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IPO NEWSLETTER

No. 1									                                        September 1-15

PRESENTATION

Welcome!

The IPO Newsletter is a project based on the necessity to diffuse information about Colombia, nationally as well as regionally.  The hope is that it is used as a tool together with the information that will be published constantly on the website (www.peaceobservatory.org) and on the “urgent actions” mailing list, with the purpose of bringing attention to the difficult situation that the campesino communities are living.
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The International Peace Observatory (IPO) is a non-profit, international movement, independent of religions, parties and political movements.  The mission of IPO is to offer accompaniment to rural Colombian communities who are advancing proposals of non-violent resistance to the armed conflict.

IPO believes in social justice. IPO believes that the Colombian conflict has its roots in the economic and social imbalance, and the injustices of impunity and human rights violations that mark this country.  

IPO does not believe in imposed artificial borders, and strives for solidarity between the world’s citizens, as a maximum expression of tenderness between peoples.  Human rights violations – like extra-judicial executions, forced displacement of people, crimes against humanity, and violations of the right to good health and education – are violations of the laws of nations.  The very nature of these violations should evoke the interest of the international community so that truth may be established, justice sought and integral reparation guaranteed.

IPO does not lead, but rather walks with the communities in their just struggle for self-determination; IPO declares itself against the exploitative and neo-liberal policies that dominate the world.

NATIONAL NEWS

Human Rights Watch (HRW) asks Attorney General for a “fresh start” in process with the ‘paras’. (El Tiempo, 04-09) 
Referring to the setter sent by HRW to the attorney general (Mario Iguarán), in which this NGO cites a series of “problems” that have been presented en the demobilization process and that affect the carrying-out of justice.  Among other recommendations, they suggest that the free versions of demobilized paramilitares who have given testimony be taken again; prosecutors from the Human Rights Unit should be included, that the paramilitaries be investigated about individual or group crimes committed, location of goods acquired illegally by these groups y goods used for illegal activity.  Highlight the importance of interrogating them on financial sources, helpers and help received from the State.  See

Bad times for the priest from Uribe (El Tiempo, 21-08)
Salud Hernández: A brave priest (ibidem)

A prosecutor’s decision ordered the preventive detention of the Spanish priest Ricardo Cantalapiedra, from the parish of Uribe (Meta), accused of rebellion.  His crime was having talked “with everyone, without bad intentions.  They accuse me of that.”  The priest, in his sermons, criticized the massive arrests carried out by the public forces in Meta.  Says Salud Hernández: “This priest is detained (…) because some brilliant prosecutor has decided that he is a guerrilla helper.  People in territories under control by illegal groups are in the hands of not only vile criminals (…) but also in the hands of supposed “reinserts” who want to earn some money and the favor of authorities.  And in the hands of some prosecutors ignorant of the Colombian rural reality.”  "Bad Times"; Salud Hernández

Pre-dialogue starts debate (El Tiempo, 22-08)
What is the pre-dialogue that Uribe backed (El Tiempo, 23-08)

L.A. Castro, president of the Episcopal Conference, asked the government for a “turn-around” in their policy with the FARC, and to open the doors to a pre-dialogue outside of the country without any prior conditions.  Uribe gave the government’s authorization, without specifying if he would be willing to sign a cease-fire.  Furthermore, there exists an antecedent (Tlaxcala 1992) of the FARC rejecting outside dialogues for security reasons. 

Justice and Peace Law attacked by three law-suits (El Tiempo, 22-08)

Three law-suits were placed in the Constitutional Court against the Justice and Peace Law, saying that it violates the Constitution and international human rights treaties.  The arguments posed say that the Law should be formalized in a statutory manner and not in an ordinary way, because it changes the work of the Supreme Court and its Tribunals.  Furthermore, the Law does not recognize the rights of the victims upon permitting the application of alternative penalties, and converts the paramilitares, authors of crimes against humanity, in political delinquents; going against the constitutional distinction between political and common delinquents.  The Justice and Peace Law was created to try ‘paras’ who committed crimes against humanity y was approved one month ago by the Colombian government in the middle of strong international community pressure. See; See also

First “pure-blooded narcotrafficker” demobilizes (El Tiempo, 23-08)

Alias Gordo Lindo (“Cute Fatty”), would be the first narcotrafficker officially exposed, looking for the benefits of the Justice and Peace Law.  With F.J. Zuluaga, member of the Norte del Valle Cartel and “pure-blooded narco,” at least 150 paramilitaries of the Pacific Block will demobilize.  Senator Chamorro:  upon allowing narcotraffickers to join the negotiations in Ralito, the government is washing its hands in the area of extradition, because if these people are wanted for extradition, the petition would be for crimes different from those confessed to.

Cauca social organizations convene a debate about the FTAA. (Desde Abajo, 24-08)

The social organizations of Cauca: indigenous, labor-union, peasants, popular sectors, Christians, women, and political sectors, convene a popular and citizen’s consultation on the Free Trade Agreement (TLC) with the United States.  See

Paramilitarism in the Lower Atrato.  Intereclesial Commission of Peace and Justice. (Desde Abajo, 24-08)

The Lower Atrato, considered a world heritage site for its biodiversity, today is in risk because of the combined actions of the army and paramilitaries who are forcing the displacement of the communities living there.  The paramilitary action in Jiguamiandó, from 2003 up until today, has preceded that widening of the agricultural border to plant oil palms and cattle extensions.  The palm-growing businesses’ machines, watched over by the soldiers, are deforesting inside the Jiguamiandó Collective Territory, in the area known as Las Menas and Vijao.  See

Police take control of the paramilitary relocation zone in Santa Fe de Ralito (El Tiempo, 27-08)
Santa Fe de Ralito, in the department of Córdoba, has served since July 2004 as a “relocation zone” for paramilitary chiefs (AUC) in the demobilization process.  The security control in this area was carried out by members of the United Self-defense Forces of Colombia, who turned in their arms.  After two years, the police retook control of this town.  Official estimates site that the AUC have between 17,000 and 19,000 members, of which some 9000 have demobilized within the peace process, which forsees the dissolution of all of their groups before the end of 2005.  See  

Secretary of the OAS says that the self-defense forces’ demobilization is not a “whitewashing of narcos”.  (El Tiempo, 30-08)
Following a meeting with President Uribe, José Miguel Insulza backed the orientation that the Colombian government has been giving to the peace negotiation process with the paramilitaries (AUC), pointing out that it is “in the right direction” and announced the augmenting of cooperation for it.  For their part, Human Rights Watch questions the role of the OAS in the negotiation process with the AUC, considering that it contributes to giving an air of legitimacy to a process where impunity reigns.  See

Massive captures in the Oriente Antioqueño under guise of humanitarian mission. (Corporación Jurídica Libertad, 31-08)

At the beginning of this year, DAS personnel, taking advantage of a humanitarian crisis that took place in the municipality of Argelia due to the massive displacement of peasants from the villages, presented themselves to the community as employees of the Departmental Government’s Secretariat, and in this fashion, took a census of the population and took photos for the creation of an album which would be used later by witnesses to finger out people; later, as has happened in all the proceedings of massive captures, informants who declare that they were part of subversive groups or victims of these, appeared before security agents and proceed to point out that community leaders, employees of the municipal mayor’s office, medical and sanitary staff are members or helpers of subversive groups that operate in the region.  See

For the Unites States, Uribe’s security policies are going well (El Espectador, 01-09)
Backing from the director of the National Office for Drug Control of the United States, John Walters, for President Uribe’s security policy.  Walters refers to a lessening in statistics on violence (kidnappings, homicides and terrorism cases) and points out that the economy and direct foreign investment has grown during the government of Alvaro Uribe.  He points out a drop in the number of displaced families because of Colombia’s war, while the Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a private organization of the United States, says that there is a notable increase in this phenomenon.  On the other hand, Walters notes the success of the coca crop eradication program, implemented by the Colombian government with backing of the US, but according to US government statistics, in 2004, coca production was the same, while a report from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime suggested that the advances in the last two years in coca eradication in Colombia has had as a counterbalance the rising of coca production in Peru and Bolivia.

Paramilitares in Medellín: demobilization or legalization? (Amnesty International, 01-09) 

A report from AI that shows how the Colombian demobilization strategy threatens to consolidate paramilitarism and guarantees that the ones responsible for the worst atrocities against human rights in the country remain in impunity.  It documents how the “demobilization” of the Cacique Nutibara Block (BCN) of Medellin in November of 2003 has shown the dangerous parody that constitutes the paramilitary demobilization strategy.  Among the many paramilitary groups backed by the army and linked to the paramilitary grouping, United Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), the BCN was the first to demobilize (November 2003).  Since this time, and according to reports, around 8,000 paramilitaries involved in groups linked to the AUC have been demobilized in different parts of the country within the frame of “peace negotiations”” with President Alvaro Uribe Velez’s government.  See

More fumigations and more pain in the Sur de Bolívar.  Camilo Rueda Navarro (Prensa Rural, 01-09)

Since July, the fourth wave of fumigations in the Sur de Bolívar is being carried out.  Currently, the rural zones of Cantagallo and San Pablo are being fumigated.  Without anymore economic opportunities to survive, many peasants have looked to the illegal crop, the only product that allows them to resist and maintain a war economy, given the paramilitary blockade around the zone.  See

Colombian paramilitarism through an Italian view. (Indymedia Colombia News Agency IPC, 02-09)

Italian journalist and writer Guido Piccoli was passing through Medellin, Colombia, presenting a Spanish edition of his book called “El Sistema Pájaro: Colombia, paramilitarismo y conflicto social.”  In an interview with News Agency IPC, he spoke of his work and perception of the Colombian reality.  See

150 NGOs from around the world ask the European Union to speak out against the law of impunity.  Luna Bolívar Manaut. (Indymedia Colombia, 02-09)

In an open letter, 150 NGOs from around the world exhorted the European Union to speak out against the “Justice and Peace” law, which the Colombian government is trying to bring out a peace process.  See

Paramilitaries kidnap 30 peasants in Catatumbo. (Asociación Minga, 02-09)

In early hours of August 30 of 2005, a big group of paramilitaries belonging to the “North Block,” lead by the individual known as alias “Jorge 40,” entered, from bases located in the department of Cesar, the villages of Playa Rica and El Paraiso, municipality of El Carmen, Norte de Santander, the El Catatumbo region, places were they have committed diverse acts of pillage against the goods of the people, stealing jewelry, house appliances and cattle, sacking stores and kidnapping approximately 30 peasants.  See

In Spain, the government is asked to pay attention to the violation of human rights in Colombia (El Espectador, 02-09)
The United Left (IU) coalition asked Zapatero’s socialist government that in its policy of cooperation with Colombia, attention be paid to the armed conflict and to the “gross violations” of human rights and international humanitarian law that is being committed, and thus, “condition” the economic and political aid given to the current paramilitary demobilization process “until and unless respect for the right to truth, justice and reparation for the victims be guaranteed in an effective manner.”  Isaura Navarro, deputy of the IU, the third most-voted political force, insisted that the Executive ask the Colombian government to compensate for “deficiencies” in the Justice and Peace Law and the “changing of international human rights standards,” and that it fulfill its commitments undertaken in the field of international cooperation and human rights.  Navarro pointed out and with this law “impunity can be perpetuated for serious crimes” committed in the “internal armed conflict” and “reduce to symbolic levels” the right of the victims to “clear up the truth, obtain justice and reparation.”

Indigenous in Cauca “take” lands to survive. (Desde Abajo, 02-09)

The indigenous people of Cauca, in Colombia, mobilize once again for the right to land.  More than 300 of its members, in Caloto, Cauca, Huellas reserve, have occupied the land that historically belongs to them.  A right, in their case, that is ancestral.  Persecuted, denied, criminalized, taken in some cases as slaves, in others as serfs and some as simple peons, workers and peasants, kept in a minimal space, inadequate for its quality conditions and geologic formation, they are resisting, moving, and taking the land that historically has been denied to them.  See; Indigenous Communities of Cauca

Paramilitaries.  All against all.  (Semana, 02-09)

The murder of a narco-trafficker who stood up to two powerful chiefs of the AUC and reveals that, after the peace process, the re-accommodation of some paramilitary and mafia groups will be bloody.  See

REGION: MAGDALENA MEDIO

Contexto

With the publication of the first “IPO Newsletter” (yahooooooooooooo!), we send you a big hug in solidarity, from Colombia to wherever you may be struggling for or walking towards a better world.  We write this, well, here in Bogotá, but with our hearts in the communities… let’s see if you can imagine this: from Lejanías, drinking a refreshing “aguapanela with lemon” after a 6-hour mule ride; from Puerto Matilde, eating buffalo cheese; and from Alto Cañabraval, walking through the extensive coca fields…

IPO Colombia has just witnessed its first mission of volunteers, who passed almost a month sharing happiness, suffering, pain and hopes with the campesinos.  They were part of a new and growing support group, IPO Catalonia, and spent their time in the three sub-regions: Nordeste Antioqueño, the Cimitarra River, and the Sur de Bolívar.  All were beautiful people, open to new experiences.  We thank them deeply for their dedication, spirit, and commitment to the rural communities of the Magdalena Medio.  We invite them, along with new companions, to return to the country to continue understanding the reality of the Colombian campesino communities.  

In the midst of IPO’s growth, it must be pointed out that the state and para-state repression (this last one is sometimes called “paramilitary,” but one can get confused, believing that military repression has nothing to do with economic and political interests) continues the same against the ACVC (Campesino Association of the Cimitarra River Valley) and the communities where it works.  The bloodiest manifestation of this policy was the murder on the part of soldiers of the 14ª Brigade (under the command of Colonel Pérez) of Luis Sigifredo Brown Patiño, a resident of the settlement of Caño Tigre and a person very loved by those of us who knew him (for more on Luis, see “Letter from Field,” below).  He was a helpful and kind gentleman, and never lacked a smile whenever the people needed it.  The army, over there in the Nordeste Antioqueño, continues its military, paramilitary, and psychological operations against the population, mounting a military base behind the school in the small settlement of Lejanías.  They pursue the leaders of the campesino organization in the zone, CAHUCOPANA.  In the Sur de Bolívar, men without faces, in light aircraft, accompanied by up to 6 battle helicopters,  fumigate not only places where there is coca, but also where there is no coca – in corn, rice, cocoa, and banana fields, even fumigating over the village centers and the productive projects of the ACVC.  Down below, on land, soldiers accompanied by hooded men, sow terror among the population, plundering houses and painting signs of the “AUC” (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, the paramilitaries) on the walls.  In the Cimitarra River, the national army has set themselves up in the houses and the schools, maintaining a constant pressure over the inhabitants.  Specifically in Puerto Matilde, “the capital of the ACVC,” the army is carrying out a “political campaign”, creating a network of informants in order to sabotage the work of the Communal Action Junta and of the ACVC.  Remember that Colonel Leonardo Castillo, of the Office of “Integral Action” of the army, this year said that his mission was to put an end to the ACVC because it is the “political arm of the FARC.” The ACVC is asking for permanent accompaniment in Puerto Matilde, and here in IPO, we make a call-out for people to come and accompany the communities in resistance.  

There are some interesting events happening in the region this month.  From the 8th -10th, there is the general assembly of the Zone of Integral Development (made up in part by the communities, the ACVC and the Program of Development and Peace).  Also in the same week, a visit by the UN to Northeast Antioqueño is expected.  

Finally, IPO is entering a new phase in its backing for the communities… we are going to have meetings with the army!  What fun!  Between the 12th and 17th of September, we have planned not only meetings with the brigades of the army, but also with mayors, the human right’s ombudsman, and others – in order to reiterate our support for the ACVC and to try to stop the aggressions against it.  We hope that from your countries, you will continue supporting the work of the communities, the ACVC, and IPO on search of peace, a dignified life, justice, and in defense of land.  

Kisses and hugs, we keep on walking…

IPO 

Letter from the Field

Our testimony from the field: The Nordeste Antioqueño
The death of Luís Sigifredo Castaño Patiño, campesino

Here in the Nordeste Antioqueño, we have been told of the death in strange circumstances of Luis Sigifredo, who according to all indications has been murdered by the Army in the village of  Caño Tigre, municipality of Remedios.  We meet in the afternoon with Major Tenjo of the 14th Brigade and we ask him his version of the facts.  A Colonel Gómez tells us that there has been a battle with 4 members of the ELN, two of them camouflaged, resulting in the death of the ‘guerrilla fighter’ Sigfredo, with another guerrilla injured and two other who fled.  

We have come to know of this situation on August 14, while we were staying in a village called Lejanías.  After hearing the Army’s version, we go to Caño Tigre to collect the story of the eyewitnesses.  The version of the campesinos  is very different from that of the soldiers: they comment that on Sunday August 7th, while Luis Sigifredo was giving water to his horse at 6:00 am, 16 soldiers of the Colombian Army (Brigade XIV- battalions Palagua and Calibío) came to Caño Tigre with an unarmed, hooded man.  

Three of the soldiers pointed their guns at Luis Sigifredo and they took him to a nearby wooded area situated some 30 meters away, where they aggressively ordered him to put on a shirt and tied his hands with a polyester cord.  Then they were carried him along the path that leads to the settlement of Dos Quebradas, hitting and insulting him.  During the journey, Sigifredo shouted to his mother not to worry because nothing was going to happen to him and implored the soldiers that that they not humiliate him.  The remainder of the family was forced by the Army to remain in the farm without being able to approach the detainee.  It seems that just then, various soldiers entered to the house and stole 250.000 pesos in cash that the family had kept.  

A while later, some 300 meters from the house, the soldiers took Luis Sigifredo toward the forest from where eight shots and a burst of gunfire was heard, ¿was it a combat or a simulation?  From that moment on and for several more hours, the Army restricted the passage of the campesinos on the path that lead to the forest.  According to eyewitness testimony, a few hours later the corpse of Luis Sigifredo is seen dressed in camouflage and with a rifle, being transferred subsequently by the Army on a mule towards a place known as El Teléfono.  Other people reported seeing the soldiers transfer the corpse of Sigifredo toward the village of Campo Vijao, this time dressed once again in civilian clothing.  There his body remains until Tuesday the 9th, when Army takes him away in helicopter, already with signs of decomposition, to an unknown location.  

Who was Luis Sigifredo Castaño?

Luis Sigifredo was 45 years old and a member of CAHUCOPANA, a human-rights organization in the Nordeste Antioqueño, founded less than a year ago:  Luis Sigifredo is their first –and we hope, last- victim. 

This campesino came to the Nordeste, along with his brother, 15 years ago and with his hands, cleaned and worked the land to make it his and his children’s, who also live in Caño Tigre.

Those who knew Luis Sigifredo asks themselves about another detail that seems to have been passed unnoticed by the national press and public opinion: Luis’s right hand was paralized.  It’s hard to imagine his with a rifle in his hand.

Catalonian Mission to the Nordeste.

SPECIAL REPORT: “Displaced People in Patio Bonito”

Colombia: Displaced Communities Take Action
Displaced Communities Occupy 163 Vacant Houses in Bogotá
Photos and article by Ramón Acevedo
August 31, 2005

After many broken promises by the Colombian government to supply homes to displaced communities, a group of 700 adults, 577 children, 15 pregnant women, 22 handicapped, and 25 seniors have taken over vacant homes in the south-western neighborhood of Kennedy in Bogotá. 
 
At 6 am on August 29, 2005 six buses and five trucks pulled into Patio Bonito, Kennedy. Carrying all of their belonging from rolled up mattresses, pots, pans, and boxes the families began to fill the 163 unfinished homes. These half-built homes have been unoccupied for the past six years. 
 
At first the armed security guards tried to stop the mass of people, but they soon understood the severity of the situation and did not resist. As soon as the families got into the homes they began to settle in. By the first hour the children and adults together began to cut the weeds, clean the cement dust from inside, and set up kitchen. Three hours into the takeover windows were covered with plastics and cloths, mattresses were rolled out, babies were deep asleep, and coffee was being passed around. 
 
I spoke to a mother who had been traveling with another family. She told her story of how the paramilitaries had come into her town, in the Tolima region of Colombia, and assassinated her brother and her husband with a chainsaw. They were farmers working a small plot of land. The paramilitaries accused them of working with guerrillas, which she denied. For the past five years she and her three children have had to move around to escape the “paracos.” 
 
One of the spokespersons from the group stated, “The majority of us are displaced because of our political beliefs,” and added, “ We have come from different regions of Colombia, where the paramilitaries violently pushed us out.” Due to fear of repression by the government and the paramilitary, this spokesperson preferred not to give his name*. 
 
On the first day of the occupation of these houses the riot police, ESMAD, was sent in by the local mayor’s office. The ESMAD has been known to violently repress protesters and was recently involved in the assassination of a 15 year old demonstrator, Nicolas Neira, last May 1ST . Since the arrival of the police the families have been fearful. Community leaders have urged the media and government officials to be present in order to prevent police attacks and arrest. 
 
Today, in Colombia, there are more than 3 million people displaced internally. In 2004 some 287,000 were displaced, an increase of 38.5% from the prior year. The majority of these displacements were due to the violence by the Colombian Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies. Colombia is second to Sudan in human displacement due to violence. 
 
Continuously, the 40 year old Colombian civil war has been fueled by military aid from the United States. Since 1998, when Plan Colombia was signed, over $4 billion U.S. dollars has been funneled into the police and military of Colombia. This has increased human rights atrocities by the government forces and their paramilitary allies. For decades the Colombian government has been involved in gross human rights violations. At the same time the U.S. has made Colombia the third largest recipient of military aid, after Israel and Egypt. 
 
After three days of occupation the displaced community is isolated. The police do not let anyone in or out. Food and supplies that friends, family, and neighbors bring is not allowed into the community. “We cannot sleep because of the cold and fear of being kicked out,” stated one person, and followed with, “my kids are sleeping on the floor on top of plastic sheeting.” People are suffering from diarrhea and respiratory problems. 
 
The displaced group who has taken over the houses in Bogotá has no other choice. The government has made no concrete effort to organize access to basic health, food, housing, and education services. In Colombia the situation of the displaced population, both in collective settlements and on the outskirts of cities, moves them to take action into their own hands. “ Don’t ask me my name, but let me tell you that what we need. A place to live,” stated one of the community leader.
 
*Members of the community requested anonymity for reasons of security.
Photos:
http://colombia.indivia.net/archivio/index.php?dir=foto/acevedo-patio_bonito-29_08_2005/

Report:
http://colombia.indivia.net/archivio/doc/informe_patio_bonito/InformeEnglish_Patio_Bonito.pdf

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