Colombia's Well-Oiled Public Relations Machine

28.09.06

Nadja Drost
www.embassymag.ca

Lilia Solano left for a relaxing evening at the movie theatre to take a break from her hectic life as a candidate in Colombia’s federal election. The night took a turn when she returned home to a terrorized son. During her absence, three armed strangers entered her apartment, tied up her son, taped his mouth, and pointed a gun at him while they ransacked Ms. Solano’s documents and stole her cell phones and computer.

The fiery redhead is no stranger to the risks involved in being a human rights activist in Colombia. In 2004, she made headlines for speaking up in the national parliament against possible government plans to grant immunity from prosecution to army-backed paramilitary groups. Death threats followed, and Ms. Solano fled with her children to Canada. Committed to bringing peace to her country, she returned several months later to run in the federal election, a life-threatening activity in Colombia. It’s not a lack of political interest among Colombians that explains why some electoral ridings have only one candidate running: It’s because the others have either been intimidated or killed off.

Ms. Solano’s story is but one of hundreds. She is the human face of the Colombian government’s continuing failure to protect its citizens, particularly human rights defenders and their families. The situation has escalated such that the United Nations has called Colombia the worst humanitarian crisis in the Americas.

Civilians have traditionally been the victims of the armed conflict that has gripped Colombia for over four decades. And they are caught in the middle between security forces and paramilitaries on the one side, and guerilla groups on the other. But ever since the introduction of President Alvaro Uribe’s new hard-line security measures, known as the Democratic Security Policy, Colombia has become an even more dangerous place for marginalized and vulnerable groups such as Afro-Colombians, indigenous people, and the 3.5 million internally displaced people who have had to flee their land.

Reports of human rights violations by the military, including extrajudicial executions and torture, have increased. President Uribe’s Democratic Security Policy has used surveillance by the police and security forces, arbitrary detention and unfounded criminal investigations as a way to intimidate human rights workers. It is no coincidence that attacks and threats by paramilitary forces often follow.

And it hasn’t helped any that Colombia’s president himself has publicly accused human rights defenders of being ‘defenders of terrorism.’ Statements like this have given tacit approval to state security forces with atrocious records of human rights abuses to target human rights workers and community leaders during intelligence and counter-insurgency operations. Welcome to Colombia’s own ‘war on terror’.

Ms. Solano will travel to Canada next month to alert parliamentarians, officials, and the public to the deteriorating human rights situation in her country and the increased security risks to citizens like her. But that’s likely not the same message Canada will hear when Colombia’s Foreign Minister Maria Araujo visits Ottawa this week. Colombian officials have been traveling the world, canvassing the international community for support on their tough stance on security and anti-terrorism measures against guerilla groups. Their well-oiled public relations machine claims one achievement after another. Highways that are finally safe to travel. Fumigation of elicit crops. More state troops to secure guerilla-controlled areas. An economy open for business.

As its latest triumph, the Colombian government is proud to advertise it has demobilized over 30,000 paramilitaries, who have been spreading terror across the country for over a decade. Canada was among many other countries that originally insisted that the demobilization be carried out under a legal framework that complies with international human rights conventions, to which Colombia is signatory. But Canada, along with the rest of the international community, caved, and ended up supporting a fundamentally flawed process that violates international standards, because it was the only one on offer. The current demobilization process has provided only one guarantee: Failure.

Today, thousands of ‘demobilized’ combatants have re-grouped into criminal gangs that continue to control the drug trade and intimidate communities. Many have gained new employment as security guards or police offers, giving them access to weapons under a new legal guise. Collaboration between paramilitaries and some of the state security forces continues, according to Colombia’s human rights ombudsman. To date, the Colombian government has given no indication how it plans to address this emerging security nightmare.

As a supporter of the demobilization process, Canada must seize the opportunity of Minister Araujo’s visit to insist the Colombian government show some real political will to uphold the rule of law, protect its civilians, and dismantle paramilitary structures. And Canada must consider any request for support to Colombia’s anti-terrorist program with extreme caution given the approach that government has taken with its citizens. Anything less would be an endorsement for the Colombian government to perpetuate the cycle of violence.

Canada should not fall for the security rhetoric of a government with known links to the very paramilitaries it is supposedly committed to demobilize. Instead, Canadian officials should express support for civil society movements that are courageously putting forth concrete alternative proposals for peace and the true democratization of Colombia. Canadian officials can hear it for themselves from Lilia.

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