Colombia's Uribe orders assets seized

3.02.07

www.mercurynews.com

resident Alvaro Uribe on Thursday ordered the seizure of assets belonging to demobilized paramilitary leaders after the killing of a woman who was leading a campaign to reclaim land stolen by the illegal militias.

In a brief communique, Uribe’s office called the seizure order “a preventative measure” to ensure that the paramilitary bosses’ massive holdings are available for the reparation of their thousands of victims.

Under the law enshrining the demobilization of some 31,000 paramilitary fighters, the jailed militia bosses have been assured prison terms of no more than eight years if they confess to the crimes they committed in a more than decade-long reign of terror.

The paramilitary chiefs must also surrender land and other assets they illegally appropriated so they can be returned to their rightful owners.

Officials say that under the guise of a counterinsurgency campaign, the private right-wing armies methodically stole millions of acres of prime rural real estate from Colombian peasants, massacring thousands in the process.

Uribe’s administration has come under blistering criticism from human rights groups for policies they say would let the thieves keep the vast majority of the pilfered lands.

The president’s announcement follows the murder Wednesday of Yolanda Izquierdo, who headed an organization of dispossessed peasants seeking to regain ranches in Cordoba state, the heartland of the paramilitaries.

Two gunmen surprised Izquierdo as she was leaving her home in the city of Monteria after dark, pumping two bullets into her head and leaving her husband severely wounded with two gunshot wounds to his chest, police said.

She had received death threats for seeking to reclaim the lands and complained about them to the chief prosecutor’s office on Jan. 15, a government official told the AP.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge the information, said Izquierdo approached authorities on Monday asking to be given bodyguards. But no bodyguards were assigned her.

The U.N. High Commission for Human Rights issued a statement Thursday deploring Izquierdo’s killing.

Human Rights Watch-Americas cited the murder of Izquierdo and another victims’ representatives from Cordoba – Freddy Abel Espitia was killed on Monday – as being “clearly intended to intimidate victims and witnesses and prevent them telling the truth about paramilitary abuses.”

“These deaths bring into question the credibility of the whole paramilitary demobilization process,” Human Rights Watch said.

The government has offered a reward of $23,000 for information leading to the arrest of Izquierdo’s killers.

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