For the Colombian State, make-up doesn't work anymore.

22.11.05

Introduction:
The International Peace Observatory (IPO) is a not-for-profit social movement that provides physical, technical and political accompaniment to organized communities in Colombia. Due to our work in situ, IPO volunteers have been witnesses to the human rights violations and aggressions against the communities on the part of the armed actors (State, paramilitaries and guerrilla). The following article was written based on an incident that the author and other IPO members witnessed in the Nordeste Antioqueño, in the Magdalena Medio.

They called us “disguised people,” making reference to the grandiose comments of their little president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, when he said that the ‘terrorists’ “...have to hid behind the flag of human rights.”

This time, on October 13th, in the campesino farm of the “Despecho” in the Nordeste Antioqueño, area of development of the latest operations of the “Integral Action” of the National Army against the civilian population and not the insurgency let’s be clear, Sergeant Blanquiceth, of the Calibio Battalion, said it, along with a Sergeant Setina . He said it because they were angry that we had caught them, as they say, “red-handed”: some 30 soldiers inside and next to a civilian house, the family scared and silent, while some 5 soldiers curiously held the owner of the house in a wooded area. When we demanded to see the owner, Amilca Calles, they brought him out quickly, so quickly that the soldier holding the machete forgot to hide it. “What happened?” we asked, to which the soldiers insisted that Amilca, in front of everyone, say that nothing had happened, and that yes (of course) he had given them a cow that was worth 500,000 pesos (approx. U$250). Like usually happens, the campesino said yes, fearing reprisals if he said otherwise. To complete the set-up, they made him sign a “good treatment” document , officializing everything that he was forced into saying.

Later, that same group told the campesinos in the area that we had “damaged the plan” and that we did nothing but “mess up” their jobs. What were they referring to?

A week after the strange incident, we understood, when we talked with Amilca, the army by now far away from the area. What he told us made my hair stand on end. He said that when we arrived at the farm, the army was about to cut off his head with a machete. According to them, he said, they were going to kill him for being a “guerrilla helper,” and that they already had ‘Bocamamita’ “in the shade of Berrio ,” referring to the campesino Luís Sigifredo Castaño Patiño, assasinated by the same batallion on August 7th of this year . Confident of themselves, they told him just like that. And he could “reinsert” himself or die. As he new nothing of what they asked about the guerrilla, he would have to die.

There’s more to it. The soldiers were accompanied by four “reinserted” men, part of the famous “reinsertion plan” of Uribe’s government. They used the war names of “Raúl,” Ronco,” “Bombillo” and “Linterna.” According to the campesinos, “Raúl” once was a mule transporter from the region, and worked for Luís Sigifredo. The army caught him, forced him to serve them as a “guide” and “reinserted”person, offering him houses and money, and, on August 7th, “Raúl” took them to Sigifredo´s house, a recognized community leader who had denounced the army on various occasiones, and they killed him, putting him in a uniform and presenting him as a ELN guerrilla member killed in combat. They were going to do the same with Amilca. Hours earlier that day, a campesino was picked up by Sergeant Blanquiceth and his group, some smoking marihuana, who confirmed that they had to kill the old “son-of-a-bitch” (Amilca) from the “Despecho.” All of this done under the auspices of a Major Tenjo, who has served as a coordinator for these aggresions against the civilian population, from the military base the army has constructed in the tiny hamlet of Lejanías .

In the Nordeste Antioqueño, as in other partes of the country, cases like this take place daily while the ‘democratic security’ policy sold by Uribe finds itself in its most critical moment. Since he came to power in 2002, Uribe has tried to show that military force is superior to a political solution, winning the support of an elite scared by a powerful guerrilla and of some campesinos obligated to vote for and support Uribe under threats from the public forces and paramilitaries. In rural areas and some parts of the cities, ‘democratic security’ translates to an increase in tortures, assasinations, disappearances, threats and massacres. (So as not to be totally critcal of the “democratic security,” we should mention that at least the numbers of kidnappings have fallen dramatically, thanks to the millions of pesos the State puts into the “turist caravans” so that the rich from Bogotá and Medellin can suntan on the beach without worrying.)

But beyong these violations, a ‘low-intensity war’ against social movements is not being registered in the official and non-official numbers. While the world´s attention has been concentrated on the supposed paramilitary ‘demobilization’, every day reports are arriving regarding the direct complicity of Colombia´s public forces in atrocities. In other words, now it is not necessary to blame the paramilitaries. Now it is not necessary that the soldiers put on the AUC armbands. How could it be necesary, when Uribe ‘Balas’ (bullets) says everyday in his numerous community councils and napoleonic discourses that “there is no territory prohibited from the public forces ” and at the same time painting every trade-unionist, indigenous, campesino, student, protester, anti-FTAA person, teacher, indigent, Afro-Colombian, woman and child who opposes the status quo as a guerrilla member and enemy of the state? And the logic continues that the soldier, in all parts of the national territory, must combat the enemy, in all its forms, without questions. The plan is almost perfect: while Luís Carlos Restrepo happily hugs ‘Mono Mancuso’ and puts the ‘demobilized’ paramilitaries in official private security firms , the army with over 25 years experience advising and defending the paramilitary experiment can now take the reigns in zones of para-state control, and, in areas where they don’t have control, crackdown (with the help of the more than 1000 gringo soldiers and mercenaries in the country) on the ‘terrorists’. It’s fitting to note here that historically in Colombia, the military forces have always found it much easier to attack civil society in their non-violent process of demanding their rights than attack the guerrilla in their armed process.

The results? The arrests of dozens of social leaders en Cauca . Threats by the army against campesinos who have denounced Plan Patriota in Guaviare, Meta and Caquetá. In Cajamarca (Tolima), the massacre on April 10th, 2004, of five civilians among them, 4 minors perpetrated by the army. In Bogotá, the 1st of May of 2005, the death of a young protestor at the hands of the police. In Arauca, August 5th, 2004, the army assasinated three trade-union workers in cold blood. The massacre of San José de Apartadó: eight victims 4 minors cut to pieces by the army on February 21st, 2005. Luís Sigifredo, campesino killed by the State in the Nordeste Antioqueño, on August 7th of this year. And the uncountable crimes that happen every day in the shadow of the impunity of the Colombian State .

But we said that the plan was almost perfect. There is an obstacle unquestionably much stronger and more dangerous for the Uribe government than the guerrilla. It is the millions of civilians whose only weapon is their voice and their truth. The unarmed social movements keep gaining force (as much as of quantity as of moral force) to struggle against militarism and the neoliberalism that it serves. In every corner of the country, the very repression and militarization of life has made the people stand up more, constantly denouncing the endless aggressions. Against this growing discontent, and following the strategy of “take the water away from the fish, the fish will die,” the State is responding with new tactics.

When Uribe took power in 2002, he announced his intention to create a network of informants of more than a million citizens, that was seen as an ampliation of his pilot paramilitary project CONVIVIR that he set up as governor of the department of Antioquia in the 1990s . The new plan seeks to involve the civilian population in the internal armed conflict, at whatever social cost. The reinsertion of civilian campesinos is occurring in the Magdalena Medio (as one example) at a stunning rate. According to the army, the informant or euphemistically, the “cooperator” is “a Colombian who wants a future and security for his family,” one who “loves his country .” They say that his identity will be kept confidential, with a “code” assigned to him, and “will be compensated according to the results.” Nevertheless, the version that the campesinos have repeatedly told us is very different. They say that the informant is given three options: they “reinsert” themselves as an informant, the leave the zone, or they go to jail or to the grave. The army comes to a campesino’s house and first threatens him for information about the guerrilla; while at the same time, inviting him to “reinsert” himself, under the pretext that his life is in danger and that they will give him money, housing and education for his children . If the campesino feels sufficiently terrorized, he submits himself to the reinsertion and immediately, the army’s press office proclaims that another guerrilla fighter has demobilized. The campesino, then, has to turn in results to earn money; this, according to the campesinos, is what happened with alias “Raúl” in the case of Sigifredo. In other instances, true guerrilla fighters reinsert themselves, and because it is not an easy thing to find the guerrilla in the mountain, they also finger out social leaders.

If the campesino does not accept the reinsertion plan, like Amilca did, there is another tactic the army can use. It is well known and easy to conceive of that within the army, there is pressure to show good results of the ‘democratic security’. Each illegal combatant killed represents the completion of that quota, and very possibly, an economic benefit for high-ranking army members. Thus, when the army does not find the guerrilla as is happening currently in the Nordeste Antioqueño (due to the amount of army in the zone, the guerrilla has fallen back) the easiest thing is to kill a campesino, dress him as a guerrilla fighter, and proudly present him to the press as a commander or some treasurer of the guerrilla. And the press eats it up, showing pictures of a heroic soldiers posing with his war booty, the cadaver of a “combatant.” On August 7th of this year, the same thing happened with Sigifredo. When the army took him from his home, he was dressed in shorts, rubber boots and a white shirt; after a simulated combat, they took his life-less body dressed in camouflage. How are we supposed to believe them when they say that they have killed a number of guerrilla in the Nordeste Antioqueño or in Caquetá, Arauca, Cauca or wherever? How can we be assured that in their frustration they didn’t kill a campesino and dress him in camouflage?

How can they do it?

What is sure is that they will continue doing it. A few months ago, the U.S. Department of State gave the green light to the commission of crimes against humanity in Colombia when they renewed the the human rights certification for Colombia, in spite of the inaction of the Colombian State with the massacre of San José de Apartadó, among others. Recent movements within the Pentagon, and some congressmen, point to the possibility of the creation of a new fund (almost $750 million) that would be managed directly by the Defense Department to “provide military aid worldwide,” without having to seek Congressional approval . The militarism and double morality of the United States fits in well with the ‘democratic security’ policy of Uribe, who feverishly wants to finish off with any social movement in order to open the country to a free trade agreement with the United States, despite the decreasing support among the population . Human rights violatons, assasinations, massacres, tortures, set-ups, propaganda, informants, fake reinsertion plans, ‘good treatment’ documents and camouflaging will continue to be the daily bread. The horizon looks bleak.

We have, then, some big work to do. In the U.S., in the state of Georgia, this year will be repeated the vigil to close the School of the Americas (SOA, from where more than 10,000 Colombian killers have graduated, taught military and counterinsurgency tactics) from November 19th to the 20th (www.soaw.org). We must keep opposing the trade deals, wherever they are made, that put the market above humans. We have to bring communities in resistance in the U.S. Closer to communities in Colombia. We have to speak and discuss new alternatives and strategies for solidarity with Latin America. En Colombia, from IPO, we invite you to come and get to know the realities in the communities and document the aggressions against the communities (www.peaceobservatory.org). Currently in Colombia, a movement is growing for the recuperation of memory, so that we don’t forget who we are and the struggle and the deaths we have had to put. We have to be brave, because the situation is scary.

And above all, we have to reveal the true intentions of Colombia’s terrorist government and its allies. Over there in the Nordeste Antioqueño, the soldiers don´t know that although they may call us “disguised people,” since a long time now the mask and make-up has been falling off the face of Uribe’s government.

– Nico Udu-gama, IPO

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