Posted on 05/06/2003 1:50:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
MEDELLIN, Colombia - Colombia's president asked the nation to back him in fighting terrorism after a state governor, a former defense minister and eight others held hostage by leftist guerrillas were killed in a military rescue attempt.
In an emotional televised address late Monday, President Alvaro Uribe said the hostages were executed by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels as troops approached the rebel camp. An alleged rebel communique blamed the government for the killings.
"In this moment of pain, Colombia cannot surrender," said Uribe, who was elected promising to crackdown on the guerrillas. "Now, we have to fortify our decision to defeat terrorism."
The deaths of Antioquia state governor Guillermo Gaviria, former Defense Minister Gilberto Echeverri and eight security force members outraged Colombians and led to renewed calls for the government to negotiate with the rebels. Three other hostages escaped, though two of them were injured.
Uribe, visibly choked up, said he had personally called Echeverri's family.
"For me, it is a very hard blow that Gilberto Echeverri died in this way while I was president," he said. "That call I made painfully."
In an unusual move, Uribe had two top military commanders explain to the country exactly what happened during the rescue bid and then his office presented a videotaped interview with one of the survivors who said that a rebel commander ordered the hostages killed.
"A rebel known as the Paisa ... gave the order not to leave any survivors," said Antinor Hernandez, from a hospital bed where he was recovering from injuries suffered in the rescue attempt.
Hernandez, a member of the navy, said there was never any crossfire between rebels and government troops. He was captured three and a half years ago, a presidential spokesman said.
Radio stations in Medellin, the capital of Antioquia state, broadcast a communique apparently from the FARC blaming the government for the deaths. The FARC has repeatedly said the lives of hostages would be at risk if the government attempted to rescue them.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the FARC was responsible for the deaths.
"The onus for these death lays squarely on guerrillas, who held them hostage for over a year," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, a director of the organization.
The bodies of nine of the hostages were found near the village of Urrao, 30 miles west of Medellin. The tenth victim died en route to a hospital after being injured during the rescue attempt.
"I am truly shaken," said former President Ernesto Samper, under whom Echeverri served as defense minister. "It seems to me that we've reached intolerable levels of violence."
The FARC is also holding a former presidential candidate, a dozen state lawmakers, almost 40 police officers and soldiers and three Americans captured when their plane went down in rebel territory in February. The rebels want to exchange the hostages for guerrillas in government jails, a demand the Catholic Church and family members of the hostages have urged Uribe to accept.
"Despite the pain, the president should think with a cold head and make the problem (of an exchange) a priority because the ends don't justify the means," said Yolanda Pulecio, the mother of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped in February 2002.
Uribe has said he would only consider an exchange if it was brokered by the United Nations (news - web sites) and included the freedom of all hostages, not just the political hostages. Monday night he reiterated his conditions.
Some 3,000 people are taken hostage every year in Colombia, the majority of them by rebels demanding ransoms.
Uribe, who previously served as governor of Antioquia in the mid-1990s, has taken a hard line against leftist rebels who have fought a succession of elected governments. Some 3,500 people, most of them civilians, die every year in the fighting.
Gaviria and Echeverri were kidnapped on April 21, 2002, as they led hundreds of peace marchers from Medellin to the village of Caicedo to meet with FARC commanders. The village had declared itself a nonviolent community, but guerrillas had confronted residents.
In March, the rebels released of a video showing the two men, flanked by several captive police officers and soldiers.
"We are in perfect physical, mental and spiritual condition," Echeverri says in the video. It was the last known statement from the former defense minister, who also served as Gaviria's peace adviser.
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Trained by US, Colombia unit gains - Reports successes against guerrillas - By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, 5/5/2003
[Full Text] MIAMI -- Opening a new front in the war on terrorism, Colombian soldiers trained by the US military have killed or captured at least six guerrilla leaders as part of a ''decapitation strategy'' to defeat the country's rebel groups and strike a blow against the drug trade, American military and intelligence officials told the Globe.
A new commando unit began tracking rebel commanders in the jungles of Colombia about three weeks ago and carried out some of the attacks in recent weeks. It is the first unit in the Colombian Army to receive US special-forces training under a new program approved by President Bush expanding US military assistance from fighting drug cartels to battling insurgent groups that the administration considers ''narco-terrorists.''
The unit, organized to resemble a US Army Ranger battalion of 600 to 800 soldiers, is designed to hunt down and capture or kill top commanders of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials as the FARC; the rightist National Liberation Army, or ELN; and the paramilitary United Self Defense Forces, or AUC. Those groups have tightened their grips on drug and arms trades in the region and have growing links with other terrorist groups around the world, the American officials said.
''The terrorist groups in Latin America, specifically in Colombia, have a direct regional reach [and] I think there are some indirect linkages to other networks out there,'' Brigadier General Galen B. Jackman, director of operations for the US Southern Command, said last week.
''Drug money is used for a variety of purposes. Some of that finds its way back to other terrorist organizations.''
In February, the United States gained a new impetus for its fight against the rebels. Three Americans identified by US authorities as civilian contractors were captured by the FARC after their plane crashed in southern Colombia. Two members of the crew -- one American and one Colombian -- were believed to have been killed by the guerrillas.
''We know specifically who is responsible,'' Jackman said. ''If I was the FARC, I would seriously reconsider what I have done and what my actions are.''
The upsurge in military action comes amid other signs that the United States is prepared to increase its presence in Colombia.
On Thursday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the United States is considering transferring some military equipment from Iraq to Colombia. Tomorrow, a group of House members is to introduce legislation to begin US military surveillance flights tracking Colombian arms traffickers.
Meanwhile, the US-trained Colombian battalion, taking a page from the US antiterrorism playbook, is targeting more rebel leaders. The strategy is ''to capture or kill those high-value targets'' such as senior FARC, ELN, and AUC commanders, leaving the groups in disarray, Jackman said.
He indicated the Colombians already have put the new US training and assistance to use.
''Just within the past week, they killed the Third FARC Front commander in Medellin,'' Jackman said. ''They killed the deputy commander of the [FARC's] Teofilo Forero Mobile Column and they captured the operations officer of the 37th Front.''
US-trained Colombian units also recently captured three ELN leaders near the Venezuelan border, he said, while earlier this year one of three counternarcotics battalions trained by US special forces killed the 15th FARC Front commander.
The Colombians ''haven't had the forces trained and organized to do that in the past to the extent they do now,'' Jackman said. ''The strategy is to go after the leaders of the illegal armed groups, and the commando battalion is part of that.''
The decapitation tactic marks a significant policy shift for Washington and Bogota. The US has cooperated for years in fighting drug cartels but left the country's 40-year civil war solely to the Colombians. With the rebels getting more deeply involved in protecting the cartels, using the proceeds from drug sales to buy arms and bribe government leaders, they have caught the attention of leaders of Washington's war on terror. Bush administration officials say they fear the drug trade could become a source of money for global terror networks.
US military forces started taking an active role in the war last year. Previously, US forces were limited by law to engaging only in counterdrug operations. Last year, Bush signed a measure giving the military new authority to provide direct assistance to Colombian security forces in battling rebel groups.
The Bush administration increasingly sees Colombia's insurgents as part of its war on terrorist groups that are fueled by the proceeds from illegal narcotics and black-market trafficking in arms and explosives.
Bush's initiative, supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in new military aid for Colombia, has given new legitimacy to counterinsurgency operations, which were discredited during the Vietnam War and again in the 1980s when Washington provided support to military proxies in Central America.
''Until we had . . . expanded authorities, we were only able to provide counterdrug information to the Colombians,'' Jackman said. ''Now we can provide information about the activities of those illegal armed groups. What we couldn't provide [before] was if we saw FARC units that were massing somewhere or conducting some operations.''
The administration has found a willing partner in Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian president who took office last year and promptly shelved the previous administration's peace strategy and escalated the war against the rebels. Uribe initiated a onetime ''war tax'' that has generated an estimated $1 billion for a new military campaign.
Jackman insisted that while US forces provide intelligence information on rebel activities and help plan the missions, American soldiers do not participate. ''This is Colombia's war to win,'' he said. ''In no way . . . have they ever indicated to us that they would like the United States to come in and win this war.''
But the Bush administration clearly believes the United States has a wider interest in Colombia as part of the war on terror. In congressional testimony overshadowed by the buildup to the Iraq war, General James T. Hill, commander in chief of Southern Command, said in March that ''there were more terrorist attacks last year in Colombia alone than in all other nations in the world combined. This is a battle that must be fought together.''
Jackman and other US government officials believe the strategy to take out top guerrilla leaders to force a capitulation is having a significant impact on the rebel groups.
US intelligence officials said they believe the FARC in particular -- a force of as many as 18,000 fighters that the United States says is bankrolled by $600 million a year from drug profits -- has shown signs of desperation in some of its more recent attacks on Colombian government targets and civilians. Recent attacks attributed to the FARC have occurred in urban areas -- a new tactic for the group, which historically has operated in the jungles -- and are seen as an effort to distract Colombian military units operating in the countryside.
''They wouldn't be doing this if they weren't hurting,'' said a US official, who asked not to be identified.
Indeed, on April 28, the 46th FARC Front commander, Rafael Rojas, a 20-year FARC veteran, became the highest-ranking leader of the group to surrender to Colombian authorities. Flanked by Uribe, Rojas called for a negotiated end to the civil war.
But the US policy of aiding the Colombian hit squads concerns some specialists. They say it is a poor alternative for the structural and economic changes necessary to stem the drug trade. Instead, they said, the United States should provide economic alternatives to coca cultivation and weaken the rebels' support in the countryside by expanding the central government's ability to provide services in jungle areas.
''I am very worried about it,'' said Phillip McLean, former deputy assistant secretary of state for South America under President Bill Clinton and now deputy director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ''You set a goal that may be hard to meet and maybe doesn't address the larger problem. You oversimplify and don't do the harder things.''
McLean questioned the wisdom of a strategy that treats the Colombian rebels as rational actors who, if squeezed hard enough, will negotiate peace. ''They more closely resemble gangs,'' he said.
''There are also moral questions about taking people out,'' McLean added.
US Representative William Delahunt, Democrat of Quincy and a member of the House International Relations Committee, who met with Uribe during an official visit to Washington last week, also has reservations.
''There is no military solution,'' Delahunt said. ''The social and economic needs need to be addressed.''
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 5/5/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
The escaped rebels said to be deceived and demoralized because of the way they were treated in the guerrilla movement.
The eight were added to the list of 270 rebels who deserted the guerrilla organizations in 2002. Since the beginning of the "demobilization" process that has been in place for already four years, 2,575 men and women have joined the benefits program offered by the government.
These people will have a chance at reinserting themselves into society with the warranty of education financing, paid health programs and the option of a credit for a small business after two years. The costly program, however, is possibly underfunded and has prompted the government of Uribe to lobby for a tax that would be directly destined to pay for social rehabilitation efforts.
Ex-guerrilla soldiers are also granted amnesty under the reinsertion program, except when accused of crimes to humanity, which are dealt with at the International Criminal Tribunal according to the Rome Treaty, signed by 63 nations during former President Pastrana's government. The inclusion of a clause in the Rome Treaty that prevents guerrilla soldiers from being sued for war crimes within the context of civil war in Colombia for seven years since the signing of the treaty signals certain openness of the Colombian government to dialogue amid a strong military campaign aimed at eradicating terrorism. ***
The 18 are some of the most protested pro-Chavez government officials and have possibly had a hard time going to lunch or traveling by plane. The revolutionaries are obviously disturbed and do not tolerate the sounds of cups and pans against tableware, the symbol of protest in Venezuela.
The articles read "any kind of threat against a government official or civil servant … to intimidate him, pressure him to stop or continue doing something related to his post will be punished with jail sentences ranging from one to three years or two to four in the case of higher government official."
Incitement to acts that violate the public order through the media or any other medium will also be punished with sentences of up to 10 years, according to a second article. Worse yet, incitement to hatred of government officials will face sentences of three to six years.
If the crimes are considered provokers of stoppages of food distribution or oil production, the verdict of treason to the nation could be applied and punished with up to 10 years in years in prison or submitted to military tribunal.
The articles are written so vaguely that the line between a criminal act and any kind political activity is blurred, leaving the decision to incriminate or not entirely to the judges' discretion. It is well known that the Supreme Courts of Justice in Venezuela are not an entirely independent body and that President Hugo Chavez is calling for expanding the number of appointed judges in the hope to secure a majority that will cater to his political goals.
The proposal came directly from the Presidential Palace to Congress, obviating the usual procedure that rules the initial approval of the Judicial Commission in the legislative body, signaling weakened support for the president in what used to be his territory.
It is unpredictable how congressmen will vote in relation to the project, especially in view of the clear applicability of the law to the president himself, who is the main instigator or violence and hatred. It is hoped that congressmen who have turned to the opposition ranks will not try to vote against Chavez by approving the law.***
Agreed! Let them burn! So long as they keep in mind that the Big Dog on the block can be there in a matter of hours to clean their clocks, and behave accordingly, I say, "Live and let die!"
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