating dispute.
Ecuador's Foreign Minister Francisco Carrion said the country is open to dialogue with Colombia "provided the suspension of spraying is announced."
Ecuador has suggested Colombia pull up coca plants by hand along the border. But the Colombian government says spray planes are quicker and less vulnerable to attacks by leftist rebels.
Colombia established a 6-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) no-spray zone along the border in January.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/12/14/international/i131635S94.DTL&hw=Colombia&sn=004&sc=541
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Colombian Probed for Ties With Militas
By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer
(12-14) 13:16 PST BOGOTA, Columbia (AP) --
A political ally of President Alvaro Uribe is under investigation for allegedly doing business with illegal right-wing militias.
Juan Manuel Campo, a member of the Uribe-allied Conservative Party's executive committee, heads a company that ships 40 tons of plantain bananas a week to the United States and Europe from land cleared of its rightful owners through intimidation by banned paramilitaries.
The federal prosecutor's office and the attorney general's office, which regulates public servants, opened investigations after residents of the swampy jungle zone just south of Panama complained to human rights organizations.
Officials in both offices told The Associated Press this week that they're trying to determine whether Campo, 30, had benefited economically from ties with the militias.
The revelation comes amid a growing political scandal in which other close Uribe allies have been jailed on charges of creating and bankrolling paramilitary militias, which have committed thousands of murders and perpetrated widescale land theft over the past decade.
Formed to protect property owners from leftist rebels, the private armies degenerated into criminal gangs that developed lucrative, symbiotic relationships with much of Colombia's rural business and political elite.
The "para-politico" scandal broke open last month with the arrest of three members of Congress for allegedly forming paramilitary groups. Now Colombia's Supreme Court is questioning lawmakers — including the brother of Colombia's foreign minister — about their alleged paramilitary ties.
To date, no major politician ally of Colombia's law-and-order president has been proven to have illegally benefited financially from ties with paramilitaries, which are deeply involved in drug trafficking and listed by Washington as "terrorist organizations."
A former congressional candidate active for nine years in the Conservative Party, Campo has been general manager since 2004 of C.I. Multifruits S.A., which human rights groups say is illegally profiting from land violently usurped from an Afro-Colombian community near the Panamanian border.
Multifruits was founded in 2001, the same year paramilitaries publicly declared themselves lords of the Cacarica river basin where its crops grow.
In preceding years, paramilitary gunmen drove hundreds from the swampy jungle zone, claiming they needed to clear the area to defeat leftist guerrillas. The paramilitaries selectively killed people who resisted, and cemented near-feudal control.
Ana Carmen Martinez was forcibly displaced in 1997 from the Cacarica basin, where the communally owned land is supposed to be constitutionally protected, and has been living in the Caribbean port of Turbo, just outside the paramilitary zone.
She called the claim of a guerrilla presence "a pretext to rob us of our lands" and launch agricultural megaprojects including plantations of bananas and African palms.
Human rights groups allege that Campo and his business associates took commercial advantage of the forced exodus. Prosecutors learned of the allegations in the past few weeks and told the AP they'd launched investigations.
They spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons and because of the political sensitivity of the case, which two human rights groups, the Colombian Commission of Jurists, and Justice and Peace, recently documented for a special multiagency panel on misappropriated lands.
In April 2005, Multifruits signed a strategic alliance with a group claiming to represent the Cacarica community — even though Colombia's Constitutional Court had ruled the previous year that the group did not legally represent the community. The court ruling declared void deals the discredited group had made with logging interests blamed for rampant deforestation in the basin.
The previous August, Multifruits signed a contract with Del Monte Fresh Produce Co., a copy of which was obtained by the AP, guaranteeing the Coral Gables, Fla.-based company 104,000 pounds of plantains a week, beginning in January 2006 and lasting through the end of 2013.
The only crop Multifruits currently produces are the plantains grown on 140 hectares (346 acres) of the disputed Cacarica basin property, according to Campo, though the strategic alliance calls for eventual production on 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres).
Del Monte Fresh Produce did not deny that it has a contract with Multifruits. It did, however, say in an e-mail that it "does not operate farms (or own land) in Colombia" and that it "buys from many, many growers" at the port of Turbo, from which Multifruits exports.
Campo said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he was a founding investor in Multifruits. But he denied having any social or commercial relations with paramilitaries and claimed no knowledge of the Constitutional Court ruling against his partners in the basin.
"My work in that area is to make money. It's nothing other than to make money," Campo said. "I'm aware of the news of the paramilitary incursion in the zone but I don't know any details about the matter."
The region's paramilitary boss, Freddy Rendon, became one of 31,000 paramilitaries to demobilize this year in a peace pact with Uribe's government. But human rights groups and public officials say paramilitaries still dominate the area.
An uncle of Campo's, a successful agribusinessman named Rodolfo Campo, has been director since August of INCODER, the federal rural development agency tasked with more equitably distributing land in Colombia.
Both Campos hail from the Caribbean coast, where Uribe-allied politicians allowed paramilitary bosses to raid public coffers while the paramilitaries reciprocated by delivering votes, according to prosecutors, opposition lawmakers and local victims interviewed by the AP.
By one government estimate, Colombians have been driven off some 6.8 million hectares (16.8 million acres), an area larger than West Virginia, since the 1980s, mostly by paramilitaries but also by leftist rebels.
In some cases, outlaw groups take the land to grow coca for cocaine, of which Colombia is the world's No. 1 producer.
But more often, particularly in areas dominated by paramilitaries, investigators say the displaced have been forced to sell their property cheap, becoming refugees in their own country as large landowners increase their profits.
___
Associated Press writer Darcy Crowe in Bogota contributed to this report.
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