COLOMBIA Another "Dirty War"?
León, Clara Ponce de
"Colombia is currently experiencing one of the worst crises of its history. The lack of security and the proven inefficacy of the judicial system are reaching terrifying new heights,"...
...Former minister of justice Jose Manuel Arias Carrizosa * also supported the measure...
...f Named after the allegedly fraudulent elections on April 19, 1970...
...Clara Ponce de Le6n is a journalist and career diplomat who served in the Colombian delegation to the United Nations from 1957-1967 and as ambassador to Cuba from 1977-1980...
...This official support for peasant vigilante groups touched off a heated polemic, laying bare the tensions between militarists and non-militarists within the current Administration...
...The United States did not look kindly on Betancur's peace talks...
...much less his leading role in the Contadora initiative...
...The two were gunned down at the funeral of teachers union (ADIDA) president Luis Felipe V6lez, killed earlier that week...
...The controversy following the "holocaust," as the palace tragedy is called in Colombia, forced Betancur to appoint a special investigative commission...
...The list represents "the overflowing violence against freedom of expression and criticism, with methods characteristic of a 'dirty war.' It is an essentially political and national problem," 22 of those threatened wrote in Bogotd, 1987 a letter to President Barco...
...As the BogotA weekly Semana noted, whereas the "dirty war's" victims were once anonymous peasants, students, workers and police, they are now well-known journalists, civic leaders, trade unionists and politicians-99% of them leftist and democratic opposition figures...
...And, they have roundly rejected the possibility of investigating charges made against them or of submitting to trials in civilian courts...
...For others, the origins of this subterranean war are not so clear...
...Human rights violations continued with impunity, and paramilitary activity-including disappearances and extrajudicial executions-increased dramatically...
...formation of "self defense" groups-equipped with Army-issue Israeli weapons-to defend themselves against "communists, guerrillas and the UP...
...ally on Central American policy, Turbay's era was marked by extensive disappearances, torture and political assassinations...
...A Third Party's Threat The UP was formed during Betancur's peace process, attracting guerrillas from the Communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who sought legal channels of political participation...
...The independent report denounced both Betancur and defense minister Vega Uribe for failing to make any effort to save the hostages...
...All of those who testified to military involvement in the MAS during that investigation have since been assassinated...
...ambassador to Colombia Lewis Tambs coined the term narco-guerrilla, it was understood as an affront and boycott of Betancur's negotiations...
...Vega Uribe had repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, tried to reverse the decision...
...The lack of security and the proven inefficacy of the judicial system are reaching terrifying new heights," said former president Carlos Lleras Restrepo recently...
...Widespread extrajudicial executions, disappearances and torture have left many here talking about a political "dirty war...
...Ironically, the government later came to adopt the term to justify the * * There are currently six active guerrilla groups in the country...
...The "Peace" Process In this context, former president Belisario Betancur's (1982-1986) efforts to pacify the country through dialogue with guerrilla groups raised hopes that the violence might end...
...The list included Alfredo Visquez Carrizosa, former foreign minister and president of the CPDDH, former attorney general Jim6nez, and 32 other human rights activists, magistrates who have denounced torture, journalists who have condemned militarism, Liberal politicians, retired military officers, UP members and artists...
...Indeed, Betancur's peace process collapsed in November 1985 when the April 19 guerrilla movement (M-19) seized the Palace of Justice, taking hostage officials of the Supreme Court and Council of State.f The military countered the attack with tanks and rockets, and the ensuing fire partly destroyed the building and its archive...
...In December 1986 it presented the attorney general's office with alleged proof of military involvement in crimes against UP members...
...Victims testified that they had been detained and tortured by police and military personnel, in many cases identified by name...
...A prominent Liberal Party leader, Lleras is not known for hyperbole...
...On October 11, 1987 Senator Jaime Pardo Leal, leader of the Patriotic Union party (UP) and presidential candidate, was murdered in his car outside Bogotd...
...Pardo Leal was only the most recent of over 470 UP members to be killed since the party was formed two years ago...
...It won three seats in the Senate, five in the House of Representatives and several more in the departmental councils and municipal assemblies...
...Since its inception, the UP has suffered over 470 assassinations, 34 of them senators, congressmen, city council members and mayors 5rectly accused the armed forces of human rights violations...
...Like Abad G6mez and Pardo Leal, assassinations occur in broad daylight by hitmen who are never identified, much less detained...
...The military has responded with angry defenses of the institution...
...REPORT ON THE AMERICAS * The figure is the UP's own estimate...
...Although Samudio received the support of several congressmen, Finance Minister Alarc6n dissented, insisting that the priority is "not defense, but attending to [Colombia's] severe social needs...
...Given military jurisdiction over the cases, these abuses have continued with total impunity...
...His peace program included a broad amnesty for rebels, cease fire negotiations and the promise of economic reforms...
...Colombian politics have been almost exclusively dominated by the Liberal and Conservative parties since the 19th cen- tury...
...Over 100 people died, including 12 Supreme Court magistrates...
...Samudio's request was reinforced by a contrived flare-up over an old border conflict with Venezuela, and the renewal of the FARC's guerrilla activity, which put the government on the defensive...
...Betancur's efforts to create a democratic opening did not receive the necessary support from Congress, the private sector or the press...
...Amnesty International has implicated the military in extrajudicial executions and disappearances...
...Americas Watch has placed the number to be closer to 250...
...As attorney general in 1983, Carlos Jimdnez G6mez denounced 59 active military members as belonging to the paramilitary organization, MAS...
...Abad G6mez's name had appeared-along with Jaime Pardo Leal-on a "death threat" list, released anonymously to newspapers and radio stations around the country...
...In 1984, when then U.S...
...A staunch U.S...
...Many analysts have linked the apparent war against leftists with the appearance of the UP on Colombia's political panorama, which considerably strengthened the Left's participation in electoral politics...
...Impunity flourishes because of the inefficacy of justice, as well as out of fear of reprisal...
...Ministers of interior and finance, C6sar Gaviria and Luis Fernando Alarc6n, and presidential adviser Carlos Ossa Escobar-in charge of Barco's pacification plan--were opposed...
...A type of violence unheard of in Colombian politics: the annihilation and extermination of a Leftist third party and of all people who denounce fascism, McCarthyism, militarism and the "dirty war...
...Analysts calculate that the UP could win no more than 40-50 out of a total of over 1,000 municipalities, and many have suggested that the current state of terror might be geared at justifying the cancelation of these elections...
...An Orchestrated Campaign" In addition to the UP, high level government officials and international human rights organizations have diJULY/AUGUST 1987 The UP, meanwhile, has charged that the Army is directly implicated in the killings and has designed the "Condor Plan" to "assassinate hundreds of members of the Communist Party (CP), the UP, trade unionists and democratic leaders...
...He added that the country might be on the verge of an anti-communist dictatorship similar to those of the Southern Cone under military rule...
...Economist Jorge Child, a columnist for Bogotd's second largest Liberal daily El Espectador-also blacklisted-wrote that "there is no longer any doubt that today we have paramilitary terrorism in cold blood...
...Death squad gunmen openly carried military weapons in the presence of uniformed troops and police and traveled in military vehicles or unmarked cars with license plates-some of which were seen parked in police and military compounds . . . and were sometimes seen handing over prisoners at military bases and barracks," wrote Amnesty in their 1987 report...
...Violence in Colombia is not new...
...A parallel independent inquiry was carried out by then-attorney general Carlos Jim6nez G6mez...
...Not reported, however, was that among the M-19's hostages were members of the Council of State who earlier that year had ruled that Gen...
...Indeed, Defense Minister Samudio recently requested a $64 million hike in the military budget, which would raise it to an all time high of $313 million, equal to one third of the national budget...
...What is apparent is that the "assault" on the Palace of Justice marked the resurgence of the military's political power...
...Barco has not commented on the self defense groups, even though they clearly contradict his pacification policy...
...Party, and BogotA daily El Tiempo...
...press coverage has tended to focus on drug-related violence, narcotics account for only part of Colombia's turmoil...
...In Colombia, the power of civilian governments over the military has been progressively diminishing since Turbay's government as the same military actors continue to pull the strings...
...Riots erupted in the capital and several other cities, a general strike was called to protest the assassination and the military called out the troops...
...From 19811986, 3,547 journalists, students, teachers, trade unionists, members of opposition parties and civic organizations were assassinated, according to the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CPDDH) in BogotA...
...Rafael Samudio has sponsored the * MAS stands for Death to Kidnappers and was formed in 1981 in response to the kidnapping of the daughter of a leading Mafia member by the M-19 in Medellin...
...And the ground commander at the Palace of Justice massacre, Samudio, has stayed on as the current minister of defense...
...tragedy at the Palace of Justice...
...Barco responded by admitting that there was "a macabre plan to destabilize the country...
...The August 24 assassination of human rights leaders Hdctor Abad G6mez and Leonardo Betancur marked a new level of violence...
...Whether Betancur delegated the responsibility of the operation to the military authorities, or whether the operation was initiated without his knowledge remains unclear...
...There are now over 100 paramilitary groups in Colombia...
...Political violence later resurged under former president Julio C6sar Turbay Ayala (1978-1982), who gave the military free reign...
...The official tribune blamed the M-19 exclusively for the massacre, a finding called into question by ballistic reports which showed that none of the magistrates were wounded by M-19 weapons...
...Assassinations, No Assassins In August 1986, President Virgilio Barco took office, promising a plan of "Rehabilitation, Reconciliation and Normalization" to promote economic and social development of regions in conflict...
...Turbay's torturer Vega Uribe was Betancur's minister of defense...
...Under the aegis of the national security doctrine, a "security statute" was decreed, granting military and police forces full control over public order, and military jurisdiction over civilians...
...With popularly elected civilian governments, a Congress and a free press, Colombia has long been touted as one of Latin America's few stable democracies...
...In fact, the UP obtained 4.4% of the vote in its first national campaign for Congress in March of 1986-double that of any leftist party to date...
...Barco is not alone in his analysis...
...Under Barco then, parallel military power is growing and could, as some have suggested, lead Colombia directly, or by proxy, to military dictatorship...
...In 1948, the assassination of populist leader Jorge Elircer Gaitin sparked the bloody decade known as La Violencia, in which 200,000 were killed...
...In March of 1988, mayors will be elected for the first time...
...Afterward, the government charged that the M-19 acted in concert with the mafia to destroy the files of drug traffickers facing extradition charges...
...The U.S...
...press embraced the claim...
...Jim6nez argued that what should have 4been a rescue operation was conducted like a battle...
...It's very common in Colombia in recent years," wrote columnist Caballero, "there are assassinations, but no assassins...
...In seizing the palace, the guerrillas demanded a "trial" of Betancur and his peace process, as well as the release of documents in the judicial archive which they claimed could prove that the military had consistently violated the agreements...
...Designed to democratize the political process in a country long dominated by traditional party politics, this measure is feared by some not only because of the tenuous balance in public order, but also because it opens the possibility that Communists may gain power on a local level...
...This fact obliged the government to name UP mayors in several towns...
...Self Defense Groups Meanwhile, Defense Minister Gen...
...Fabio Echeverri, president of the powerful National Association of Industrialists, recognized that there is a "dirty war," but that "no-one knows whether it's from the Left or the Right because there is no proof of who is responsible...
...Although U.S...
...Although both committees agreed that the M-19 had not collaborated with the mafia in the operation, they differed strongly in their conclusions...
...According to the Fifth Forum for Human Rights held in Bogoti last April, the armed forces continue to advocate military action as the best way to control public order and are supported in this by powerful corporations, the leadership of the Liberal * Forced to resign in September over a scandal concerning illegal business dealings...
...Although he has refrained from using force against the mass civic movements, extrajudicial executions-of which there were more than 1,000 in 1986--have increased and changed in character under his government...
...Neither the military nor the guerrillas fully complied with the cease-fires...
...Paradoxically, it is among the world's most violent, with 15,000 homicides in 1986 alone...
...The High Command recently denounced an "orchestrated campaign" by the "enemies of Colombia" to discredit the armed forces and destabilize the country...
...Miguel Vega Uribe-Betancur's defense minister-was guilty of torturing at least one person during his tenure at the Institute of Military Brigades under the previous administration...
Vol. 21 • July 1987 • No. 4
